Getting Ready for Christmas

The first half of December was extra busy this year with Primary and getting all of my shopping done before we left on a long road trip to AZ. We didn't get a chance to do many fun, Christmas-y things around here, but we did the essentials.

Since Kiki broke our artificial tree last year, we got a live one even though we were leaving town and only got to enjoy it for about two weeks. It was so rainy the day we needed to get our tree that we opted for a tree lot instead of a u-cut farm. Maybe less muddy, but definitely more expensive. This small tree cost us $50 instead of the $30 we would have paid for a much larger one at a farm. Lesson learned. At least it was a nice, little tree.

I love the tradition we copied from Alan's parents of giving each of the boys an ornament for Christmas every year. Spencer already has a good collection and they will both have lots of memories and ornaments to take with them when they start their own families. Decorating the tree with their own ornaments in a favorite activity at Christmas time.

Spencer and Mason both insist on putting the star on, so we let Mason put it on, take it off, and then let Spencer have a turn. Haha!

Spencer still writes a letter to Santa each year. This year, he made sure Santa knew we were going to AZ.

Our ward Christmas party was an ugly sweater brunch this year. I found shirts for the boys and Alan at Goodwill. I'm so glad that Mason isn't scared of Santa - he's cute. Mason told Santa that he wanted Legos (just because that's what Spencer always wants!). Spencer's mischievous smile is due to the fact that our Santa for the last couple of years has been the one man in our ward with a very distinct South African accent. Spencer knows exactly who is dressed up as Santa for the party, but he is still a believer in the real one at the North Pole!

And, fudge! It's not Christmas for Spencer and Alan without rocky road fudge!

The end of Autumn

Here are just a few random pictures from late fall.

Spencer participated in his first lego robotics class. They worked to built and program Lego Mindstorms robots after school on Tuesdays and in the evening on Thursdays for about six weeks. I was not thrilled with adding one more thing to Spencer's schedule, but Spencer REALLY wanted to take the class and Alan convinced me it would be good for Spencer. Not surprisingly, Spencer loved the class and is very excited about the next one that starts at the end of January. The "final project" for the class was a sumobot tournament where kids from the different elementary schools in our district battled their robots. Spencer's team's robot only won one of their three battles, but they still had a lot of fun. I have a funny video of the battle they won, but I can't get it to load on my blog.

We have had such a mild fall and winter so far! It has been nice to get outside more this year. We walked over to the park one afternoon. Mason was mad because I wouldn't let him take off his jacket at first. He follows Spencer's example and wants to wear t-shirts and shorts without a jacket most of the time. I finally gave in and let him take off his jacket and he was much happier, but a little cold. ;)

4th Graders study Native American's and Spencer's class spent a whole day creating these Native American scenes in December. I went to help him for a few minutes, but he was mostly finished by the time I got there and didn't need much help. Spencer created a scene from the Tillamook Indian tribe. He studied all about them and learned lots of cool things. It was a fun project for him. I remember doing a similar project when I was in 4th grade. I studied about the Anasazi Indians in Arizona and my Dad helped me make an awesome diorama complete with salt dough houses on a cliff, tiny ears of corn in a garden, and a blue Jello river. Good memories!

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving this year was pretty typical for us. Like always though, I did a crummy job with pictures. I'm not sure why I have such a hard time with Thanksgiving pictures!

We started our day nice and early with a rainy Turkeython. Uberthons put on SIX Turkeythons on Thanksgiving morning this year! Each race had it's own director and timer. Alan spent most of his time monitoring all of the timing on his computer in a warm, dry room at the Bridgeport location. Almost everything went smoothly and they decided to expand to 10 races in 2018.

Geoff's family came to celebrate with us again this year. We love it when they can make it! K. wanted to run her very first 5k, but her three older brothers are really fast so she asked if she could run with Mason and I. It was fun to have her as my running buddy and she did a great job! Spencer went ahead on his own and came close to setting a new PR.

We convinced Mason to run in the kid's race, but he was more interested in exploring the bushes next to the start line than he was in running. He did run though and had his best race to date! I ran with him so no pictures.

Alan paused for just a minute during the craziness to take a family picture in front of the giant turkey.

After the race is always a little stressful for me because we all have to shower and I have to fix a lot of food. It always turns out fine though so I don't know why I get so worried.

We had a really nice dinner with Alan's parents, Alicia, Geoff's family, and Grandma and Grandpa Larsen. We were so glad they were able to join us this year! After dinner, the kids played and watched tv while the adults visited. The ones who were up working all night slept! Spencer and Mason love playing with their cousins!

The day after Thanksgiving turned out to be a gorgeous day. Mason helped me rake some leaves after I did a little Black Friday shopping. Things were going great until Mason decided he wanted to use a chair in the garage. The box of brand-new ceramic dishes I had purchased that morning were sitting on the chair, so Mason just shoved them off! Amazingly only one plate broke, but I was still bummed. No more setting things on that chair!

Family Pics, Take One

Debbie was kind enough to take some family pictures for us in mid-October. We went to a beautiful park in Tualatin and got some really good shots. Sadly, I didn't have the aperture on my camera set high enough so not all of the lines are crisp, but I still liked how they turned out. Thank you Debbie!!!

November

It's a good thing I take pictures or I wouldn't have any of these fun memories! It's hard to believe these things happened almost two months ago! Some of the pictures are blurry and terrible, but I wanted to include them to document little, important things.

Raking leaves with cute friends in the backyard.

Spencer's not too old to jump in the leaves yet! I hope he never gets that old.

Driving his "car."

A bucket and a stick.

We went to Safari Sams to play on the jungle gym on Veteran's Day. The jungle gym was too crowded and crazy for pictures, but I got a few of us mini golfing. Mason's attention lasted for about 2 holes. :)

At the last minute one Saturday morning, Spencer told us about a free throw shooting contest going on at the middle school. We didn't have much else going on that morning so Alan took him. Much to our surprise, Spencer won the contest by making 23 out of 30 free throws! We still aren't sure how he did it. Winning the local contest qualified him for a regional competition, but it is being held on a Sunday and Spencer chose not to attend.

Searching for jungle animals with binoculars for Mommy School.

One Saturday evening, we attended a "compassion experience" in Beaverton. We all got ipods and headsets and walked through a simulation while listening to a story about a little girl from Haiti. At the end, you have the opportunity to sponsor a child from a third world country. I thought it would be a really good reminder to be grateful for the many blessings we have just before Thanksgiving and I wasn't disappointed. It was a little difficult with Mason, but I think it was a good experience for Spencer.

It's so nice when they play together!