Happy 1 Birthday, Isaac!

Our littlest guy has officially hit the big one birthday milestone! It’s hard to believe that he’s one already.

Kristen designed and put together a super-fun buffalo plaid/lumberjack theme for this birthday party. And, because of scheduling with family, Isaac got to have two different birthday parties! Yes, he got to have two smash cakes too!

We are pretty sure that Isaac’s favorite part was the balloons. He loved playing with them, and he kept going over to one of the clumps of balloons all throughout the party!

Also a highlight were the little animal face masks that we included in the party favor bags!

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Our lumberjack crew!

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Playing the axe throw game!

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Balloons were so fun!

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Happy first birthday, Isaac! We’re so glad you’re a part of our family!

Christmas Cookies!

It’s been a full weekend! Kristen’s cousin came up from Texas for his job for the weekend with his two teenage boys, and the boys spent a good chunk of the weekend with us while their dad worked.

At the same time, Joshua ended up having some weird bug where he cyclically got fevers at some points throughout the weekend. We had to change some plans and he definitely missed out on some fun because of it, but we tried to make the best of it.

The biggest scheduling issue that arose from Joshua’s illness was that we didn’t end up getting to go to Kristen’s parents for the annual tradition of loading up sugar Christmas cookies with frosting and sprinkles. We’ll try for that again later in December. We did do our own little cookie decorating event at home just with us and the cousins anyway which was still fun.

Making the cookies

Decorating the cookies

The final product

Polar Express Breakfast

For today’s advent experience, we had a super fun and delicious Polar Express breakfast at the Yamhill fire station. Pancakes, egg, sausage, biscuits and gravy, cinnamon rolls, and hot chocolate. All hot and fresh! Yum!

Joshua’s joy with the experience was clear for all to see!

It was a bit of a drive for us, but so fun and so worth it. We left home pretty early (7:30 ish) and we were thankful for the early start. This was quite a popular event and the line of people coming in expanded quite a bit shortly after our arrival and stayed long the whole time we were there.

Joshua’s favorite part was meeting the conductor. Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture with the conductor. Elliott’s favorite was hot chocolate, which we did memorialize with photos!

As parents, we enjoyed our children’s delight with the whole experience, especially as they took in the amazing attention to detail that the organizers put into the event. There was something fun in every direction all around the room!

An elf cutout, waiting to see Santa
Or that way… (Elliott)

Joshua’s Advent

Joshua was in charge of last night’s advent calendar. He got a rice krispy treat at school and insisted on bringing one for Elliott too.

He wrote out the advent himself for a light hunt with a treat and had Elliott find the treat under the tree. Joshua was so proud! The plan went well…until Joel had to work late. So off we trotted with the double Bob stroller and the hiking backpack on my (Kristen’s) back up and down our neighborhood’s hills.

“Look under the tree it’s a treat for a light hunt”