Holiday Fun

Here's hoping everyone had a fabulous Christmas and a very enjoyable New Year. Here are some happenings since my last post...

 December 19th was Miles' 4th Birthday. I made him a turtle cake that we shared with some friends in our apartment's Community Center (in a big, open room we can rent out any time).

The kids decorated their own drinking cups and wheeled around on rolling chairs and played pin-the-worm-on-the-apple, which Miles won. woohoo!

Happy Birthday, my big boy!

 Elijah was precious on his first Christmas...as always, he was full of smiles. :)

The boys opened most of their presents on the 22nd before flying out to Washington on the 24th. Love our little pre-lit 3-foot tree? :) We found it by a dumpster when we were first married and it has served us well over the past 9 years. Maybe next year we'll have a bigger one. ???

(My sister-in-law Laura doing nails.)
So the trip to WA was interesting. It started when our United Airlines flight to DC was cancelled due to mechanical difficulties. SO they "booked us a flight--1st class even--from Chicago to WA," with American Airlines. After throwing us on a plane to Chicago, we find out American doesn't actually have any seats reserved for us...and the flight is full. SO we're stranded in Chicago?
Well Alan finally worked it out and Alaska flew us to Seattle...7 HOURS later than planned. While we waited in Chicago we found a USO station (where military and their family can go to lounge in the sofas and eat the free food and use the free Internet, and since it was Christmas Eve they gave the boys some plush gingerbread man...s? Men?) and hung out. We were BUSHED by the time we took the 3 hour drive from Seattle to Wenatchee, but the whole time the boys were CHAMPS. :)

 The Sunday after we arrived we blessed Elijah (at 7 months!!) so we could do it with family. Alan's dad, brother and brother-in-law were in the blessing circle.

 Right after his blessing, I took Elijah to the Mother's Lounge to feed him and he EXPLODED right out of the brand new blessing outfit Mimi bought him. :D Look at that smile, he's so proud of himself. Good thing I brought a back up, young man.

We bought this stupid Samsung camera while we were out there and most of the pictures turned out horribly. Maybe my Nikon D5000 has spoiled me a bit, but come'on. This is ridiculous! Anyway, here we all are in our smear-faced glory (including Alan's friend and wife who drove 3 hours to be there). Yeah!

 This is how we party on New Year's Eve: blanket-making, Catan, sparkling cider and puzzles. Oh, and Papa watched a cheesy Jackie Chan movie. :) And Alan was asleep (we didn't know it at the time, but he had strep throat). Oh yah, we got it goin' on. 

 Alan's mom and Elijah at Kristina's (Alan's sister) birthday breakfast (he looks a lot like her, so cute!) on New Year's Day. Afterward us girls went to see Les Miserables in the theatre for more birthday fun. LOVED it. 

Happy Birthday, Kristina! She was so sweet. Her gift was $$ to buy all of our Les Mis tickets. Love her!

 After Wenatchee we drove 5 hours to Battle Ground (WA) to visit my brother and his family.

They have a cows and chickens and 4-wheelers and loads of fun for the kiddos. They helped feed the cows and collect eggs fresh from the hen's butt. Doesn't get better than that!

And we can't forget X-Box! My little video game junkies.

The kids had so much fun together that Christian and Miles said they wanted to stay forever. Well, I loved the area, and there is land for sale. We'll have to see... :)

 My awesome sister-in-law getting some Elijah-loves. She woke up with him at night if he cried (since he was sick, he whined a lot, though he usually sleeps through the night). It was so wonderful to have a little break. :) She's such a sweetie pie!

 My brother's heater was broken and their two gas fireplaces did a fabulous job heating the entire (ginormous) house. Impressive? Yes.
And I just love this hat Elijah got from Aunt Kristina for Christmas. :) 

 We came back to State College to find lots of snow. There wasn't ANY when we left. The boys have had fun playing in it with some of their Christmas toys.

We brought a lot back with us, some things we'll keep forever like the many fond memories, and others we won't (like the strep throat Alan got then passed on to me...Elijah's parvo...or Miles' double ear infections...). :D All in all it was super holiday fun. I'm so grateful for family!