Thanksgiving adventures

The day after T-day, we made the oh-so-great decision not to get up at 2am for the fanatic early-bird shopping crowds. When I first started seeing ads for 4am openings, I thought...seriously, 4 am??? But was then shocked to see 2am and even some opening the night before! What???!!! So no, that was not us. We slept in until 8am and then decided to go into downtown Seattle to see the holiday lights and bustle of the city. But, since we were close to a few stores, I guess we did stop in to see what they had to offer. The crowds were still pretty overwhelming that afternoon, I can't even imagine what they would have been like in the middle of the night!

Before we left on Saturday, we went with the fam to the Cougar Mountain Zoo. For as long as they've lived in Issaquah, I never knew there was a zoo only a few miles from their house! It was actually a really quaint zoo (if zoos can be quaint :). There were tigers, cougars (of course), emus, wallabies and even reindeer. We braved the cold and wet weather and spent a few hours roaming around reading all the placards. I actually learned quite a bit about some of those animals! I'm excited to take Tristan back one day when he is a little bit older to fully understand what it's all about!

1st pic since becoming the "six of us"



And then after we got back on Sunday, we went to our yearly Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree. We've been going to the same place for four years after randomly finding it one year as we were driving around looking for Christmas tree farm signs. (There's more to the story here that I will not share at this time that involves an almost Nightmare Before Christmas kind of scenario - don't worry, we laugh about it whenever we think about it now :) It is definitely the Pleasantville of Christmas tree farms! Every single one of their trees is trimmed to perfection. Each time we laugh as we step out of the car and tag the perfect tree within seconds. There are no Charlie Brown trees here!

Laying claim to his first tree!

White Thanksgiving

This year, we traveled to Issaquah to spend Thanksgiving weekend with my parents and were surprised to find a thick covering of snow surrounding their house! This was the first time I've ever celebrated a white Thanksgiving. Snowmen and snowball fights replaced football this year. It definitely got us even more into the holiday spirit!
It was definitely a different kind of experience helping out in the kitchen this year with a crawling baby and running toddler in tow. That's definitely where tag-team parenting comes into play! We had so much fun with the boys and watching them interact more and more. I love those little men!


Getting his first taste of snow!


Papa & his boys

Uncle Trav & Little T

Playing Superman with Auntie Bridg

Matching plaids

Happy Half-Birthday!!

I cannot believe we celebrate Little Man's half birthday today! He is officially halfway to a year old - it has gone by too quickly!

I definitely feel like there has been so much more developmental change between 5 and 6 months than between any other stage thus far. Here are a few milestones:

* He can crawl! (Well, still army crawling :)
* He is trying to pull himself up on furniture/out of his crib - yikes!
* He is tri-pod sitting
* His laughs are loud and contagious!
* He LOVES interacting with those around him, especially his new BFF, Bella
* He is HUGE - just the other day I was looking at a small sweater he was wearing and thought, hmmmm...guess it's time to change out the 3-6 month clothes, but then checked the tag and was shocked to find out that it was actually a 12 month item of clothing!!! 12 month clothes are already too small???? Oh my, we've got a big boy on our hands!!
* We are so in love with our little man and are so thankful each day that he is in our lives! Seriously, how did we get so lucky?!


Thought this was the perfect picture to show how quickly he's growing - he's already trying to ride shotgun!

Belly Laughs

Little Man has become quite the laugher lately. He seems to find pretty much anything hilarious! Tonight we were looking through an old photo album and as I was flipping through the pages, Tristan started laughing out loud. Looking through old photos took on a whole new excitement tonight!

Rice Cereal

Tonight Tristan had his first experience with rice cereal! Okay, I'll admit it, this wasn't his first time with something other than a bottle. It actually started almost two months ago when Brian insisted he try his first piece of watermelon. Right before this, at his four month appointment, the doctor had casually mentioned that he could begin trying mashed fruit - and that was enough for Brian to quickly find some fruit for him to try. He absolutely LOVED the watermelon and couldn't get enough of it! After that though, we waited another month before giving him more fruit (and when I say we, I mean I wanted to wait until he was 6 months old, Brian wanted to immediately start him on steak and potatoes :). Brian could hardly wait much longer than that and gave him a few other baby foods to try - all were not documented. So tonight, we decided to take pics of his first rice cereal experience, since this is the first night of our new routine - while we're eating dinner, he'll be eating his rice cereal. We also got to try out his new bowl, spoons and Bumbo. My boy is growing up :(

Return of the Quack

This past weekend, we traveled down to Eugene for Tristan's first Duck game. It was also his first visit to my hometown. It definitely felt different traveling to Eugene this trip, especially since this is the first time I returned with my own family. I don't travel south to Eugene as often as I used to, mainly because all of my family members now live in other cities. It's an interesting mix of feelings I experience whenever I return. This time, it was an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia as I realized that I have 18 years of memories in this place. I think I was even more reflective this trip because I realized that I can share all these memories with Tristan one day. And what made it even more special, is that we got to begin some of our own new experiences with one another in a place that holds so many memories.

Alright, back to the main reason for this visit - to be apart of the excitement and to celebrate the Ducks at #1! Growing up, I have many fond memories of going to Duck games with my family and friends. Back then, the Ducks were hardly a team that people knew about. It wasn't difficult to get tickets and even easier to find a spot to tailgate. We spent many a Saturday BBQing and throwing a football while waiting for the game to start. Fast forward 20 years and it hardly feels like the same experience! Going to the game now is almost impossible if you don't already know someone who is willing to give up their season tickets for face value. That's why when we found four seated tickets next to each other for under face value, we jumped at the chance!

We traveled down Friday night with our good friends Sarah and Clint. Another reason we were excited to go down for the game is because we were able to stay at Sarah's sister's house in my hometown. Well, if we're being technical, it actually borders my hometown. But when three towns are so small that they all funnel into the same high school, after awhile it feels like the same place :) Staying in Elmira just added to the weekend deja vu. Their house was beautiful and it felt oddly familiar to be there for a night. We also went to breakfast in what was once an old church that I visited as a child. One of the nice things about a small town is that you have a memory/connection with just about everything there!

It was so much fun to celebrate the Ducks' first time at being at the top of rankings and also to return to a familiar place with my little man. I'm excited to share more about this place with him as he grows up!



We tried out the sound-proof headphones for him, but they didn't last long. That's what we get for taking a baby to a game during his nap time!! That's why these pictures were taken in the Moshofsky Center!

Always good times with Sarah & Clint!

Army crawler

Little Man decided to add to the Halloween excitement Saturday night and started Army crawling! To be honest, I hadn't heard of Army crawling before that night, but now understand it means to crawl/scoot using mainly the arms. Well, he acted like he had been doing it for weeks and crawled all over! I think he was just trying to keep up with Logan and Aubrey!

Here is a video that captured the moment:

Halloween Weekend Extravaganza

We started our Halloween weekend by going to my school's Halloween celebration on Friday afternoon. How fitting that his first party would be there! The parents were telling me they weren't sure what their child was more excited for that morning - to dress up in their costumes, go to our Halloween party or see Tristan!! What love!!!

Us teachers dressed up as Care Bears. Little Man's first costume of the Halloween season was also a Care Bear - Bedtime Bear, how appropriate! The all-afternoon festivities had him wiped out at the end of the party!

I didn't get a good one of us at the party so we had to get one when we got home. Cheer Bear and Bedtime Bear

On Saturday night we went to Lynds' house for a Halloween/Duck party. Wow, how different this holiday is when there are little ones in tow! Since Tristan had a monkey costume picked out since last spring, Brian and I originally planned on going as Tarzan and Jane. Finding pieces of those costumes was no easy task, so we went as a Country Club Family instead. Funny that neither father nor son had to buy any pieces for this costume - they had enough Polo items in their closets to choose from!



Four cuties - first photo opp of all the new babies!
Tristan (5 1/2 mo), Logan(6 1/2 mo), Amelia (3+ mo), Aubrey (9 1/2 mo)

Logan & mama Erin

Logan & Aubrey

My cutie :)

Leah Zervis, the cute kitty cat

Awwww...baby love :)

Our new kind of "adult parties" :)


Mom & Dad with our sweet Little Man

Also last weekend, my parents came down to celebrate Halloween with their boys. We were blessed with another beautiful day at the pupmkin patch on Sunday!


Feeding bunnies was probably the highlight for Lincoln!

I know, I know - another outfit Little Man will probably be embarrassed by when he's older, but the hat was a MUST with this pumpkin outfit!

Lincoln found the perfect-sized pumpkin for Tristan

On the hayride with Grama Candy

Photo opp with Grama Candy & Papa

Later that night, we met up with Trav & Bridg to go trick-or-treating with Lincoln on Mississippi. Time for outfit #4!!

Can you say ADORABLE??!

Cowboy, cowgirl and their little Monkey :)