Christmas Tree Lighting

As soon as we heard about the Christmas tree lighting in downtown Bend, we knew it would be a fun family activity to do. So the night of the big event, we (the GGs - the name we have given to our George/Goody family) bundled up to watch the lighting of the ginormous tree downtown. We ended the night with appetizers and hot drinks - an overall great night!

Charlie Brown Christmas tree

Every year after returning from Thanksgiving always marks the beginning of the Christmas season. Which always begins with getting our tree the soonest we possibly can. This year was no different, except that we didn't get to go to our favorite Christmas tree farm which holds the world's most perfect Christmas trees. As sad as I was about this, I still put on a supportive face as we all (and I mean all - including the Goody family!) went up to Mt. Bachelor and into the woods to cut down our tree this year. After spending the entire morning looking for a tree and not finding one we liked, we stopped for lunch, dropped off half of the crew back at home and went out looking again! We literally had about 20 minutes of sunshine left in the day, when we spotted a lone tree far off from the road and decided it was the one. Not exactly the perfect Noble we've always had, but not entirely a Charlie Brown tree either. It had a few extra limbs than all other ones we passed up, but definitely still pretty sparse. Brian was just proud that we went out and chopped it down ourselves - me, I personally would have driven to our Pleasantville farm outside Portland and come back with perfection. But we differ on this one.

One of our many attempts at treking through the woods

Finally, the tree!

Not kidding when I said we had just minutes left of sun for the day...

Decorating the tree

The littlest George member putting on the star!

The completed tree! And yes, it didn't take long to wrap presents and get them under the tree :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's become a tradition to spend Thanksgiving weekend at my parents' house and of course we had to uphold that yearly event once again!

Crossing over the pass, it was super snowy and a bit of a treacherous drive, but so beautiful! Here are some pics of us on our way!

Over the mountain and through the woods...

Super excited to see Grama & Papa!

Tristan loves to help out in the kitchen, so was excited to wake up Thanksgiving morning and help out with dinner preparations!

Showing Papa her climbing skills...oh vey.

Of course I had to dress her up in fall colors for her first Thanksgiving.

Matching scarves...like mother, like daughter :)

Checking out the wildlife in Grama & Papa's front yard

I asked the boys to pose for a picture, and this is what I got. They both hid under the table. Not the pic I had in mind, boys :)

Talia, Papa and his mom, Shirley, also known as step-great-grandma, or just GG :)

Sweet pic of cousins Lincoln and Talia post-dinner

The day after Thanksgiving was a little more low-key, as evidenced by these pics Brian took of the drool-machine. There were about 50 of Talia making a variety of faces. These cracked me up, so I had to share:

The kids LOVE the rocking horse, even as they age and are a little too big for it. It makes for some good cousin poses.

The boys and Grama & Papa venturing out in the rain. They went on a nature walk to look at all the leaves and trees and ended up in the "mountains" behind the house! Thank goodness for rain boots and coats!!

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing, as most trips are when we visit. Except when we spent all day Saturday roaming around the metropolitan Seattle area looking for a bar that had the Duck game on. Ducks are a priority no matter what the holiday!

Tristan cuddling with his new "monkey" he got to take home from Grama & Papa's house.

Our beautiful view of Mt. Hood on the way home - amazing!!

2 1/2 years old already??

We now have a 2 1/2 year old toddler and a 7 month old under one roof!! Tristan has really developed so much in the past 6 months since turning two. His language makes leaps and bounds every day and it's amazing to see his imagination grow and grow! Here are some highlights at 2 1/2:

* He still LOVES to play guitar and the drums. You can hear him rocking out and singing while pounding on his drum set. He'll turn on the CD, Happy, which is filled with kids' songs and jam to his favorites :)
* He also loves his dump trucks (two of which are Brian's from when he was his age). We can hear "vrooming" all over the house!
* He can count to 20! Sometimes he may skip or repeat a number, but for the most part, he can do it!
* He continues to love his baby sister. My favorite is when he makes her laugh while in the backseat together. LOVE these two!!
* He also loves his mommy & daddy and is such a great snuggler. I really love this age!
* He still likes to watch youtube videos on the iPad - mostly Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and random videos of garbage trucks...too funny :)

I'm sure there are many more things I'm forgetting. If so, I'll have to do another post all about Tristan in the near future! Here are some pics of our sweet little man:

Starbucks date with my man!

Out to Happy Hour at Deschutes Brewery with the kiddos and this is what happens...we're too much excitement for this boy :)

Brotherly/sisterly love :)

Nap with a 100lb pillow

Funny look while watching the iPad :)

Happy 7 months!!

We now have a 7 month old on our hands! I can't believe how fast time is flying and how big she is getting. I have seen such a huge growth in her within the past month where she is really starting to understand what we are saying. Here are some milestones she has reached at seven months old:

* She can army crawl to get to where she wants to go - and she's fast!
* She can pick herself up and stand up to furniture. I'm sure she'll be cruising on that soon!
* If you say, "Give me a kiss", she leans in and kisses you an open-mouthed kiss on the lips! So sweet!
* She still doesn't have any teeth, but seems to have been teething for months. Maybe soon??
* She is using her Jumparoo and swings less and less as she now realizes that she can move around on her own. It will be sad day when we have to give away those items completely :(

Here are some pics of our seven month old girl!