Merry Christmas!

I hope you guys had as wonderful a Christmas as we did.
On the 24th we celebrated Jesus' birthday together, with a little at-home devotional, candles, and a YUMMY steak dinner. I got to open one gift (a game!) that we played together before it was bed-time. On the 25th my Momma and I made cranberry-orange muffins, eggs, sausage, and grapefruit for breakfast. Then we emptied our stockings, and then my Momma and Dad (who are big meanies) insisted on doing the dishes, taking a shower, and cleaning up a little before opening presents. Then it was FINALLY time:

First my Momma made me pose for a few pictures...


I'm a T-rex, just like the cool one my Aunt Kirsti made me on my stocking last year!



My Momma made Dad a stocking with snowflakes and a penguin... the one with the doll and teddy was made by my Great Grandma Connie when my Momma was a little girl!

Opening some gifts...


...and here is the highlight of my day: my Momma and Dad built me a HUGE castle (the sides are 5 1/2 ft long, and 4 1/2 ft tall!) for my play corner!!! It is SO cool! Now this knight has a home!

WHO GOES THERE?!

Dad and I built my Momma a drafting/art table for her to paint and draw on. It is really cool, with back-lighting and a lamp, and an adjustable table top. Dad and I spent lots of time making it just right, and we painted it red to match the rest of the room.

Momma and I built Dad a work bench for his man-room. It is tall enough that he doesn't have to bend over when working, and we spent lots of time sanding it to be silky smoothe.

It fits just right into Dad's man-room, and it can double as a tiger cage!

T-Rex

Just before nap time Dad was going to read me a story from this cool book my Grandma Nana gave me a while back. While Dad was getting comfy, I was examining the cover (see above). My comment: "T-Rex could EAT all of these."
Yep, I'm 100% boy.

Life is good!

Life is good, and life is BUSY! Just to hold grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts and uncles and friends over... here a few pictures:


ME


Our house freshly decked in icicle lights.


The randomly December-blooming Japanese-something-plant outside our front door.


Our new (used) dining set. We have friends over a lot, and the little table we had often couldn't fit everyone,so we decided to start looking around for a bigger one. We got a great deal, and are very happy with this one!

Too busy...

This morning I came into my Momma's and Dad's room to wake them up at 7am. After all, it was Saturday, which meant lots of time to play, and I wouldn't want anybody else to miss out by sleeping too long! I crawled into bed to jump on Dad (that is fairly effective at waking him), and my Momma reached over to try one of her tricky "cuddle the boy back to sleep" maneuvers. My response: "Momma- *exhasperated sigh* - I REALLY don't have time for this now."

In further news, we now have a pet Russian tortoise that I named Timmy. Timmy lives in a big tank, and likes to eat leaves and re-arrange his furniture/logs/rocks. We rescued/adopted Timmy from someone who was getting rid of him, and we think he will be a fun pet. :o)

This Friday my Momma had a Timmytortoise, and a Marktortoise and a Holdentortoise. Timmy is a bit too fat (bulges coming out of his shell) because the old owners didn't know how to feed him properly, so Timmy has to exercise every day. We are happy to "help"...

Timmy LOVES his basking spot - the old owners had let their basking bulb burn out a few months ago, and so he's been kind of chilly!



And finally, a few (goofy) pictures of me in the new hat my Momma chrochetted for me. It was going to be a simple round hat, but I specifically requested ear flaps and a pom pom... so I am very pleased that my Momma made it just like I wanted it to be.

Happy Palloween!

Happy P'alloween everyone!
As mentioned before, I got to be a blue puppy, and I had a lot of fun. First we went to our church's NEEWOLLAH celebration, where among other things I got a cool cool pirate sword. Then I got to go trick-or-treating with my Momma. A few people had decorated their houses a little too scary for my taste, but I braved the smoke (from a smoke machine), and very matter-of-factly told the howling coming from a corner that it was just for pretend. After announcing "Trick or treat!" to the person at the door, I always made sure to wish them a "Happy Palloween!"
Well, here are the pictures I am sure you are all waiting for.

Yesterday my Momma helped Holden and me carve the pumpkins Holden's grandma grew for us. We asked her to cut a BIG "H" and "M" into the back of our jack-o-lanterns, and she did!

Holden asked for a COOL BAD SCARY pumpkin, and I asked for a laughing one. Both of us were very pleased with the result.

Now all they need is a tea-light inside them! Can you believe how much yucky slimy stuff was inside these?

Ta-DAAAAAH!

Today my Momma woke me up from my nap so she could get me dressed for the NEEWOLLAH celebration at church. She even painted a blue nose on me. I was a bit grumpy at first, but then Dad came outside in his cool cool "contractor" disguise!

The world was instantly a much better (and safer!) place. Look at us two studs!

We don't have any pictures from trick-or-treating, or from the celebration at church, because things were just too busy, and it was dark outside anyway. But look at all the candy I got! I even got some princess-stickers and a princess pencil that I will give to my friend Tori...

Ooooh, goody good! My Momma said I could have ONE piece of candy, and it's just SO hard to decide!

Ok, seriously, Momma, I've had enough of you waving that camera at me. No more pictures.

Happy P'alloween, everyone!

...just for Grandma!

...as my Grandma pointed out, it has been TOO long since the last blog post!

Well, here you see the reason why... my Momma was busy finishing the kitchen and the entryway.


The kitchen is done, although the dining room still has one set of windows and the back door to the laundry room that are black. Those will have to wait until Spring, because my Momma will be busy making Christmas presents and illustrating the book that is due next Febuary.


Look at how nice it looks with the white trim! And my Momma had fun making the brushed-copper effect with orange paint and copper metallic paint. The front door and closet doors are still black.... they too will have to wait until next Spring.

So, enough excuses, here are some pictures of ME! I like climbing trees now, and both in our yard and in the park there are some leaning big-leaf maples that are just right for walking up the trunk. I usually still need help getting down... either that, or I take the REALLY FAST way down, involuntarily.

My Momma had to dress up for the youth group Halloween-alternative party... so she became a tiger!


Dad gets up early with me on Saturday mornings, and my Momma gets to sleep in. Here Dad is snoozing while I'm watching a show on the computer.


We finally have some new family pictures. Our friends Todd and Sheryll came to visit us, and they took a few pictures of us while we were at the park.

Dad really hates posing for pictures, but this one turned out rather nice, didn't it?

...and just for Grandma, here are a few close-ups of me.

...no Momma, I don't feel like smiling at the camera.

...my Momma got me to smile for this picture by telling me to say "Hi Grampa!"

And finally: the blue puppy costume! My Momma asked me what I wanted to be for Halloween, and after a moment of contemplation, I said: "A puppy! A blue one!" ...I was rather surprised when my Momma said, "Sure, that sounds like a good idea!" She went to Goodwill and bought a blue fleece men's sweatshirt. She cut the arms short, and took in the sides and the arms, and made the hood smaller. Then she used the extra fabric to make ears and a tail, and used some blue scrap cloth to add paw prints, spots, and a soft padded tummy. I love my costume SO much that I have been wearing it off and on ever since it was finished.

This is what it looks like from the back, and when I crawl on all 4s, the tail wags!

(belated) Our trip to the cabin

A few weeks ago my Dad went on a canoe trip with some of the men from our church. While he was gone, my Momma, Erin (Holden's Mom), Holden and I went to Erin's family's cabin up in the mountains. We had SO much fun!


The cabin was in the middle of the forest. There were trees all around, a fire pit, lots of critters flying/scuttering, and best of all, there was some wonderful DIRT next to the house. Generations of little boys had played this dirt into JUST the RIGHT consistency!


We played and we played. Between the sun screen and bug spray our Mommas covered us in, and the little bit of sweat boys always manage to produce, we got INCREDIBLY dirty. And BOY did we LOVE it!


One of the days we hiked to a natural soda spring. I think Holden and I both expected something else...


...the water was fizzy and bitter... NOT fizzy and sweet!


When we got back to the cabin, we were greeted by a surprize: we had left a bag of peanuts out on the table. It USED to be full. By the time we got back, the chip munks/ ground squirrels/ squirrels had nearly emptied the bag, and had strewn peanut shells ALL over the site! Those little guys were BOLD too, even when we got back and sat down, they still kept coming to get more nuts to stuff in their cheeks.


We had such a fun time running around in the forest.


And we had a ton of fun throwing rocks into the water, and fishing in the river too. Some of the time we tried doing both at once.


What a fun weekend this was!!!!

Quotes

In the morning, while getting dressed: "Momma, today I can't wear a shirt. My muscles grew SOOOO so big last night that no shirt will fit over them!"

On the way home from walking the dog: "Momma, my tummy is growling. It wants peach. It is NOT saying 'please'!"

And here a few pictures:


Holden and I are playing in my pool in the shade on the back deck. This helped us stay cool 2 weeks ago, when it stayed above 106 degrees for more than a week!














This is what happens when you are a boy on a bike ride who sees a mole hill. It HAD to be investigated. In detail. With my hands.

More pictures to follow soon from our fun trip to Erin's family's cabin!