Christmas '13

Christmas morning Sawyer and Kellan slept long enough for us to get an OK night of sleep (considering how late we were up.)  We let them downstairs to get to the presents.  First was the stockings, and Sawyer got a pair of shin guards.  We signed him up for kidz love soccer for mid-January indoor and the 3 1/2-4 year olds are in the tot class which is no parents and shin guards required.  We were so excited to get him some, but they are a tad bit big.  The socks go up to his crotch!

Here they are (with other presents already opened in the picture)  I have no idea why this kid won't wear pants anymore.  I force him to outside the house.

Sawyer opened his Santa present and it was exactly what he asked him for- an orange Ninja Turtle Dreamlite.  Kellan didn't get too much because he's a baby (a few small things), but Sawyer got a Thomas track, a Hot Wheels track that goes on the wall, a Disney Planes tent/sleeping bag set, and a helicopter from grandma Smith.

Andy got me this sweet sweater from Archie McPhee's that I really wanted

And tickets to "The Sing-Off live" in March (it is an American Idol-style TV show with a capella groups) He also got me weird desk things for work (like a mini bean bag chair for my phone)

I made Andy this medal/bib holder and entry to the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll half in June.

We were getting ready for guests and found out my cousin and Cooper were coming.  My first thought was the poor toy room.  Avery is a sweet little girl but Cooper wreaks havoc.  Everyone showed up and first thing he comes over to Sawyer and asks to play with the train he was playing with, then he went in the toy room and started overturning the buckets on the floor.  Sawyer was SO good though and shared all his toys.  The kids all got a few more toys too.  I think it went OK.

Grandma and my cousin Josh fed Kellan more cake

Grandpa John and Cooper fighting

He loves his new sleeping bag

Playing the xbox Erik brought over

Going to bed in his new jammies with his Dream Lite

Christmas Eve

I had to work Christmas eve because by the time I started work, everyone else had requested it off and they require 2 people to work on any day that isn't an "official" holiday.  Hey, at least I get July 4th and January 1st off for the first time.  Work was good though because whenever only 2 people work, my boss takes us out to lunch and only clocks us out for a half hour.  We got to go to this cute area of Bothell with a bunch of little shops and eat Thai.  Yum.

We have a tradition that Christmas Eve is at my parents house, and my dad makes his spaghetti.  Side note: I can't enjoy any other spaghetti anymore since his is so good.  It's kind of unfortunate.  Anyway, I got home from work and we headed straight to my parents house.  We do presents that night so that actual Christmas we can do the immediate family thing in the morning and invite more people over later and not have to worry about that aspect.

We ate delicious food, and opened presents.  Sawyer was so excited, it was fun to watch.  He got a Disney Planes toy he is obsessed with, a Leap Reader, and the boys got some toys together.  We got my parents a gift card to the Crab Pot (the place you get a bib and mallet and they dump a pile of seafood on the table for you to go at it), and I painted Erik and Destiny letters for their wall (they just bought a piece of land they are building a house on) they can put in their bedroom that says "Mr & Mrs" because they FINALLY sell ampersands at the craft store!  The only ones I could find forever was at Hobby Lobby and they were really expensive because they were fancy ones.  We got gift cards to the butcher and Jersey Mikes our favorite sandwich shop that they are finally building in Puyallup, and Erik made little vodkas in a fancy basket he flavored with different fruits.  We didn't know my grandparents would be there so we didn't get them anything :( but they got us money like usual lately.  Sawyer made us a book (it was adorable) and both boys made us ornaments.

Our little tubby was Erik's best friend when he started feeding him cheesecake.  I think he fed him most of the piece!

Erik started talking to dad and grandpa about synesthesia (which I only recently knew was a "thing" somewhat recently and not everyone does it) which apparently isn't genetic because everyone looked at us like we were crazy.  Pretty much it is when senses get crossed.  Some people can taste colors, draw music, etc but a common one is people seeing letters, numbers, music, or time as certain colors.  Some people are very good at remembering when a song came out "1975 because it was green" that type of thing.  (That was weird to type because 7 is brown and 5 is blue and saying it was green was all wrong). I think mine is rather useless and it isn't a very strong version but numbers have colors to us.  If I hear "three" it is green.  If I see a 3 in a different color, it is kind of uncomfortable.  Erik's colors are way different than mine so we started arguing over what color was what number.  I think both of our ones were white but that was it.  After that it was getting late and we went home to set up and clean up for the next day.  We wrapped presents and set them out.  Santa came and put two by the fireplace and filled the stocking.

I cleaned the toy room for hours because Avery was coming over and I wanted her and Sawyer to be able to play with the toys.  Can you believe the mess one little boy can make?

We went to bed very late and hoped the kids would sleep in.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Monsons!

I decided to try some Christmas-y light overlays but since I don't have a white sheet or anything I had to try to clone out the molding on the wall.  Not really professional quality, but I think they went OK.

Festive weekend

We did more than just the Sweater Dash this weekend, but I felt like it deserved its own post.

On Friday after work I headed to Bellevue Square (I work about 15 minutes north of Bellevue and drive through it every day).  We had to do packet pickup for the Dash or else you have to pay $5, and Andy's cousin Megan was up visiting Andrew's (her husband) family that lives in Everett.  We usually meet them in Bellevue, and I was particularly excited this time because they had a baby a month after Kellan that we were so excited to meet.

I was off work about 4-ish, and unfortunately Andy was in Monroe with his work truck about that time, so he had to drive all the way home, get the kids, then come right back up...which takes FOREVER in rush hour traffic.

I walked around the mall wasting time.  I found a camera store so I bought myself a lens cap for my nifty fifty (both my lenses have been missing caps forever) and then just got a Tully's and went on Reddit from my phone for an hour or so.  I had heard that they had "Snowflake Lane" at 7:00 so I headed outside to a huge crowd at that time. Luckily it was just me so I weaved through to a front row position.  They closed down that main road that the Cheesecake Factory is on, and had drummers, people in costumes, dancers, and fake snow (suds).  It was pretty cute, I was sad Sawyer missed it.

It was about a half hour after the show that Andy and the kids pulled in (luckily finding a parking spot because people left after the show) and we met up with Megan and Andrew and finally got to meet baby Elsie.  She is SOOOOOO cute!  She is only a month younger than Kellan, but she is literally half his size!  It was nice to hold her and not have a sore arm!

We ate at Paddy Coyne's, which was fun, then we dashed over to the place we had to do packet pick-up seconds before the time deadline.  They were nice and gave Sawyer a hat for free, even though we got there as they were packing up.

On Sunday night I got to attend my old store's Christmas party which was SO fun.  I loved getting to see everyone again.  We also played a couple rounds of LCR which I lost :(

It was a lot of fun though!  It was a good weekend to get in the Christmas spirit!

Sawyer's first race- The Sweater Dash

When Andy was training for his races, and when he runs his races, Sawyer always asks to go too.  He LOVES to run.  Most races you are allowed to take your kids along, but I decided to actually sign him up for one.  We hyped it up for a long time and he was really excited.  It seemed like a good one- The Sweater Dash 5k because we knew it would be just for fun, and they don't time you so people are so casual about it.

My dad signed up too because he had been running at the time.  We all knew it wouldn't be much of a "run" though with Sawyer.  We all got our "ugly sweaters" nice and early in the season at the Goodwill, knowing they sell out fast.  I remember my first ugly sweater party exactly 8 years ago.  I had never even heard of them.  Somehow they started getting really popular, and this year was ridiculous!  Everyone I know was either going to or holding an ugly sweater party...you can even buy kits to make them at Fred Meyer (for the low low cost of $40- wtf?)

Anyway, we arrived to a fun Christmas scene and everyone was dressed up.  We even dressed up Kellan.

They were doing the race in waves since it was so big... though it isn't exactly a race- there aren't prizes for winning.  We lined up right by the sign.  Yes, I am wearing Babylegs on my arm; it was so cold.  They gave Sawyer a hat for free at the packet pick up the night before so he was toasty.

They counted down and we were off!  They cut off the first wave right after us!

Sawyer did so good for what must have been nearly a mile.  He didn't stop running and we passed many people that had stopped to walk already.

He got tired eventually and we ended up walking the rest rather slowly.  Halfway through they had some scenes where you could take pictures...but they didn't have a photographer!  Luckily my dad had his phone on him.

We finally finished the race and got our medals (tree ornaments) and our apple cider in little mason jars with "the sweater dash" printed on them.

Then we went to meet Santa

Kellan decided to dance on the car before we left (we parked by the DJ)

Afterwards we drove all over to find Sawyer an orange ninja turtle dreamlite.  It is the one thing he asked Santa for.  Apparently they don't have color-specific skus so it took going to the Issaquah, Renton, then Kent Targets (and asking them to check the back because they weren't on displays) to find an actual orange one.  We celebrated by stopping at my old favorite drive-in in Kent.  Kellan just loved playing in his car seat while he was unbuckled, it was pretty funny.

I am so proud of Sawyer!  He did so well going 3 miles, and I know him and Andy will be running actual races together in no time!

Santa Train

My cousin Adam LOVES trains.  They spent a lot of time around them, and my cousin Anna ended up marrying Andy, who they met while working on the trains.  Andy and Adam were working on the Santa Train in Centralia, and my uncle Dennis was playing Santa.  My mom took me and the boys to go see them all and enjoy the train.

That's Adam on the left

Me and my cousin Cooper

This is the inside of the train where the guys work!  I expected something completely different

We sang Christmas carols on the way

I think Sawyer really enjoyed it!