silly hair

it's time for another one of dad's hair cuts...

 I love the cute spiky hair, but unfortunately he has my fine hair and it would require a lot of goop to make this hair spike when it's dry.

 our snow melted... so we bundled up and headed to the park for some fun.  Although it's still cold outside so our visit to the park was short.  J is happy to be home from Alaska!  It was -40 there.  Crazy cold!  We're been between 30-40 degree's here.

 I finished up some projects for C... I actually made this sock monkey last Christmas, but C wasn't really into stuffed animals at the time and I was worried about the button eyes being a choke hazard.  His eyes were originally going to be blue, but since C's eyes have turned from a blue to hazel... I decided to go with green eyes.

 C is obsessed with Nemo.  He loves Nemo!  I couldn't find any Nemo blankets that I liked so... I made my own.  Covered in Nemo and sooo soft... I'm sure this is bound to be his new favorite blankie.

The view from here...

 Seriously is this not the cutest little kid ever?!?  I just adore this little monkey!

Okay, so apparently I used up all my free space on blogger.  Who does that?!?  Oh yeah, that would be me.  I guess that means I either take too many photo's or post too often?  Either way, I enjoy blogging so I bought enough space to fit 10,000 more photo's.  So... here we go!

Jason was home last week, but spent the week before in Texas and North Carolina.  This week he's in Alaska.  Hopefully not freezing to death since it's -20 there!  Connor and I usually surprise him with some kind of welcome home treat.  We made bite size brownies with fun chips this time.

 All bundled up and ready to head out sledding.  They were both so excited to make a BIG snowman, but we haven't got any new snow for a while now and the old stuff is crunchy and won't pack.  I guess dad's BIG snowman that, according to him, is going to tower my itty bitty snowman will just have to wait.  For now, mine IS the big snowman!  HA HA HA

Mr. Cutie...  always has to have his hat and sun glasses on now.

 My cleaning service  =)

 When it's too cold to go outside and play in the sandbox... bring the sandbox inside! 

A special thank you to my husband who let me sneak away to go Christmas shopping the last two weekends!  I love, love, love my boys, but I have to say I get so much more shopping done when I don't have to see little eyes rolling and hear "hooooow muuuuch loooonger" every five minutes! 

And thank you honey for the night out with my good  friend Shannon too!  That was so wonderful.  I haven't spent time with Shannon for about a year now.  We went to a new restaurant, which was amazing and visited until 1am.  Then bright and early the next day I went to my monthly scrap booking group.  Love those girls!  3 of my closest friends have been getting together once a month to scrap book and visit for the last... jeez I think we've been doing this for about 8 or 9 years now.  And we just recently added a 5th friend to our group.  Glad to have you Un!  Thank you for holding down the fort honey and giving me a fun weekend with my girlfriends!  Your the best.  I love you  =)

Snow Day

It snowed all day Tuesday.  My neighbor said we were suppose to get 12 inches.  I didn't measure, but a foot sounds about right.  Jason spent Monday and Tuesday in Texas and will be in North Carolina Wednesday- Friday.  I loaned our snow blower to our neighbor and had planned on attempting to unbury our driveway during Connor's nap on Wednesday.  To my surprise and delight I woke up Wednesday morning to a completely clear driveway.  Our neighbor had unburied their driveway and ours.  We have the absolute sweetest neighbors ever!  That wasn't any easy task.  Even with a snow blower it's tough when you have 12 inches of wet snow.  Jon and Vicki, we owe you big time!  Thank you sooo much!

After a nice warm breakfast Connor and I decided to venture outside to explore all this new snow.  Since we had a really mild winter last year (we only had snow for 2 weeks) I bought all his snow gear 1 size bigger than we actually needed.  It worked out great... we used it a couple time last winter and it fits perfect for this winter.

 First on Connor's list... break in the new sled!  There is a pull rope attached to the front, so it was my job to pull him up and down our road.  We made 3 trips down our road to the mail box and back to our house.

 Then it was time to check out this wet snow

 I had to shovel our stairs and clean up a few icy spots in the driveway.  Connor waited for me patiently as long as a 2 year old can...  then I heard "Come on Mom, jeez"  I look over and he's sprawled out almost laying down on his sled waiting for me to pull him up and down the road again.  Silly kid

 Our first snowman of the season

 Shhh don't tell Jason, but we borrowed some junk I mean stuff from his shop to decorate the snowman.  His arms are wrenches and the buttons up the front and the red do-hickies for his mouth are all thing-a-majigs from Jason's work bench.  Don't worry though honey, we put everything back after we took the picture.

 What a fun day in the snow.  We spent about 2-3 hours playing outside and when we came inside and stripped off all our snow gear... Connor was toasty warm from his head to his toes!

Santa

 Picture day!  We had our family pictures taken today and while I was picking out which pictures to print... Jason decided to take Connor to have his picture taken with Santa since there was NO line.   Can't pass up that opportunity!  Two photo shoots in one day down!  Then we met Jason's friend, Kevin for lunch at Azteca.  Followed by some running around the play area.

 Across from the play area they have some quarter rides.  Every since Brady's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, Connor loves these rides.  So, he got to have fun on a few of the rides and then... he had a melt down.  No nap all week + lots of running around and days in a car = a grumpy little boy!  I knew he would be hitting a wall some time soon.  I'm actually surprised he did so good all week. 

 We expected him to take a nap when we got home, but apparently he's afraid he'll miss out on some fun if he goes to sleep.  So, after a little time relaxing he was ready to keep going.  In keeping with our goofy tradition (if you want to call it that... we're not very good at keeping surprises)... we busted out one of Connor's Christmas gifts early.  Christmas seems to come earlier and earlier each year at our house.  Last year  it came 2 weeks early... this year we're a month early!  Connor's wish list this year... anything that has to do with Nemo or trains!

Thanksgiving Day

We had Thanksgiving Dinner at Jason's brother Ron's house this year.  It's always great to spend time with family during the holidays.  Connor loves all the attention.

Connor wrestling with Grandma

 Connor with Zach

 Following dinner we always have game time, which is always tons of fun.

 hide-n-seek with Sarah

 snuggle with Brianna

Brianna showed Connor how to throw a football with his feet

 Sarah and Connor playing

 snuggle time with Frann

 hanging with the girls

The Charette Clan

The entire Charette clan... well almost anyway.  We're missing Jason's brother Dave.
back row: Mark, Sue, Ron, Frann, Jason.  front row: Jeanette and Albert

 Jeanette and Al with their grandkids: Justin, Sarah, Zach, Lauren, Taylor, Brianna, Connor, Cameron

 the Charette clan!

 Justin, Sue, Lauren, Cameron

 Poor Lauren... surviving with two brothers

 Grandkids

Connor was more into talking to Nemo on the phone than doing photo's.
Ron (aka Nemo) called and talked to Connor.  He thought that was the neatest thing ever and now every time the phone rings his eyes light up and he races over to the phone yelling NEMO! NEMO!

 Mark, Taylor, Brianna, Stephani

 Zach, Meghan, Sarah, Deanna, Ron

 My little family

 Grandma and Grandpa Charette

Over the mountains to Grandma's house

We debated on canceling our trip over to Kelso to see Jason's family for Thanksgiving this year due to all the snow we recently received.  The forecast was calling for more snow the week of Thanksgiving too.  Unfortunately all the flights and trains were booked and since we really didn't want to miss seeing the Charette clan... we decided to brave the roads and drive.  The drive over took us 8 hours, with about 45 minutes of white knuckle driving on ice.  That also included about a 45 minute stop for lunch too.  We were expecting the trip home to be worst since the snow continued to fall, but to our surprise the trip home was great!  We made it back in 6 hours with clear blue skies and dry roads.  Of course we crossed over into a Winter Wonderland as soon as we entered Spokane County.  I haven't ventured out to measure, but I would guess we have several feet of snow in our yard right now.  I'm glad we took the chance and drove over.  We had fun visiting with family and Connor loves spending time with everyone.  We even managed to visit with our friends, Jeri and Darrel, which we haven't seen since Connor was just a few months old.  And we stopped to see Jason's best friend, Lee's parents too!  Lee and Jason grew up only a few blocks from each other.  Jason hasn't seen Lee's parents in 16 years and it was the first time Connor and I met them.

The two youngest grandkids... Connor and Cameron

 Ayden (a friend of the family) came over to play with Connor.  Sue, Cameron and Jason laughing in the background.

 silly boys

 Connor giving everyone a relaxing back massage.

 Cameron, Connor and Justin playing

 Grandpa and Connor with their matching hats.

 Grandma and Connor wrestling

 Color time at the restaurant with Grandma

 Connor always manages to get someone to push him around.  This time he got Cameron to push him around the house in the toy basket.  Faster Cameron, Faster!