Tristan is 4!

Four years ago today my last baby was born. I can't believe he is four already. It's an old cliche, but they grow up so fast.

Tristan had a whilwind of a birthday weekend with Mimi and Granddad visiting for the weekend, a pirate-y birthday party, and a preschool celebration today. He had a ton of fun and he's proud to be a big boy.

My 4 year old!

Mimi and Granddad come to visit

Twister fun with Mimi

Getting his treasure chest for the treasure hunt

Pirate treasure cupcakes

Yummy cupcakes

My Little Helper

Tristan is a great little helper! He is at that perfect age where he wants to be with me all the time and is so eager to please. He loves helping me do laundry; loading the washer, loading the dryer, and folding. He also loves to put away his clothes, help me make breakfast, and help me in the yard. Last night we made apple pie together. I gave him a butter knife to cut up the peeled apples and he sat there through cutting 8 large apples. He then loved putting in the sugar and cinnamon. Of course the reward for all that work was yummy. I didn't get a picture of the finished product because it was gone too fast. But trust me it turned out great!

Cutting up apples.

Filling the pie.

Local artists

We got some local artist to do a painting for our stairwell wall. I think it turned out great!

Because his pants kept falling down when he jumped . . .

Like Mommy, Like Son

Tristan enjoying his candlelit bath

Our Christmas morning

Santa was very good to us. I hope Santa was good to every one else. The boys got a trampoline, an 11-in-1 game table, and a craft table along with lots of other great gifts from family and friends. They are having lots of fun with all their new stuff and I have spent the day making room for it by getting rid of some of the old stuff.

Merry Christmas!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

We had a very Christmassy weekend. Saturday started with making chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes, listening to Christmas music, and drinking egg nog. Then I got the cookie dough made and checked to see if we had all the proper toppings. After finally getting out of my pajamas and letting the cookie dough chill, we got to some serious Christmas cookie making. This year we tried making stained glass cookies for the first time. It was a good way to get rid of all the Jolly Ranchers we had piling up in JR's candy bag. They turned out pretty well; not incredibly pretty, but yummy. We also made our own frosting and colored it for lots of decorating. JR's friends came over throughout the day and helped with the cookie making. We ended Saturday evening with a trip to a Christmas show by the El Dorado Hills Musical Theater Company. We got to sit around candlelit tables filled with plates of cookies and treats and watch Christmas song and dance performances. Sunday we headed out early for a trip to church where we heard Christmas stories and sang Christmas songs. JR continued his Christmassy weekend with an invite to his friend's house to drink hot chocolate, make gingerbread houses and watch the movie Elf. I think we are all fully in the spirit now and ready for Saturday.

Fall Fun

Fall Fun in December:
We had a gorgeous warm day on Dec 11th and the tree had just dropped most of it's leaves. It was a perfect day for playing out in the leaves and the boys played out there all day. They raked them into a pile, jumped in them, slid in them, swam in them, buried things in them. I helped them out with that last one; after lunch I buried some candy in the pile and they dug away for over a half hour trying to find them. My bad because I buried M&Ms and Hershey bars, both of which have brown wrappers (the same color of the leaves). The last candy wasn't found until the next day.

'Tis the Season

We got our tree today and tonight we did the traditional decorate the tree while listening to Christmas music and drinking egg nog.