What are we up to?

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at our house with my parents, brother, and friend Vikki.  What a great evening we had!  Deano's Skettie.  Margaritas from the new Margaritaville.  Playing Kinect.  Presents.  And of course, getting ready for Santa Claus!

 Getting ready for conquer the tree.

Eli has turned into a Lego maniac.  He loves them and plays with them all the time!

Leaving treats for Santa.

Why lookie there!  Santa came.  Jess only got one small bag of coal in his stocking.  Apparently he wasn't ALL bad, just a touch.  HAHA

Eli clearly is excited about his air craft carrier that Santa brought him.

Christmas Day 

We went to mom and dad's house and Eli had to play outside.  He loves their backyard and could spend all day back there.  

A Santa Search

Today we went and found Santa. Yes, we actually had to find him.  The last two years we've gotten our Santa pictures taken at a coffee shop in Four Corners.  Today, we ventured to the same place, yet there was no sign of anyone even remotely resembling Santa.  We did find out however that he's just moved from the little coffee shop to the Do It Center, so off we went.

In case you don't remember our Santa history, pictures with Santa have NOT gone well for Eli.  His first year seeing Santa he was almost 2, I don't think we  did anything his first year, yep - let that one slide.  He ended up getting a picture with Scaredy Bear and having Santa sneak in behind while he was upset and crying.  Last year we ended up getting a family picture because he was crying so hard.  This year...WOAH!  Boy have things changed.  He has been talking about Santa Claus for weeks now.  Maybe even months.  He traipsed right on over to him, turned around and waited to be hoisted on his lap.  He smiled for pictures (of course it was his cheeseball grin...but hopefully the photographer was able to get one of his real smile) and even TALKED to him.  Yes.  He talked to Santa!  Jess and I were both a little shocked, but in a good way.

We don't have our pictures yet, this time next weekend we'll get our Eli birthday present by picking up his pictures!  Maybe on our way home from his birthday party!

Just before starting our Santa Quest, we were playing with the camera and got a couple fun ones.  Only Blogger isn't playing fun and is having issues loading the photo uploader....so again, that will have to wait.

A photo montage....

We've been busy and I haven't been able to attach pictures to anything.  Until now....let's review.  I apologize now before you read any farther.  :)

The end of October brought Halloween

Trick-or-treating was quite a scene

A dragon

A bug 

And Scooby-Doo

The candy reward was pretty big too!

Fall often means leaves scatter the ground

In our front yard grew a heaping mound

Eli jumped in

All but his head

Mom grabbed the camera

JUMP IN! she said.

The end of November was stranger yet

As lows and snow records were met and then set

The roads were too icy

Snow days were called

Out to the snow quickly they hauled.

Snow angels

Sledding

Running and playing

Together with friends

The memories we're making

 

Wow, those are BAD, but I tried something a little different this time around.  My creative juices were flowing in other ways today....not in poetry.  Oh well, I hope you had a good laugh at my feeble attempt.  

I wonder if I can get pictures to upload yet....

Nothing I have touched lately seems to be working.  I know I can upload pictures again, I just haven't been able to.  Let's see what we can do today....I am going to attempt ONE single, solitary picture and see what happens.

Oh my goodness!  It actually worked!  Ok, so now that I know I can do it, I will post this one picture as a sneak-peak at to our snowy adventures over the last 4 days!!!!

Snowy Days

The Puget Sound was hit by its first bout of snow this week which resulted in two snow days just before Thanksgiving Break. Let's just say that makes for a lot of very happy kids, and teachers too. With the 5-6 inches that we have we have spent a lot of time playing out in the cold and snow. Eli LOVES the snow, especially when he gets to play with his friends.

I have many pictures to share, but Google still won't let me upload. Grrrr....I have to see what I can do to upload more!

Fall Leaves

Last night we were out playing in the leaf drift that has accumulated in our front yard.  Of course I decided it would be the perfect time for pictures!  Seriously, when isn't the perfect time for pictures? 

Late Is Better Than Never

Once upon a time a family of three had a space online they liked to share the happenings of their lives.  One busy October, this online living space took its own vacation and limited the posts that this family could make.  Ok, it didn't really, but rather was just neglected for the better part of three weeks.  Finally, one late Tuesday evening, the mom sat down to relive the wonderful events of that wonderful month....

It all started one Friday when Nana came to visit.  Mom, Eli, and Nana headed off to the zoo for a relaxing day with the animals. Throughout their visit to the zoo, Eli kept asking for his picture to be taken.  So many great shots were captured from this day. A few to ponder: 

The following day brought a great soccer game!  Glenn and Cheryle came to the game too root on their grandson too.  It turned out to be an absolute glorious day in the Puget Sound.  

This is one of my favorite Daddy-Son soccer pictures.  Eli had bonked heads with someone and needed some Daddy love.

After the soccer game, we had TWO birthday parties to go to.  One was at the lake, so prior to the start of the party, we hung out at the shore and played.

Little Megan turned one...the second birthday party that we attended.

Our weekend continued on Sunday with a trip to the pumpkin patch.  

Yes, you could say they are best friends. 

It couldn't be a trip to the pumpkin patch without a family picture!

This weekend brought the FINAL soccer game of the season for the Sharks.  All was going well.....

Until Eli and a teammate ran into each other and fell into the mud.

Eli spent the rest of the game crying on his bucket.  

Welcome back to Washington Grandma and Papa.  Talk about an enjoyable game....not.  Since Eli was crying Grandma and Papa thought they should join the crowd.  (Needless to say, Eli went home and took a 3 hour nap after his crying escapade.)

 Halloween also happened this past weekend, however Blogger thinks it would be more fun to say there is no more space left for pictures.  How rude is that?  I guess that just means I will have to create another post for that set of pictures!  So there Blogger.  Take that!

We pulled out the remote controlled car today.  Eli and Jess had a blast zipping it around in front of our house.  Eli was so excited, he kept saying how fun it was.  I do believe his exact words were, "This is AWESOME!" Yes, several times.

The Game Before the Storm

Saturday brings soccer.  We were very lucky that our game was scheduled in the morning and we were off the field before it started raining.  There were only 6 kids there so they all played the whole time, no substituting.  The game went really fast yesterday though.

 Even though we were rainless, that doesn't mean there weren't any puddles on the field.  Eli contemplated the placement of this particular puddle mid-game.

What A Game!

Eli had another soccer game today and I have to admit today's has been by far the most exciting to date.  We started with a little paparazzi moment.  OK, it was really just picture day for all of the Maple Valley Pee Wee Soccer teams - all 20 teams.  Can you believe there are TWENTY teams of 3 and 4 year-olds who play soccer out here? It is crazy to think that there are that many, but then again, when you think about the number of kindergarten classes at just my school and there are four schools.....yeah, that's a lot of kids!

After individual and team pictures, it was game time!  The kids were really into it today - all 7 of them that showed up anyway.  There was only one child sitting on their bucket at a time while the rest were in the game.  Kids were running up and down the field, goalies were blocking shots, and they were even scoring goals on the other team!  This group of kids are really picking up the idea and how to play.  They were having a great time until injuries started to happen.  One child would trip on the ball causing someone else to fall over.  Two kids, one of which was Eli, ran into each other resulting in one bloody nose and two wailing boys. At this point, tears were happening everywhere.  I finally got Eli calmed down enough to go back in the game with the excitement that he could kick the ball in the goal, only to have the two head coaches call the game because the kids were totally spent.  Well, the waterworks began again, so I asked Coach Mary if Eli could just run down and shoot a goal - she let him.  Miraculously, empathetically, kindly, parents from both teams started cheering him on!  It was an amazing moment.  The game was over, people were moving on, yet they still cheered him on.  What a wonderful group of people, we really live in a great area.

Waiting patiently for pictures

Eli and his two best friends, Jack and Eric

Little boys wait patiently by playing in the trees

They tried to keep me out...but I got a picture of him anyway!  

The silly shot.  Scott and Jess proudly showing their Maple Valley pride.  LOL  It cracks me up that Eli and Eric just stick our their tongues...nothing else.

After Eli's game ending goal.  

Grandma took a great picture of the kids running through the tunnel of love after the game.  

Eli is #1.