HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!

4 years old already... not sure how 4 years has gone by so fast. Your buddies came over to help celebrate in "Iron Man" theme. Luke even wore his "Iron Man" costume.

Grandma and Grandpa sent a package from Boston with all your favorite things: Star Wars & Spiderman toys, a wall crawler car and lots of great shirts including this Iron Man you're wearing that lights up... only Grandma can find these things!!

The morning of your birthday... blowing out candles (I mean....matches, since we didn't have candles) on chocolate croissants before Dad goes to work.

Love the Clone Trooper Helmet (Yes.. Star Wars again) along with the light sabre and clothes & sandals to get ready for our upcoming Hawaii trip!!

Calling Dad at work to tell him about your Iron-Man party

You're such a "ham" - I guess having 2 older brothers you alway have an audience to 'show-off'. Your preschool teachers were impressed with your show and tell. You explained to your class how to meditate and turn into Yoda. You have so many details to share, that they finally had to put a time limit on your turn!

Seattle Children's Museum

Had a great time going downtown, spending the day with friends Beck and Luke at the kids museum. This is Papa's chair from Goldilocks and the Three Bears...

Spent alot of time in the new Curious George exhibit.. maybe too much time, from the looks of your left hand placement.

Luke and Austin building their own house.

HOOP SEASON

We had LOTS of basketball this season between Andrew and DJ. As 5th graders - it's the first time they 'try-out'. DJ made the select Skyline team which was fun and lots of weekend tournaments!

Andrew's team went undefeated (2 yrs. in a row now) with an 8-0 record. Andrew's a great rebounder (height is in his favor right now), ball-handler and has a mean shot (made a last second March Madness type 3 pt. shot at the half-time buzzer in the last game). It helps that he pratices non-stop. When he's not at school you can find him on our cul-de-sac hoop taking on DJ and his friends. Coaches: Dad and Mr. Simpson.Favorite thing to do right now: Practice dunks on the adjustable hoop and video tape on the FLIP.

Season's almost over... Now, on to baseball! Austin hanging out in the dugout.

A White Christmas!

What a way to start off the holidays... 3 days before Christmas school break it starting snowing... and never seemed to let up!! The kids were thrilled they got 3 'snow days' in a row. They'd wake up extra early, turn on the news just to make sure school was closed... so much for sleeping in!

Snow fort time!

'Twas the night before Christmas'..... setting out milk and cookies for Santa

Sweet Celtics jerseys... thanks Grandma & Grandpa Moore! Let's see if the Celts can pull out another championship next year.

Santa brings Austin his very first bike...Spiderman no less...

Dave horsing around with the boys.... sometimes I forget I have 4 boys, not 3!
Austin proudly showing me what he made at school.... he really got into Christmas this year! Helping decorate the tree and pointing out which ornaments belonged to who.. basically, any of them he really liked were "his"

From left to right... Uncle Jim, Aunt Sue, Grandma great, G-pa Steve, and G-ma Peg opening presents together after our Christmas honey-baked ham dinner. The weather was treacherous today and we really thought Christmas dinner with everyone wasn't in the plans. Everyone braved it though and made it here safely despite the scary roads!

My cousin Ashley's & Alan's little girl, Ava. She looked so cute in her holiday dress... same age as Austin & we're so glad they live close by and not 'way over in Seattle' like they used to!

Love this picture of my grandma.. we used to make this 'christmas tree' appetizer every year when I was a kid. Aunt Sara had the great idea to get all the stuff for this year....Very cool to see DJ making this with Great-Grandma.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

Santa took some time out of his busy schedule to stop by the Microsoft campus. We grabbed dad out of the office and stepped over to see Santa! Austin, who is NEVER at a loss for words, until now, didn't even tell Santa what he wanted this year... but he was a great listener. Told us right away that Santa told him his reindeer love carrots and to please leave some in the backyard on Christmas Eve.

Sara and I celebrating Mom's birthday - "girls only" - we had so much fun! Uncle Pat was in on the surprise as well. Won't say which b-day we're celebrating.....suffice it to say she looks fabulous. Started out at the spa Saturday afternoon, checked into the Westin (downtown Bellevue), got ready for dinner while having some bubbly, then walked over to Seafood 0/8 for dinner... it was beautiful downtown with snowflake lane going on and all the Christmas lights. Breakfast and shopping in the morning! Happy Birthday - we love you.

"Our Angel"

Getting ready for his preschool Christmas program
He didn't exactly sing many of the songs but he sure looked cute up there!

Thanksgiving

The boys really dislike getting "dressed up" but for this occasion - Thanksgiving at Grandpa's golf club, they didn't complain! They knew they could go back to the buffet table as much as they wanted. We're thankful for the many blessings in our lives & love this time of year, spending as much time as we can with family and friends.
Grandma Burnett with the boys outside - Inglewood golf course behind them.

Attempting to get a photo we can use for our Christmas card... they won't be dressed up again anytime soon!

Would have been a nice Christmas picture... for every good picture, get about 10 blurry ones!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Great Wolf Lodge

We first saw a Great Wolf Lodge last year when visiting Uncle Mike & Aunt Cynthia in Dallas. You could see the amazing indoor water park of the hotel from the outside. The boys were thrilled that one opened up an hour from us in Olympia, WA. We stayed one night (which is plenty!) Super fun place for kids!

Checking out the ice-cream parlor at the hotel

The highlight of the boys stay here was the magic quest game. The waterpark is the obvious big draw here (ask DJ & Andrew about the Tornado & you'll get a tutorial) but we highly recommend doing the magic quest. You each get a magic wand with your info. downloaded into it (for only $24.99!) Surprisingly, it was worth every penny - you get to walk around the hotel looking for the clues, treasure, etc. to complete each adventure. They took their job seriously of becoming master magi (takes 4 to 8 hours) & they did it in 3 1/2.

Checking out the hotel's arcade

Back at home... the fun continues. Indoor snow-boarding, skate-boarding,?

Perfecting his technique.