Christmas Garden

Last night, we went to Bellevue's Botanical Gardens with my parents. It was tons of fun. If any of you haven't ever been there, I highly recommend it. Here is a link to the Botanical Gardens website if any of you want to check it out.

These gardens are amazing during the year, esspecially in the springtime, but they really outdo themselves at Christmas. All the real flowers are gone, but they have been replaced with thousands of flowers that are all made out of lights! We went a few years ago and thought it was great, but we hadn't been back since. This year, we decided to check it out again since Kallen loves lights. I'm so glad that we did. They added so many new things and it was even better than before.

Some of these pictures are a little blurry, but it's really hard to take night pictures without a tripod and with cranky models who are cold and don't like to take pictures. They were all good sports though. What a great family I have who put up with my picture taking.


This was a little pond with lily pads that they created. Can you see the swan?

Here is Kallen and Tyson under the grapevines. These were my favorite.

I have no idea what Kallen is doing here, maybe he's trying to eat his coat. Who knows. I just thought he looked kind of funny, so I decided to include this. Silly kid.

Bathtime for Two

Last Saturday night, Kallen's bath started out as normal as can be. We filled the bath with warm bubbly water, let Kallen play in the tub as it filled up with water and then sat and watched him as he splashed and played with his toys. A pretty normal bath right? Then something unusual happened. Kallen had a special friend suddenly join him. Can you guess who? It was Daddy!


Without any warning, Tyson just got up and stepped right into the bath water with Kallen. He was wearing everything...socks, pants, shirt...everything. It really shocked me and it also seemed to shock Kallen. He didn't know how to handle this new development. At first, I don't even think he liked Daddy joining him, but he warmed up to the idea soon enough and began smiling at the silliness of the situation.



When I asked Tyson why he got the urge to do this, he simply said, "I just felt like joining my son". That is exactly what he did and in the process he created a very funny memory. Crazy Daddy.

The First Snow

Last Saturday we got snow! Hurray. I love it when it snows. I still get all giddy inside like a little kid whenever the white flakes begin to fall. Plus, snow always makes the Christmas season a little more special. Don't you think so?

One of my favorites things about living in Snoqualmie is the fact that we get snow a few times each year. Since we live a little higher up in the mountains than Seattle, we often get snow while everyone else is stuck with rain. However, this time, it snowed everywhere. It began Saturday afternoon and kept snowing all night long. When we woke up on Sunday there was about 8-10 inches of the beautiful white stuff on the ground. It was awesome. However, the cold storm that came through didn't last, and before we could even play in it, the rain began. By the end of the day, all my beautiful snow was gone. I was so sad because Kallen didn't even get to play in it.


Even though it had already begun to rain, we had to take Kallen out to see the great white stuff. So we quickly pulled on his jacket and put his snow hat on. He was so happy to get outside because he loved watching the snow from inside.


He smiled the entire time we were outside. He even tolerated his snow hat, which he hates wearing. I could tell that he loved the snow because he wasn't continually trying to tug it off.




Once we were inside, his little hands went strait for his hat. It was off within seconds. Oh well, at least he'll wear it outside.

Christmas Decorations

We were very on top of it this year and got all of our Christmas decorations up right after Thanksgiving. Are you all impressed? I sure am...it hasn't ever happened before.

Kallen loved helping us out with the decorations. While I started to put decorations up he liked to go through the boxes and pull things out. He has also taken a liking to some snowmen decorations that I have...probably because they are the only ones within his reach. Everything else has been placed very high up so little hands can't get to them. It's kind of funny. Because of Kallen, I don't have any decorations really that are from the waist down. I'm sure it looks funny, but hey, it keeps him from getting into everything. Also, we ended up not getting a real tree because we thought Kallen would tip it over or something. So we borrowed a smaller pre-lit tree from my parents. It actually turned out pretty cute, so I'm not too sad about it.



Kallen actually had to go to bed before I was done putting up the decorations. I was kind of sad, because I wondered if he would even notice them the next day, especially since they were high up, but he did! Tyson got up with him in the morning (and was nice to let me sleep in) and told me that as soon as he brought Kallen downstairs his little eyes lit up and he kept staring at the tree and the nativity. How cute is that.



Now he pretty much ignores everything except for the snowmen and the tree. He loves to be picked up so he can "gently" touch the tree. He even likes to brush his face against the leaves which makes him laugh.


PS: I'm having fun with Adobe Photoshop so I've been practicing the burn tool on these photos. What do you guys think? Do they look okay or are they just a little too burnt or overdone?

Who Needs Toys When You've Got Shoes

Kallen's new favorite toys are not toys at all, but our shoes! He loves them, especially his Mommy's. He will crawl over to our front door and hang out there playing with our shoes all day long. He loves to untie them and then drag them from room to room. It's awfully cute to see this little guy crawling around with a big shoe following behind him. So silly. But hey, it makes him happy.

Now he has also started something new with them. He has discovered he can untie my shoes while I'm wearing them. Today when I put my tennis shoes on, he came over and kept untying my shoelaces, right after I'd tie them. So I'd tie one up and move onto the other one. By the time I was done with that one, I'd have to retie my other shoe again because Kallen untied it. So silly. It's also hard to put any kind of shoes with laces on him because he does the same thing and unties them right away. What a funny squirt.

He's Walking!

Little Kallen took his first few steps about a month ago on Oct. 16th. He is a very cautious little guy, so he didn't really like walking very much, however we were so excited to have him walk so we kept trying to get him to do it over and over again. He quickly learned that he liked crawling much better than walking, and every time we'd try to stand him up to walk to us, he'd just crumble into a little ball and wouldn't stand. It was actually pretty funny.

This is a picture of the day he took his first steps. He was pretty proud of himself.

Now its a month later and Kallen has gotten much more confident. Look how well he walks! We are so proud of the little guy. He still prefers crawling, but I bet it won't be long till this little guy will be walking and running all over the place.

Halloween

Since we didn't think Kallen would understand Trick-or-Treating, we decided not to go. However, we did get him dressed up in a cute Giraffe costume that one of our friends loaned to us. Isn't he cute? He couldn't stop smiling while he was dressed up. He must have really liked it. It will be fun to take him around next year when he understands it a little more.

Another thing that was pretty funny about Halloween, was Kallen's excitement whenever trick-or-treaters came to our home. Every time he heard the doorbell, he would get all excited and rush to the door as fast as he could. He even helped Daddy pass out treats to everyone. Of course, all our visitors thought he was pretty cute, I can't blame them, I think he is too.

Shaking His Baby Booty

Kallen's favorite show of all time is Baby Mozart. Whenever we put it on, he gets a huge smile on his face. This is the only show he enjoys and the only thing he'll watch. Now that he is up and cruising around, he has started doing something new while watching Baby Mozart...dancing! We've had to put a chair in front of the TV now, since he hasn't learned that he isn't suppose to touch the buttons, and now he holds on to that and shakes his stuff. I thought it was funny one night, so I took this video.

Bathtime Aerobics

One of Kallen's favorite things to do in the bath is to kick his legs as fast as he can. Whenever he does this, he gets water everywhere! Our floor gets soaked, Tyson gets soaked and I get soaked. But hey, we bear through it because Kallen just loves it. However, as you can see from this video, it sometimes has a down side. Occasionally the little guy forgets to keep his mouth shut and gets a mouthful of water.



Aren't baths just so much fun? Sometimes I think baths are more fun for the parents than the kids. To entertain ourselves, we decided to give Kallen a mohawk and a gotee using bubbles. Pretty cool huh? I love some of the looks he gave us as I was taking pictures. What a funny little man.

Husband Scores

Last Saturday, Tyson was asked to help out with someone's move. When he got there, it turned out it wasn't a family moving, but a charity group's inventory. Upscale funiture stores in the Seattle area donate new and unused furniture to this group so they can then sell it at a discount and give all the proceeds to battered women and children. This group isn't run by our church, but the wards in the area often help them out whenever they need to move stuff from their storage units. So that is what Tyson was up to Saturday morning, moving tons of beds into a huge semi-truck...yep, semi-truck. Needless to say, he was exhausted when he was finished. But hey, it was all for service right? Want to know something else? In this case, he also got something for his service...a free king sized headboard!!! Hurray! We've never gotten one, so this was a big surprise for me. It's actually a very cool sleigh bed.

Here is a picture of Tyson and his headboard. Tyson also would like me to add, that I made him take this picture...which he didn't enjoy.

Some Harvest Fun

Today we went to the Fall City Farm with our friends Toby, Leah and their new little boy Boedy. He's only about 3 weeks old! Weren't they all troopers to come with us on our field trip? I'm glad that they did, we had so much fun. It was the perfect autumn day...and it was so warm.

When we got there, Tyson saw that they had a little doughnut stand where they were making and cooking the doughnuts right in front of everyone. Well, we just had to have some. Then to wash it all down, we got some of their fresh apple cider. Kallen and Tyson loved this...which means we might need to go back and buy some more. After our little snack, we hit the pumpkin patch.


After much searching, we finally chose our pumpkin!


Here Kallen is checking out one of their goats.



Here is Mommy and Kallen playing in the hay.


Kallen hanging out with all the pumpkins.


And here Dad thought it would be funny to have Kallen crawling out of a bucket. I think it was kind of cute.



When we were picking out our pumpkin, Kallen got to ride in the wheel barrel. He is so cute, and made so many funny faces. Besides some pumpkins, we also got some corn stalks to decorate our front door.



Here is Leah. She found the coolest pumpkin. Isn't it neat?

Fun Times in Oregon

This happened a month ago, but I still wanted to post some pictures. The day after Kallen's first birthday, we headed off to Oregon. There Kallen celebrated his first birthday again with his other Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles. He got so many new toys and had so much fun. They sure know how to spoil a kid there. Kallen also enjoyed playing with his cousin Dan. Unfortunately, I forgot that I brought our camera, so there are no pictures of this. Sorry!

After spending a few days in Eugene, we then traveled to the Oregon Coast with Grandma Hill. It was so much fun. The little inn we stayed at was right on the water, and it was sooo pretty. The good news is that when we got there, I found our camera, which means we have pictures. Hurray! Here they are.

Here is the view we had from the inn.


Here is one of the pretty sunsets we enjoyed.


While we were there, we did a lot of window shopping and also got to eat at the Sea Hag. Isn't that the greatest name? Here is Tyson and Kallen standing outside of it.


Kallen loved playing in the giant family room at the inn. It allowed him to crawl everywhere and discover so many new things. He also discovered that standing up against the windows and looking out was super fun.



We also got to spend some time on the beach. I thought Kallen might like the beach a little more than last time, however, this wasn't the case. Again, he hated getting sand on his hands and feet. Take a look at this picture below. He is trying his hardest to keep his hands and feet out of the sand. What a silly boy.


Although this was his initial reaction, Kallen eventually didn't mind the sand so much. Kallen was happy as long as he was walking on the sand and not crawling. So for the rest of the time, Tyson and I took turns walking around with him.





Our trip to the beach was short, but very fun. We can't wait to go back. Maybe next time, Kallen will enjoy the sand a little more.