The day after Thanksgiving, we did a little Christmas shopping and then we went to get our tree. We love having a tree as long as possible, so since we've been married, we have always tried to get our tree as early as possible. The last couple of years, we bought our trees at Home Depot. This year we were talking with the Turpin's and they told us about Triadelphia Farm, where you can go to cut down your own tree. We thought it would be fun to try it out so we set out in our trusty Hyundai to Clarksville...
The closer we got to the farm, the more beautiful the scenery became. We pulled into the field and were immediately surrounded by hills covered in trees. We asked the man where to go and he pointed us out back by the stable and so we grabbed a cart and a saw and headed up the hill. Logan immediately began picking up sticks and collecting them. He sure was fun to watch. He loves being outside. The weather was perfect, the sky was clear and there was no wind, but it was still quite cold, but ideal for tree hunting. We found a few finalists, but settled on a bushy, tall douglas fir. I figured we could trim the top to make it fit in the apartment. Here we all are cutting down our tree, Amber is great at taking these:) Once the tree was down, I pulled it up onto the cart and we all headed down the hill to pay for it. They had a couple of really cool contraptions that I had never seen before: A tree shaker that was basically a oscillating stand that vibrated all of the dead needles, branches and hopefully, all of the bugs off of it. Next they had a cool stand welded above a drill that put in a perfectly angled hole for the stand. After that they bailed it and threw it on top of the car. All in all, it was a little more money than our Home Depot. tree but worth the cool experience and the sweet tree. Here is this year's spread of ornaments. We added a few this year. LAST YEARS TREE. We put the lights on that night, this year we put a few strings of LED lights on, they give the tree some good color. Here is a pic of Logan putting some ornaments on the tree. Here is a link for last year's tree. One of Logan's favorite ornaments is the Buzz Lightyear astro blaster from last year, he put that one on last. Addy enjoyed the music and the lights. It is strange to think about this being her first Christmas with us. Last year at this time, we had just learned her gender. Here the family working together to decorate the tree.
I did my best to reach the top branches. Below are some of this year's additions. We ordered one of these for Logan after he was born and thought it was only right to get one for Addy too. Especially cool since this was her first year to go to Disneyland. This year an elf brought Logan this cool Darth Vader ornament in honor of his epic duel with the Sith Lord... I picked this one up in Korea this year, I thought it was perfect for our tree. We picked this one up in California when we visited Jason, Janet and the kids and went to see the Muir Woods. This is our Disneyland ornament for the year, It is from this last trip where we went trick-or-treating there. Logan Addy and their Aunt Joceylyn had a blast running around the park getting candy. Last of all is this year's White house ornament. I thought it was especially pretty this year and had too pick it up. Well, I hope you all enjoyed our tree as much as we do. So far this Christmas is going great and we are all excited to start our count down tomorrow!
Like I mentioned before, Thanksgiving was excellent. We woke up, Logan and I hopped in the car and went to the gas station to buy a paper so we could look at the ads. Then we had a wonderful breakfast with pancakes and eggs and then we headed over to the Turpin's house. From there, we followed Jake and Cami to Emily and KC's house. On the drive we listened to Bing Crosby and some Johnny Mathis. Logan got into an endless loop of "Santa Clause is comin to town"... so much for checking the list twice, In Logan's version, he checks it about a million times:) We arrived at KC & Emily's beautiful home and were surprised to walk in to find that the meal was nearly ready to eat! I don't know how they did it, but here it was near lunch time and we were about to sit down to a delicious spread of every Thanksgiving food imaginable. Check out the Turpin's blog for some beautiful pics that do this meal justice.... Click Here. They even had a small table put aside for the boys. Here they are in all of their glory:)Meanwhile, Addy and Jane joined us at the table. Addy was sportin the pig-tails... very cute! The meal was delicious. After eating, we left for the Turpin's house and spent the day just talking, looking over the black Friday ads and even played a round of Password. We left a tad early since the tryptophan started kicking in. We had a wonderful time, and no Emily, your food did not make us sick! We only wish we could do that every week!
Today was a sad day, I got home from church, and turned on the Xbox so that we could listen to some Christmas music while we got our Pre-thanksgiving turkey in the oven and my plans came to a screeching halt...
Why is it that everything microsoft is involved in making has a "(fill in the blank) ... of death"? Just a few weeks ago my laptop suffered a "blue screen of death" and now the "ring of light" has become the nightmarish "red ring of death"
It has been nearly 2 years since that happy rainy day when the UPS guy knocked on my door with my 360. Since then I have enjoyed many hours of fun.I had heard that the one big problem with 360s was that they had a tendency to overheat and melt their own connections resulting in the ring of death. so I was very careful about making sure it had enough space and I even bought a little fan to put behind it to ensure there was sufficient ventilation. In spite of all I did, it was not enough to make up for what is in my opinion, crappy design and engineering. When these cost as much as they do, you'd think that they would be able to survive normal use. Well, I am not alone, turns out that microsoft semi admitted their fault and in turn extended their warranty to 3 years for red ring casualties. Which means that I can send it in and get a refurbished one back. So hopefully, it won't take to long and I will be back on soon...
Amber posted: I took Addysen to the doctor today for her 6 month visit and she is doing great. She weighs 16 lbs. 7 oz and is in the 75% for weight. She is 26 3/4 inches long and is in the 90 % for height.
*Addy you make us smile everyday, you are an angel *You are sitting up all by yourself...(it was amazing like overnight you figured it out.) *You are eating and loving baby food--squash, rice cereal, peas, prunes, applesauce, carrots, anything I will let you get your hands on *You like to hold onto a sippie cup and gets some sips out of it w/mom's help *You don't sleep thru the night yet so soon we will be working on this *You love to play with Logan, he makes you laugh the best and he doesn't even have to work hard to get it. *You get excited to see Daddy when he gets home from work your legs start kicking *You love your mama and smile at me a lot, you giggle when we play patty cake and when I eat your neck and smell your feet! *It is fun to hear you jabber and giggle in your low voice *You love you jumpster and your excersaucer, it is fun to watch you, you are so active, you love to be busy. *Addy you hardly ever cry (knock on wood) no really you are a happy great baby *Your body doesn't do very good when you get shots (it takes 3-4 days). I think you are very sensitive, you still have a hard time with me eating milk or chocolate. *You are growing up way to fast, I remember before we had you, I wondered what life would be like with another baby and now I can't even imagine our family without you in it. You are such a blessing to all of us. Thanks for making our home a better place. You are the best, my pretty little girl. We all adore you! Everyday we just can't get enough of you.......sister we love you.
It is hard to believe that Addy was born 6 months ago. Could time really be going this fast? It seems like we just got back from the hospital and she still seems so small... It is true! Yesterday was Addy's 6 month mark. Amber came to me a couple of days ago and said she wanted to make a cake with Logan and throw a little party for our baby girl. I have never been one to turn down a party, especially when cake is envolved:) So there you have it! Kendra, one of Amber's good friends from Utah gave her the idea to make a 'half' cake. Amber's mom provided the plate, when she was growing up, her mom would make the birthday kid's favorite meal and serve it on this plate, so that is a fun tradition we get to carry on. Logan's favorite kind of cake is any cake that has 'sprinkles' in the frosting, and since Addy had never had cake before, we let him choose. Logan had to try it out just in case it was poisoned... Here is pretty mommy with the half-birthday girl. After dis-robing, We sat Addy in front of the cake and let her go to town on the cake. At first she just mushed it in her hands and then she lunged at it getting some in her mouth. I think she liked it since she kept going back for more. Logan had fun watching and sneaking an occasional taste.
What a mess, by the time she was done playing, the table was covered in frosting and so was Addy. Look at those toes, what a mess! Next we threw both the rugrats in the tub to clean them up for stories and bed. I think Addy is going to be another water-baby, just like her brother. She certainly loves bath time and the occasional shower. After cleaning up, it was cozy time, I wish I still had a pair of pj's like those:)
Here are a few more pictures of Logan from the last couple of days. Logan has really been growing up fast. He loves his baby sister and enjoys playing with his friends and going to Joy school. One of his favorite things to do is fix stuff. He has a tool set and uses them for daily repairs around the house. Here he is checking the specs on the endline for the rotary girder... The last couple of trips to Utah I had the chance to go through some of my old toys and bring them back to Logan to play with. Last December I brought home my HE-MAN toys and this last trip I brought home some legos. He sure loves building cars and ships and other cool stuff. Here is one of his cool creations.
Funny Logan Quote: "My tongue has a headache." New favorite movie: "Wall-E" & "Tinkerbell" New / Old favorite food: Chicken Nuggets Favorite friend: Cousin Jade Favorite Game: Animal Sequence Favorite color: Green and Purple Favorite Song: "Trouble Maker" by Weezer and "1st article of faith" from the childrens songbook
Since we NEVER put up pictures of this girl, here are a few that we took over the past few weeks, just in case you forgot what she looks like:) Still no teeth, she does however like to gnaw on my fingers, and she has developed a taste for kiwi. Logan loved pickles when he was her age, we'll have to try that next. The hair is still growin strong. A tad patchy in the back but her smile more than makes up for it:) Today when the light hit her hair it looked to me like it is starting to come in lighter. So maybe our blue-eyed brunette will turn into a brown-eyed blond:) She loves to talk with her eyes, she laughs here and there but is always telling stories with her expressions. I believe that one translates into, "I love my mommy!" Addy always wakes up happy. Logan was always the type of kid that needed "10 minutes" after waking up, maybe it is the Cottrell deep inside him (he has a second cousin, Andrew that needed a cup of chocolate milk before he would get out of bed:) ) Addy is all flowers and sausages:) Good old daddy love. Can never get enough:)
I got behind on my posts and missed one that I really wanted to put up, here is the list of rides that Logan rode during our last trip to Disneyland.
Here he is sportin the new mickey look. What a kid, he was so much fun this year, riding all of the rides and getting us all excited to act like kids in Disneyland. Here he is wolfing down one of Bern's fudge cookies, he sure loved it. New duds for church, this kid sure loves new clothes. It is fun watching him. I remember when I was small and got a new pair of shoes, I would walk around looking down at them. Logan does the same thing. Hopefully they will last a bit, he is growing like a weed. ??? Playing "mawiyo" on the DS. The kid is showing some natural skill:)
The day after Thanksgiving, we did a little Christmas shopping and then we went to get our tree. We love having a tree as long as possible, so since we've been married, we have always tried to get our tree as early as possible. The last couple of years, we bought our trees at Home Depot. This year we were talking with the Turpin's and they told us about Triadelphia Farm, where you can go to cut down your own tree. We thought it would be fun to try it out so we set out in our trusty Hyundai to Clarksville...
The closer we got to the farm, the more beautiful the scenery became. We pulled into the field and were immediately surrounded by hills covered in trees. We asked the man where to go and he pointed us out back by the stable and so we grabbed a cart and a saw and headed up the hill.
Logan immediately began picking up sticks and collecting them. He sure was fun to watch. He loves being outside. The weather was perfect, the sky was clear and there was no wind, but it was still quite cold, but ideal for tree hunting.
We found a few finalists, but settled on a bushy, tall douglas fir. I figured we could trim the top to make it fit in the apartment.
Here we all are cutting down our tree, Amber is great at taking these:)
Once the tree was down, I pulled it up onto the cart and we all headed down the hill to pay for it.
They had a couple of really cool contraptions that I had never seen before: A tree shaker that was basically a oscillating stand that vibrated all of the dead needles, branches and hopefully, all of the bugs off of it. Next they had a cool stand welded above a drill that put in a perfectly angled hole for the stand. After that they bailed it and threw it on top of the car. All in all, it was a little more money than our Home Depot. tree but worth the cool experience and the sweet tree.
Here is this year's spread of ornaments. We added a few this year. LAST YEARS TREE. We put the lights on that night, this year we put a few strings of LED lights on, they give the tree some good color.
Here is a pic of Logan putting some ornaments on the tree. Here is a link for last year's tree.
One of Logan's favorite ornaments is the Buzz Lightyear astro blaster from last year, he put that one on last.
Addy enjoyed the music and the lights. It is strange to think about this being her first Christmas with us. Last year at this time, we had just learned her gender.
Here the family working together to decorate the tree.
I did my best to reach the top branches. Below are some of this year's additions.
We ordered one of these for Logan after he was born and thought it was only right to get one for Addy too. Especially cool since this was her first year to go to Disneyland.
This year an elf brought Logan this cool Darth Vader ornament in honor of his epic duel with the Sith Lord...
I picked this one up in Korea this year, I thought it was perfect for our tree.
We picked this one up in California when we visited Jason, Janet and the kids and went to see the Muir Woods.
This is our Disneyland ornament for the year, It is from this last trip where we went trick-or-treating there. Logan Addy and their Aunt Joceylyn had a blast running around the park getting candy.
Last of all is this year's White house ornament. I thought it was especially pretty this year and had too pick it up. Well, I hope you all enjoyed our tree as much as we do. So far this Christmas is going great and we are all excited to start our count down tomorrow!
Meanwhile, Addy and Jane joined us at the table. Addy was sportin the pig-tails... very cute!
