PAINTING!!!!

The boys and I have had some fun creating these last few days! They both love to paint and it doesn't matter what medium they use. Pudding just happens to be a favorite because they can eat and play at the same time. Of course, a bath and complete wipe down of the kitchen is in order when they're finished!

There's a picture of Melissa and me when we were very young, playing in pudding. I have to admit that picture was my inspiration for this project - thanks, Mom! Thank goodness the boys didn't think of what Mis and I did - we smeared the pudding in our hair!

We painted with "regular" paint this week, too. Tanner did paint a little bit on the paper, but his favorite place to paint was his face. Silly boy!


Andrew painted many pictures. Most of them had the letter "A" on them! He's really getting the whole letter, alphabet thing down. He knows the alphabet, can recognize all but a couple letters, and writes a few of them. Smarty pants!

Daddy's Boys

I never know what I may find when Jesse and the boys have a little Father-Sons' time. Both boys just absolutely dote on their Daddy. Jesse is a wonderful Dad, so it's no wonder they love each other so much!

A little whip cream fun with Andrew.

A little more whip cream fun with Tanner.
Playing airplane with Andrew.


Playing horse with both boys. (They got bucked off shortly after this, which I think may be their favorite part!)

Trip To California

We got to go to California for 5 days the end of November - what a treat! We had a wonderful time! The weather was beautiful (up to 75 degrees), we got to spend the entire time with family, we got spoiled by Uncle Jim and Aunt Claudia, and we made tons of memories!

Andrew got to re-meet and Tanner got to meet, their 2nd cousin, Cole. The boys got along splendidly. It was great to see my cousin, Jessie and her husband Jason, and Aunt Lisa! We spent Thanksgiving and the day after just hanging out together. The boys loved the walks through the orange orchard in the garden cart. Great times! We also got to spend a few hours with my biological father, Mike, and I met my cutest little half-sister, Cassandra. Cassandra and the boys played together the entire visit and it was nice to see Mike and introduce him to my little family. Mike says I look just like Mom - I think I've heard that before! :)

We spent most of our time here, at Uncle Jim and Aunt Claudia's beautiful home in Oroville. Andrew loved the one on one time he got to spend with "Unca Jim" and "Aunt Cwadia." We were able to do some sight-seeing, eat what Jesse considers the "best Chinese food ever," celebrate Thanksgiving, and welcome in the Christmas season with caroling around Aunt Claudia's grand piano. We laughed, we visited, we made some wonderful memories! Thanks for everything!

Puddle Splashing

Here is a picture of what was once two muddy little boys who really enjoyed puddle jumping! Now they're two clean little boys who want to go puddle jumping again soon.

Tanner's little rubber boots were a bit challenging for him to walk in. I tried to hold his hand to avoid the inevitable, but alas, little Mr. Independent fell down right in the middle of the mud puddle, not just once, but over and over again. He loved it!
I told Andrew that after he ate all his dinner we'd bundle up, put on our rubber boots, and go play in the puddles. He ate his dinner in record time! He found the biggest puddle in the yard and didn't stray from it, except to get rocks to throw in it. He and Tanner giggled and giggled until Tanner got too cold and we had to come in for a nice, warm bath. Even though I hadn't put on my play clothes, two little boys made sure I got plenty of oversplash. That'll teach me!

The Zoo Family

This year for Halloween, the boys and I dressed up like zoo animals and Jesse was the zoo keeper. We thought we were pretty clever. :) Most days I do feel like I'm part of a zoo with two very energetic little boys!

Andrew was the cutest giraffe I've ever seen. He loved his costume and he enjoyed the Halloween festivities. We went trunk-or-treating at the church, then to a few homes in the neighborhood near the church. He was a little shy, but told everyone thank-you went he left their door. Now, a few days after Halloween, when he wants me to let him pick a piece of candy from his bag, he asks for a "trick-or-treat." When we drove around while he was wearing his costume, Andrew was very worried about sitting on his giraffe's tail. I looked back from my seat up front to see him trying, with both hands, to get his tail out from underneath him. It was quite hilarious.


Tanner was the cutest little lion, especially with his eye-liner whiskers. He loved wearing his costume, too. And he loved Andrew's costume. We had to get a few items from Walmart before we started our evening's festivities and the boys were in their costumes, riding in the back of the cart. Jesse and I turned our backs for just a moment to look at something and Andrew started carrying on something awful. We turned to see that Tanner had grabbed a hold of his horns and wouldn't let go. Basically, Tanner had Andrew in a headlock of sorts. It was so funny! He was our cute, FEROCIOUS little lion. He loved trick-or-treating, too. The first two pieces of candy he was given, he quickly figured out how to get open, so for the rest of the evening, he just got to go from house to house and NOT get any more candy. He enjoyed that just as much and we didn't have to try to regulate how much candy he tried to eat.

This is the only picture that we got of all the zoo animals. You may not be able to see my ears, but I was a black panther. Our zoo keeper was taking the picture, so unfortuately, we don't have one of him, too.

Jesse's Taser Ride

Don't mess with the police, or this could be you! This video was taken at Jesse's taser instructor recertification training. No, being tased wasn't a requirement - he volunteered! Crazy guy! This is now his fourth time being tased. When I asked him if it was finally out of his system (PLEASE), his reply was, "Well, for at least two years." (Two years will be the next recert.)

Perfect "Punkins"

Growing up, our family tradition was to visit a "real" pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. Often it was at night, by full moonlight, and we'd have hot chocolate or hot cider together after we'd found our perfect pumpkins. Well, this is the first year that we've been able to kind of carry that tradition on. Thanks to Charlie, we found out about a real pumpkin patch in Spokane. Since we were there for Jesse's work training, we took the boys to Green Bluff Farms. Even though it was by bright sunlight (a 60 degree autumn day), and Mom was the only one who wanted hot cider (yea, try caramel, fresh pressed cider with whip cream and nutmeg on top - delish!), it still felt like it did when we were kids.

Tanner sure had fun walking around the pumpkin patch. He kept getting tangled up in the vines as he was walking, but he didn't seem to mind. He'd just pick himself back up when he'd fall.

Andrew had a blast picking up "punkins." I just love how he says "PUNKINS!" Between him and Daddy, we ended up with six pumpkins, when we started off thinking we only needed two. Here's Andrew with his first pumpkin. From there he kept finding "cute baby ones, Mommy, Daddy" so of course we couldn't resist. Then Daddy found a perfect pumpkin, just like they're supposed to be. Then there was Tanner's... so you see how it went. Mommy and her two precious little boys. The farm had these cute little wagons that we got to pull the boys and our stuff around in. The boys loved it!

The whole family! (Thanks to Mom Diana's cool tripod she gave Jesse for Christmas and a pumpkin, we were able to capture this shot.) After we got finished picking out our pumpkins, we went to another portion of the farm and picked apples. Yummy! I decided we have to go back here EVERY year (especially after I drank my carmel apple cider)! The boys didn't argue.