Christmas....and all that goes with it!

This year the boys made some special gifts. 

Stepping stones for Ava and Grandma, and some

 peppermint bath salts and thumbprint reindeer ornaments for their godmothers. 

In their "down" time between all the Christmas stuff, Weston tried to teach Tyge how to play chutes and ladders, and Tyge put every stuffed animal he owns into the crib and kept saying "for baby!".

 The second weekend of December we were lucky enough to have some visitors.  Uncle Jan stopped for the night on his way up to help Alexx with her move home from college.  Tyge would not leave him alone the entire time he was here.  Then the next day Grandpa and Papa made a detour on their way to California and stayed for two nights.  They came with us to visit Santa and helped the boys make candy Christmas trees.  Grandma taught Weston how to shake and listen to his gifts and Tyge watch NFR with her every night (with his cowboy hat of course!). 

 

Then we decided to have an early Christmas while they were here.  Tyge was sick, but still managed to get his gifts opened.  Weston was really excited to show Grandma her stepping stone and put together the new legos she got him.   

On Christams Eve we had the boys open their gifts from us and the Weststeyn cousins.  They got new jammies and paint your own tractors from Reese and Alexis, books from Colbie, and the movie Brave from Kash and Karlie.  Then they helped dad put his new train car on the track. 

On Christmas morning I got a great picture of Tyge not quite awake, but still trying to examine all of the gifts under the tree and his stocking.  I think Flo may have been the most excited, with a new ball the boys picked out for her.

 After asking me over and over again, the day after Christmas I finally let the boys paint their new tractors.  Weston was actually pretty thoughtful about what colors went where, while Tyge decided to try and wipe off all of the paint when he was finished.

And here we have the best picture of the two of them with Santa that I could get....at least they didn't scream. 

Birthdays

On Sunday we had a joint birthday party for Weston and Tyge.  The day was complete with lots of good friends, hot dogs, and a Kit-Kat and M&M cake!  Weston no longer screams when you sing "Happy Birthday", but he does cover his ears. 

 

Tonight we had a mini-party for Weston's birthday.  He got to open a few more presents and both boys are having a ball playing with new toys. 

Weston also asked for a batman cake, so I took some left-over from Sunday and made him a mini one for today.  Thanks to all who celebrated with us and to those who sent things for the boys even though they couldn't come!

Tree Hunting

Today after church we headed out to the Christmas Tree farm so we could finish decorating our house (it was the last thing to do, since I had everything else up on Friday after Thanksgiving).  The boys had fun riding on tractor pulled wagon out to the field, walking "through the forest" and picking out a tree. They were really impressed by the tree shaker....as was I since it is so nice to make sure all the dead needles and other junk is off the tree before it comes into the house.  Just before leaving we went inside and checked out the model train display which got Weston really excited to go home and put our train around the tree. 

Pictures of the decorated tree to follow....I got the lights on and decided to call it quits until tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Tyge!

Yesterday we celebrated Tyge turning 2....low key style.  The boys (or myself) didn't get out of our jammies all day.  Dad got a pizza and we opened gifts during half time of the Civil War game (OSU vs. UofO for all you non-Oregonians). Tyge loved his cow night light from Tia Julie and carries it around everywhere.  He and Weston are having a ball riding around in the Jeep from Grandma and Papa (that thing is fast!), and he roared the whole time he was eating his piece of cake thanks to Aunt Liv and Uncle Josh's dinosaur plate gift.  

 

It was a great day and we will celebrate again (along with Weston's birthday) with friends next Sunday. 

Blog name change?

Debuting Meneses Baby #3.....Weston says if it's a girl we will name her Birdie and if it's a boy we will name him Buster. 

Happy Halloween!

Harvesting our pumpkins!

Ready to head out!

Trick-or-Treating in downtown Brownsville (highly reccomended when you have little ones and you can hit a lot of businesses that are happy to see the kids...in a short amount of time between rain showers no less!).

Dad made him put on his mask!

Even Batman sleeps!

Some more favorites....pictures from the end of summer.

Been a while....

Actually, it's been so long since I posted that I don't even know where to begin to tell you what we have been doing the last two months.  Trips to Montana, California and some places in between.  Not to mention all of the random stuff we've been doing here at home.  So, here's a few pics to help tell the story...you can fill in the blanks yourself! 

On the go.

The end of July we were busy going places.  First stop, Linn County Fair.

The boys built picture frames at the Home Depot booth, fed animals at the petting zoo, and watched the racing pigs.

They enjoyed corn dogs (although mom and dad both thought that they don't make them like they used to), played at the family area and we spent a lot of time watching beef and dairy showmanship.  Both of them were perfectly content watching the steers and heifers walk around the ring.  Weston even met a girl while we were there, although I wasn't fast enough with the camera when she put his arm around him and he quickly bolted.

Next we went to Jeremiah's 4th birthday party.  Weston told me the other day that Jay is his best friend, and I figure that's about right.  We hang out more with their family and Jay than any other kid his age.  Weston didn't cry when we sang happy birthday (he buried his head in his arms, but it's a major improvement). 

All of the kids couldn't wait to put together Jay's birthday present.....and now Weston keeps telling me he needs to call Avo and ask for a trampoline! 

Final stop....Wildlife Safari.  I got a great deal on Groupon for a family 4-pack of tickets a few months back, and it expired at the end of July.  We couldn't ever figure out a good day to go, and I was thinking that I as going to loose out on our tickets, but at the last minute, on the 31st, a Tuesday, at 1pm, we finally drove down to Winston.  We were able to have enough time to go through the visitor center and take one drive through the park....a second drive through would likely have yielded even more animals and/or close-ups of ones we already saw, but I'm sure we'll go again sometime.

Weston like navigating through the park with the map they provided us....he also was quick to find the cows at the visitor center (go figure).  Tyge seemed to like most all of the animals....grunting and waving at them throughout our drive. 

We watched the bears play in the water for a long time and Weston thought the yak looked like one of Papa's cows, since it had horns.  I personally thought the hippo and rhino's were awesome. 

Wordless Wednesday

Tyge finally got in on some Mickey Mouse pool action.  Although neither of them really enjoy getting into the little pool, and prefer playing in the sprinkler.

My blueberry crop:

May look a little sad, but not bad for my two young bushes.  And this is minus the handfuls that the boys were taking off the last few weeks as soon as they saw one that looked ripe.  Our third bush is a later variety so we may have some more blueberry pancakes in our future.  I'm also looking forward to finally getting some other veggies out of the garden.  The cold weather in June really stunted everything but finally in the last two weeks things are taking off!  And for the first time in years, the neighbors sheep haven't gotten out yet to eat all my beans....although there is still plenty of time before they are ready, so we'll see.

Haying



Tyge rode with me for the first two loads

Unfortunately our trip to Francis was cut a bit short and we didn't get to stay to watch the little guys wrestle.  We left early Sunday morning and headed for home only to pull in right behind the baler....perfect timing.  No time to unload the camp trailer....Danny wanted to start loading another type of trailer.  Luckily, I was only the driver for the first two loads, and after that, another friend showed up with his son and nephew and I was completely off the hook.  



On one trip back from the field Weston decided he finally wanted to learn how to drive the quad.  He's been starting it and shifting for a long time, but this day he was brave enough to push the gas.  After a couple jolts he got the hang of it, but we didn't even make it half way to the house before his thumb hurt.

By the end of the day we had a whole crew of "helpers".

Schwingfest!

Once again we made our annual trip to Francis, Washington for Schwingfest.  We headed up on Friday morning and set up next to our friends Scott and Amanda Price.  Didn't take long for the boys to settle in and start running wild throughout the Swiss Park.   



Helping Uncle Scott set up his tent.



Enjoying some down time.



Even Tyge had to help out.

 



Taking some time to learn how to fly a kite.



Love this picture.....can't believe these two surrvived all their wild days and are now holding kids in their arms.

Enjoying some indoor smores (since we didn't have a campfire).

  


Tyge was really intersted in watching the wrestling. 



Frank (in the black) took second place!




A little blury because I had to zoom in to the opposite side of the wrestling ring.  I don't think the boys realized that we were watching as they let Tyge dip his sosha in all of their beers.

 

Tired out....after playing on the swings, in the creek, on the slide, etc., he finally sat down and was asleep in less than 30 seconds.