Joshua: You’re Growing Too Fast

Could it be that you used to be this big?

And now you’re already this big:

Slow down my sweet baby.

You’re growing too fast!

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas…

Between traveling for Thanksgiving and then traveling the following weekend to Dufur, things have been VERY busy around here. However, we have managed to put up and decorate our tree and even do a couple Christmas crafts. When in Dufur, the kids were even able to play in the snow! Here’s what’s we’ve been up to in pictures:

SethSam

Decorating the tree with kids is so much fun. Everything is magical to them!

Does Sam adore his uncles or what? So sweet. Love all these boys laughing together!

I talked Caleb into holding Josh for the first time. He was a bit worried about spit up, can you tell?

It was a whopping 14 degrees outside. We were betting they would make it 20 minutes at the most. They made it an hour! I guess the snow was really dry and there was no wind so it didn’t feel as cold as you would expect. The snow was too dry for a snowman, so they settled for a “snow mountain”.

Levi came out to join and then someone came up with an idea to make a tunnel through the mountain.

Sam made it through!

Then Seth did. But the real question is: can Levi? He can if we make they make the hole bigger!

Josh was smart and stayed inside where it was warm with me:

A trip to Dufur wouldn’t be complete without some in the house basketball. Sam was ALL OVER keeping the score. They sure adore their ucles!

Lastly, the boys’ cousins Judah and Titus came over to play and do some Christmas crafts. I love pinterest and all the ideas it gives:

It makes me so happy to have their creations on the wall!

Thanksgiving in Sunriver

This year for Ruda Thanksgiving we started what will hopefully become a biannual tradition: we rented a big house in Sunriver. It was a lot of fun, especially for all the cousins—they sure love each other and play so well together! Things were a bit crazy with 7 kids 7 years old and younger (who’s been having all these babies anyway?), but the house offered lots of fun things to do: a hot tub, a pool table, ping pong, air hockey, and passes to a facility with a pool. It was also nice enough one day to go to a really cool park. I didn’t take a ton of pictures, and didn’t even get the ONE picture I really wanted to get: one of the baby boys, Edmund and Joshua, together. Fail. Oh well. That’s what happens when you have a 3 month old who’s going through a growth spurt and have to pump every 2 hours to keep up with him. Ugh.

Grandma was in heaven reading to all the big kids together out of her “Grandma Book.” The rhyme “Jello on a plate,” was all the kids favorite to do with motions.

All the adults got to play the “Redneck Game” together one afternoon. It’s a kick in the pants!

The big kids played lots of Candy Land and Labyrinth together. They also did lots of coloring and projects together.

Josh did a lot of laying around being cute and being held and doted on. Miriam is so sweet with babies!

Thank goodness for good weather so that we could get out of the house and get all the wiggles out!

We cooled down the hot tub so that the kids could play in it; by the final morning, it was pretty chilly, but Ben was gracious enough to stay in it and play with the kids for awhile.

The final night we made hot Apple Cider and had a movie for the kids. Unfortunately this was the closest thing to a picture of all the cousins together I took—and Josh isn’t even in it. Fail. We’re just going to have to do it again so that we can get that picture!

Evergreen Aviation Museum

This post is much overdue, but I really want to share our experience at this place to encourage anyone in the Portland area to visit this amazing museum:

After Elk hunting Ben took a couple days off to be at home as well. So we were well rested and ready for an adventure. Our friends recently had told us how wonderful the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville was—and that we could get a cultural pass from the library and get in for free. We thought that sounded like just the ticket for our Saturday afternoon!Let me tell you: that place is awesome!

One huge hanger is full of planes and jets of all kinds. It also houses the “Spruce Goose,” a famous airplane that is enormous. I should be able to tell you more about it, because I sat and watched a documentary on it while feeding Joshua. However, I have a huge case of mommy brain (where you can’t remember anything except the essentials of life). Just trust me that the Spruce Goose is cool.

It was Josh’s inaugural trip in the new singleton stroller. He seemed to like it a lot. Seth

Towards the front of the airplane hanger they have an interactive station. There were wooden planes for the kids to ride on. And there was a bunch of simulation video games; Ben could have played those all day. They were a bit advanced for Seth and Sam, but they still thought that they were fun.Sam

Then there is another huge hanger all about space exploration and rockets. We actually got to see rockets! So amazing! In that hanger is also a FREE ride for kids:

And then there is a huge outside playground for the kids as well. If we didn’t have an infant we could have stayed there all day. This is definitely a place that we will return to many times! On the way home we were blessed with this amazing sunset. Thank you Lord!