Sunriver

We had a great time in Sunriver celebrating Robert's 30th birthday. Since, until Robert, Jon was the last of this group to turn 30, we had been keeping all the gag gifts under our bed for the last year and a half. It was nice to finally pass them on. :) We didn't do a very good job of taking pictures, but here are the few we did take. Although kids have entered the picture now, we are all trying to make sure we keep doing the things we enjoy, like getting out for some adventure. Since the snow wasn't any good for snowshoeing, we all got loaded up and went for a hike (okay walk, not all that adventurous) out to Benham Falls. Logan insisted on walking most of the mile to and from the falls. He took a good nap when we got back!

Christmas in Idaho (finally)

It was so long ago now, that I can't really think of much to write, but we had a good time celebrating Christmas with the Booth side of the family in Idaho. It was definitely colder and more snowy than we are used to. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Rapid Weight Loss Program

This past week we have been on the rapid weight loss program - also known as the stomach flu. We think Logan got it at church last Sunday. He came down with it on Monday night and I got sick on Thursday night. Jon thought he might escape it, but unfortunately came down with it yesterday. Fortunately it was a pretty short-lived bug (for the adults at least). It was no fun, but we seem to be mostly recovered now. I guess it was likely to happen sometime.

Since Jodi and I signed up for a half-marathon in June, I'm not sorry to lose a little weight to start off my training, but that's not really the way I meant to go about doing it....

He's All Boy

On Sunday it warmed up quite a bit....to 53 degrees, which felt like a heat wave after the weather we had been having. So we got out to do a little yard work. Logan immediately found a mud puddle behind our house. First he walked through it. Then he squatted down to put his hands in it. Then he sat down (good thing he was wearing snow pants). Then he got back up and on to the serious business of splashing. This struck us as a very "boy" thing to do, although I'm sure there are plenty of girls around this age who would be happy to splash in a mud puddle as well.

Christmas Day

We had a nice Christmas at home this year....this was the first year that it was just Logan, Jon, and me. Logan opened a few presents (okay, actually just played with the wrapping paper). Then we drove up to the Lewisburg Saddle to play in the snow. Sophie and Tim met us up there for a little bit (Cole was napping, so he missed out, poor kid.....).

Early Christmas

We celebrated Christmas early with my family this weekend. We tried to get a nice family photo of Jon, Logan, and me in front of the Christmas tree....this is the best we ended up with. It's kind of hard to get a 15 month old to pose for the camera - and he really doesn't like to be still.

Cole and Logan didn't really know what was going on, but Sophie had a full appreciation for the presents under the tree and could hardly contain herself with waiting to open them. She really liked the pink umbrella (and raincoat and boots) that my parents got her. She also really liked the turtle nightlight that Jon and I got her, and had to make sure that everyone came up to her room to see it project stars onto the walls and ceiling.

Logan was mostly into the wrapping/tissue paper. So was Cole, but I didn't get a picture.

He also had a lot of fun playing in the puddles outside. Splashing is one of his favorite pasttimes. Then Mark got out his guitar and we sang some Christmas songs. Sophie accompanied on the drums. Logan thought that was pretty cool and wanted to give it a try too. Sophie was very sweet about trying to help teach him how to drum. :)

More Snow Pictures

First Snow

Well, it's old news by now, but we have been having quite a bit of winter weather lately. This is our fire pit and chairs. As you can see, we got about 3" in the first batch of snow.

Since this is Logan's first real experience with snow, I thought I would post a few photos. He doesn't really seem to know what to do with it, but he seems to enjoy it, at least for a little while. He even let us put his mittens on, but as soon as he tries to touch his face he gets upset because they are covered with snow and it's cold!

Christmas Cookies

Joani came over on Saturday and we made some Christmas cookies/candy. Joani rolled out all the candy canes, don't they look great?! Her first batch didn't look quite as good, but that was because she had a little 'helper.'

Logan also helped with the chocolate chips. He thought it was fun to drop them into the bowl. But then he started throwing them on the floor, so we decided he was done. We picked them all up, but did let him eat one. He seemed to think it was pretty yummy. :)

We also let him have one cookie, but all he wanted to do was feed it to Aunt Joani. Apparently he likes chocolate better than cookies.

O' Christmas Tree

Here are some pictures from getting our Christmas tree. I'm a little late getting this posted because we got the tree a week ago. :) Logan had fun playing "peekaboo" through the trees. It was a cold sunny morning - a great day to get a tree!











Later, Logan had fun with the decorations, although he got a little frustrated with this strand of beads.

November

It feels like it's been a long time since I blogged so I wanted to get caught up before Christmas time approaches. It's not that we haven't been doing anything, it's just that I haven't been taking many pictures. And it doesn't really seem like it's worth blogging without pictures to include.

So, what have we been doing? Well we have been watching the OSU football games, but the civil war was such a disappointment that it doesn't seem worth writing about now. We spent Thanksgiving day at my parents' house with Mark and Joani and my grandpa. The few pictures I am including are from that day. Logan got all the attention of six adults, at least when we weren't cooking, eating, etc. (he still got a lot of attention).

Jon's parents came over for the weekend and brought their new puppy. She's a Snoodle (Schnauzer/Toy Poodle mix). She is a very cute little dog, and pretty well behaved for a puppy. Logan wasn't quite sure of her at first, but he warmed up to her as time went on and thought she was pretty entertaining as long as she wasn't chasing or jumping on him (although she weighs so little she certainly couldn't knock him over or anything). We also went for a hike/walk out at Peavy Arboretum. Logan rode in the backpack on the way out, but on the way back he wanted to walk. I couldn't believe how far he walked/ran, especially because it was mostly in the direction we wanted him to go! He was one tired boy afterward and took a great map when we got home. :)

Logan is saying new words all the time. Recent favorites are car (which we hear a lot whenever we go to the store), tree (he learned that on our hike), bird, and of course the ever popular "n" word. It seems like he says something new every day! I can't even keep track of them all anymore.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving. We are trying to learn how to use our camera better (rather than just always using the auto setting), so some of them didn't turn out so well.

Happy Birthday

This past weekend we made a quick trip over the mountains to join Jon's family in celebration of his Mom's birthday. Matt and Kristi also made the trip, so we got to hang out with the whole family. It was a very fun time and we were glad we could be there to celebrate the special day.

Logan and his cousin Zach played together pretty well. Since Zach is 6 months older, he is bigger and stronger, so he won most of the fights over toys (resulting in some tantrums and screaming from Logan). But he's also learning to share, so he very nicely brought Logan toys sometimes too. It was pretty cute. And they made up a game chasing each other around the house, which was very fun to watch.

Logan has not yet begun to grasp the concept of sharing. He has, however grasped the concept of "no." His vocabulary seems like it has been exploding lately. Some of his favorite words currently are shoe, star, ball, dog, duck, car, and nonononoooooo! He just started that last one yesterday. He uses it sometimes when we take something away that he wants or prevent him from doing something he wants to do. I expect we will be hearing a lot more of it in the months ahead..... He's really a very good boy, but he's definitely entered the toddler stage.

Here are a few pictures of Logan enjoying the fall leaves and wheelbarrow rides during a break in the rain.