Preschool Fieldtrip

Jackson's preschool is amazing. We were so luck to stumble upon it, thanks to one of my friends. Last week, Jackson had a fieldtrip downtown, and my fabulous friend, Jenny, watched Fisher so that I could go with Jackson. It was pretty fun to ride the bus and see the amazing gingerbread house and teddy bear suite.

Beauty & the Beast - These gingerbread houses are crazy elaborate.

Alice in Wonderland Castle

Walking around downtown during the holiday season is pretty fun

The teddy bear suite was amazing. None of the pictures of it turned out, but it's awesome to see.

Fisher likes to go to the open gym at Jackson's preschool on Wednesdays, although he's not a fan of the bouncy houses. He usually dives out face first onto the gym floor when I try to put him in one.

Jackson's fashion sense is amazing. Snow boots & basketball shorts. He rocks this look pretty frequently.

I love this hat.

More Photo Attempts: Jackson & Fisher

Fisher wasn't loving it

I'm a little obsessed with matching clothing, ever since I realized this is probably the last year of Jackson fitting into 5T clothing while Fisher wears 18 months, which means I have an endless supply of matching toddler clothing. Once Jackson moves up into big boy clothing, that game will be over. So I went a little crazy at Gap's Black Friday sale.

Sometimes a photo perfectly captures their personalities

Thanksgiving with Ben

My brother visited for Thanksgiving. It was our first Thanksgiving with family in 4 years. It was a short trip, but so fun to have them here.

We visited Carkeek beach on Thanksgiving day. We even got to stand on the bridge while a train went past, which is something everyone who comes to Seattle must experience.

I think Carkeek beach will be a big part of how I remember Seattle. It's so beautiful in such a classic Northwest way.

Playing at University Village. Sometimes, photo-bombing starts at a young age :)

Ben enjoys morning cartoons almost as much as Jackson.

The bunkbed is everyone's favorite play place.

Ben has the most awesome smile. He is such a happy boy.

Family Housing Winter Celebration

As usual, Tyler got very into the annual gingerbread house making. Tyler: "A milk carton? I don't need a stupid milk carton."

Fisher enjoyed excessive amounts of sugar

Fisher is unimpressed...

...and he didn't get that this was the funny face picture.

Christmas Pageant 2012

At our ward Christmas party, a few ladies put together a short nativity scene with the primary kids. They did it on short notice with no practice. It was amazing. The costumes were so cute. And when I went backstage to help get Jackson dressed, they said, "No, go back to your seat. This is supposed to be a surprise for the parents. We're taking care of everything." It was a pretty fun treat. And I'm impressed that these few ladies got so many toddlers dressed in the elaborate costumes.

It was fun to see Jackson once he was all ready. He was very proud dressed up as a shepard, although when he saw his dad, he got a little embarrassed and said, "I know, I know. I'm wearing a dress."

The video is pretty priceless. It's too long to upload, but maybe I'll have Tyler edit it down at some point. Jackson was cute, but the real show was a brother and sister pair that tried to ride one of the fake horses in the nativity scene. They had a big fight over the horse during the song. We were laughing so hard.

Jackson gets very specific with Santa. He is quite particular. The other day he asked me to take him back to the mall to "clarify" a few things for Santa. "I already told Santa that I want a Bumblebee Transformer, but I need to make sure he knows I want a Transformer coloring book that has all the Transformers, not just Bumblebee." Well Jackson, Santa might have already done his shopping.

The usual. Babies don't like Santa. That's just how it works.

Botanical Garden D'Lights

Have you been to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens in December? It's one of my all-time favorite light displays. I can't believe this was our last year seeing them.

As usual, pictures don't do it justice. These displays are amazing.

Fisher was in heaven. He was so giggly running back and forth between all the lights.

Jackson's favorite, the spider

It was a free night, so we were worried it would be packed, but it was pouring rain most of the evening so there was hardly anyone there. But just as we arrived, the rain cleared up for a few minutes and we got to enjoy the gardens.

My favorite, the dragon that actually breathed smoke. So fun.

For any of our Seattle friends, here is the information link. http://www.gardendlights.org/

A Christmas Wish

Jackson loves sending and receiving mail. He likes to make pictures and cards for people, and then narrate what they should say while I write. It's usually very cute. Lots of "I loves you"s and "I can't wait to play with you"s.

Yesterday, he brought me a Christmas card that he had colored. Inside was a picture he drew of me. He said "I made you a Christmas card. Will you help me write the message to you?" I was pretty excited. I sat down and began rapidly scribing everything he said while he narrated the card to me. I was expecting some heartfelt "thank you"s for all my hard work. Instead, I got this.

"To mom, from Jackson. I want to say I love you. Uh... I wish that you would come to Daddy's football games every day and bring snacks for me every day. I really want you to make a picture back for me. I love you again. I wish you would put up the Christmas tree today. I wish snow would fall from the sky. And I wish the Incredible Hulk was real."

And that was the end. I swear that is word-for-word what he told me to write.

Not to get too profound here, because we all know that's usually not my style, but I was thinking I wonder if that's how Heavenly Father feels when we pray. He expects prayers of love and gratitude, and instead we ramble off a list of wants... random wants.

Either way, I love my little Christmas card, and find myself wishing I could make a little snow fall from the gray Seattle sky, and somehow find the REAL Incredible Hulk.

Wicked & Chuck E.

For my birthday, Tyler got us tickets to see Wicked, and last weekend it was finally here.

Tyler's parents were in town, so while we went to the show, they took the boys to Chuck E. Cheese.