Snow!

About a week before Christmas, we had some snow finally! We didn't have much last winter and haven't really had any this winter. I had to take Ren out in it to play. He looked so cute all suited up!

The only waterproof mittens we had were Sutton's, so they were way too big. So Ren alternated between wearing the too-big mittens, and taking them off and grabbing the snow with his bare hands. He'd get cold and want to put them back on. But when he had them on, he couldn't really grab the snow. It was a vicious cycle.

Below, he was saying "cheeseburger!!!!!" but the sun was so bright he had to close his eyes.

I had the idea to get his sand toys out to use in the snow and that was his most favorite thing. Lots of scooping snow into buckets.

I made him a little snowman and he was so sad when we went back outside a few days later and it was gone. :(

Sutton Lost his First Tooth!

Sutton had had a wiggly tooth for a looooooooong time. He was terrified to do anything more than just wiggle it a little himself. He wouldn't let any of us touch it. Finally, it came out on Thanksgiving night, as he bit into a roll at dinner. Hooray!

His other front tooth is also loose now, so we'll see if we can sing the "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" song this year!!

Halloween | 2016

For Halloween this year, we asked Ren what he wanted to dress up as, and he said Sutton. So we got him a Minecraft t-shirt and made his hair even orange-r for a costume party we went to on Saturday evening.

For Sutton's costume, we were looking through options on Amazon.com, and he saw the sword that this ninja costume came with, and decided that was the coolest thing ever so he had to be a ninja. Again. Based on the cool weapon. Whatever. :) Adam was Pacman for school - the other 5th grade teachers were all ghosts. So I just borrowed one of their ghost costumes so I would match Adam for the party. Here's the only picture of us that night...I had a cold and my kids weren't behaving, so we left early and I wasn't too much fun to be around. :(

Then right before we went trick-or-treating last night, Ren told us that he'd rather be a ninja like Sutton (he's obsessed with his brother), so he ended up wearing Sutton's ninja costume from last year. The second I put it on him, he started rolling around the living room doing somersaults and all kinds of poses because he was so excited to be a ninja.

We went outside to take some photos. I had to take my annual photo with the boys. Every Halloween of Ren's we have took this photo, even when he was in utero.

Here's the comparison:



Then lots of posing happened. Ren was intent on the somersault thing.

Then Papa and Grandma arrived.

But back to more somersaulting.

And the silver ninja with his super cool clanging-sound sword.

Trying to get the semi-decent brother picture.

I had to get some with Sutton's mask off too.

Here's their 3-year comparison:

Sutton decided he was going to drive this around so he could get a wagon-full of candy. ;)



Up until the last minute, we weren't sure where we were going to trick-or-treat. This was our first year at the new house...and our old neighborhood had always been an amazing neighborhood for Halloween. We decided to just go around Bentley, and it was a lot of fun!



Possibly the last year we'll take a stroller with us! Good thing we did though. This little ninja got tired.

The boys were so cute trick-or-treating. They would run up to the houses together and sometimes Sutton would wait and let Ren ring the doorbell. Sometimes Ren would just say "DING DONG" really loud instead of ringing the bell. And instead of "Trick or treat!" Ren always said "Happy Halloween!" They both had so much fun. Ren wanted to be held or ride in the stroller between houses after while, but each time we got to a house, he happily got out and mustered up some energy.

Fall Family Photos

So I'm actually writing this and posting it in May 2017, but I'm post-dating the blog so it's in order. I never posted our family photos that we had taken for Christmas cards in October. Here they are!

In efforts to make this process as quick as possible, I didn't combine any into collages, which makes for a long post! But I figure my future-self will love all of them so I didn't want to leave any out. :)