Chelsea's birthday and Christmas ships

Last weekend, we celebrated my niece's birthday with dinner at Tutta Bella.  We had not been there before, but when we walked in, it was a sea of families with toddlers and young children, so I knew it would be a-okay for us.  Chelsea got some nice toys that of course Oliver had to test out. :-)

         

The next day, we were invited to my mom's friend Susan's house for a little get together to watch the Christmas ships sail by.  I wasn't able to get a good picture of them, but trust that it was much cooler in person. 

She had also made some delicious chili and crab (Tim said the crab was good - since I don't like seafood, I'll take his word for it), with good company and carolers singing from the boat, it was a pretty awesome evening.

Christmas is coming

This past Tuesday, Tim, O and I went to go get a tree.  We had planned on heading to a tree farm this year, but decided against it the day of since we had a lot of things to do that day.  We went to Country Farms which is a fruit stand on 99 which sells trees during December.  They had a pretty good selection for a good price so I think it worked out well.

We got back home and started to decorate.  Oliver LOVED helping - especially the lights and beads.  Here he was saying, "Here, Mom!"  He has started calling me Mom and Tim Dad instead of Mommy and Daddy sometimes.  I have no idea where he picked this up but it's just another sign he isn't a baby anymore.   

I've got the stockings all hung up nicely now and the ornaments have been rearranged a few times (glass and delicate ones now out of Oliver's reach).  Besides wrapping presents we can now say we are ready for the holidays!

Santa!

We went and visited the big guy this past Tuesday.  I know it wasn't even December yet, but Oliver just got his haircut and there was NO LINE to see him.  Since there wasn't a wait, Santa and his helper were more patient with making sure we had a good photo before we left.  Oliver didn't want to get down.  Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas.  Oliver said, "Um... presents!" 

This years photo.  He smiled (yeay!) but I didn't notice that his socks didn't match until afterwards!  Oh well. 

And to compare, last years, and the year before that:

Can't believe this is Oliver's third Christmas!  Where has the time gone?

Autumn days

We haven't taken many photos lately since it is getting dark so early and it has been raining pretty much non-stop.  Here are a few from the past few weeks.

Oliver has one dimple on his left cheek which is still going strong.  A one dimple smile is going to kill the ladies.

Here's a throwback - March 2011 same cute baby with the same cute dimple.

Some other stuff we've been up to:

      

We recently celebrated Thanksgiving - after a lazy morning and afternoon nap, we went to visit Uncle Sol, G'pa Tom, and Nona first before heading down to Papa's.  We hit absolutely no traffic so we found a Starbucks to pop in (they were closing in 10 minutes) to grab a coffee for Tim and I and a hot cocoa for Oliver. 

 

We then went down to my Dad's house, where it was a packed place!  He always makes tons of food.  Oliver and Chelsea even ate at their own table.  Oliver did a pretty good job eating the turkey and some broccoli and carrots. 

After he ate dinner, he came over and said, "Mommy, all done."  And not even 10 seconds later he said, "I want pie."  lol

This boy loves, loves, loves pumpkin pie.  I find this to be pretty bizarre since it's not really sweet (pretty savory).  We were sent home with some pie (and other leftovers), and every day until it was gone he kept asking, "Mommy, I want pun-kin pie.  I want pun-kin pie.  I want pun-kin pie!" 

Pennsylvania!

Oliver and Tim went to Pennsylvania at the end of October; Tim didn't bring the camera but just the Flip Camera.  As always, Oliver had such a great time with Tim's family. 

This first one is with Oliver's cousins, Christopher and Lexi.  The three of them are so adorable. 

Oliver was going for a walk with Oliver.  What a gorgeous day!

And no trip would be complete unless Oliver went to check out the cows!  In case you were wondering, the cows are all locked in because they were going to be getting their shots.  I love that he wants to feed them and pet them.  What a loving boy.

Another airplane ride complete!

Nature boy

I think it's pretty awesome that Oliver would rather go for a walk than play on a play structure.  This may change over time, but right now, I am going to embrace and love the fact that he wants to look at all the leaves, get muddy, and jump in puddles.

There is a nice park with lots of trails right by our new place.  The park is so big and some trails are so empty, you forget sometimes that you are still in a park and not in the forest. 

Autumn makes me so happy - I'm glad to see someone else enjoys it as much as I do!

Really recent stuff!

Okay, now that I got you caught up (mostly) with the fun stuff of summer, one HUGE thing we did was MOVE.  We moved out of our condo into a rented house in Mountlake Terrace.  Not to dive too deep into the WHY we did what we did, the fact is - we needed more room.  We needed a YARD.  We needed to be able to just walk through a back slider and relax.  We loved living in Ballard (for me, 10+ years, Tim, 15+ years), but the fact that you can't rent a house in Ballard for a reasonable price means we had to move closer to my work where rent is cheaper.  We will be selling our condo in a short sale.  We attempted all options to keep the condo and work with the bank to negotiate the terms but our credit is TOO GOOD - what a problem - so they refused to do so.  Working out the pros and cons of staying there until we can sell it on our own vs. moving and being happier with a ding on our credit for 7 years... well... sometimes even stellar credit has to get ruined for the happiness of the family.

Okay so that was much longer than I thought it was going to be.  :-)

So here's the new place:

The view from the family room:

We were very nervous what Oliver was going to think.  Luckily he loves his "NEW HOUSE!"  He still calls it his new house even after a month.  :-)

A few days after we moved in, Tim saw this train table with ALL accessories.  If any of you know, this would be HUNDREDS of dollars new or even on craigslist.  He got it for a steal so he had to buy it.

Here is some other silliness that has been happening:

Part of the move meant getting Oliver into a new daycare.  We were going to stay with the one he had been going to, but they were forced to close (also a long story, but I will spare you the details on this one.  :-) ).  I was soooo nervous about this new bit because he had been going to a daycare that was ran out of a lady's home.  She had a few employees so it wasn't the typical home daycare.  The new place is more corporate.  We've been calling it his new school and we really hyped it up that he was going to go to school.  He's been going for a few weeks and so far it's been good!  One of his notes from his teachers:

And one of the most recent things we did - Oliver and I went to a pumpkin patch called The Farm this past week.  He had TONS of fun.  This one has lots of animals - some to look at and some to pet.  We also picked a tiny pumpkin (only because I didn't want to haul a big one around by myself).