Buckeyes

It's that time of year once again for Buckeyes to be made and noshed on with wild abandon by everyone we know. It is a delicate and time-honored process, but Bryce desperately wanted to help, so...





he got to help on the last couple with an assist from daddy, and he was pretty excited.

My Favorite Time of the Year

After a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at the Halverson's (that I didn't have to cook-even better!), we headed home to get a little Christmas going in our house just in case baby sister should come early. I already make people nervous walking around stores now, I guess they think I might pop, so we figured sooner is probably better than later to get the decorations out. We decided to downgrade this year and just put out a few things, but as anyone who knows me can tell you, a few Christmas things so easily turns into a few plus a few more. What can I say, I love this time of year and celebrating "baby Jesus". This year, having an actual baby to look forward to has given us an new perspective on the nativity.


So off we went to get the tree...It started with the manly job of untying to get a better look.

Bryce really wanted to get this tree for baby sister. He is such a sweet boy.

The huge one we finally picked. I look like I am nervously checking to make sure Andrew's not going to drop it on me,  but really I was just checking to see if Bryce was smiling.










Very excited boy to ride home with the tree next to him!

Evening her out (another manly job, so mommy is sitting and watching).








Here he's saying Christmas tree in a very excited voice, but it looks like jazz hands. Just wanted to show the size of it, since I'm pretty sure it's the biggest we've ever had.

Bryce's ornament for this year got unwrapped and put on the tree, then taken off the tree and zoomed around, then glued, and back on the tree a little higher up :0)

(It's Tow Mater in a Christmas hat for those of you unfamiliar with the great love of Cars that is found in 2 year old boys)

Punkins

 It's that time of year again for carving punkins.








Not so sure about the slimy stuff this year....

Feeling braver.






Giddy-up!

 Checking out my buddy Gavin's costume.







Don't be confused by how ambitious of a haul it looks like they are hoping for...these wagons are for them to ride in when they get tired of walking.

Major loot inspection going on here.

Apple Pickin'

We also went apple picking in Tehachapi with the cousins. Yum, homemade peach applesauce!







This looks strangely like trick or treating, but in reverse. We picked more than we had planned on getting in about 2 min and 30 seconds, so we had to slow them down with some photo ops.

 The apple was This Big!












Getting a ride from cousin Anneliese.

Boys and dads and trains, enough said.

The Aquarium

 My cousin and her family were here to visit on their big CA vacation recently (which may explain how long it's been since a blog post). We went with them and Nana to the Aquarium of the Pacific and it was so much fun. I wasn't sure for a while if we were going to get past the first tank when you walk in (that's it on the left) since the boys were so enthralled, but we managed to see a few other things too.


This discussion of the fishes between Bryce and Killian looks mighty serious.



His favorite fish, at least until another one swam by that is.

Touch tanks! Warning: these are not designed for 2 year old boys, who want to take a huge handful of anything they can reach or get in the water and splash about. I think the docent was unimpressed, but no sea urchins were harmed in the process, so they survived us.

Feeding the lorikeets with Nana. He wasn't sure about these guys at first (as seen in the serious pondering face in the second picture)

But eventually he came around and wanted to feed them too.




One of the birds took an intense liking to mommy's shoelace and we almost had to call in the experts for lorikeet removal, but Nana was able to distract him with nectar just in time to save mommy's foot. This bird was literally at my foot for maybe 5 minutes. Also good to note, that trying to shake them off is not encouraged.

 The "sark" touch tank.









Bryce's feet in the "sark" touch tank. Good thing Nana was there to grab him.