Santa visits the Old Cannery!!!

So for all of you that think that Santa is from the North Pole, today we found out that he comes form The Old Cannery. Audrey called this morning and we (Mike, Nita, Big Ryan, Kelly, Audrey, Baby Erik and us) all packed up and went to visit Santa at the Old Cannery. I believe that we waited in line for about an hour in a half. It was totally worth it. The boys looked so cute. While waiting in line we all were laughing there were seven adults and two little boys. Like Nita said, it takes a tribe to raise these little boys. So we all took turns entertaining the boys. When it was our turn, I could not help but get emotional. I looked around at all of us trying to make the boys smile and we looked like a bunch of crazy people. The things you are willing to do to get a child to smile. I am so thankful that Ryan has Erik. They will be life long friends. It has been such a joy watching them grow and change together. The boys will not remember meeting Santa, but it will always hold a special place in my heart. Rex and I feel very Blessed to have the Rutkosky and Roggenkamp clans in our lives, thank you for being a part of our tribe!

Rexer finally got home from work, it seems like life starts when he gets home. This afternoon we went over to the Roggenkamp household. Ry and Kelly were there and we all had a great lunch together. After that we ventured out with the boys. Aunty Kel bought Erik a snow outfit, she bought two so we bought the one that Erik did not fit into. It was totally cute. The boys had matching snow outfits. Someday they are not going to be so happy with us for these pictures, but look how cute they are. We made the long walk through the woods to visit Grandma Nita's house:). It seemed like every couple of feet we would stop to take pictures. The plan was to go sledding, but the little boys had other plans. We did not end up going sledding, but we got some great pictures and had some laughs, mostly at the little boys expense. Did I mention how cute they looked in their snow outfits. It was a blast, it is so great to have days when nothing else matters, but good company, laughter and fun. I am so thankful for all of the memories that we are all making together.

Play time- I mean nap time

It is official, Ryan can now sit up in his crib. He thinks he is really funny. Rex snapped this shot of him about 30 minutes ago. Instead of taking a nap he sits himself up and plays in his crib. Totally cute. Like his pajamas? they are size 18 months. I did not want to do laundry so I just put him in new pajamas, they are a little big! Yes I am sure all you moms understand that one.

Winter Wonderland

Nothing really exciting to write about expect that, this morning we woke up to about 5 inches of snow. It has been snowing for a few days and the temperature as not been above freezing. That is not suppose to change any time soon. It is so beautiful. Bunker (our dog) loves the snow. The only down fall to the snow is that Ryan and I were stuck at the house all day yesterday. Last night we got a great surprise. Uncle Ryan and Aunty Kelly stopped by about 7. It was so nice to have some adult interaction. I think I spoke with Julie and my mom about 10 times each. I know that I am a stay at home mom, but we rarely actually stay at home all day. I am sure that I could have ventured out, but I was not in the mood to deal with the roads and all the people. Rexer is not home, I am sure that he got a late call. I hope that he is home soon. I am looking forward to a beautiful cold day playing in the snow with family.

Christmas cards

Most of you should be receiving your Christmas cards from us any day. I finished them up with the help of my sister-who loves to send out cards. When we bought our home our mortgage broker sent us a cute stamp with our name and address on it. So naturally I used it to address the return address of our Christmas cards. We had about a pile of 60 cards sealed, finished and stamped and Rexer comes over to inspect the cards. I hear "Cin you know that Bonney is spelled wrong, right?" What kind of question is that I thought, than I thought he was kidding just to get a rise out of me. I grabbed a card and quickly looked at the return address. Bonney Lake is spelled Boney Lake. So I just wanted to set the record straight. The address stamp was a gift and yes I know how to spell Bonney Lake.

Wonderful birthday surprise

Thank you to all of my amazing family and friends. I was showered with gifts, cards and phone calls on my birthday. I know it sounds silly, but I cannot believe that I am 26. It is a very weird age. Yesterday my birthday started out really stressful. By mid morning I was at Audrey's beautiful home for a girls Christmas baking day. It was a fun mid morning full of laughter champagne and of course lots of yummy treats. After I left the Roggenkamp household I drove the 3.5 miles home. It was snowy and beautiful out. I cannot remember the last time it snowed on my birthday!!! Once home Rexer was getting ready for our next round of visitors. Julie, Leroy, the girls and my parents all came over for my favorite dinner. Yes it is still chicken strips, green beans and mashed potatoes. After dinner I had a beautiful cake that Rexer made, and of course he had to put and light 26 candles. He turned off all the lights, man all those candles really lit up the living room. We ended the day with two sick kiddos. Ellie slept in our bed and was sick again this morning. The funniest thing about my birthday was that Rex and I were planning on going to Seattle and Ry was going to Juls for the night. Due to weather we decided not to . I am thankful that we stayed home. I had more fun watching the kids play together, having other people open my presents (the kids) and waking up to a house full of family. There is nothing better than the sound of little feet and laughter running through a home.

Random day

I sit here typing trying to ignore my child as he cries and says mama mama. Audrey made a great observation the other day about Erik, she noticed that he says mama mama when he is sad and Dada Dada when he is happy. Well Ry does the same thing. We know that most children do, but it is totally heartbreaking. Especially today. It has been one of those crazy days for the record books. The weather around here has been horrible, on top of snow we are in some sort of cold snap. I am trying to get all of the 550 presents ready for all the families. Doing this and having an 9 month old is not easy. Rexer made me breakfast this morning (because it is my birthday week) but I had to rush out the door. So from about 10-5 I was working on getting the presents together for the families. The hard part is normally I would have all week, but we do not know if the kids will have school because of the weather so I have to try to get them done by tomorrow. It will get done, I know it. Thank you mom and Kelly for helping me today. We got a lot done and it will make it easier tomorrow. I am thankful that Rexer has until Thursday off so he can help. Yes Ry is still crying, so I am going to continue to type. I missed both Ryan and Rexer so much today. It is weird, because if I am not will both that I am with at least one of them. Today I was by myself the majority of the day. It was weird not changing diapers and taking care of someone-I am talking about Ryan:). Most think that it would be a nice break, but I love being a Mama and trust me I would have rather been changing diapers today. Ok I am not as tough as I look Ry is still crying I am going to snuggle with my little guy.

Let it snow!!!

This morning we woke up to about 2 inches of snow. So we called Grandma and Papa and invited them over for breakfast. An hour latter they finally showed up. Remember they only live 7 miles away. We ate breakfast, little Ry had eggs for the first time. Then we all got bundled up to go out in the snow. It took us about 15 minutes to get Ryan dressed and I think that we were only outside for 10 minutes. It was totally worth it, Ryan looked like Ralphy from the Christmas Story in his little snow outfit. We were so excited for him to play in snow. We had both the camera and the video camera. So for all the build up it was pretty uneventful. We sat Ry in the snow and he just looked up at us. We all stood around him waiting for him to do something cute and he just sat there. He was looking up at us like "what are you all looking at". He was not interested in the snow what so ever. Dad was worried that it was too cold and I wanted to get the perfect cute little picture. It was quite funny, picture this there were 4 adults and three cameras. We spent most of the 10 minutes taking pictures and not even enjoying the snow. We came back inside, and Ryan was standing by himself and he in slow motion fell down. We rushed over to him, but he had so many layers of clothing that I do not even think he realize that he fell. Once he was down, he could not get up.