He's 6!!

Keaton's 6!  How did that happen?  He's starting to ask questions that I don't know the answers to.  He's getting closer and closer to being as tall as me.  I can probably fit into some of his shirts.  Every year I tell this to Keaton, it's my biggest memory of the day he was born.  I remember laying in bed in the hospital holding Keaton and watching the snow fall under the street light.  It was quiet, peaceful and pretty.  And it doesn't snow that often in Seattle so it was extra special.  I remember thinking "this is the calm before the storm."  And it sure was.  Since the night he was born it hasn't always been peaceful, quiet or pretty.  But it's been a great journey!  He's a sweet boy (guy now). Happy, friendly and caring for others.  I'm so proud of him during these past 6 years.

We went tubing at Snoqualmie Pass on his birthday.  He was a daredevil and went down these super fast hills.  I took Nolan on my lap and we were both super scared.  Keaton wanted to go down lane #5 each time because he was told it was the fastest.

We had a Gigantic sundae!

And cake of course.  Keaton has a huge sweet tooth!

We had a huge birthday party for him a few days later and invited everyone in his class, even his teacher (who came).  It was a ninja course at a gymnastics center and was tons of fun!

 I wouldn't let him have a plants vs. zombies cake (video game he is obsessed with) because I didn't know how appropriate a bunch of zombies were for kindergartner's so I told him he could only put the plants on the cake (no zombies) and we also added ninja's.

Keaton must have the coolest teacher ever because she got him Plants vs. Zombie stuff!

Does this kid ever smile?

It is tough to get Nolan to smile for pictures.  Especially lately since he's been grumpy so much!

He's at his school Valentine's party at the cookie decorating table but no smile.

It's not the snow that he's blocking his face from, it's me.

Hiding from the camera again.
 

Look how happy his brother is! And that's before the Patriots won the Super Bowl that day!

Oh My Gosh! He's Smiling!!!

And wearing swim goggles at school. Weirdo!

Almost forgot this one:

 It's his birthday and he's running from the camera so fast it's blurry. He was so mad at me!

One-on-One Time with the Kids

I get lots of one-on-one time with Nolan while Keaton is at school but I get very little with Keaton.  TJ doesn't get a lot of one-on-one with either kids for obvious reasons (working).  But he has been getting a lot with Nolan lately and I can tell how much Nolan loves it!  I guess him and Keaton playing video games counts too even though the rest of us are around.  They just ignore us while they are in their gaming world.

Since Nolan and I are together a lot our time isn't as "special" unless we do something out of the ordinary.  It was really nice a few days ago so we went to the park for the first time in months.  We both had so much fun.  It was amazing to see how much he has changed since he was last at a park.  He was interacting with other kids and even became buddies with a 5 year old.  I haven't witnessed him interacting with other kids except when Keaton is around but I think he's finally getting to that age.

Today I got to spend almost the whole day with Keaton.  Usually our friends come skiing with us but they were sick so it was just him and I.  He didn't want to play his video game player on the way there so we talked the whole time (hour and a half).  It was great.  It was great to have lunch with just him.  And share an activity with just him.  He went on the chair lift last weekend and didn't fall at all skiing down.  Today he went on the chair lift 3 times and only fell a couple of times.  He's doing really well and today his teacher spotted him after class and was impressed on how well he was skiing.  None of the other kids in his class has been on the chair lift yet, I take him after class is over. 

Playing with knives!

The kids took a cooking class at the YMCA where they learned how to make pizza.  They were also going to make applesauce but ran out of time so I made it at home and destroyed it.  I should probably sign myself up for some classes.
The guy who ran it was fantastic and it was a really fun thing to do!  I'll definitely sign them up for more.
They made sauce and dough from scratch.  He let them stir the tomatoes on the pot on the stove (something I'd never let them do), help put the pizza in the oven (again I try to keep them away from there too).  They even got to practice sharpening knives and he showed us how a really sharp knife can cut through a piece of paper like scissors.  I tried our knives at home and the paper ripped so we need to sharpen ours.  Even Nolan got to sharpen a knife but I didn't want to take a picture and risk him losing a finger.

Sadly when the pizza was done neither of the kids really liked it.  But Keaton LOVED the cooked basil leaves so we will add that to our pizza's from now on.

He'll do anything for hot chocolate

Yesterday Keaton had his first ski lesson!  I grew up skiing every week at Stevens Pass and it was something that so many of my friends also did.  I hope Keaton likes it because I'd love to get back into skiing again.  I'll have to get a job to afford it though.  You know you are old when you remember when lift tickets were $10.  They are A LOT more now.  Luckily we don't have to pay for a ticket when he's doing lessons.

His lessons are only a couple of hours and then they have lunch (and hot chocolate which he was really looking forward to).  I was so impressed with the kid in the black shirt.  He was 10 and was so great with Keaton and Camden at lunch.  It's great to see when older kids are so nice to the younger ones!  He taught the boys a new hand shake.

They encourage the kids to go back out after lunch to practice what they learned in lessons. They have this thing called the "magic carpet" that takes the kids to the top of the practice hill.  They never had this when I was younger.  You had to climb to the top of these little hills.  Keaton is the second kid in the red/black outfit.

I was so impressed with how well Keaton did on his first day.  And how brave he was.  Keaton can be a little timid when he tries new things but he was confident, didn't get upset when he fell and wasn't scared when he went really fast and then crashed.  I think he might already be a better skier than Grandpa Morgan! 

Celebrating Big!

TJ and I celebrated big on New Years Eve!  We had lunch at the Space Needle.  It is something neither of us have done and I decided it was something I should do since I've lived here my whole life.  It was really fun!  The restaurant rotates and it takes about 47 minutes to go all the way around. The seating area moves but the center and outside of the restaurant don't (hard to explain but was really cool)!
People put post-it's on the windows.  The window's weren't moving but where you were sitting was.  So you'd move past these notes that would say things like "Where are you from", "Who's your favorite super hero." Mostly kids wrote them so they were totally random.

The restaurant has a reputation of having bad food.   Neither of us thought it was bad.  I think it's because everyone's expectation is SO high. It was much more casual than I expected which was good.  It was something fun to do on a special occasion (belated birthday present).

 

Our kids also celebrated big with lots of champagne (sparkling cider).  Then they passed out around 7:30!  We were suppose to go to a friend's store to celebrate with a bunch of other families but stayed home since Nolan hadn't been feeling well (and had partied all day long with Aunt Claudia).

I'm obviously having a wild and crazy New Year's eve since I'm writing my blog at 8:30pm :)

Still Believe!

They still believe in Santa which makes Christmas super fun!  I'm not sure how many more years the magic of Santa will last.
The kids had a great Christmas and got everything they wanted and even some stuff they didn't know they wanted.  Keaton got his gum lollipop and Nolan got his lollipop too.  Nolan was lucky that Santa brought him a few more things that weren't on his list (since all Nolan wanted was the lollipop).

Keaton got some Minecraft and Plant vs. Zombie toys along with a cool race track, a smart watch and some other stuff.
Nolan got a race track also so they were able to combine the two and make a giant track.  Nolan got a lollipop drum!  Some play dough toys.  They both got a giant Super Man vs. Batman play house thing.  They got mini lazor guns to shoot each other with (it's great they are small so they can't hit each other with them).

Santa always remembers Manny!

During Christmas break Keaton got his rental skis since he will be doing ski school this winter!

  

We took the kids bowling and they both had tons of fun!  The first time Nolan tried he didn't understand that he was suppose to roll the ball and then watch it go down the lane towards the pins.  He ran down the bowling lane to push his ball again, I came running after him and fell since it was so slippery.  He loved it and put his arm up in the air each time he bowled like he won or something.

 

Looking forward to 2017 and all it brings!