Tristan through the years...

On his "birth" day....

Birthday Number 1

Birthday Number 2

Birthday Number 3

Birthday Number 4

This kid brings so much joy!  Can't even begin to explain how much we love him!

4 Years Old

I can't believe my baby is 4!!  We celebrated Tristan's birthday last Saturday.  We had some family over for supper and conversation, of course followed by presents.

 "Tristan, how old are you today?"

 Getting ready for supper!  Tonight's menu: home made pizza...

 as well as all sorts of other snacks!

 Followed by dirt cake for dessert!

 Make a wish!

 Then presents...

Custom made shirt from Grandma and Papa.  This is Tristan's favorite line.  When he is told to do something it's always "it's fine, it's fine".  He's not really unhappy, just annoyed that I made him pause in the present opening.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TT BABYCAKES!!

Valentines

The boys both had assignments from school for Valentine's Day.  Jackson was to create a box to hold his valentines and Tristan was to decorate a white paper sack to hold his.  This was Dad's assignment one weekend while I was at work.  Karsten is definitely more creative than me anyway, so I usually have him do this kind of stuff.  

 Tristan's bag.  Karsten wrote his name on it and then Tristan traced it.

 Jackson hard at work writing his valentines.  He wrote out all of them by himself.  He takes this kind of stuff very seriously, hopefully that continues through his entire school career.

Captain America valentine's box.  Karsten got the idea off the internet.  Jackson cut out all the pieces himself.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

vacation?

It seems as though I've been on vacation.....for over a month!  I have no excuse.  I'll get back on track.

SOLD

We got an early Christmas present last Friday.  We closed on our Farmersburg house!  It is such a relief.  This house has been for sale for a little over a year and a half.  Way.too.long.  We've had a number of people look at it and even had a possible sale last year which unfortunately didn't work out.  A friend of ours needed a temporary place to stay and he ended up moving in shortly after we moved out in August.  This worked out great.  Then in November he informed us he'd been moving out before December 1st.  Shortly after that we had a showing and received an offer that we accepted.

I think sometimes things just work out the way they are supposed to.  As much as I would've liked to sell our house sooner it actually may have made things more difficult.  When we received our first offer and potential sale our new house was not ready so we had planned to move into my cousin's "for sale" house.  If that would've happened we would have had to move again because he ended up selling his house soon after.  And I'm glad we were able to help out our friend Chris who needed a temporary residence.  This was a good reminder to be patient and trust in God, he really does have a plan.   :)

O Christmas tree....

Last weekend we made our annual trek to D&J Pines to cut down our Christmas tree.  I really do like having a real tree, just dislike the mess that comes with it.  It's our tradition and I hope the boys will always remember it.

 It was a REALLY cold day, but we were prepared with extra gloves, hats and scarves as well as a couple blankets.  They usually provide sleds for kids but since there was no snow (yet) we brought our wagon, we know these boys are not going to walk the entire time.

 Jackson inspecting his dad's sawing ability.

The final product!  The boys have so much fun decorating the tree.

visit with Santa

The boys got to visit with Santa Claus yesterday.  Before we left they spent some time filling out their wish lists.  I found a free printable that they could color and write what they wish for.

 Talking about their lists.

They did very good, even got some candy canes before we left.

Our elf made its first appearance yesterday as well.  I'm pretty sure Jackson named it last year but neither of us could remember what that name was, so he renamed it this year.  The new name is Miss Rose.  Unfortunately, so far it has NOT improved any behavior....