Trains, trains, and more trains!

On the Sunday after Christmas (12/28/08) grumpa took the three of us to a model train exhibit at the Washington State History Museum. They had several very large trains set up and they had conducter hats and coloring books and buttons for the kids.


ANDREW LOVED IT!! He is our little engineer :)

This train was made by playmobil (that makes toys). They had a scavenger hunt and we went around trying to find the different animals and people hidden throughout it. Mommy helped.

They also had a whole bunch of LEGO Thomas trains and tracks for the kids to play with. Andrew was a little shy of the other kids at first.

Watching the trains go round and round.

Andrew really liked these bridges and tunnels, he kept going back to it.

Andrew also loved the circus train and didn't want to leave that one. There was a great big Thomas train and Annie and Clarabel so he really liked that.

It had a lot of little circus games and this tent with animals as scenery.

Proof that mommy was there, not just taking the pictures. But he rides around on daddy's shoulders, not mine. And he gets heavy.

They had other exhibits but Andrew wasn't as interested in those, except this old west exhibit with a wagon and a train.

Giddy up, horsey!

They had these stools with phones in front of them as part of an exhibit and he pretended to call 'Muh' and tell her all about the trains (since she didn't come with)

Such a tired little boy. He started laying his head down on daddy's head.

Christmas Day!!!

I have been trying desperately to catch up on Andrew's blog and Christmas pictures. The computer/internet throws me off most of the time while I'm trying to upload pictures and most of the time it makes me want to scream and tear my hair out. :) Hence why the Christmas pics are late. (It is really 1/5/09 today even though it says otherwise, because that's when I started this post. :) )

Andrew had a lot of fun on Chistmas! He got way more toys than he needed of course, but he loves them all. :)

This was Christmas morning after Andrew woke up. He was a good sport and waited for mommy to take a shower before we went downstairs.

He had a little stuffed/plush tree on his dresser that Grandma Bouma had sent us a few years ago. He's very proud of that little tree and he got to put all the presents under it that he had made for other people. He made everyone ornaments and then a special present for daddy and the grandmas... you'll see that later.





Andrew walking in the living room and seeing our stuffed Christmas stockings on the floor by his rocking horse.


He was excited that Santa had eaten his cookie and left him presents in exchange. :) (Who wouldn't like that, Andrew got the better end of the deal) He had asked Santa to bring him cars, trains, tracks (for the trains), and tractors and diggers.


Then he had to help open everyone else's stockings too.





We got Andrew a Thomas train set. He loves to play trains, he sets them up every day now. He doesn't look happy in this picture but the chocolate around his mouth is kind of distorting it. The problem he had on Christmas was that he'd open a present and think it was really cool and then mommy would set it aside so we could open the next present and he wanted to play with his new toys.


A race track for all his little Hot Wheels he loves to play with every day too.


Daddy picked out this Hummer, cool! (Bummer, it broke a few days ago. But he and daddy went and exchanged it for a cool red Porsche!)


I wonder what's in daddy's present? He won't mind if I help him. :)


We got Andrew Tickle Me Elmo. (As you'll see in a later Christmas post, a relative of ours got him the cooler Elmo Live)

Trying to open the box and get Elmo out :)

This was the coolest present I got! It's a photo throw/afghan of Andrew. (The picture is woven in, not just stamped on) I guess that's the only way I'll be able to keep him little forever. :)

More Christmas pictures from the grandparents' houses to come.

Christmas Eve traditions

In my family (Jana's/mommy's) we have some traditions on Christmas Eve. We get to open one present, which is usually pajamas or slippers or a bathrobe. Then we read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' which was always my job. We also would leave a cookie for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

So after working a 12 hour shift on Christmas Eve (so I could have Christmas off, yeah!) I came home and Andrew got to open one of his presents.


Mommy's just helping him get the tape off the side of the box.


What could it be???

Thomas jammies!! :)

Goofing off with daddy :)

Then we climbed up on the couch to read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' and the Christmas story from his kids' Bible...and have Christmas cookies.

Something was very funny! Daddy printed the story off of the computer and there was a picture of Santa Claus that Andrew insisted was 'Jesus.'

My huggable little boy

He also left a cookie for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

This particular cookies was very overloaded with sugar sprinkles. When daddy and Andrew were frosting and decorating this batch daddy turned around to find Andrew dumping on the sprinkles.

Our stockings hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. Complete with two stockings on the ends for the two doggies.

Fantasy lights

Fantasy Lights was finally back open so we could go on Monday night (12/22/08), they hadn't really removed any of the snow and ice on the road around the park though. We met 'Grumpa' there and rode with him (it's a drive-thru light display). It was a little cold with the windows down, but we had fun seeing all the lights.

We hadn't had dinner yet so Andrew was eating chicken nuggets in the car, and taking pictures with his camera since we brought ours.

Here's the dump truck, Andrew loved all the vehicles!

A dragon (or the Loch Ness monster...it is right next to Spanaway Lake)

Santa's pirate ship :)



A 'flying' car (it just looks like it)


And last but not least....a train!



Thanks for taking us Grumpa! Andrew loves his Grumpa! (Look at all that barbeque sauce around his mouth :)

Andrew made up with the snow

Andrew finally made up with the snow, and now it's raining. :( Bummer. He wouldn't go out in the snow very much last week (he was also sick part of the time) after he fell. Now he LOVES it!

We got at least 8 inches this weekend while I was at work!! On Monday (12/22/08) we went out to play in it. We built a snow 'lady.' I asked Andrew if it was a man or a lady and he said a lady. He also said that it's supposed to look like mommy. :) And we caught snowflakes on our tongues. I tried to make a snow angel but Andrew wasn't impressed, he didn't want to lay down in the snow. He tried to throw snowballs at daddy but he doesn't throw very far at all. The best part was when we got out his little plastic tobogan and pulled him up the hill and let him slide a little bit down, not the whole way by himself though and we don't have a sled that we can ride on with him.

Helping mommy roll the snowball for the 'snow lady'





Our snow lady/mommy :)


Catching snowflakes on our tongues

Silly mommy

Sledding--mommy's the power

The pretty snow, look at all that. Almost looks like we're back in Spokane

Sledding down the hill


Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!


We came in for hot cocoa after our snow adventure, Andrew thought that was very yummy!

On Tuesday afternoon he went to grandma's house and rode on a big wooden sled with cousin Sam down the hill in grandma and grandpa's backyard. Andrew had a blast! He kept saying faster, faster, more, more. (I would like to have seen his face)

Have they heard of snow removal???!!!

So, I finally went home Sunday night after working a 12 hour shift on Saturday and a 12 hour shift on Sunday, and sleeping at the hospital.

All I can say is......have they heard of snow removal???!!!! It was like driving on an ice skating rink!!! It took me an hour to get home. But I did still get to see Andrew and put him to bed and he told me about his day.

Snowed In......at work :)

So last night Matt started throwing up and was up most of the night and sick today, yuck! I however had to go to work. I hadn't driven the Saturn since Wednesday, it took me at least 10-12 minutes to sweep off all the snow and scrape off all of the ice, I even broke off half of the ice scraper! The roads were compact with snow by our house but got better on the freeways.

That is until this afternoon. It started snowing at about 1:45 this afternoon and it hasn't stopped since. I got off work at 7:30 p.m. and I have to be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. I would have much rather gone home and seen my hubby and read Andrew stories and snuggle him and put him to bed, but I made the decision to sleep at the hospital tonight. :( I'm afraid it's going to be really bad in the morning. One of the other nurses said it took her an hour and she lives about halfway out to my house, it probably would have taken me 1 1/2-2 hours to get home and who knows how long in the morning, so it's probably for the best.

I will post yesterday's snow pictures when I get home tomorrow night.

Andrew was going to go to grandma and grandpa's house this afternoon while daddy was sick, but he took an extra-long nap (lucky for daddy) and the roads were already slick. Andrew was a pretty good sport while daddy was sick. He made daddy lay on the couch and gave him a blanket. Then he crawled up on the couch and said he was 'snuggling with daddy.' Right before bedtime he even put away ALL his toys, without being asked.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to see Andrew and so was he, but I called him at storytime before he went to bed. I told him that I'd heard he was a very good boy today and he very proudly told me that he put away all his toys. :) He said 'I Love You!' so I guess that is good enough for tonight.

More Snow

Andrew has been playing with daddy while I've been at work this week. They like playing 'kick ball' and tumbling and doing flips. I got to play 'kick ball' with him too on my days off.

Thursday morning I went to the dentist but then it started snowing heavily that afternoon so we cancelled an appointment we had that night. At about 10:00 Andrew threw up ALL OVER his playpen!!! He was up until midnight and threw up again. Mommy doesn't do well with the smell so daddy cleaned up his bed. Andrew watched cartoons on our bed for a little bit and had some Pedialyte.

I was tired on Friday. We didn't get to have our MOPS meeting because of the snow! :( I was sad, we were supposed to have a Christmas party. Oh well, I wouldn't have wanted to get in an accident. Andrew was feeling better but didn't eat much the first half of the day. We did finally convince him to go out in the snow late in the afternoon before it got dark. The snow was so powdery he was kicking it. I kicked a little on him and he was disturbed that it was on his jacket...I barely got him. We did take a walk in the snow. Mah and Grumpa wanted to go with us to Zoolights or Fantasy lights last night (Friday) but when we called everything was closed due to the snow. The library has been closed since Wednesday along with most of the area schools.

Andrew is very cute!! Everyone says so

If you haven't seen our blog in a few days, make sure you go back and look at all the pictures, I've just posted a bunch more.

Andrew is very cute this Christmas season, he's starting to have a lot of fun. We finished cutting out and baking sugar cookies today and then he would choose the frosting color and I would frost it and he would put the sprinkles on. We did a couple dozen before he tired of that and wanted to eat one. :) He has a pretty good attention span.

He helped me wrap more presents tonight too and we worked on making some ornaments yesterday evening.

I think he thinks he's not getting enough time to play with his toys though. I told him after wrapping presents that it was time to go to bed and he said 'no, play.' I told him he could have 2 minutes to play cars. He said 'come play.' I did play cars with him for a few minutes and then I told him it was time to go up, he kept saying 'no, play' so I let him bring 2 cars up to story time. Either that or he was just stalling. :)