::tree hunt 2012::

At the very end of November we all headed out in our big black car to find a Christmas tree. We've made it a tradition now--the last two years we went up into the mountains southeast of our neighborhood and found a big tree to cut down. Then we went to the small town Dairy Queen over there and had lunch. So of course we had to do it again this year! There was no snow during our tree hunt this year, which made things much easier, but much less festive. It took a good amount of searching to find a good one. It's been a dry year with lots of fires and we had to stick pretty close to the road because the black car doesn't have a lot of clearance. So we had to look hard to the left and right as we went along. Finally when we were just about to turn around and try a different road we spied this tree:

It was tangled in a big grove of desert oak trees, but it was the most perfect and symmetrical tree I had seen all day. I knew that if we could get him out, he'd be a gem.

The boys went a took a walk to make sure we didn't miss any other good looking trees.

Nope, this guy was the best, so we committed and went for it.

This was probably the least complicated tree extraction we've had actually. It seems like the last two were down in little gulleys or on the side of a steep grade--with snow.

Sandy watched, though all he really wanted to do was wander around and pick up "baby rocks."


And out the tree came! It was really surprisingly nice and symmetrical and healthy despite the oaks. It was nice, I think nobody else had grabbed it because it seemed so tangled up in there. It was the prefect height too.
Next I wanted a little tree--one Max's size. I like to hang a bunch of family pictures that I laminated on the little one in another room.


Luckily there was a cute little one right nearby that was perfect.

It was just Max's size--truly.

The triumphant hunters!

It was so hard to take pictures because of the bright sunny day! Overcast snowy days make for much better photo documentation. But oh well.

We tied them to the top of the car and only had one scare on the way home when the baby tree tried to escape. Kris tied him on tight, but the whole rest of the way Max kept shrieking with fear when we hit a bump, thinking that we would lose the tree and just drive away. We didn't. We got them home and set them up. I got the big tree (which is just the perfect height for our living room) all lit, and then it sat for a week and a half without lights because I ran out of time. It's the story of my life right now. I'll post some tree pictures later!

::brothers::

We have lots of squeaking and screaming and "Hey, he's touching me" and all that, but these two brothers are awfully cute together. I'm really glad they have each other.





Love my baby boys.

::thanksgiving::

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving day with our good friends the Hansens. After the rush and bustle of our UT visit and all the cousins and kiddos it was definitely mellow!

My boys had been sick the day before, so both of them were a little off their game. Sandy was especially confused. He thought he was hungry until we gave him food. Then he was immediately done. So classic.

Here he is begging for all the food he really didn't want to eat
Caryn and I split up the dishes, so we both only had to bring a few things. And Kris and I ordered a smoked turkey from a local restaurant. We only had to reheat it which was so nice. The food was yummy.

And then there's Max and Emily. That's a whole other thing right there. Kind of scary when they get together. Luckily there's that whole girl-boy element, so they can't team up against us too much yet.

Oy.

Sandy suddenly decided that his new favorite picture face is squeezed shut eyes.


The grown up and the semi grown up table. Sandy calls Nick (at the end of the table) Ning. Love it.

Yes, Kris deserves to have everybody that still reads this blog see this silly picture. And a picture with me in it?

And then Sandy was done (so so quickly) and headed osside (outside) to play with balls. His favorite thing ever.

The rest of us went and sat around watching football and eating pie for the rest of the afternoon. It was great. It was a yummy nice and mellow day. So there's the report!

::early thanksgiving::

Last week we got to go to UT for an early Thanksgiving visit to both sides of our family. We took family pictures with both sides of the fam too, which is always fun in a chaotic and intense sort of way. I'm not allowed to post the Randle family picture, or at least I think I'm not, so here are a couple of outtakes, just for fun.





Cute! Weird for sure, but cute. It was fun that we all got to be in the picture even though we had to do it inside in the night time. This was just before we had a delicious roast dinner that my parents prepared for us. Max got to sit at the kid table and he looked so huge he said he was Wreck it Ralph. It was true, he really looked like it. We also got to spend some time with Kris's family, and luckily we had a moment right before church to grab a few photos in the park by Kathy's new house. Luckily it was cloudy and the light was great!

Complete with grandparents and mountains!


Grandma and 8 (!) grandsons.

A much truer portrait of the chaos of eight boys eight and under.


Oy. It was a fun trip, I may have more to post later, we'll see if I can do it. But if I don't get around to it, my trip report is WE LOVE OUR FAMILIES!!

::sandy is two::

I can hardly believe he's already two. It's crazy how fast time passes--I know everybody always says that but it's true! We celebrated Sandy's birthday on Sunday evening since work/school days are pretty chaotic around here right now. He doesn't care if it's his true and real birthday or not. All he cares about is GAKE! Bifday GAKE.

Clapping for GAKE.

He used to cry when people sang happy birthday--back when he was only a couple of months old. It was always really funny--he was so distressed. But he was all happy this time. He knew the fuss was all about him.

He was especially excited about the cake I made because of the "Num Nums" on it. I knew he'd love the num nums.
And his reaction to the cake snarfing?



As always he was a neat and tidy small person, using his fork and never smearing the cake all over himself. His most favorite present was the football that I bought for Kris to give him. His next favorite was the little truck I bought for Max to give him. Sensing a pattern here? Yeah. He liked my stuff too, but assigned out the best stuff. When he opened the football he was yelling with glee. "FOOTBALL MY!!!" He loves footballs. So funny since Max never could've cared a shred about balls. Today, which was his real birthday he got all fussed over at work. One of the staff members made him a chocolate cake and he was so happy to eat it that I think it made her week.

Um yeah, he's cute. Who can say no to this little face when it says, "GAKE!! GAKE MY!" So glad he's been our little guy for two years. He's such a blessing in our lives and such a cheerful little darling boy. LOVE YOU SAND! HAPPY TWO!

::::

To keep the posting rolling along, here's a gem from July when my parents were here visiting. We had just finished getting the courtyard all fixed up and were seriously enjoying it.

::cookie monster::

I wish I could explain to you how much our Sandy loves cookies. But I can't. It's just too deep and all abiding a love for me to really describe it. He calls them "Gee-Go" Well, actually I think he's actually started calling them cookies now, sadly. But gee-go was the word for the last while.

If we go someplace for lunch and he even sees a cookie for sale, it's bad news. If he's someplace he remembers us buying him a cookie before it's bad news. If you give in and buy him a cookie for after lunch, he refuses to eat anything until you give him the cookie. He's obsessed.

Sometimes he wakes up talking about gee-gos. One of my favorite games to play with him is the one where he pretends that one of us is a gee-go and needs to be eaten. You want to make fast friends with Sandy? Next time you come over, bring him a big gee-go. It'll work, I promise.