Ryan, Steph, and the Boys: December and Goodbye 2015

The boys could hardly wait for December to begin. (Seriously, they were asking to get out the Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving.)

Birthdays and Christmas and Lights and Treats and Parties...Hooray!!!

First up, Austin turned 5! Here are his 5 year old stats: 37 lbs (22%ile), and 3' 8" tall (66%ile). This year we are having family parties, so we let Austin choose the destination. He settled on Dizzy Castle. Since it was a Saturday, we got there right at opening and enjoyed some playtime with a wide-open gym.

Afterwards, we went home to celebrate with birthday cake!

Austin's 5th Birthday Interview:

Who is your favorite person in the whole world? Sam

What is your favorite color? Blue

What's your favorite TV show? Wild Kratts & Power Rangers

What's your favorite outfit? Uh, what's an outfit? Oh. My Nike's.

What sport do you like best? BYU.

What song do you love? Eye of the Tiger (with Sam humming in the background)

What's your favorite cereal? The rainbow one. (Lucky Charms)

Who is your best friend? Catherine Campbell. Nash & Vonzaa. Jasper, Henry, and Chase.

What do you want to be when you grow up? A Scuba Diver

What are you really good at? Riding bikes & dribbling a basketball

Where do you wish you could go on vacation? Underwater. Scuba Diving.

What is your best memory? When I go to Catherine's house.

What would you buy if you had $1,000? Lots of EX's & Mega EX's (Pokemon cards)

What vegetable do you hate the most? Tomatoes

If you could have a wish, what would it be? It would be to swim. Actually, to have lots of Pokemon.

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Mint Chip. And Vanilla. And Chocolate. And the Berry.

Who is your biggest hero? Sam

What do you like to do best with your friends? Play Jaguar & Owner. I am always the Jaguar.

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? Go to JJ Jump!

Austin is a boy who knows what he wants, and he wanted Vanilla Cake, Chocolate Frosting, and Blue Sprinkles. We sure love this funny boy :)

Time for presents! Think he is a little excited?

Just in case we didn't have enough birthday fun, we decided to get our Christmas tree that afternoon as well. We found a tree farm less than 10 minutes from our house and decided to check it out.

For whatever reason every tree there was kind of short and REALLY wide. But hey, every tree needs a little personality, right? (Also we were cold and wet and just wanted to get home.)

Time to decorate! The kids wasted no time getting out all the decorations. Sam did the little tree in our entryway all by himself, and he did a great job!

Austin loves the singing Santa hat.

Eli helped line up the little people Nativity and Santa sets.

Some of the aftermath. (Believe it or not, it actually got worse after this!)

Styrofoam is my mortal enemy.

We were joined on Christmas Eve by Grandma Susan and Grandpa Jeff. Before bed, we had a little family night lesson to help us remember the reason for the season, complete with a nativity play! (Costumes courtesy of Grandma Susan.) The cutest little Wise Man, Innkeeper, and Shepherd (NOT a ninja) we have ever seen. Don't look too closely, Mr. Bearykins had to sub for Baby Jesus. No baby dolls to be found in the Walker house!

After our family night lesson, it was time for Christmas Eve presents and jammies! This year there was a Star Wars theme, complete with light sabers :)

I failed to get a group photo of the jammies, so I took this one a couple of nights later.

Still counts, right?

Finally, it was Christmas Morning! Keeping with family traditions, the kids came down the stairs one at a time starting with the youngest. Eli's was the only picture to come out though. Austin and Sam were just a blur running down the stairs.

Christmas morning is so fun!

Wishing you a Mighty Morphin Merry Christmas (take 2)!

Santa brought some much needed bigger costumes.

The old costumes we have are so little now! (Photo from Dec 2012)

After breakfast we headed to the theater to see the new Star Wars movie. It's hard to say who was more excited, the adults or the kids :)

The following week, we headed down to the Oregon Coast for New Years. The boys were excited to go to the aquarium again.

Saying hello to the anemones and sea urchins

My favorite exhibit...the Giant Pacific Octopus. I love watching them swim!

The boys' favorite exhibit, the Shark Tunnel

We couldn't get a good photo, they were running around too much :)

We love the aquarium!

One of our favorite things to do at the beach house is a family bike ride to watch the sunset.

So beautiful. And oh so cold once the sun goes down.

Sam really wanted to bring his new Snap Circuit set to the beach house. Who knew it would turn into fun for all 3 generations?

The boys braved the cold and played outside in the backyard as much as possible. Austin went "off-roading" with his bike, Sam played countless hours of basketball and football, and Eli mastered the stomp rocket. Those rockin' dinosaur boots were a big help.