The latest & greatest

Well it's been a busy week to say the least! I'm sorry I haven't been as diligent about posting to the blog lately - We moved the study to the basement and I just don't get down here as often as I would like!! So here's what's happened this week:

On Wednesday I went to Sarah's new house (it's BEAUTIFUL!) and hung out with her, her 3 kids, Tonya, and her daughter Ella. The kids baked and decorated a cake! Which was so thoughtful and also DELICIOUS. Sarah added chocolate pudding to the batter which - I am not kidding! - made it moist for DAYS! Well, I can only account for 3 days because it was gone really quickly :) !! Tristan LOVES hanging out with Sarah's kids because they're "big kids" - especially Caleb. Caleb helped him try on his sunglasses which Tristan thought was SO COOL! He followed Caleb around all afternoon :) It was really cute and Caleb was so sweet with him!

On Thursday we went over to Gretchen's and played with Gretchen, Elie, Amanda, and Baby Ryan. Tristan and Elie had a great time giving Baby Ryan his bink and swinging him in the swing. I really think T is going to be a great big brother!!

When we got home Tristan discovered that the toy bins in his room are really much more fun to SIT IN than to house toys! And it's really easier to sit in them if you dump out all the toys first :) Here is a picture of T having a ball in his new favorite toy :)

Friday we had playgroup at Jen's house. T had a great time playing with all of his girlfriends :) I think he was excited to see another boy there though - Baby Eli joined us for the first time! He was FIVE DAYS OLD and sooooo tiny! Was T every that small??? I don't think so! Or at least I don't remember it :) Jen is so creative and on top of things - she had prepared a craft for the kids! What Cheerios didn't end up in the mouth got glued onto sheets of paper into rectangles, triangles, circles, and squares. We have T's very first craft proudly displayed on our fridge :)

Friday night was the McHammy-Q and a fun time was had by all. T is cutting another molar so he went to bed like a pumpkin, directly at 6:30, but he had a good time before bedtime.

On Saturday we went to Sophie's 3rd birthday party (3 ALREADY?!?!) at the Lilly Gulch Gym. T is very familiar with the gym and he immediately went for his favorites: the trampoline, the foam pit, and the yellow fish. He had a BLAST running around with all the "big kids" :) He loves being with big kids! Afterwards there was cake and ice cream. I think I ate more of his serving than he did :) He was much more interested in his dried fruit snacks which was FINE BY ME! The cake was delicious :) It was great to see Sophie's parents too - We used to live next door to them but we have both moved in the last year and don't get to see them as much as we would like. Also, David was in the Army Reserves but has gone to active duty and is serving in Alabama - Which beats Afghanistan but is still far away :(

After that Gretchen and Elie came over for a quick playdate while Mark and Matt played racketball. Tristan really loves his buddy Elie - they play so well together!! We got some adorable video of them chasing each other around the house and some really cute pictures of them hugging :) I'm so glad he has such good friends!!!

This morning we went to church and now it's house project time. Mark swapped out the tension gate at the top of our stairs for a locked one (T had figured out how to push the tension gate open!). He is working on our TV cabinets now for the basement. What a handy man!!! He is so good to us :)

This next week is going to be busy too - Tuesday morning we have our 20 week ultrasound!!! Can you believe we are halfway done already??? This pregnancy is FLYING by. Then we are doing playdates with the Baby Brigade and also with Sarah and her kids. Then my mom flies in on Thursday and will be here a week. Mark's mom flies in the day after my mom leaves. That weekend we are going down to Crested Butte for a wedding and the following weekend we are going on our BIRTHDAY TRIP! Mark's folks are going to watch Tristan for us :) Yippeeeee! I'm very excited about all of our upcoming events.

I asked Mark last night if he ever got bored of just "plopping down in front of the TV at night." I don't want us to be one of those couples where that's all we ever do. He said "Are you kidding me?? Think about all the stuff we have planned and everything we do during the week! I cherish these TV nights!" That was nice to hear :) and relieving too - Because even though I love being busy, I cherish TV nights too :) !!