That would be Sean...

The first snow of Winter 2012 has given us 2 days off of school (so far) and about 8 inches of the stuff.  Out of all the boys, Sean is the most in love with snow.  One of my recent facebook statuses said, "Sean is happiest when he is eating a snowball.  Why have we been wasting our money all these years?"  It is true.  I think I'm going to make about 200 snowballs and store them in the freezer.  Then, when he turns into grouchy teenager, as all teenagers do occasionally, I'll just pull out a snowball and Happy Sean will emerge once again.

The snow has also turned Sean into a 5 year old again.  Constantly asking,  "Is it snowing yet?", "How much snow do you think we will get?", "Did you see all that snow?", "Did they cancel school?", "Can I go outside?", and "Why should I wear gloves?".

Both Troy and Sean spent all day outside sledding, snowball fights, etc.  We only got a few pics of Sean when he was out back with his friend Coleman, who also turned into a 5 year old.  Being friends with Sean, I suppose that should be expected.  But, 5 year old boys sure are adorable!

_No, that is not the opening credits to Star Wars... it’s the song Troy played for his 1st recital with his new violin teacher, Mary Manning.

Ms. Mary has a beautiful studio built in the basement of her house here in Gig Harbor.  You wouldn’t believe the beautiful drive up to her house every week.  On many occasions, we frighten the deer nibbling away on her land!  After he began lessons, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that a couple of the kids from church take from her as well.  Troy seems to really be progressing well during the past 4 months!

Kent was brilliant and brought the camera.  Me, not so much.  I left the video camera at home.  Luckily, my iPhone is attached to my person at every conceivable moment, day or night, so I was able to catch his performance.  You can enjoy the full length feature film below!  BTW, the funny background noises in the video is Kent clicking the camera away and Sean coughing (poor buddy had a bad cold that had been going around the family).

O CHRISTMAS TREE
Yes, it's real!

Living in Washington Bonus:
You can cut down your own Christmas Tree!

Two choices this year:
Get a permit, hike up into the forest and cut down our tree
OR
Drive 20 minutes and chop one down at a tree farm

We went the easy route, considering we are first timers!  It was freezing and we trekked all over the farm to find the perfect tree.  We finally zoned in on a tree very close to the farm owner’s house!.  He told us that we chose a very special tree because it got all the water from the sprinklers around his house.  Even though it was only 8 feet tall, it’s about 18 feet around!  The boys (one was willing, the other reluctant... gee, guess who?) started sawing away

_Troy was extremely enthusiastic!  He had needles all over, even in his mouth!

_




Sean still thinks he lives in Texas and all he needs is a thin sweatshirt.  This was his attempt at creative wardrobe problem solving.  We couldn’t decide if he looked more like a bunny or a dog.  What do you think?

_After strenuous effort, the owner took pity on the boys (aka slave labor) and brought over the buzz saw.

The house smelled fabulous and the tree looked great.  Although, we may try to get a tree with a little less "girth units" in 2012.  Maybe next year we will get really brave and hike through the forest for the perfect tree!