Ready for a photo dump?
I know no better way to catch up on what we've been doing since our trip in September. This all feels like forever ago, the holidays really went by so quickly this year, and now it's almost March?!
Where has time gone?

We had "Friendsgiving" with all of our close friends:

Getting everyone to sit was interesting:
(yes Bennett was dancing for the picture…that kid doesn't know what 'sit still' means)

The first Chrismassy thing we did was our annual trip to Zoo Lights with our friends The Hartmanns:

The zoo train wasn't running this year, so they created a new 'light tunnel' to make up for it.
It was pretty awesome:

Buck just wanted to touch all the lights:

Getting our Christmas tree:

Found the perfect one:

Decorating it:

The boys in a box admiring the tree:

Outside lights:

I love the coziness of having Christmas decorations up and the tree lights on instead of lamps, but isn't it funny how quickly we grow tired of it?

While at my mom's group before Christmas, the kids came and sang us Silent Night,
hand motions and all.
See Bennett in the front/left?

Our first snow of the year.
Buck was pretty excited:

Chris had two weeks off so we took a few trips to the library:

And Chris fashioned an obstacle course one day during nap time:

We went on the Polar Express in Hood River with my whole family, how cute are the boys' elf pjs:
(I hope they never grow out of them)

Santa with the cousins:

Their first ever visit to see Santa:
(and his reindeer too!)

This Santa looked so much like Will Ferrel, it was kind of crazy:

Our Christmas Card:
(Paperless Post is really the best)

Christmas Eve service at The Schnitz:

Buck and the sea of presents at my sister's house:

Photobooth fun:

Craziness always ensues at Chris' family Christmas with all the kids being so close in age.
This year Buck had to stand on all of the presents:

Wrapping gifts with Ember's help:

Gifts all set out for Christmas morning:

The best picture I got of these guys on Christmas morning:
(I don't think these two have ever sat still at the same time)

Checking out his new puzzle:

Testing out our new things before breakfast:

My mom found a Fisher Price parking garage in great condition,
I'm not sure which one of us likes it more:

We had a New Years party with our friends and I put together a photobooth to document the occasion:

The kids weren't too interested in the Photo photobooth:

And we proved that we are photobooth-challenged:

Case in point:
(at least he's got the cuteness factor going for him)

Happy New Year:


…a very, very belated one!

Before I jump into my post I feel like it's only appropriate to mention the the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut and also the one days before at Clackamas Town Center just a 15 minute drive from our house. I can't help but to think of the families of the victims, the bystanders and also of the emergency workers who are having to process such gruesome scenes, as the rest of us continue on with our lives.
And so I pray.
I pray for the families, the moms, dads, sisters and brothers. I pray for peace and comfort in their hearts, thoughts, and minds. I pray that somehow they will be able to put the pieces of their lives back together.
I pray that they have families to be with on Christmas morning and that the new year will bring healing.
I pray that they would find hope in the Lord who gives us a peace that surpasses all understanding.

"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ." Phillipians 4:7

...
On a lighter note, onto our weekend...Thursday night my mom watched the boys while Chris and I grabbed a quick dinner and finished our Christmas shopping.

I had been wanting to try out the banh mi's at Best Baguette since I had read they were one of the best in Portland. It didn't hurt that the restaurant is close to our house.
They have around 25 subs on the menu, half are American and half are Vietnamese banh mi's.
All of the sandwiches come on a freshly baked baguette, and they all are aroud $4!
(there's no hipster food competition in Beaverton I guess)
They also have a ton of fun drinks including thai iced tea and boba tea.

Chris having fun with the boba straws:
(I love that the garbage cans say "Hank"...I kind of wish Chris' name was hank just for the purposes of this photo.)

Grilled chicken and grilled pork bahn mis with an avocado smoothie and a thai iced tea:
(It's so good that we are going back tonight!)

Buck getting all bundled up for grocery shopping on Friday:

Saturday we had a brunch party with a bunch of our best friends and their kids. Most of us have known each other since college and after getting married we used to get together once a week for dinner. With kids in the picture and some people living out of town (ahem Sara) we are lucky if everyone gets together once a year.
The kids wore pjs and we had hot chocolate, lattes and mochas and a ton of tasty breakfast food to eat.
It actually started snowing for the first time before people arrived so it set the mood perfectly!

Christmas smoothies:

Someone liked their hot chocolate:
(Bennett doesn't realize that marshmallows are for eating)



I don't really remember what we did Sunday but I think it involved time at home until we went to church.
Earlier this week it snowed a couple inches at our house.
I told Bennett to go get ready and he came out in underwear and an upside down windbreaker:

After helping him put on a little more clothing we finally got outside:

We walked around our yard and built a mini snowman, then he wanted to go back inside for some hot chocolate:


We are starting our Christmas festivities tomorrow and I can't wait!
(I assume Bennett will be "helping" everyone open their presents and 


Merry Christmas Friends!

I got the message saying that I've reached the storage limit for pictures with Blogger, but I started using Flickr as the middle man. As if getting a blog post up wasn't a multi-day thing, it's now a little more time consuming. 

(Though I guess I'm glad to be able to keep it updated at all. I've posted at least once a week for the last 3 years, and for the first two years I posted almost 5 times a week. I laugh now when I think about all the extra time I didn't think I had!)

Anyways, all that to say... yes, I'm posting about our last weekend when it is now Friday.

Whatever.

...

This past weekend was Thanksgiving and it was pretty laid back this year.

Chris had a really slow day on Wednesday so he came home early and was able to finish up the stool project we've been working on for a couple of weeks.

This little stool has so many uses but was pretty boring looking before we painted it.

Bennett likes to stand on it to help us cook and he also sits backwards on it to eat if he's watching a show:

We also got our Stickygrams in the mail and I love them:

On Thanksgiving I actually did my hair all fancy-like so we had to take a picture to document:

Chris and Buckley on the way in to my family's Thanksgiving:

Saturday night I went to Abi's for her birthday/craft night.

We did an old Finnish craft called Himmeli, which is really just string and stir straws:

We were able to get most of our Christmas decorations up over the weekend.

Chris put of lights on the house and I love the way they look with the new paint:

Sunday after nap time, it was so nice out so we decided to be spontaneous and go get a tree instead of going to church. We figured there may not be another chance to get a tree in dry weather, so we jumped on it.
We went to a little tree farm called Century Farm and it was essentially in this family's giant back yard and the trees were so nice!
Searching:

Keeping eachother warm:

Cutie:

"This one is perfect mama":

Found one:

This is the very first picture of all four of us. Bennett was staring at the candy cane the woman had just given him. He couldn't believe he was just given candy.
Classic Hardestys:

Earlier this week we decorated the inside of the house.
Bennett has never been interested in decorating the tree until this year.
He loved it and hung all of the ornaments at his height:

The living room mid-decorating:
(notice all of the ornaments)
The washi tape stag head that Chris did:
(and my new paper trees, I kind of love them.)


Now that the decorating is done, I can focus on wrapping.
Yikes.

Have a good weekend friends!