Christmas 2013

Archie was a little excited about picking a tree.

December was a busy (and fun) month for us.  We started out the month going to a local Christmas tree farm to cut our own tree down.  It was so fun and we'll be doing that every year!  We had a lot of family members come visit over Christmas break and apparently we had so much fun we forgot to take pictures!  At one point we had 8 extra people staying with us.  It was totally chaotic and just how I like it. :)

We found the perfect tree!

My friend came over to take our picture for the annual Huss Family Christmas card.  It was pretty funny because Mason and Archie were fighting and Archie was crying, but we told Archie if he smiled for the pictures, we would give him a cookie.  That's why some of these photos look a little strained.  Oh the joys of having boys so close together in age!

The winning photo that made it onto the Christmas card.

Our handsome Mason

Our handsome Archer

They really wanted a cookie.

Archie could only handle so much.

A couple of weeks before Christmas it snowed!  The boys got to miss school and play all day.  They woke us up at 6am asking if they could go out and play, but we made them wait until 7am.  Archie stayed out until lunchtime and Mason stayed out until dinner was served!

Archie was in a Christmas performance for school.  It was the most adorable thing I have ever seen!  They sang about ten songs and he did really well.  This picture was after the show.

Christmas morning.  I guess he liked his new sweatshirt.

The boys got a new Wii with Mario Cart for Christmas (thanks G-Ma).  They have pretty much been playing it ever since!

Family Vacation

In October we were able to take a family vacation, and where else would we go but Disneyland?  It's our favorite place and it was fun this year because the boys were actually big enough to go on all of the rides.  They even went on Space Mountain.  I had to drag Mason on the ride with him crying.  I put him in the seat and buckled him really quickly.  Well, he ended up LOVING it.  Archie on the other hand, was trying really hard to smile when it was over, but he burst into tears!  Poor kid.  We bought him a churro, and all was forgiven.  On the way home from Disneyland, we stopped at my sister's house in Santa Cruz.  It was a perfect little vacation!

Archie was a little mad that he couldn't "drive" first.

This really cool park was by my sister's house.  We spent a few good hours there.

This slide was built into this big hill and it went super fast!

Random Fun

In September, Mason got a tooth knocked out at school when a kid was swinging his lunch box around.  They couldn't find his tooth because he lost it in the gravel pit.  This picture was taken before picture day.  I told the boys to show me how they would smile for the picture and this is what they did.  Silly boys. :)

We live in the middle of lots of very tall pine trees, so our roof and rain gutters get FULL of pine needles.  Max has to get up on the roof and clean them all off.  The boys were helping to keep the deck clean while Max was dropping the needles down.

In September my brother's baby, Ruby was born.  We finally got to meet her in October and the boys fell in love with their new cousin. 

He's going to be such a good big brother!

Mason loves to use my camera.  Whenever I upload the pictures there are always a bunch of selfies. :)

Bishop's Pumpkin Patch

I realize I'm way behind on the blog posts, so I will be doing my best in the next couple of days to catch up. :)  We went to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch in early October for a friend's birthday party.  The boys had a lot of fun petting animals, going on a hay ride, and picking pumpkins off the vine.  This pumpkin patch has so much to do, it would take all day to do it all.  Unfortunately, it started raining really hard when we had only been there a couple of hours, so we didn't get to do it all.  Oh well, there's always next year.

Under this hay was a trampoline.  The boys loved it!

The reason for the big smile?  He found a big, hairy caterpillar!

They weren't even interested in picking a pumpkin once they found that caterpillar.

First Day of School

First Day of 1st Grade

First Day of 2nd Year of Preschool

I can't believe how big my babies are getting!  Mason started 1st Grade on August 26th.  This year is fun for us because I get to work at Mason's school as a Teacher's Aide.  I mostly help in the Kindergarten class, but for about an hour a day I get to help in Mason's classroom.  It's also nice because the school lets me bring Archie with me whenever he isn't in preschool.  He fits right in with the Kindergarteners and he loves feeling like a big kid!  Archie started preschool on September 3rd.  He goes two days a week for a few hours and this year he's part of the Butterfly Class, which is the group of 4-year-olds. 

Both of the boys love school!  Mason is reading at a 4th grade level and is also excelling in math.  Archie knows all of his letters and numbers and is learning to write all of them.  I'm excited to see how much more they can learn this year!

The Sacramento Zoo

 We have a zoo membership and had planned on taking the kids all summer long, but it didn't work out like that.  I was finally able to take them on their last day of summer vacation.  We spent a couple of hours looking at all the animals, playing on the playground, and they even got to feed a giraffe!

Archie is making a scary face because he wanted to be a "scary spider".

He also wanted to be a scary zoologist.

This was the best $6 ever spent!  How cool to be able to feed a giraffe!  The boys loved it.

Mason was afraid to turn away from the giraffe.  He thought it was going to take a bite out of him!

My sweet boys were protecting each other.

Zebras!

It's hard to tell, but there is an orangutan under that white sheet.  He was playing peek-a-boo with the boys.