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Photo Album Table of Contents

Click here for a list of the table of contents of photo albums organized by family, person, holiday, sports, and other areas of interest. If...

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Power Line & Water Line

The electrical has passed in the house so the electrical and water line needed to be put in. I have been prepping this area for months to clear a path. Potting up plants, clearing brush and moving things out of the way. So getting the pipe in was pretty quick. Then we had to get PSE to come and put the line through the pipe. All that is finished up so we now have full power going to the house.  Of course nothing can be quite so simple. So PSE gave us a used meter and did not restart the thing at zero. We were sent a $600 bill which I had to contest. They would only lower it to $200. I had to explain to a bunch of people that there was nothing in this house yet. It didn't even have drywall. Plumbing rough in is not quite ready yet but the line is ready and waiting.



Monday, December 25, 2023

Christmas

The boys knew going into this Christmas that there wouldn't be as many presents. They also helped shop for some of the presents at Granny's and a Toy swap event with free toys. So some of their gifts were not as expensive of gifts. But they were very excited to wrap them and give them to each other. They also asked Santa for a combined Lego present so they could get a bigger one. They were also very excited to give dad his bird house. After breakfast we went over to Grandma's for a quiet day. Jake helped Grandma to make fudge per his request. And Grandpa made a prime rib. We hung out and put together their puzzles they got for Christmas and watched Christmas movies.



Sunday, December 24, 2023

Making Cookies

Like every year we spent the week making a lot of cookies. The boys helped quite a bit this year mixing up all the doughs. Then we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to make sugar cookies. And last we did the peanut butter cookies with the chocolate kisses. Tommy had to get asked to leave because he wouldn't stop stealing kisses before they got on the cookies. But Jake got to help put the kisses on. We ended up with a very nice looking plate of cookies.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/W2hutXZyknptb2EX9


Christmas Eve Dinner

Both my brothers were headed to their in-laws for Christmas day. So our family had dinner on Christmas Eve together. They had to get a picture of the very nicely wrapped ornament Tommy wrapped for Grandma and Grandpa.



Friday, December 22, 2023

Making a Bird House for Dad

The boys and I have been saving a bunch of construction materials that were left over from our house building. They finally got to use some today. We made a bird house for Eric for Christmas. They helped pick out materials that would work. We didn't want to bug Eric house to build it so we used a hand saw to cut a few pieces. That is the part that took the longest. Then I preset the nails for them and they hammered them in. Once we were all done we painted it. Then we put a few suet feeders on the sides. They were very proud of their finished work all from recycled materials.



My Precious

Jessi decided she was going to take over the presents this year. So we had to strategically stack them to make them less appealing. Tommy also used some cat nip to try and lure her out from under the tree. Silly cat.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DCBk6fEWz62vvB2j8


Thursday, December 21, 2023

Second Wrestling Meet

The boys had their second wrestling meet today out in Puyallup. It was a super foggy trip out there but I am glad we made it as it was a good night of wrestling. Both kids won two of their three matches. Jake wrestled Finn and lost by a close decision. He then won on points in his second match. He had a much anticipated 3rd match as it was close to the end of the night and he was wrestling a very tall 12 year old. He did great and seemed to really be having fun with it. The other kid wasn't super happy to losing to a 9 year old, but we have to live and learn from each match. Tommy had 2 overtime matches. He won the first one and then last to Lovella in the second one. He also had a pin in his third match but I missed it. Overall a great night.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EfzSxjrPjpcTRauv7

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Santa at the Eagles

We went up to the Eagles to see Santa and get pictures. The boys also enjoyed the hot cocoa and Rudolph pancakes.



Decorating for Christmas

Work and life have been pretty busy so we are just now getting to decorating for Christmas. Tommy picked out a tree from the yard and him and Jake cut it down. I got some lights on it and some ornaments. The boys also did decorating of the rest of the house including their own tree in their room. And they got out their train which they were very excited about.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pVxMFfkL122hrhTp6

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Garage Floor and Doors

They got the concrete poured. We then had Max come over and seal it for us as they were not going to do it. Next they put the garage door in. Eric wasn't super happy about the door as it seemed a bit dented. Sounds like it is a manufacturer shipping defect.



Sunday, December 10, 2023

Wrestling Tournament

The boys did their first wrestling tournament of the year over in Bremerton. Tommy had a rough day. He is in the 12U bracket which is pretty tough. There are no easy matches. He had to wait a long time for his first match. He panicked a bit and had a hard time breathing after getting pinned and then had to turn around and do his second match 15 minutes later. His day was done at that point.

Jake had a really great day. He won three matches and lost two and landed in fourth place. One spot out of the medals. He is really improving and becoming more confident. He did so well it made it a pretty long day due to him being there for the last round. 

And then he celebrated with a banana split after that.

Thursday, December 07, 2023

First Wrestling Meet

The boys had their first wrestling meet in Tacoma. Tommy ended up pinning both of his competitors. His form was a bit shaky at times. You could tell it was his first match in a while. He did have a fairly easy group so he got to work on his moves a bit and did improve by the end of the day. Jake did really well. He did get pinned once and lost the second one by 1 point. But he was in a tougher group and showed really good form and wrestled really well. He had a third match and went on to pin his opponent in that match. He even did two egg rolls which he was pretty proud of. It was a good way to warm up the season.



Saturday, December 02, 2023

Winterfest

Well, we had to rush there after a day of painting. But we had a nice time at Winterfest. We clipped coupons from the Beachcomber and turned them in at all the stores for a drawing for giveaways. Then we saw the parade with a lot of lit up cars. They had a tree lighting and some music and Jingle Bells by the third grade class. We then went over to the theatre where they had some more music and a guy in a Grinch costume. I made my boys get a picture with him. Including the head Grinch himself. It was Eric's birthday after all. Then we went to the free showing of the Grinch.