black friday "fun"

i have always wanted to do the whole black friday thing in the states but have never had a chance. lucky for me, i live here now, and i couldn't pass up the opportunity it get some great deals and have fun with the girls :) cindy came down to join in the fun, and here is us mapping out the game plan....

 

this is our pre-all nighter cheer - dust's idea of course! we were feeling energetic and excited at this point!

 

lace really wanted a sensible footwear picture, and here it is! i'll give you 1 guess which sensible footwear i chose ;)

 

1st stop was the troutdale outlet strip mall, and it was a huge success! lots of the stores opened at 9pm, so our night started at 9:30ish. we beat the rush and got some great deals and still had energy after hitting up the stores there! next stop was toys r us, and i think we underestimated the craziness involved with that certain store. we got there at 11:50 with an open time of midnight, and the line circled all through the parking lot and was out onto the road as we pulled up - not a good sign! we had fun waiting in line though and got some sweet deals there too. the waiting in line outside seemed long but not nearly as long as it seemed once we got inside! it took FOREVER!

 

as you can see, we still felt good at this point, but our energy took a dive from there, and we didn't even bring the camera in for our next 2 stops - old navy and target. forever lines, some good deals, but i think we've decided to change up the game plan for next year for sure! thankfully, we had each other and made it a fun filled night full of memories :) prego becki was a trooper too!

 

here the is loot from year #1 though - not bad eh!

 

we got home at 7:30am making for a long night, but we all got a little snooze in before cindy's flight home. beckam got some great new toys, and although the plan will change for next year, it was tons of fun and totally worth it! thanks girls - can't wait to do it again next year :)

 

lil of this lil of that

not much rhyme or reason to this post, but here's a little of this and a little of that from our little lives lately :) first up is how we do movie date night in our little apartment. we miss our hide-a-bed for sure, but we can make 2 couches work just as well!

next - beckam loves red robin just like his parents! he loves the bottomless fries and the balloons too - both to play with and chew on!

beckam also LOVES bath time with dad! dust usually sneaks away to pull the curtain back and start filling the tub, and that is beck's sign to hit the road down the hallway to help! he loves playing with the soap and hitting the side of the tub like dad, and i just love my handsome boys!

continuing on with the bathroom theme, beckam also loves getting ready with mom and playing with the toilet paper roll like every other kid! gotta love that token toilet paper picture, and thankfully that's all he got off before i caught him :)

 

 

next up are a few pictures from some early birthday presents for our boy! grandma cindy came down for a little black friday shopping and came bearing gifts for everyone including our soon to be 1 year old beckam :) he loved the long card full of animals of course and was so cute with opening his presents!

 

he wasn't sure whether to eat the paper or play with it or what, but we helped him eventually get to the prize inside, and he just LOVED his present from aunt Alaina! aj and beckam have spent lots of time with beck's new little animal train the past week or so, and even though beckam loves to eat the animals, aj shows him what you're really supposed to do with them! thank you sooo much Alaina - becks loves it!

 

look at present, eat present, push present, open present, play with present! so fun! i'm not sure how we forgot to get grandma cindy in a few pictures, but she was here, and we loved having her here! thanks for coming cindy and for all of the gifts and the fun we had together :) can't wait til next year!

 

finally, i know i've said this before, but aj really is beckam's favorite person. he can make beckam laugh so hard and is so nice to share his toys with him and to let beckam follow him EVERYWHERE. we love watching our little cousins be such good friends, and here they are loving beckam's carseat box together :) life is good down in portland - still wearing flip flops, beckam's doing so good with his walking, we're excited to come home for the holidays, dust is almost done quarter #4 (woohoo), and christmas is almost here! such a fun little life we have!

 

take 2

here are some family pictures from take #2 with our friend steve :) it was a chilly foggy portland morning, but he got some great shots rosy red cheeks and all!

nicole thinks that beckam and dust look exactly like each other when they scowl, so here are my furrowed brow scowling boys! so cute :)

this is one of my favs - check out that pouty little lip!

tickle tickle tickle!

hehehehe my husband is the best! first of all, who does this pose, and who would be ok with his wife putting it up on facebook and the blog cuz he knows how truly awesome it is! cat like reflexes :)

anyway, you can check out steve's work here......
http://www.wagnerdidit.blogspot.com

thanks again for being so great about 2 takes with the tolman family steve, and thanks for making me look pretty nicole! these are sooo cute :)

before and afters

maybe it was cool to let your kids grow cute little mullets when i was a kid, but dust and i have taken a stance in our house, and it's not so much on the cool side here!


i mean really - this isn't cute on little boys! becks has had some issues growing hair in general, so i understand if you don't agree with our decision to chop these little curls off, but he looked a little too much like an old man for us! haha not a whole lot on top but full around the back! here's the befores!

we took the sucker route, and it's amazing how a little sugar on a stick helped to cure any loud noise electric razor fears becks may have had! i was a little scared of it though, so dad took over barber responsibilities and did a marvelous job :) here's a little video and some pics of the process......

there was some head holding because that sucker was just pretty darned exciting and slippery, but beckam did awesome! he didn't fuss at all and got all stickied up for bath time mullet-free!

here are the curly locks he lost and no.....we didn't put them in an envelope for future reference!

soooo handsome! good-bye old man and hello cute little becks again :) love it!

a little early this year!

we LOVE christmas around these parts, and we are always looking for excuses to decorate early. we haven't really ever had a good one til this year though, and we have taken advantage! we come home on dec 11th for the holidays, and we gotta have a little christmas around these parts with becks before we go home to celebrate there right?!? we have been singing christmas songs and watching christmas movies and living up this wonderful season for a week now :) love it!

sadly, we have decided to take the fake christmas tree route for our 1st time ever, and it was really hard to begin with. i have always had a real tree and most of the time gone out and cut it down with the fam, so this was a hard change for me. we went to the marvelous craig's list and found what seemed like a good one. we set it up though and holy dinkiness! it was so little and triangular and not full, and we just couldn't do it. the good thing is that craig's list works to sell things too, so that one went up for sale, and we found another one! here the beaut that we ended up with....

i thought i remembered the add saying easy assembly but clearly not! we had to put each branch in, and there was over 1,700 tips on this baby! it was lots of fun though, and it was a wayyyy better tree! beckam loved the decorating too! the lights were his favorite for sure, and he was sporting the christmas pj's to go along with the christmas spirit!

christmas is pretty awesome, but it's even better when you have kids, and i can't wait to keep christmas'ing it up around here with becks and dust :) thankfully, beckam is steering clear from the tree so far, but the fake snow is just way too fun! tis the season to be jolly around here, and we loving it!

merry christmas even if it is too early!