HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY to HOWIE.....

Happy Birthday Howie. He turns 2 this year. Even though his birthday is December 24th, we did it a week early to avoid family Christmas party conflicts. It was fun and howie had a blast. Tommy arranged trade (the man got a massage) and we were able to get jump house for two hours. It was fun. Big kids (including myself) jumped to our hearts desire. The kids just loved it. Howie even though the bounce house was his birthday present. He asked tommy "where my tent go?"

Howie had a CARS theme party. He is in love with anything and everything CARS. He really enjoyed his cake. He had been asking to eat CARS cake for the entire week before his birthday because he helped choose the cake type at Wal-Mart. It was a little cold that day, but bundled up with coats and lots of hot chocolate, the party was a hit.

Fun was had by all.

Happy Birthday Howie

Nativity Sweetness

During one of our quiet times, mom let howie play with the wooden nativity. He really liked it. However, you can see how much boy he is. He started giving baby Jesus rides on the camel and sheep. It was precious.

The sheep ride.

The combo ride, sheep and camel at the same time.

GQ HOWIE

This is Howie all decked out for the Holidays. Isn't he so handsome! He is so much fun right now.

BIG CHEESE

I am too cute.

Getting a Christmas Tree with Howie

So we went to get a tree tonight. It was fun. They had some decorated ones that we took howie's photo by. At the last minute, right before the flash, he said 'cheese' and that end result was too cute. We chose a small tree for our apartment and then had fun trimming the tree. Howie is at a beautiful age that reminds me of the innocence and excitement of Christmas. This year, Christmas is really how I remembered it when I was a kid because everything is so neat and awesome for howie. It is neat to see Christmas through your child's eyes.

Howie loved picking out a tree. He ran all over the place and enjoyed himself immensely.

This is the lucky (or unlucky, I am not sure how that works) tree that is now calling our living room home.

THANKSGIVING 2006

Thanksgiving found the Rushton Family in Oregon for the Schulthies Family Reunion. Families came in color-coded shirts to help identify family members. There was 160 people there for Thanksgiving dinner. Afterwards, we had a volleyball tournament. Wow, what a suprise, the Vaughn Schulthies Family won it! We aren't that great, but I guess we were able to pull it together for once. Sorry for the late post.

Snuggle Time

This was a neat moment. Howie went to give grandma rushton a hug goodbye and just stayed on her shoulder for a long time. Long enough that I was able to grab the camera for this sweet shot of howie giving grandma rushton loves. I was shocked that my son stood still for that long of a period. Love from a child is the purest kind.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This is my favorite holiday. I just love it. My house is decked out ALL month long (okay, I even decorated the 25th of September!) and I have my pumpkin pie candle burning. Ahhhhhhhhh the world is good. I have to upload the photos from tricker treating, but here are some photos we took the afternoon of Halloween at a pumpkin display in town.

After much deliberation, Howie turned to the DARK SIDE. He was originally going to be a Jedi. But as you can see in the photos, he is Darth Vader, and a mighty cute one at that.

This scarecrow is done for. Howie is going to sever its head.

BEARY CUTE

Howie has the cutiest smile that makes you melt. We just don't see it that often. Couldn't resist posting this cute photo of howie and his favorite bear. (Thanks Haley)

CORN MAZE

We took Howie to his first corn maze. He liked it a lot. There was a pumpkin patch, tractor rides, a hunted house (that we didn't go to) and of course, the corn maze. He enjoyed it a lot. Tommy and I thought the maze was lame because the corn wasn't very tall and you could see through it. We had fun because Howie enjoyed it.

At the pumpkin patch.

Starting the corn maze.

Tommy and Howie with a big CHEESE!

Our leader through the maze, he had it all under control.

HALLOWEEN OREOS

Howie and I had a fun time eating Oreos. These are mom's favorite snack (but only the Halloween ones, the others do not taste as good to me, weird I know!) so we got to enjoy them one afternoon. Mom likes to dunk them in milk. Howie twists them apart and then carefully scrapes the crème out, finger full at a time. What a character!

Enjoying a bite.

Concentration---this is hard work you know!

Cousin Campout gets SNOWED out.

Okay, Note to self, remember not to camp in Utah mountains in September!!! We left Friday night to go to Tommy's camping family reunion at Fairview Canyon in Utah. It was a little wet, but we blew it off. It started to rain and so we all returned to our tents to sleep. Tommy's brother Jim and his wife Cynthia, and their two little girls Riley 2, Savannah 1, slept in our tent with us. I couldn't sleep much because the rain kept me us. I dozed a few times but never really slept. It was pretty cold and I was very worried about Howie being warm enough so I kept checking on him, putting his fleece hat back on, etc,. At one point in the night, I remember thinking that it was warmer now and I wasn't so worried about Howie, plus the rain had stopped. A little while later, CRACK! and down comes the tent on all of us. The poles of the tent couldn't hold the weight of the SNOW, yes, snow that was on the tent and so the poles bent and down came the tent on top of us. (Note: the warmer feeling I felt in the tent was because we were covered with snow, an igloo around us helped keep us warmer.) Tommy went back outside to tie the tent up and it worked for about 20 more minutes. Then it fell on us again, this time putting a nice tear in our tent. At this point, (4am mind you) we decided to pack it up. We placed the babies in the warm cars while we hurriedly shoved all of our belongings into our cars and caravanned down the mountain. I had a quick thought to grab the camera because this would probably be funny after a little time had passed, further down the road. So here are some photos to tell you how much snow we had on our little family reunion that got broken up and dissolved at 5am (everyone went home after we came off the mountain). It isn't that much snow, but our tent isn't made to hold up snow and so we had to trash it with the broken poles, and ripped tent that it was. Note to self; next time no camping in September.

This is our tent, half fallen down. If you look closely, you can in the center of the photo exactly where a snowflake is, one of us holding up the tent from the inside so that we could pack up camp. Tommy is literally holding up the tent and when we lets, go it falls completely down.

Down comes the tent at 4am.

This is to show how much snow we got dumped on us.

burrrrrrrrrrrrr ya, it was really, really cold!! This was our main canopy/mess hall.

Tiffany and Shawn's tent being crumpled up quickly.

Look at our cold little guy. He was happy to be up at this time of night, but as you can see, a jean jacket doesn't really do it when surrounded by snow.

Here is as many of the adults as I could get in a photo. Most of the kids are all warm in cars. This was Julie and Steve's camper. They were pretty warm the whole night long. We all ended up calling it a trip and headed down the mountain.

L to R: Cynthia, Kris with Tyler, Shawn, Julie, Steve, Grandma and Grandpa Rushton in the camper, and Tommy.

LABOR DAY WEEKEND CAMPING AND HIKING TRIP

For the long weekend we decided to take a road trip. The following are some photos from the fun trip. We drove to Telluride, CO first and stayed for two days, then drove back to Moab, UT for some fun hiking in Arches National Park. Enjoy the photos, it was a fun trip for all.

The Delicate Arch

The Delicate Arch in Arches National Park is a pretty famous hike. The arch is pictured on utah license plates. We thought since we were driving back through Moab, UT that we would spend a day hiking in Arches. Boy, was the 1.5 mile UP HILL hike worth the energy. It was really hard for us since we both are out of shape and packing howie is no easy feat. We wondered if it was worth it and it definately was.

The Rushton's at the Delicate Arch.

Howie chillin at the arch.

How cool is this shot??

It doesn't look this big, but here is another view of the arch up close. It is really large.

It is just beautiful. Breathtaking.

We made it!!!

One of the MANY breaks we took along the way.

The last leg of the hike was along a cliff. Thank goodness for the shade. Tommy ahead packing howie.

Hiking in Arches National Park Moab, UT

We finally got smart, and bought a pack to carry howie in. We learned a hard lesson when we were in Telluride, CO without one. Howie liked it a lot. He was up high and could see everything.

Howie loved playing in the pathways, since ROCKS are his favorite toys, Arches National Park was his playground.

Tommy and Howie atop of Sandune Arch.

Couldn't resist this one.

We made howie wear daddy's fishing hat even though he had sunscreen on. With his fair skin, the sun in torture on him.

Howie playing in/on the rocks.

mommy and howie taking a break in the shade. Blessed shade, there isn't much of that in Arches.

After a long day of hiking, granola bars, water, and sun check out what you get. Even through all that, howie is happy and saying cheese to the camera. I think we might have found howie's favorite place to be, in the middle of tons of "ROCKS". A boy's heaven.

Camping with Howie

Breakfast of champions: Cereal!!! Don't bother howie, he's eating. He focuses pretty hard on breakfast. Cereal is one of his favorite meals of the day.

Howie playing around in the tent with daddy's beanie on.

Daddy and howie enjoying some popcorn made over the fire.

Howie had a ball with roasting marshmellows. Well, it turned into burning them and doing it again. "more" as howie would say. He loved it. Funny how camping has a whole new fun added to it since howie loves it. It is a lot more fun with howie.

no explaination needed.

howie's first marshmellow.

howie is a little dazed and confused. this is the first marshmellow roasting experience for him and he isn't sure what to do. He caught on real fast and laughed as we did more.