Animals, animals, and more animals

These days, our house seems to buzz with animals (maybe bark or meow would be more appropriate). We have two dogs (Gus and Molly, though Gus isn't ours, he just lives with us, go figure), two cats (Max and Sebastian--we had to have Sam put to sleep in December), and, a couple of weeks ago, we added Rhino the hamster (thank you to the movie Bolt).

I love that the boys are surrounded by animals. Jake and I are both huge animal lovers, and we want to impart that on our kids. I just wish the house were bigger to accomodate all the animals (and all the fur).

In honor of the newest member of the family (Rhino) I thought I would post some recent pics of the animals...

This is Matthew's cat Sebastian (this picture is when he was but an itty-bitty kitty)

This is Sebastian now (he is an absolutely beautiful cat, and about the sweetest and most loveable that we have ever met!)

This is Sebastian when he isn't being his best (this is a bread basket, on the KITCHEN COUNTER--thank goodness the bread is gone!)

This is Andrew trying his best to convince Sebastian that his crib is a good place for both of them to sleep. Sebastian has yet to be convinced.

This is the newest addition to the Scott Family; Rhino (aka Matthew's hamster). I'm not sure how many animals we'll end up with once Andrew figures out he can ask for an animal too...

Rhino LOVES running in his wheel. But somehow (I know, I should have known) I didn't realize that hamsters are nocturnal.

And, just in case there aren't enough animals inside, we (Matthew, Andrew, Mommy and Sebastian--who didn't quite make the picture) spend our time watching (and feeding) the squirrels on the deck.

Time to play catch up...

It has been a month and a half since our last blog entry. I would blame it on life being busy, but everyone's life is busy (especially those with 4 kids :). But I thought I would take a minute to put some pictures up of the activities around the Scott household over the last 2 months.

They have been a busy 2 months. We had Christmas (and all that went along with Christmas), snow, floods, Andrew's baptism, lots of time spent with family and friends, and last but not least, the addition to our family of another animal....

Let's start with the Christmas tree.... Every year we have a family tradition of going to a local tree farm and cutting down our own tree. The boys (especially Matthew) love it. Last year we were fortunate enough to have snow while we were tree hunting, this year, in typical Seattle fashion, it was raining.

Matthew and Jake with the perfect tree (well, Matthew thought so!)

Sarah, Matthew and Andrew (the boys look all too thrilled!)

Matthew decorating the tree (we didn't have ornaments on the bottom half--thank you Andrew)

Gingerbread houses:

Once again, we had the wonderful opportunity to go to Jen (my sister's best friends) house for their annual gingerbread house party. This year was even more fun then last year, as there was a house full of kids. We had so much fun making the houses. Matthew really got into it this year, as did most of the kids his age. We had an absolute blast. It is truly one of our favorite parts of the holidays!!

Matthew waiting for some direction (I might have been a little bit too precise with my directions).
We're getting there.....

A few of the houses didn't withstand all the candy and collapsed (ours did on the car ride home)

Matthew's finished product (after it collapsed, we had to go buy another kit and do another one... This time it lasted until after Christmas).

SNOW!!!!!!

We finally got some of the white stuff in Seattle! Now, most weather forecasters, and citizens of Seattle in general, were not too happy with the snow. Being a mom of two little boys (and having spent 7 years in Ellensburg) I can't get enough of it! We had so much fun. Matthew would spend hours in it if we let him. Andrew, on the other hand, liked to watch it from the inside. We would spend 15 minutes getting him all bundled up, he would walk outside, be waist deep in the snow, turn around and come in. It was all a little much for him! It lasted for about a week (which seemed like a record for our area) and we were sad to see it go. We've had a few snow flurries since then, but nothing major... Here's hoping (at least at our house) for more snow!

This may not look like alot (for our friends in the midwest) but for Seattle, it was quite a bit. This isn't even the total amount... This was just one night!

Andrew all bundled up and kind-of enjoying the snow!

The boys on the sled. It was the only way Andrew really enjoyed the snow. Matthew insisted on wearing a full face hat and goggles... It kind of looked like he was in Alaska!

Overall, the last two months have been great. We had a wonderful Christmas (though Andrew was terrified of Santa--and I mean terrified) surrounded by our family and friends. We got to spend some quality time with our good friends visiting from Alaska (and finally had Andrew baptized, because they were visiting). We always try and take time during this time of year to thank God for all that he has blessed us with. We feel extremely fortunate and blessed in our life and couldn't ask for more. We are so lucky!

~Oh and for all of you who were praying for Jake with his job search, it was successful. On December 12th, he started his new job with the UW. It is a dream position for him, and he is loving every minute of it. The lucky thing for us (especially given this economy) is that he was only out of work for 6 weeks. We were VERY lucky!