August Tain

On Monday morning I looked like this:

And then this happened at 2:15 ish. Except actually this picture was taken the next day, when all the bruising on his face was gone and he was a lot less puffy. I'll spare you the brand new, before-his-bath, newborn pictures. 

Finally we were able to go home on Tuesday evening. After getting him dressed in his first outfit, adjusting the car seat belts and strapping hm in, he decided to fill his diaper, and we had to start over. Babies have great comedic timing. 

The kids all love him and fight over whose turn it is to hold him. We are very happy to have our Baby Gus. :)

Oh, I almost forgot to add his stats:

10lbs 2oz

21 1/2 inches

Good, loud cry

First day of school

Since it's been a couple of months, it's probably time to post pictures of the first day of school.

 Four Washburns at one elementary school. 

Fifth grade is the top of the school! Neither of us can believe the day has finally arrived. 

 Fourth grade

Second grade

Kindergarten

He was so excited about the first day of school. And then he spent a couple of weeks tying to talk us into letting him stay home for various reasons, or flat out refusing to go. But things have settled down into more of a routine, and he loves his class and his teacher. He has already made amazing progress this year, and I am so proud of him. 

Ivan started a little preschool, too. Five of my friends and I rotate hosting once a week for a couple of hours. He wasn't too sure about it at first, but he loves having regular play time with his friends. He has started telling me, "I won't cry at preschool today," which is both a little sad and encouraging. 

We are off to a great start this year!

Christmas

It is August, and not at all the appropriate time to be thinking about Christmas, but I was uploading pictures from my camera, and I found some pictures from a couple of Christmases ago. They made me think of all the Christmas pictures we have taken over the past (almost) twelve years, and since this is my blog and I'm the only one who reads it anyway, I figured I would compile all those Christmases into one place. Even if it is August. And the first day of a new school year. And actually I should be posting those pictures instead.

2006

This is roughly our first Christmas together. We didn't actually own a camera until after Christmas had passed, but this is close enough. I think you can see the Christmas tree behind us if you squint, but don't let that fool you. We left that poor tree up until February.

 Also not really a Christmas picture, but it's in November 2007. This is actually the ONLY family picture I could find from that time period. We look awful, because we were brand new parents and didn't know how easy having only one child is. 

 2008

 2009

 We look tired, because we were tired.

2010

2011

 We had just moved into our first house, and since we went to Colorado for Christmas, we might not have even had a tree.

2012

2013

 I could not find a complete family Christmas picture from this year, but it's the year we moved halfway across the country, and I know I was pretty stressed at this time. That's not even our Christmas tree the kids are standing in front of. 

2014

2015

2016

I actually do have a family picture in front of our Christmas tree for this year, this one is just so much cuter.

2017

I thought I had a pretty consistent picture taking tradition, but looking through them all together, I can see it's pretty hit and miss. And we didn't even start taking these pictures until 2008. Oh well. It's still fun to see how our family has grown over the years. I can't wait to see what our 2018 picture will look like!

Henry, who is four, wanted to write a blog post with me. This is what he had to say:
"I love to play with my mom. I love my mom. Sebastian is my frenemy. My heart is beating when mom is here. I love mom."
He said he needed a picture to go with it, and this is what he chose. :)