Catch up time!
I went to Time Out for Women with a bunch of friends at the start of November.
This is us all crammed in an elevator on the way out.
I made it up to Portland to have lunch with Eric one afternoon.
This vietnamese food was to die for!! I loved it!
It was pretty rainy and wet all of November and December, but Veteran's day was actually sunny- and since we had school off that day- we made it out to a playground!
Thanksgiving was such a delight. The Greens invited us along with a few of their other friends. The kids loved playing with their pseudo cousins. :)
The Greens recently moved into their new house- it is beautiful and big! It easily fit the 4 families inside. Great and comfortable conversation, my favorite!
We then watched Madagascar 3 in their friend's newly finished theater room. Everyone loved it. We also started the day out doing the Turkey Trot at Oak Hills Elementary. It was SOOOO cold, but we had fun with it.
Avey celebrated her 6th birthday by inviting 3 friends to pump it up. She wanted another big friend party, but I just can't throw a big friend bash every December, so we compromised and instead of a big night/day out with the family, we told her she could take 3 friends and her 2 siblings to Pump It Up after school one day.
They had lots of fun.
Crazy kids!
Avey and her watermelon cake with watermelon frosting and sherbet ice cream. It was such a hit Eric actually requested this for his birthday cake later in the month. :)
Celebrating on her actual birthday. Yep, we kept the same cake from the Pump it Up party, sung to her, opened presents from us and called it a happy birthday. She loved it! (And Ellie loved all of Avey's presents my mom sent her. She actually kept stealing them in the next few weeks, the Minnie dress, the guinea pig, the Elsa music box, total scores!)
We had an amazing ward christmas party this year called a Night in Bethlehem. Everyone dressed up like Bethlehemites, and the cultural hall was decked out in amazing decor, and we were taxed and given sheckles (pennies) for activities and food. It helped us really focus on the Savior, especially helping the kids see how life was when the Savior was born.
Eating our pitas and hummus and veggies for dinner.
Ellie and Eric
Making noodle necklaces with the kiddos
Our whole family.
Alpenrose Dairyville was recommended by some friends to visit at Christmastime, so we decided to head up there one afternoon, and it was so great! We loved the lights and the animals, and since it had been pouring all day, there weren't many people there, although it stopped raining when we got there. The kids also got to talk to Santa, and we didn't want to pay for the picture, but he was really nice, and the kids loved it. I loved it too.
My mom sent this to me a few years ago, and it is one of my favorite christmas items. The kids, especially Ellie change it up everyday to something different, and often Ellie would add all her zoo animals and little people to also see baby Jesus. We actually lost baby Jesus by the second day I had it out this year, but then we just talked about how we need to find baby Jesus all through the christmas season. Although we still haven't found the actual baby Jesus piece yet... maybe that can be our 2016 goal too.
We wanted to look at christmas lights one night, so we drove around and came upon this amazing house close to us that lets you walk up and around and enjoy their lights. They had so many fun blow up christmas characters like Elsa and Olaf and their castle, fake snow you could slide around in! (bubbles), peanuts characters, bears and penguins and lots of really beautiful lights. It was awesome!
The kids liked this little house that they could walk through.
My friend Mallory took some pictures of us one Saturday afternoon for our christmas card. It was SUPER rainy, so we brought umbrellas and rain boots, but poor Ellie was cold and had a hard time being happy. The pictures turned out nonetheless.
We did get a little smile out of Ellie once. :)
This girl is so photogenic.
And this boy is also a handsome one.
This is real life taking pictures with three kids. :)
I love all of us with our umbrellas
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