Christmas Eve

The holiday season left me feeling a little like this: fun, but a little crazed.

 

Annual bell ringing:

Cutest baby Jesus ever!

We were small in numbers but had a nice time.  Bingo is always the hit of the night and I have decided that I should probably forgo any dinner that night in order to enjoy all the food we eat during play!

Jealous, I know...

Christmas has come and gone and I have to say that I am sort of relieved it is over. There was WAY too much to do and no time to do it.  I will post more about our Christmas and some of the things we have been up to soon but for now I will leave you with a sneak peak into our Christmas.

...yes, Pajama Jeans.

Don't be jealous and yes I actually wore them in public!! The slogan cracks me up "Pajamas you live in, Jeans you sleep in."  And you know the funny thing is they do feel like pajamas and do look like jeans. I might end up on that TV show "What not to wear" if I am not careful but thank you Mitch for the gift. :)

Santa!

Santa came to visit and we were so excited!  A couple of weeks ago we went to our ward Christmas party and Santa came, but according to Cameron it was a "fake Santa, just Brother Grumbles from our ward" so we have been waiting for the REAL Santa to come visit us.  Mitch and I were a little worried what would happen when Cameron realized who the real Santa was he but didn't seem to recognize him.  We are safe for another year!

No one cried when Santa came which might be a first.  The list of things they want Santa to bring is always surprising as they list a bunch of things that I didn't know that they wanted.  Natalie asked for a rocking horse and a helmet, Julia's list was so long that she just had to give it to Santa to take back to the North Pole but included a camera and a password journal, and Cameron asked for a REAL college football, and a DSI.  Well...some of their wishes will come true!

Here they are with the "fake" Santa:

Our Baby Doll

The girls and I have been playing with our real life baby doll.  Loving it.

The Jungle Book

Last week Cameron was in his school's play The Jungle Book.  I was very surprised when he told me that he wanted to be involved because last year when he had the opportunity to be in the play he didn't want anything to do with it.  I just assumed that this year would be the same, but this time he was really excited to be a part of it.  The school has people from the Missoula Children's Theater come and for one week the kids work really hard and at the end of the week they put on three performances, the last one for the parents.  The play was just what you would expect an elementary play to be BUT Cameron was so darn cute.  He was a monkey and as he would tell you, a lead monkey with one line.  He did a great job and had a lot of fun.  Mitch recorded his part with our new camcorder so that I could put the video online but we accidentally deleted the video trying to figure out how to use the camera.  I am so sad!  This was not the easiest thing for Cameron to do and I am proud of him for stepping out of his comfort zone and trying a new thing.  Here are a few shots that we got with the normal camera before Natalie was escorted out of the building throwing a tantrum (see post below!) that was ear splitting and one for the books.

Naughty List

True Story:
A few years ago at Christmas time a couple streets up from ours Mitch saw a Christmas tree on somebody's curb fully decorated with a sign that said something like "Santa- Please don't come to our house this year our children have been naughty!"

Fast forward to this year-- Some of OUR children have been B*E*A*S*T*L*Y lately.  I'm talking tantrums that could be considered for the hall of fame and making Mitch and I wanting to commit ourselves to an insane asylum for having to listen to it day after day.  So on Saturday Mitch told the kids the story of the Christmas tree and how if something doesn't change that they would find themselves on the naughty list and our tree on the curb.  I think we scared them straight.  They keep talking about it and Cam has asked Mitch multiple times if that story is really true. So you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I'm telling you why....we just might put YOUR Christmas tree out on the curb!

FHE

You know sometimes Family Home Evening goes well and sometimes it doesn't.  We really try but it seems like someone is either rolling on the ground distracted by something or someone or there is crying and fighting involved.  Tonight we were doing pretty good, no crying or fighting and we were talking about the Christmas story.  As we got to the part where Mary and Joseph are in the stable ready to have baby Jesus our lesson derailed. Cameron stopped the story by saying "Wait, just a minute...who was in the stable with Mary and Joseph to cut her stomach open to get the baby out, were they by themselves?"  Instead of a nice Christmas lesson it became a lesson on how in the world the baby came out.  After an exciting discussion of natural birth vs. c-sections we tried to move on to the shepards and angels but the whole idea of having the baby in a stable by way of natural birth was too hard to overcome.  Maybe next week...

Lucy's Blessing

Lucy was blessed last Sunday, December 4th.   Mitch gave her a sweet blessing and we had the chance to go to church with our family and after have a nice lunch.  All three of my girls have worn the same dress on their blessing day, but have had their very own bracelet that goes in their baby book as a keepsake.  What a special time to celebrate our precious girl! 

Here is an overload of pictures of the girl on her special day:

Cousins! 

Isn't Jefferson so cute with Lucy?

Christmas Craze

I was getting back into the swing of things and then Christmas arrived....  I am now seriously behind on everything.  It has been days since I showered last.  I am sure I could find a moment but when the moment arrives I find myself choosing a nap over my personal cleanliness. 

We have been up to lots of fun things and  hopefully I will post some pictures and updates soon, but for now here is a picture of Lucy helping me with the Christmas decorations.

Tape and die hard fans

And I wonder why there is never enough tape in my house...

The Apple Cup was huge at our house this year.  The kids made W signs and taped them up all over the house.  Julia asked me when she could get a husky shirt, she just needs one. Yesterday after the Seahawks lost to a team the should have beaten Cam threw his 'hawks hat on the ground in disgust.  We are not fair weather fans around here!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Top 5 Things I am most grateful for:

 

Who do you look like?

 People always ask who Lucy looks like.  Well-- tonight I came across the answer: Her DAD!

Happy Birthday Natalie!



Natalie is FOUR!

Happy Birthday to my blue eyed, blonde haired,

right-handed girl! 

Natalie's birthday was a week ago on the 15th!  Her party was a small affair due to my lack of everything but I hope she didn't feel that way. She was very excited that her day had finally arrived. She decided on a Strawberry Shortcake party and it turned out pretty cute.  One of the MUST have party decorations was the badge that said "Birthday Girl" on it.  She wore it the whole day until by the end of the night when the sticky on the back of it would no longer stick. 

She got a Dora Fairy Princess doll, some magnetic dress up dolls with lots of different outfits, some Cinderella Squinkies, and some puzzles.  What more could a girl want? 

Her birthday fell on the same day as play group so she brought some cupcakes to share with her friends.

Here she is blowing out her candles!

What an appropriate gift for a Seattleite girl!

Turkey Trot

Last Saturday we spent the morning at our annual Turkey Trot.  It is one of our highlights of the year that we do as a family.  The weather cooperated and it didn't rain but it was VERY cold!  I was a little worried about how Lucy and I would do at the event not having left the house much since she was born.  We did good but boy was I tired by the time we got home.  Lucy was such a good girl and slept the entire time we were there and she sure was cute.
 

The girls ran in the kids 1k.  Julia ran by herself this year and Natalie ran for the very first time with Mitch.  They were so cute.  Julia is going to have some wheels when she gets older, you can already see it.  Julia is very competitive and at times it is hard to be the younger sibling of Cameron.  She told me before the race that she hoped she would win the 1k now that Cam wasn't running in it this year.

Cameron and Mitch ran the 5k this year.  Cam was a little worried about running it by himself and knowing where to go but he did AWESOME. Cameron was in the 7-8 year old boy division and placed 1st in his division.  He ran a 23:02 which is 7:26 a mile.  I am glad that I wasn't running because he would have beat me!  For kids under the age of 12 he had the 3rd fastest time only to be beat by two 12 year olds.  The top 3 in each division earned a trophy.  Cameron was SO excited that he got one.  Also for coming in 1st in his division he received a gift certificate to Game Works with an all day pass. Fun. Earlier we tried to help him understand that he might not get a trophy and running was about having fun and doing your best.  He told us "It doesn't matter if I win or lose running as long as I have fun and get a trophy."  Okay so he doesn't get it quite yet.

Mitch also did awesome.  He got 5th in his age division and ran a 20:34.  We had a good laugh that Cameron was only 2 minutes behind him.  It is only a matter of time that Cameron will beat both of us!

Until next year!  I might be able to run again by then...