Celebration Lane!

Tonight we went to Celebration Lane at Bellevue Square.  It was a party!!  Natalie was in LOVE with all the animals.  She had to hug each and everyone of them-- multiple times.  She was so darn cute.  I was so glad to see that it wasn't as crowded as last year.  It made the trip so much more enjoyable.  The first 15 minutes of being there is LOUD, literally 100's of kids blowing horns and then about 15 minutes later it is much quieter as their horns become soggy and won't blow.  HA HA.  Thanks for the fun evening!

Piano Recital

Every year we go to Grandma's Christmas piano recital and this year we were actual students!  Cameron and Julia have both started piano lessons from Grandma in September and it has been a lot of fun.  Julia practiced and practiced her recital pieces and had them flawless before the recital but got a little nervous when the time came.  Cam did an awesome job and he said "he only messed up a little." 

Natalie wanted to sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and sang very first.  It was so cute or so I heard, I being the mother of the year was in the other room and missed it!

A Lucy First

Lucy's 1st hair clip!

Merry Christmas

Winter Cheer and Santa Slam

Julia and Cameron were able to participate in some fun winter camps this month.  Julia went to a three day cheer camp and got to cheer at the varsity girl's basketball game at the high school.  She did this last year and had a lot of fun.  Natalie is chomping at the bit when she will be old enough next year to participate.    Cameron went to a one day basketball camp that is put on by the varsity basketball players at the high school.  It was three hours of basketball and Cameron was in heaven.  Starting January both Cam and Julia will be starting basketball and Mitch starts Stake basketball.  It is going to be busy!!  

Santa

Santa came to visit.  And I don't mean the FAKE ones like at the mall or the Ward Christmas party, but the REAL one!  And we were so excited!!  My camera took terrible pictures of the visit, so the quality of these pictures is quite poor.

Cameron's Christmas list includes everything sports:  Marshawn Lynch football jersey, football gloves, mini Nerf sport balls, dunkable basketball hoop for indoors, Legos, and maybe a Nerf gun.

Julia's list was quite lengthy and includes boots, crafts, Lego Friends, best friend necklace, giraffe dream lite, White board calendar, Barbies, and Madagascar III.

Natalie wants tap shoes, pet shops, dolls, a Doc McStuffins doctor kit, and anything girly.



Lucy wasn't too sure about Santa but after he gave her a candy cane and let her ring his bells they had somewhat of a truce.  Besides getting a little more hair this Christmas, Lucy is content just playing with the wrapped presents under the tree.

Hungry Fella?

We went over to our Grandma Stuard's house for our annual Christmas piano recital party (we actually participated this year!!)  and gingerbread house making/decorating.  We had a lot of fun. 

But after a week I am getting tired of the houses sitting on the counter so I asked the kids if they were "done" with them.  Cam instantly said NO he wasn't finished with his.  I then looked over at his house and laughed out loud.  He literally has eaten everything, I mean everything...including the graham crackers.  Who does that?  Oh yeah...my kid!



You know...

Dinner might not have been a sucess when your child asks why their chicken tastes like fur.

Just a thought.

The Crash of 2012

In the early hours of Saturday morning our Christmas tree fell over. Cameron came into our room and said "Mom, there is a problem with our Christmas tree."  Hmm....yeah it fell over.  There were broken ornaments and glass everywhere.  The kids kept shouting, "Oh look that ornament is broken, oh so it that one...!"  Mitch was like, "Stop! Your going to make mom cry!"  Seriously.  I know that ornaments are just things but really that was going to make me cry.  When I was little my dad worked for Hallmark so we each got a Hallmark ornament every year.  I have quite a large collection of old Hallmark ornaments that are special.  Here's my kind of crazy:  A few years ago after Christmas was over and I was putting all the ornaments away I took pictures of all of the ornaments so that if something ever happened to them I would at least have a picture of them. 

Yeah, see what I mean...I am crazy! Luckily not too many of the Hallmark ornaments were broken, mainly glass balls and random glass ornaments that didn't have too much sentimental value. I went shopping all Saturday and when I got home my sweet husband had super glued my Hallmark ornaments that were broken. There were a few that I didn't think I was even going to be able to save, but he pieced them back together for me. Yesterday I spent the whole afternoon re-decorating the tree. I had to take off the lights and re-string them. What a huge pain! Our tree is now tied to the wall. The kids thought this was one of the funniest things ever and haven't stopped talking about it. I think they will remember this for years to come!!



Santa Train

Last Saturday we took a trip on the Santa Train.  The train leaves the station in Elbe which is a very small town at the foothills of Mt. Rainer.  It took us about 1 1/2 to get there from our house.  On the train you get to enjoy cookies, hot chocolate, a visit with Santa and enjoy the scenic ride. 

Our tickets to aboard the train. 

The kids really enjoyed sticking their heads out the window and watching things go by.  In my mind I thought the train would be moving a lot faster than it did.  Not sure what I had envisioned but, I mean it really was slow moving....I could have jumped off the train and not hurt myself.  HA HA

Apparently Lucy has a new favorite food. POPCORN!

A visit with the big guy 

On the way to the train Julia said, "Is this going to be the real Santa or a fake one, like at the Ward Christmas Party?  I mean Santa is going to be stuck on a train all day.  Shouldn't he be busy getting all the toys ready?  Maybe his elves are in a boxcar working on toys!" 

As soon as the kids saw Santa and he asked them what they wanted Cameron launched into his list, "Football gloves...youth size medium....."  Mitch and I were dying trying not to laugh!



In the news...

So we went to the annual Christmas Creche Exhibit at our building tonight.  One of our friends in our ward is a cameraman for Q13 TV and had his camera there to take some video of the event for the 10:00pm newscast.  (slow news night obviously) 

He told us later that he filmed Cameron and Julia and put them on the piece that made the news.  We missed the live broadcast but found the video online.  Here's a link....see how many Stuards you can spot!

To see the video, CLICK HERE.

Pukesgiving

Thanksgiving was a weekend full of possibilities.  Our Oregon cousins were in town and it was going to be a party.  Julia woke up Thanksgiving morning stating that her stomach hurt, about an hour later she started to throw up, and up and up.  When it was time to go to Bellevue we packed her up and away we went.  She was so sick.  It was like the Pilgrims bring the white man diseases to the Indians for Thanksgiving dinner.  Seriously.  Julia didn't have any food all day, I felt pretty bad for her.  A few hours later Mitch and Cameron started in with the stomach flu.  On the way home Natalie started throwing up, then came Lucy, then me.  The next few days were a l-o-n-g.  We never saw the cousins for the rest of their trip because the next day, our cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma and grandpa all came down with it.  It truly was the gift of giving this year!  SO SORRY!! 

Julia made these cute turkeys for everyone for dinner.

The day before Thanksgiving we went shopping and found these jammies.  I could NOT help myself.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE matching clothes!  Cam looks a little green in this picture because it was Thanksgiving night and in between puking sessions.

The day before Thanksgiving was "Apple Cup"  day at school. Cam and Julia showing off their Husky pride.

Nat and her bucket

Mitch and Cameron in bed with the flu watching the Apple Cup.  WSU won the game and it didn't improve the mood of the house.  Cam (...and Mitch who I am I kidding?)  were SO disappointed.  Hopefully next year boys!

Here's to a healthier Christmas!!

Lucy's 1 year old pictures

What can I say?  I have the cutest, baldest one year old around!