Christmas day

Almost everyone in my family was able to make it to my grandmas house for Christmas dinner- not very often we ALL can get together!

Merry Christmas (Eve)

We asked Santa to come a day early because we were flying out to Idaho on Christmas morning. Jim was able to get the day off so it worked out really well. Best of all- I was able to put that elf away...until next year anyway!

Sloane is being festive

Cameron has the hang of unwrapping things this year!

children lost in a sea of wrapping paper and gifts

Happy Birthday Jim

This is what 38 looks like...

He had a pretty good birthday this year- he got an espresso machine and a backpack that holds water so he can use it when he is running. We went out for italian for dinner too- yum!

Ethan's Christmas party

This is Ethan's teacher, Mrs. Tomchesson For the 3rd grade christmas party this year they decorated stockings, made snowflakes and ate a bunch of food. They had alot of fun decorating!

Christmas decorating

The boys each got to decorate half of the gingerbread half- Here they are both showing off their own 'side'

Then we made sugar cookies- Cameron used gobs and gobs of icing to decorate his. He had fun but it sure didn't look appetizing!

Ethan added his own twist too- the bear and reindeer broke so he continued to decorate them but just added blood where the bears legs were cut off and the reindeer's head too. Merry Christmas, right? haha

8 months old

Showing off- she loves to stand up and can even do it unassisted for a little while!

She is finally eating some solid foods- she likes bananas and apples the best. She still isn't crawling but she is getting closer to it- mostly she just pushes herself backwards. She does love to pull up on furniture and walk around it though- but she is still pretty unsteady so I don't really think she will be walking too soon either. Not a bad thing if you ask me! The christmas tree stays intact unless I put her right in front of it because otherwise she has no idea how to get over there!

a visit to see Santa

We took the kids to see Santa today- nobody cried believe it or not! I thought Sloane might but I think it all happened so quick she didn't even know that some strange bearded man was holding her. Cameron asked for a Jeep, Ethan asked for yet another toy gun (as if he doesn't have enough already) and Sloane just sat pretty for her picture.

an annoying little elf

An elf named Fiddle has come to visit us this year. He watches over the kids and reports back to santa every night, then reappears the next morning in a new spot. If the kids touch him his magic will leave (meaning he won't be able to report back to Santa) so he has to stay up high because Cameron just can't control himself. I thought it was a great idea at first but usually I don't remember to move him until I am already in bed, so I then have to get up and then come up with a place to put the damn thing. I can't believe I have to keep this up until Christmas! Yikes! The kids are having a ton of fun trying to find him every morning though- so far he has been on our fridge, our christmas tree, hanging from a plant, on top of the kitchen cabinets, and a few other places. Today he in on our fireplace mantle.

a rough week

we have had a nasty bug at this house- Ethan had it during Thanksgiving break and it lasted about 4 days, but he didn't seem to have it too bad. Then Cam got it- and he started by throwing up on our new couch that was less than 24 hours old!! He definately had it worse than anyone- poor kid has been sick for a week now and still isn't completely better. To top it off, Cameron tried to grow a third eyeball the other day by slipping off his chair and smacking his head on the tile floor.