December 2014 - Part 1 - Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  

I opened my new Nikon DSLR 3300 camera and it rocks!  I had to take a million pictures of the boys as I tried it out (still on auto function, but it's awesome).  

We had a great Christmas.  Fun presents, not too many this year (although still more than they need!), we watched a couple movies together and made fun snacks in the basement (kettle popcorn, bugles, oyster crackers, m&ms, peanuts, and pretzels).  

We also had a great Christmas Eve.  I think my college roommate Mel gave me this idea, but we decided to have a talent show.  Everyone took turns doing talents.  The boys were really excited about the idea and took several turns showing off their stuff.  Singing, piano playing, pictures.  We also had a lesson about Christ and delivered baby Jesus to our friends.  We did a ring and run every night for 13 nights delivering pieces of a nativity set with a cute scripture.  It was suppose to be a fun bonding activity for the kids, but ended up having a 1 on 1 schedule since they all fought over who got to deliver it every night.  Oh well, we tried!  Oh, and did I mention next year we will be picking a family who doesn't have 13 stairs?  I seriously thought I would lose a child every night we rang and ran down those stairs!

Easton excited about a container of tic tacs.  Kids are so easy.

Yes, that is a pink Strider bike for Xander.  He loves his pink!

Easton and Declan climbing under the tree to make sure we got everything!

My great $8 Craigslist purchase.

After the barely 1 hour of opening presents (we allowed a free-for-all), the boys decided to open their mining / dinosaur kits and dig away!

This activity ended in outfit changes and showers for everyone while I cleaned the kitchen. 

But it was perfect. Good family bonding and kept everyone interested and busy.

Trying out the camera.

Easton's freaky face.

Declan in a box.  Enough said.

My Christmas miracle.  A 5 layer jello mold.  Yes, I am amazing.  

November 2014

Easton's baptism.  In our ward, you get baptized the first Saturday of the month after your baptism.  For Easton, it was November 1st, the day after Halloween.  We scored an afternoon time in order to recover from the prior evening events!

Here is Easton before the big event!

He was ready and confident.  I'm not sure how, but I'm grateful for it.

Easton got baptized along with a friend, Sophie Wither.  Sophie's mom used to babysit Easton when he was born.  I worked 24 hours a week.  Sophie was born the same day as Easton, so it was cool they got to share this day together as well.  Aside from David forgetting a shirt to change into (which then became driving back/forth from home and taking 30 minutes to change)...everything else went as planned!

The great puppy show presented by Easton and Cache.

Either a zombie or a dress, I can't remember.

It's fall!  We have a giant Oak tree (which I hate) that gives us plenty of leaves in the backyard.  After the boys helped rake, they did their best to enjoy the pile of leaves.

Some cute playdough activity charts given to me by my neighbor.  

Xander and Declan spent 1/2 stacking the matching squares and putting them in order.  I love a good attention span.

Xander is becoming quite the little artist. 

Yes, those round things in the bellies are belly buttons.  

 Declan just drew his first person!

Welcome to Easton's 2nd grade diorama.  After searching pinterest for an hour, I came up with a good solid plan.  Then Easton and I went for a bike ride and collected real materials and created his forest diorama.  He needed 3 animals with their habitats and food sources.  This is what it looked like after 2 weeks and materials naturally falling apart, but you get the idea.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

 Somehow we almost made it through the season without created our paper feather hats.  

Easton insists on eating the leg of everything!  

Let the feast begin!

We were invited to eat with a couple friends but decided to just stay home this year.  I thought it was a great choice.  It was a nice quiet day and dinner was not stressful.  David did the turkey and I did everything else (stuffing in a crock pot, jello made the night before, mac&cheese, mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes made by Costco and re-heated.  We also made a grasshopper ice cream pie, a silk pie (both the night before), and had costco pumpkin pie.  Our new tradition - eat pie for breakfast the morning of Thanksgiving.  Pumpkin pie has never tasted so good!

You can't really tell here, but Cache has had the craziest swollen tonsils.  I don't see how this kid can sleep or swallow or breathe!  I took him to the ENT and he said it is technically ok.  How can this be ok?  Poor kid.  I hate to have them removed (it's a painful surgery - we know since Easton and Xander have both had theirs removed), but I'm not sure what else we can do!

Did I mention we had a white Thanksgiving?  This was Cache's snowman and he lasted a couple of days.  I love how he melted.  Did I mention how sad I was when the kids kicked him down?  He was so cool :(

Let the birthdays continue...

Happy 4th Birthday Xander and Declan!

One rainbow (inside the cake) puppy cake for Xander.

One rainbow circle and tall cake for Declan.

Our good friends, the Airmets, happened to be driving through town on the twins birthday and stopped by.  They joined in for the festivities and we met their not-so-new baby.  The twins favorite teenagers also joined, thanks Marcy and Kensley!

No 4 year old birthday party is complete without a pinata!

The simplest 4th birthday party ever.  Invite 3 cute girls (already such smart boys..and 2 were older women)...play some games, eat leftover cake, and you have 2 happy campers!