Maybe I'll work backwards today...
New Years Eve we spent at Erik & Corrine's house with a few other friends. we rang in the New York new year at 9pm with the kids! we had fireworks and sparklers and very special drinks with pop rocks that Corrine came up with! They proceeded to watch a movie and stay up until the Seattle new year anyway, but we hadn't been planning that!
Here is Camden ringing in the New York new year
Hudson ringing in the New York new year
Mommy and Hudson "Cheers!"
Camden making the special drink the Corrine had for the kids. Strawberry pop with Pop Rocks in it! What a festive and fun new years drink!!
The December snow storm!
I have never seen so much snow here my whole life! I can recall 3 huge snowstorms over the last 30 or so years and none of them were this big or lasted so long!! the dog fence (which was only 3 feet tall) was non-existent for over a week! 3 feet of snow? here!? We feel like we now own a cabin in the woods!
working backwards, this was day 19 of the snow...our stream unfrozen again and flowing
this is day 19 of my driveway, ugh. thankfully Matt shoveled for 2 hours on day 20 to get me the heck out of there :)
this is Christmas eve, before we got another 6" apparently I never took a picture of the full 3 feet. nuts!
this is Christmas eve too.
this is the snowfort the boys made sometime around the 20th of December.
sometime in the middle of the 20 days, I lost track of time...
This is day 5 or 6 of the snow, before the big storm. Hudson was asked to feed the dogs. At least his feet were warm!
this was day 2 or 3 of the snow, again, before the big storm.
Christmas... are you still with me? this is a LONG post! thankfully its mostly pictures, right?
Christmas was great. We had a houseful! We had a Christmas Eve celebration with my Dad and Marilyn, Matt's parents, Jenny, Julie and Uncle Mike who was visiting from Arizona. The boys received handmade gifts from my dad and Marilyn that night, stilts and a cool multilevel car garage. Christmas day my Dad and Marilyn were not with us but my good friend and her 2 girls were with us so that made 12 of us for Christmas day which ended up lasting until the 27th. We had such a good time!
This is what I walked in on just hours before our Christmas Eve gathering. Camden and Hudson had cut out snowflakes and were taping them to the ceiling fan. How they managed to reach the ceiling fan? a kitchen chair on top of a totally unsturdy ottoman, of course!! thankfully, no one was hurt! probably because of the safe way that Hudson was holding the chair (if you look closely you can see him) for his older brother. that's what I call teamwork!
Matt and I holding the white elephant spinner. A twister board any other night of the year, but Christmas eve, it is the white elephant spinner.
Julie trying out the stilts...
Hudson trying out the stilts...
Camden trying out the stilts... no, there is not a picture of me trying out the stilts as I did not make it more than a step. the kids make it look easy!! so does Matt and Lynn and Julie for that matter!!
our tree Christmas Eve, the calm before the storm. the icicles hanging outside the window were so beautiful! but, they didn't show up in the picture. so sad.
Peeking downstairs Christmas morning to see if Santa did dutifully come and bring the gifts requested.
despite the fact that the dogs escaped on Christmas eve and our neighbor had to call us after midnight, Santa still brought gifts for the dogs! What a nice guy!
Camden receieved an airsoft b.b. gun and I think both of the boys were pretty excited about it.
Christmas Morning...
making Christmas breakfast (I only helped a little, it was 90% Camden) He made caramel cinnamon rolls and an egg/hashbrown casserole. it was delicious!!
One of my favorite things about our Christmas day is that we don't rush through opening the gifts (in fact, we finished on the 26th!) but the boys actually stop in between and play with what they got, or make breakfast, etc. It makes the day so enjoyable! well, that and the fact that we rarely find ourselves out of our pajamas!
the night of the first snow, December 13th, We went to the Nutcracker.
Finding the perfect tree... at where other than Farmer Brown's Tree Farm! It works every time!
The night we decorate the tree the 'kids' (Julie included this year) get new Christmas pajamas. This was the first year the boys remembered the tradition and couldn't wait to see what their new jammies were!
I'm almost done but there was Thanksgiving and a trip to Arizona too... I've got to fit them in here or they'll never see the light of day...
Thanksgiving... a great day spent in Puyallup and as always...bowling with family and friends. We had a great time and a great feast!
the bowling 'clan'
love that form!!
Pro Bowlers, look out!
Julie and I and our SWEET shoes! as we were driving home Hudson looked down at his feet and noticed he was still wearing his bowling shoes! You'd cry too if you had to wear those hideous shoes for the rest of your life!
Last (or first) but not least... our trip to Arizona...
We went to Arizona for a week in November. We laid by the pool daily, we did a little sightseeing, a little shopping and a little dining. and of course spending time w/ grandma (aka my mom) was a lot of fun too!
Well, I hope you survived it. I know it was a long one. the next one will be shorter! I'm sure of it! :) Happy new year!
