Christmas Eve

We love to be able to spend the holidays with family.  We headed to G&G Bogh's house to celebrate Christmas Eve.  It was a fun evening filled with gifts and spending time together to soak in the last little bits of this amazing holiday and the birth that we celebrate this time of year.

 

The kids loved the books they received from grandma and grandpa

 

and a perfectly timed visit from the big man himself.  The kids opened their unsuprise of new Christmas jammies and we were on our way home to wait and try and sleep with sugarplums in our heads.

December 2011

Don't you hate it when you look at your blog and realize that all of the posts you have written in you head never made it to the computer?!  That is how I have been feeling this past month.  I love the Christmas season and really want to remember all the details, but it seems that our blog is what has suffered, I am sure I will regret not writing down more of the memories, so here is my meager attempt at a recap.

One thing that seems to kick off the holiday season for us it Christmas Tree Lane.  This gives people in our community to share their talents with everyone.  There are also beautiful trees on display for everyone to see.  This year Madison danced.  Her class did a really cute tap dance to "Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland".  She did a great job.

We did some baking this month.  Allie enjoyed every last bite of it.  I am pretty sure that she survived this month on cookies.  I love her in this cute Tinkerbell outfit.  She was really good to let the kids dress her up, and she especially loved the wings.

 

 

This was our gingerbread house for the year.  I think most of the candy ended up in their mouths. 

Our K-2nd grade elementary got a special surprise just days before Christmas.   It was a secret to the kids and the anticipation was almost too much.  The students were taken to the airport for the arrival of a special guest.  The kids were so excited to see Santa fly in.  After arrival there was an assembly at the school where the secret was revealed.

The scouts in the picture above gave service to earn their Eagle Scout award.  They are from across the state and each took part by raising money and collecting donations for a title one school, that school was ours.  They school received supplies for their classrooms and well as individual supplies for each student.  The kids were so excited, Christmas definitely came early for these students! And the homemade cookies from the lunch ladies topped it off.

Tom got his Christmas present early this year.  Yes, that elk is hanging in our house. I have to admit that it isn't as bad as I had dreamed.  When Tom first brought it into the house Allie screamed her lungs out, and I thought maybe that would be my ticket to hanging it in the garage, but she warmed up to it a bit to quickly and now just points and says "daddy elk". Tom was really excited to get it back so quickly, I guess getting a mount back in just over a month is unheard of.

The Nutcracker is also another of our traditions.  Madison had three parts this year, the soldier, angel, and flower.  She is such a beautiful dancer and did an excellent job. 

Even though she would deny it at the moment, since she is going through a tom-boy phase, she loves to dance, and we love to watch her.

The second grade did their "Polar Express" program.  Emma wasn't to thrilled as you can tell.  The story:  The entire time they had spent practicing for the program she was able to sit by Jake, her cousin and best friend in her class. The day before the program for the parents she came home from school and burst into tears.  She told us that she had to switch spots for the program and had to sit by "some guy" she didn't know.  She was heart broken.  I guess it was one of those parental teaching moments where we told her that she would be fine and that the "guy" probably needed someone nice to sit by him.  She was not pleased, but she did survive. 

The program was so cute, I love that they were all wearing pajamas.  Emma was much happier after the program was over, now we just need to get some new songs in her head, she keeps singing "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas."

Christmas wouldn't be complete without a visit to Santa.  This was just one of the four times the kids were able to rattle off their desires to the big man.  What a magical time of year.

Thanksgiving 2011

  I didn't take to many pictures on Thanksgiving, but here are a few of the highlights.  We started our day at G& G Thalmans house where we ate lots of good food and played with cousins.  By the time I pulled out my camera most of the boys had split, but I thought these pictures of the girls with some of their cousins were pretty cute.

 I just can't believe how old these girls are getting.  It is so much fun to watch them grow up together. Later that afternoon we went to G&G Bogh's house to eat more good food and play with more cousins.  That night we headed out to good 'ol Wal-Mart to brave the crowds and ended up with some pretty sweet deals and were back by midnight, I don't think you can do much better than that.

  

The next day started with shooting of rockets.  In the pictures above C.J. was upset, and when I asked him why he told me because the first time he shot off his rocket the parachute didn't deploy.  So I told him to ask Uncle Charles if is could shoot his again, and in this sequence of pictures you can tell that it worked much better.  He was our happy boy again. 

 

 

Later on in the day we went and cut down Christmas trees.  I can't believe I didn't take any pictures, but we had a good time and were able to get some pretty great trees.

18 Months

So this post is a few months late, but I feel bad that I haven't posted it sooner.  In October Allie turned 18 months old. I know crazy, but true.  Here are a few pictures that I took of our little cutie pie.

She is such a sweet girl.  At 18 months she is a little jabber jaw.  She will mimic any thing you say and will throw out new words all the time.  She understands everything as well.  She know what is  going on all the time.  She is still such a daddy's girls and I love it.  It is so funny to watch her follow Tom around and mimic his every move.  If he walks in a circle that is exactly what Allie does. She still only has 4 teeth 2 on top and 2 on the bottom.  A few more are tying to poke their way though, but for know it is nice to only have to care for those 4 little ones.  Her favorite toys are her piano and her baby.  She loves pancakes and grapes. She sleeps about 12 hours at night and takes a 2-3 hour nap every day.  She is still tiny, at her dr. appointment she was 16 pounds and 24 inches.  She loves it when the kids get home from school and will follow them around like she is as big as they are.  We are so glad to have this sweet baby in our family.

Elk Hunt 2011

So when Tom drew out on this big bull hunt he told me that he was going to spent the first two weeks of November hunting.  I thought o.k. whatever, but then the time of the hunt came and that is exactly what he did.  The first week was spent scouting from one mountain range to the next in search of the perfect bull.

He was excited about it and kept count of how many they had seen each day.  Well a few days before the hunt it snowed, who knew this would change the game.  The elk moved and the search began again.  The first few days of the hunt he didn't find anything except cows.  Tom was frustrated and so it trickled down the line.  I am of the mind set that if you are going to get one get it the first day and be done with it.  Five days into the 10 day hunt He told me that if he didn't get one the next day, that was it he was done.

He was true to his word.  The next day he got one. This thing is massive.  He was so excited, almost as much as the people who went with him. Now my only worry is where the heck we are going to hang this thing when it is finished at the taxidermists, I suggested the garage but I don't think that will fly.  Wish me luck! Also, there is a video here if you want to see how the whole thing went down, it is a little sad if you ask me, but the jerky we made is pretty tasty.

Birthday Boy!

 Can you believe our C.J. turned 6 years old.  I can't hardly stand it.  I kept asking him if didn't want to go backwards and turn four, but he didn't like that idea, so we celebrated.  He had breakfast in bed, well actually out of bed.  He was too excited and popped right up when we came in his room singing Happy Birthday.

 He had some friends over for a fun party.  We partied Cars 2 style with plenty of racing games, oil can bowling, old tire cupcakes.

 He had  a great party.

 He also got to celebrate at school.  The kids sang a song to him and then got to ask him questions to learn a little more about him.  Then he passed out treats.  He choose to take Gushers and Capri Suns.  Good thing it was at the end of the day, because the kids sure were on a sugar rush after that snack. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner and then home to celebrate some more.

 He loved his birthday hat and wore it that night when was had cake and ice cream.  And then it was present time.  He has been wanting a new bike for a while, so it was the perfect gift for him.

 He was so excited and loved that it was red and silver because that means that it is fast.  We are so glad to have C.J. in our family.  He is such a funny boy who keeps us on our toes and is always reminding us of things that we need to do or things we have said that we will do.  He loves school and learning, he asks a million questions about everything and always wants to know how things work.  His favorite color is orange and he will eat a huge stack of pancakes any time of day.  He is really good to listen and do things you ask the first time.  He says the most sincere prayers.  He is a really great little brother and the best big brother to Allie.  Such a sweet boy and we love him so much.  Happy Birthday Buddy, just stay 6 as long as you can because 7 just seems so much older!

Happy Halloween

 We finally made it to Halloween, well almost.  On Sunday we went to visit g and g Bogh.  I didn't get very many pictures, but this is Allie on their porch, waiting for Halloween to come already.

 Madison and some of her cute friends decided to be the cutest handful of m&m's I have ever seen.  So fun.

 C.J. decided on the knight costume for trick or treating.  In this picture he was giving me a 'strong' knight face.  He also loved his pumpkin of Lightening McQueen.

 Allie didn't want to put her costume on due to an accident while carving pumpkins.  Notice her left eye, she fell and hit it on a chair while carving pumpkins.  As soon as we gave her the candy bucket with a few treats in it she was ready to go. And her minnie mouse pumpkin was too cute.

 

Emma, our cute shaggy dog with her dog carved pumpkin.

 This house is one stop that we try to make every year.  It is amazing.  There are decorations and lights everywhere complete with fog.  You can see Tom walking in with the big kids, I am happy to say that they made it out alive.  This picture doesn't do it justice, it is pretty amazing.

 This was the gang at g and g Thalman's house.  I love that most of the kids have some sort of treat in their mouth, so true to life and Jaxon is just getting to tall so his head got cut off.  These are the cutest kids, a family of bumble bees, dragon, Belle, Alice, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, a Viking, House Elf, Blue Rock Star, Prom Queen, dinosaur, Baseball Player, Corpse Bride, and the most creative costume of the year, (not pictured) a flying purple crayon. I think Allie's expression is how I was feeling as well, is it over yet?  I love Halloween, well cute Halloween, but November 1st is always a welcome day.

This is Allie's favorite spot at g and g's house in grandpas lap.