Party Time

Well, it's Christmas Eve tomorrow, and I felt like I should blog a bit about what we have done recently, so that tomorrow and Tuesday, I will only have to blog about Christmas. We are so excited at our house for Christmas. We got an elf this year.

His name is Buster. I'm not sure if I already blogged about him. I am surprised at how much my kids look forward to finding Buster, and any mischief he gets into when we sleep. He's been in the fridge, up by my Christmas village, with dolls, writing on pictures, and mirrors, and he most recently, bound and gagged the neighbors elf. Naughty elf! Jingles(the neighbors elf) exacted his revenge. He kidnapped Buster, and held him ransom for some mini marshmallows, and some hot cocoa. We are so excited for Christmas this year! Wyatt has been trying to fit into church clothes, that really do not fit him, for a good month or two now. Last week, I promised him a new church shirt that would fit. He looked pretty spiffy in his new shirt today.

Wyatt had his last basketball game yesterday. We are always glad that he plays, and oh so glad when we finish.

We also went to Blackfoot to see Grandma Jaeger, and be a part of her Christmas party. We have some fun little pics of that. We are not sure how much longer we get to have our dear, sweet grandma, so we want to have these great memories, with our kiddos!

Last thing I wanted to mention, was our cousin sleepover. My parents, had the kids sleepover, and they had a movie fest. Home Alone, The Christmas Story, and they never made it to Elf. We love to have our cousins over, and play til we drop!

Just the highlights of some of the fun things that we have been able to do this month, with a few more planned for the future. Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Well, we hit the road for Thanksgiving. We headed to Las Vegas. While overall it was a blast, I have to tell about everything we did! On the way there, Nadja got sick in the car. By then we were already half way there, so we figured we would just get there, and she would get better with some rest. Jared and I have figured out that we prefer to make the trek, in the late evening, and get there at 1 in the morning, as opposed to drive during the day. The kids can be in their jammies, and sleep for part of the trip, which really helps make it go fast. Wednesday, we helped Mary cook and prepare, so there was a little less to do on Thursday. Nadja was still really clingy to me, and pretty pale. Not her usual crazy self. Thursday came, and we had a beautiful meal.

The kids played, and of course there was football watched!

Nadja fell asleep on the floor waiting for me to finish my hair.

Thanksgiving night, Jared went with his cousins and uncle to see The Addams Family musical. So, I took the kids into the hot tub, that Mary and Bill always so graciously heat up for us.

Friday, we had baseball games for Zach. I didn't go, I just stayed home with Nadja so she could rest. We went out to a park where they have tons of Christmas lights. That is always a lot of fun. Then we came back to Bill and Mary's to play a few Minute To Win It games (most people know how I feel about these games, and I will just say, not a fan). Saturday was just run around day. We went to the red rocks and took a few pictures.

That picture, of course, is my family's best side! Saturday evening, the ladies got to go out to see Cirque de Soleil. It was an amazing show. I feel very lucky that I got to experience that, and now I just need to get Jared there to see it! So we had a great time, despite the fact that Jared and his dad were sick on the trip home. And Riley and Mary were sick later as well. We brought the disease with us, and shared. Thanksgiving is so much fun with family. And I'm grateful for the one I have!

Random loveliness

As I was uploading pictures, I saw a bunch of pictures that need to make an appearance on this blog. So here goes. It is pretty much our summer, in a nutshell.

My kids out enjoying a really good rainstorm. I love that we just took their shoes off, gave them an umbrella and set them free! Rain is my favorite weather, and I used to set up an umbrella, grab a blanket and a book, and go sit on our deck steps while it rained. So glad my kids can have those memories too!

We bought these bunk beds for the girls. We are building a room for the girls downstairs and when they finally move down there, we will take their bunk beds down, so that there will be a little more room for toys and 2 girls in a room.

Isabelle turned 5 in August. We had a great party for her, with just family. She is such a beautiful little girl. At 5 she loves to play dress up, and dance all the time. She is always making up dances. She has more attitude than any teenager I've met. She loves to color and draw. She is always looking for ways to include other people in everything we do. She loves to play with her friends! Her favorite color is purple, because that is Aunt Caitlyn's favorite color. She is sweet, and loves to give hugs and kisses!

So long Rufus, hello fort!

Well, after 2 great years with our dog, we had to give him away. He is very aggressive to other little children. He is totally mellow to our kiddos, but other kids come around, and he gets very mean. Rufus bit someone 6 months ago, and he did it again a week ago. That is when we decided that we can't do this anymore. He was such a good dog for us. We are so sad to have our good buddy gone, but we will always cherish our great memories we have of him!

Happy news at our house though, is the almost completion of Wyatt's lab. We just need the siding, and Wyatt is going to paint it on Saturday.

This is the front view, from our yard.

A couple of table/shelves to hold tools, and experiments.

Trap door with an escape route to the dirt fields (in case an experiment goes bad)

Jared has also worked diligently on building a new mailbox for us. While I tease him a lot that it is our guest house(Ha Ha), I am very proud of his hard work! Now we even have a light in it, so bright that I'm sure our neighbors are cussing us, and it looks similar to a lighthouse, showing the way.

Dance and a broken nose

Wyatt has been signed up in a Hip Hop class, and Isabelle in a Tiny Cheer and Tumble class, at the CRC. We had their dance recital on May 30th. They were amazing. While we were in Disneyland, the kids missed class pictures, and I didn't get one of Wyatt with his class, but we got some good pictures of them doing their dances on stage!

Right before the dance recital, I ran Nadja to my grandma's house to drop Nadja off. About 10 minutes later, my grandma called to let me know that they both took a trip down the stairs to her basement. It resulted in me running Nadja to urgent care, and getting some medicine for her, and an icee to help with the swelling. After the swelling went down, we were certain that her nose broke. No biggie though, they don't do anything to fix those things! She was fine, by the way, about an hour after we were home. She sang and danced away the evening with my dad, who sat with her so I could run to the dance recital and see the kiddos.

Disneyland

So, we went to a farewell for a cousin in Las Vegas, and since we were so close to California, we decided to take in Disneyland. It was a blast. We were really nervous about taking Nadja, and how she would behave, but my close friend kept telling me that the kids are always really great once you get there. She was right. All of our kids were amazing! When we pulled in to the hotel parking lot, we let the kids open a little card from their Grandma and Grandpa, that held some money for them to spend on what they wanted. Then, they found out they were going to Disneyland! BEST DAY EVER!!!!!

I think that Jared and I were stunned that our kids didn't beg for everything that they saw. We told them to wait until the 2nd day to decide what they wanted to spend their money on, and they did! We had to have cotton candy for the parade, but other than that, the kids waited patiently and asked how much things were before they decided what they wanted. In the mean time we went on every ride we could, and took pictures with every character we could. Nadja was pretty sick of taking picutres by the end, and would just tell me no by the end of our 3 days there.

Every night ended with the kids totally crashed and exhausted! It was the best vacation and we had a blast! We will have to do it again when Nadja is older and can remember going, but until then, we will have to keep these awesome memories close!

Catching up again!

So, yah, I've pretty much been seriously slacking on this blog business. We have been crazy busy, but I must admit it was just sheer laziness that has kept me from blogging. Now I am kicking myself in the butt, because I have a ton to catch up on. A really brief overview of what we have been up to: Wyatt's birthday was a lot of fun. We did a family party, then we did a friend party which was a blast. We had a lot of fun, even though it ended with a friend being bit by our naughty dog. He's much better now, thank goodness!

The top picture was a little treasure hunt that the kids started the party with.

We did silly string, and we tried to decorate our own little treasure chest cakes, but the cake was too crumbly, and they just made a huge mess. Something that all little boys love right?

What Have We Been Up To?

Well, I haven't blogged for over 2 months. And guess what? A ton has happened since then. I tried to blog a couple weeks ago, but my computer wouldn't recognize my camera cards, so I had to figure that out. And I am pretty sure I never figured it out, I just magically did the right thing (backed up and restored my computer to a previous date). So, let's start clear back in February and catch up!

Valentine's Day! We did Isabelle's hair in a heart shape for her party at school. When the kids went to bed, we decorated their door, and exit by their doors.

We had a play dough afternoon. This was the first time Nadja had played with play dough, so she had a good time! What a messy fun thing to do!

I made this cute little play dough lady! And then there is always the residual when we are done, but that is a sign of a good time right?

We also bought a new car. I told Jared that I would downsize, mainly because the Expedition was getting terrible gas mileage, and I cruise around this town a ton. So, I had my eye on a Nissan Murano, but Jared wanted better gas mileage, and we tried out a Chevy Cruse. Coming from the Expedition, it felt like a sardine can. Now that we've had it a while, it's not so squishy. Although the children are much louder, because they are so much closer.