Decembry Christmas Birthdays

Christmas Eve is a double celebration in the Christian family :)

And since my dad doesn't like to mix his birthday celebrations with Christmas we do a breakfast feast! Crepes, scrambled eggs, specialty breads, egg nog, OJ, and Stuffed Apple Caramel Fresh Toast! Oh this was so yummy and thank you Lisa for sharing the recipe with me!

I love my dad... let me rephrase that, WE love our dad and grandpa! His loving nature is felt by many and I'm so grateful for him.  Happy 61 Dad!

I've seen cousins that are share a special kinship before and it's precious.  But I haven't seen one so young, and I adore these two's relationship.  At 18 months they are each other's shadow.  They make each other laugh, share food, rarely fight(which very well could change as they get older), follow each other around and instigate mischief all over the house... and it's obvious they love each other.  Crystal and I have yet to get one of their cute moments on video and curse ourselves when we aren't prepared and miss one.  One of these days we will! 

Christmas morning is always exciting.  Kids up before the sun even comes out... pestering us to get out of bed ;).  I don't have any unwrapping of the presents pictures except these because it took up most of our Christmas morning.  Putting together our new trampoline :).  These were one of those times when working together was fun.  Thank you to everyone who made our Christmas so special.

HULK-Thor.... love it Carson ;)  This little dog, Tia, is my brother's and we were babysitting her while they were away at a cabin as a family.

And off we go!!  I forewarned the kids about injuries... it's not if, but when.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Three days later Cami turned 10.  Yes, 10! I still have a hard time realizing how big she's getting so fast.  You have to know one thing... all December, Cami checked the weather EVERY day to see if it was going to snow.  It didn't get here by Christmas, but a little bit of heavenly snow came on her birthday. :) She had fun playing in it with her friends, like Lindsey :). 

Happy Birthday Cami Lamb! You are beautiful

Here is the wall at the end of December... the kids worked hard and did good! Don't think I'm going to take them down until Spring :)

Now, I have to explain this picture a bit... it's Craig.  Need I say more? I probably shouldn't but I will.  He has a fetish with the toilets.  UGH!!!  Putting toilet paper in, taking it out when it's all soggy and piling it up on the bathroom mat.  Dipping toothbrushes in the water and yes.... sucking on it afterwards. SO Gross!!  I've thrown away so many toothbrushes recently.  I have seen people with toilet locks, and now I think I'm going to have to invest in one.  What a stinker Craig can be sometimes! I seriously, can't keep up with him.

It's funny though how life has it's roller coasters.  One minute I'm pulling my hair out trying to keep Craig from the toilet, and then the next thing I see is this out my window..... and I had to take a picture.

My heart melts and I can't help but think of God and his tender mercies in our lives.  Majestic scenes are healing to the soul and I loved this one.  I look at it over and over again, and it takes me back to what really matters. I thank God for his beautiful creations, especially my children.  Pure and innocent. White is Beautiful.

Waiting for snow

Some people dread it, some people love it, some people are indifferent.  But.. my kids are looking for snow every morning! Cami will even check the weather on the internet EVERY day to see if there will be a forecast of snow.  Haha.  So we decided to make our own this year... with paper any way.  The kids love doing it, even Carson.  So we started a snowflake wall in our kitchen.  The plan is to cover the whole kitchen by Christmas :)

The freezing cold has kept us inside more, so the kids have become quite creative.  Craig loves to stack things.  And destroy things... but we won't get into that.  But I love this picture.  He was in his bedroom for a good half hour lining up all these cars... so cute :)  This is what I call a TRAFFIC JAM.

Christmas Time!

This time of year is so fun :) The kids keep saying... "It's the best time of the year, hands down!"

There is so much that goes into this holiday and I hope to make the best of it.  Christmas music and movies, decorations galore, goodies to give, time to share, and snow to HOPEFULLY fall (my kids keep looking out the window every day... highly disappointed in only seeing frost ;).  Fa la la... Christmas is simply Merry :)

This last Tuesday we decorated Gingerbread houses for Activity Days.  I spent a whole day baking.. mmmmmm, man did the house smell ever so good!  I love being Cami's activity day leader :)

Sophie, Jenna, Kimmy, Cami, Kali, and Emily (friend).. they did great!

I made extra for the boys to do.

Craig is loving the excitement of Christmas too... although, I CAN NOT keep this kid away form the ornaments!  Haha... just an 18 month old thing ;)

Turkey Fun

Happy Thanksgiving to you All!!  This Thanksgiving was peaceful and filling :)

In the Morning Jeremy and Alex participated in the local Turkey Bowl at the church, of course Alex was beaming!

At home the rest of us were relaxing and baking :)  It's nice when families and friends get together to help split up all the cooking! So I had to do very minimal :).  I found Craig snitching ahead of time...

He quite enjoyed himself :)

YUM!

I bet you can guess the rest what happened the rest of the day :)

Happy Thanksgiving 2013

A little Bit of November

This is Mr. Personality.  He's been showing us all his cute mayhem around every corner :).  He LOVES peek-a-boo.  When he's not tearing every one of Jeremy's shirts of the hangers (Ugh!!), he's hiding in them and playing peek-a-boo when we come around the corner.  He makes me laugh and I finally caught him on camera :)

There once was a time when I did crafts with my kids almost weekly... it is a rare occasion now.  BUT, with some free one on one time with Carson we pulled out some paints and finger printed leaves onto our tree picture.  I forget how fun it can be :).  Time to hit PINTEREST for some more ideas!

Cami and Jeremy went to a local musical, Peter Pan.  Daddy daughter dates are so fun!

This boy has football on the brain! Not that he plays on a team, Alex just loves the sport... and personally I get a kick out of it.  We'll go outside and run routes while the kids try to defend each other.  It's a talent to be able to perfect the spiral throw!

After the leaves dried from the wind, we gathered what we could find in our front yard... a lot! I loved watching the kids play in it.  Craig especially because couldn't stop laughing and squeeling while playing in them.  So fun :)

Carson getting ready to be buried alive!

While the other kids played, Cami was the one who got the job done... granted we only had one rake and the other kids had to use their hands... but nonetheless!... she was constantly raking :)

A leafy booty!

I always forget about the wind that come in the spring and fall... which blew down a part of our fence.  Being the second time it's happened (different part of fence), and that they initially posted the fence incorrectly (allowing moisture to rot the posts), this will probably happen a few more times.  Oh well... HAPPY FALL!

Halloween of 2013

Halloween is always fun :)... and the extra added sugar we all put in our systems throughout the day heighten the excitement! This year:

Cami was Hermionie Granger

Alex was a Ninja (like last year-made that costume easy!)

Carson was a Power Ranger (that kid kept going back and forth between Batman, Spiderman, and a Power Ranger... none of us knew what he'd choose the day of. Haha, silly kid.)

And Craig was our Pumpkin again! Sucking on suckers almost all night ;)

For our Trunk or Treat at the Church that night, I decided to be creative... say Ahhhhhh!

I'm not one to dress up normally, really it's once in a blue moon that I do... but we decided to go as pirates this year.  I personally like Jeremy's parrot, ha!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO YOU ALL!

Another Set of Wedding Bells

In August, my little sis got married.  I bawled in the sealing... yes I'm a blubber-er.  But tears of Joy! 

Jessica and Daniel Meyer coming out of the Columbia River Temple.

The beautiful happy Bride :)

They were sealed by Pres. Moody.  Jeremy grew up with Pres. Moody as his bishop, so it was pretty neat to be apart of the sealing.

Outside my two handsome men hanging around the temple. 

My brother, Jake, and his wife, Shelly, came down from Missouri to celebrate the occasion.  It's always so good to see them.

My brother, Zack, and his wife, Kori smiling away :)

Hayley (my sis-in-law) and her two girls, Kate and Brooke.  If you couldn't tell, Jessica's colors were orange and yellow.  Happy summer colors :)

Crystal (sis-in-law) and her daughter Ella

The trio cousins, Cami, Tate, and Kate

The bridesmaids... yes I was one of them :)

The whole Christian sha-bang! 

All the cousins

Proud parents

The ladies

I loved the the fun details Jess and Dan put in: Yellow sun glasses for the bridesmaids, orange tooling in Jessica's dress, and colorful socks for the boys :)

The bro's! Tyler, Ezra, Jake, and Zack

Loved this pic in front of the temple

The reception was held in the back yard of the Meyer's home and it turned out beautiful!  I loved the hanging balloons in the trees

On each table, there were framed goldfish bowls, with Live goldfish inside

The Cake area

For the food they had separate tables decorated and labeled so cute!

Some of the fun food they did

Who knows how many cupcakes were made! We did 200 at our house.

This actually happened. In the middle of the reception a rainbow came out in the overcast skies.  Seriously romantic :)

Cutting the cake

And of course, the car! Gotta mess with the car :)

Congrats Dan and Jess!  May the rest of your life be full of happiness!