Christmas 2013

We headed to Medford again for Christmas this year. 

Someone need some hot chocolate for the ride down.

Christmas Eve we spent the day with Russ's parents. We sported our Beaver gear during the day since the bowl game was that evening.

We went to church and after church had pizza for dinner and watched the game (Beavs won!)

The cousins in their somewhat matching new Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve

The boys left cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer.

 All the presents are ready for the morning chaos!

Seeing what Santa brought in their stockings!

Blake wanted a helicopter for Christmas. The kind that is meant for an 8-year-old, not a 3-year-old. As the days went by and Christmas got closer, we kept asking him what he wanted, and he without fail, would say a helicopter every time we asked. So we got him a helicopter. We opted with the cheaper one, since we knew it was something he wouldn't do on his own and Russ would have to help we didn't want to spend a ton of money. Well, Christmas Eve as Russ was charging it and giving it a test run, it broke! Thankfully Russ was able to fix it enough to use it just once Christmas morning and then the day after Christmas we went and exchanged it for a better one. Lesson Learned: buy two, or have a back up. 

Lil checking out what Santa brought her

Cousins on Christmas!

After the presents were opened we didn't do a whole lot on Christmas Day, the kids played with their new toys and take much needed naps. That afternoon/evening everyone came over for dinner and a white elephant-ish gift exchange.

Cousins

{photo bombed by Michelle}

 Of course dessert was the best!

Logan clearly enjoyed his dessert!

Trying to get a nice picture of them was nearly impossible. This is the best I got.

The next morning {Thursday} we did Christmas with the Bartlett's. 

 Lily checking out her Ballapalooza

Blake trying out his new Dusty sleeping bag

Flying the new, better helicopter. I've been surprised at how much he has wanted to play with the helicopter especially since he can't do it himself. 

On Friday morning before we headed home Grandpa Lowell {who turned 81 on the 29th} brought over doughnuts. Which has pretty much become a tradition every time we go to Medford.

We had a great Christmas! And are blessed to have so much loving family!

Hope you had a blessed Christmas!

Lily's first steps!

Finally, Lily is almost walking! This morning she held just Blake's hand and walked down the hallway and then tonight she took about three steps on her own! I think it'll still be a while before she is off and running but she's getting closer and closer!

Thanksgiving Weekend 2013

It was a busy Thanksgiving weekend!

Thursday was Thanksgiving.

We stayed home this year for Thanksgiving and my side of the family came to our house for the day. It was the first time for us to host Thanksgiving and the first time in {at least the last} 7 years that my whole immediate family was together. We ate, watched some football, kids played and we ate some more. 

Amazing that everyone is looking at the camera! I think that might be a first!

 Auntie Sha, the photo boomer 

 Kids Table!

Us

Thursday night my mom, sister and I went out and did some shopping {yes, you can call us crazy}. However we decide shopping on Thanksgiving is not worth it. At all. You can get the same sales on Friday {DURING the day, NOT in the middle of the night!} So we went home and slept and then went back out the next morning. People are crazy though when it comes to Black Friday.

Friday was the Civil War.

Russ went to the Civil War game. Our brother-in-law is a UofO alum and has season tickets and invited Russ to go with him. 

The kids and I headed up to my Aunt and Uncles in Portland to watch the game. It was a great game! The Beavers actually put up a fight and we lost by only one point. It was sad, we were so close to winning. But it was a way better game then we thought it would be so it was a lot of fun to watch!

Friday night we stayed at my sisters and Russ stayed at his sisters. 

Saturday we went to Zoo Lights.

Saturday Russ helped his sister and brother-in-law move and we hung out with my sister. And then went to Zoo Lights! 

{click here to see the first zoo light experience, we've only gained a couple kids :)}

 Sibling love

 Lily checking out Lily 

{the baby elephant at the zoo is named Lily}

She loved touching the lights!

The Bartlett family!

Sunday we got our Christmas Tree.

Searching for the perfect tree (the only picture I took).

Well, that was a busy four day weekend! 

Hope you had a fun Thanksgiving weekend!

Fall 2013

I can't believe it's been OVER a month since my last post! I feel like the reason for that is because there is so much to catch up on that I keep putting it off and then never end up posting anything! So here we are a month since Lily's broken leg (which healed great, after 3 weeks in a splint!) and tomorrow is Thanksgiving (not sure how that came so fast!). Here's a little catch up and then I'm going to just pick up where we are in life, because if I don't, I'm not sure I will ever blog again. 

The weather has been pretty nice this fall! We made to the pumpkin patch kind of on a whim one sunny Saturday afternoon with some friends. 

Searching for the pumpkins

Luke and Blake

Pretty typical family photo these days

Blake got to drive the tractor!

A wagon full of kids!

Russ and I both entered a new decade... the thirties... yikes!

My sweet sister threw me a surprise birthday party at a tailgater before a football game, and had lined up babysitting (my wonderful in-laws, who drove all the way up from Medford-- thank you guys!!) so I could actually go to a game!

For Russ's birthday I surprised him with a day off of work and a family trip to the zoo. Something we had been wanting to do for a while. 

Then we had a little party at our house. 

And of course there was some Beaver football involved. 

Russ has made it to every home game this fall. And Blake went to quite a few too. Both those boys love their football and their Beavers!

We've been teaching Blake's class at church which has been fun!

We had the Hulk and a Butterfly for Halloween

This little girl got a horrible virus.

 We ended up in the ER one night because she was just not acting normal at all and hadn't for days and I wasn't wanting to take any chances since she had been hospitalized for pneumonia and bronchiolitis last winter.

We were there for a few hours, they ran a gamut of tests and everything looked great so they sent us home and thankfully the next day she really started to improve.

We've been playing outside a lot since the rain hasn't really started yet. Have I mentioned how much we are loving our new neighborhood! 

Lily has really wanted to feed herself lately,

which is great, but it usually ends up like this...

And then straight to the bathtub she goes.

Well, that's what we've been up to in a nut shell (I'm sure there is lots I have forgotten). Hopefully I'll get better at staying on top of this blogging thing, and blog more then once a month! 

Hope you had a great fall!