Merry Christmas 2018

Christmas was a success once again!  This might have been one of my favorite years.  The kids were at the perfect ages to be excited and also thankful.  My sister Mandy hosted Christmas Eve.  It's always nice to get together and celebrate with Jon's family and some old family friends.

Christmas morning was spent at our house.  This is my very favorite part of Christmas.  Relaxing on the couch with a cup of coffee and watching the kids excitedly open their stockings and gifts from Santa.

Later in the morning my parents and Mandy and Jon came over to spend the day and celebrate.  The kids had so many presents they didn't know where to begin!  Some favorite gifts were a watch for Rylee that she can call and text with, and lots of legos for Carson.  They also got a cool little robot from my parents.

It was so much fun watching Kennedy enjoy her first Christmas.  She was a party animal and barely napped all day.  She didn't want to miss any excitement!

We also had Aunt Diane here for Christmas.  She recently moved to Shelton from Minnesota.  It was fun having her here for the holidays!

For Christmas dinner we had a delicious tri-tip steak, crab, and all the fixins.  Delicious!  My mom also made an apple crisp for my Dad's birthday but we were too full to eat it!  It made for a delicious breakfast the next day.

We ended the night playing some cards.  Happy Birthday Dad and Merry Christmas to all!

Holiday festivities

These are pics from pajama day at school.  There are always so many fun activities the week before winter vacation!

The kids helped decorate our ginormous tree.  I love it!  It fits all the kids handmade ornaments.

We made lots of Christmas cookies this year.  We made candy canes, snowballs and magic bars at my parents house but of course I didn't get any pictures!  We made some sugar cookies at home and the kids decorated them.  They were so into it this year, especially Carson!

We went to see our friend Mark's band "The Reaching" at Urban Timber in Sumner.  It's become an annual tradition now.  We get together with the Vehs, grab dinner, and go watch our favorite local band play Christmas Music.  So fun!

Coulee is still kickin' it.  We think she's about 13 or 14 now.  She definitely acts like an old woman now, but she still gets her bursts of energy every once in a while and runs circles around the yard. 

Another one of my favorite holiday traditions is to get jammies on, grab some hot cocoa, and go look at Christmas lights.  

Now we are officially ready for Christmas!

Surprise visit with Gramma J

Lance and his siblings recently surprised their mom with a visit for her birthday.  They took her to dinner, drove her down to the coast for a day, and helped clean and update her apartment.  She was very excited to have all her kiddos in one place.  

Happy Birthday Gramma J!

Volleyball pictures

Rylee just finished up her volleyball season.  It was her first time playing and she learned so much.  She was on a team with 3rd, 4th and 5th grade girls.  It was fun to watch her confidence and skills grow, and she had fun making new friends.

These are a couple videos of her serving.

This one shows an awesome play by Rylee.  I can't believe I caught it on video!

Girls night out!

 I surprised Rylee with tickets to see Annie at the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle.  We made it a girls night.  Shopping in downtown Seattle, dinner at PF Changs, and then the show.  It was so much fun!  Seattle is so magical this time of year.

Santa pics

Last night Rylee stayed up writing this letter for Santa.  Today we visited Santa and she was so excited to give it to him.  It completely melted my heart.

We also got to see our friend Julie and her son Jacob.  He wasn't quite as excited to see Santa as my kids were!

Thanksgiving weekend

The kids got lots of cousin time in over Thanksgiving weekend.  Carson is still obsessed with his cousin Ace, but this year they were much better about including Jack and Rylee.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Uncle Stuart and Britt's house this year, and then they treated us all to a gingerbread house building event at the Hilton in Bellevue.  It was awesome!  They had pre-made gingerbread houses and all the candy and frosting you could ask for.

They even had a photographer there taking family photos!

Later in the weekend we all went skating.  The kids loved skating with Uncle Peter!