Happy 7th Birthday Carson!

 We started off Carson's birthday celebration at Great Wolf Lodge.  We had a great weekend playing in the wave pool, sliding down the water slides, and playing in the arcade.

 We also had a little birthday celebration for him at home.  He was lucky enough to have snow the week of his birthday, so he got lots of sledding and play time in with his friends since they missed 3 1/2 days of school due to the snow.

 Happy 7th birthday to my sweet, stubborn, smart, thoughtful boy.  We'll have one more celebration next week when we escape the snow and visit my parents and Grandparents in Arizona!

Tulalip weekend with the girls

 My girlfriends and I just returned from our annual mom's weekend at the Tulalip Resort Casino.  It was a weekend full of laughter, relaxation, fancy drinks, room service, hot tub time, shopping, in room spa treatments, and just spending time with my favorite ladies!  

 After this weekend away we always return home relaxed, refreshed and ready to take on reality.  I'm so thankful for these amazing women.

Snowmen and sledding

We were supposed to go to Lake Chelan for the Winterfest festival this weekend with friends.  We had the most beautiful house booked and paid for and had our Winterfest tickets bought.  The flu bug had other plans.  Poor Carson and Rylee both caught the flu the week before and didn't recover enough to go hang out with the little kids that were going with us.  We were all so bummed.

We took a day trip to Leavenworth so we could at least have some playtime in the snow.  The normal sledding hill was a little sad and wet this year, so we made our own hill.  The kids had fun making snowmen and having a snowball fight.  It wasn't exactly the winter weekend we had planned, but we made the most of it.

First hike of the New Year

 Last weekend was absolutely beautiful.  One of my New Years resolutions this year is to go on more hikes... so we took advantage of the sun and went on our first family hike of the year.  We drove up past Greenwater and went adventuring.  Coulee was in heaven.  She was able to be off leash and was running around sniffing everything in sight.  The kids loved exploring with her.  We even found some snow!

 After the hike we stopped in Greenwater at one of my favorite little stores for some coffee and ice cream.  Such a fun day.

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!