Christmas with Family

A few years ago we decided that Alberta is way more fun in the summer than the winter...and Kevin's family decided that California is way more enjoyable in December than Edmonton is:) so we have been celebrating Christmas here for the last several years. While we really miss seeing the extended family over Christmas we always enjoy our time with Kevin's parents. This year Ryan and Jessica also came with their girls. It was  really fun for our kids to play with their cousins and for us to finally meet Kayla. Brooklyn and Makena especially hit it off and I have heard several times since they left that Brooklyn would really like to live by Makena:( So hard to say good bye! Here are a few pictures of our time with them. Like always, it went way too quickly!

These two LOVED the dirt and played for several hours over the weekend. Each time they got out Makena borrowed some of Brooklyn's clean clothes and I just put a dress on her the first time. Ryan and Jessica and Opa and Oma were shocked she agreed to wear a dress, apparently she doesn't like dresses. She must have decided I was too much of a stranger to argue with;) By the end of the weekend I think she was always in one of Brooklyn's dresses!

Present time. We were all totally spoiled!

Opa helped Hudson with his first Lego project...Hudson was in his glory!

Ethan got a new Wii game and loved the one on one time with Uncle Ryan.

Opa and Oma and all their grandkids!!

We had a great time and are already looking forward to our next visit!

The rest of November and lets back it up to October for a couple too....

I need to document the fact that we did make it to the pumpkin patch in 2014....at least I did with the younger two and their preschool class. I've posted before of my love/hate relationship with the pumpkin patch and this year did not disappoint with sweaty warm temps and lots of dust and hay...but the kids had fun and that's what matters!

Brooklyn with some of her friends

Milking the "cow"!

One of the PreK classes of 2014

Hudson and Brooklyn are sitting on the bench with another set of twins in their class. There are three sets of twins in their preK grade!

Halloween...another love/hate for me. As long as we can find free costumes and avoid handing candy out I'm happy and we succeeded in both this year. In fact it rained this year so we got out of a lot of trick or treating with these three and Ethan went with friends. We had a cat, Rapunzel and a baseball player.

Kid's eat free at Chevy's trip with cousins.

Back to Halloween, Ethan went trick or treating with friends and LOVED it!

In November Kevin and I went to Monterey with Eric and Kara and ran the Big Sur half marathon. It was a fabulous weekend. We had lots of good laughs, ate lots of good food and ran a gorgeous race.

And the after....looking a little worn out;)

We got to go to the coast for Thanksgiving. We went to the Aquarium on Thanksgiving. This was the second year we have done that and just like the first it was virtually empty. It was so fun to see everything without huge crowds. A different way to thank God for his creative creation!

The kids are really starting to like listening to the docents explain things. We stayed at this particular station for about 15 minutes listening to the lady and interacting with her computer. We also spent a lot of time on the deck looking through aquarium workers binoculars and getting our questions answered like Hudson's "How long can a sea otter hold his breath?"

We were there most of the week with my parents. We also decided to try 24 hours with the WHOLE family so Eric and Kara and crew joined us one night before we headed home. Something we have never done. We actually had a great time. Everyone had super low expectations so we were all pleasantly surprised. The kids had a blast and memories were made!

This little girl's hair is coming in nicely and she is often quite particular about what she wants done with it. Really she wants nothing more than long, straight, princess hair....May be awhile chicky!

Kara and my friend Janey and I got our craft on and made these gratitude banners. Here are Morgan and Brooklyn explaining gratitude to me:)

Next up....December happenings. I'm going to get caught up yet!

Catch up

Catch up...seems to be the story of my life right now. With all kids in school at least 6 hours a week, no more diapers to change, bottles to mix or baby food to puree you would think I would have oodles of free time. Somehow that is not the case and I still find myself with a to do list that doesn't get done each day, laundry still piled in my room waiting to be folded each night and people "I keep meaning to call". How is that possible? I truly am enjoying the stages the kids are at. Everyone is learning so much in school and I love that. I love seeing Hudson and Brooklyn's worlds open up as they recognize letters and numbers everywhere, I love hearing Morgan read more independently and I love trying to stay ahead of what Ethan is learning....not always the case now! We are busy doing life and trying to make memories and take advantage of the days we are all home together now. I know that will only get crazier so we are trying to slow life down as much as possible. Here are some pictures from November...and then maybe next post we can finish November and start December:)

I searched one of my local friend's blog for things to do in our area in the fall. I came across one of her posts about a trip they made to Calavares Big Trees. I have been wanting to take our kids there, but due to some sensitive tummies we have always put it off. I am happy to report that we made the trip without any puking AND a broken DVD player! We had some classic road trip fun as we played I Spy, I'm going camping and I'm going to bring....as well as shared knock, knock jokes. I think we made some memories and enjoyed some fall colors among the giant trees God has created. Enjoy our pics from the day.