December...

We did birthday celebrating...

(Mine, my mom's, Brittany's and Cole's)

We did Gingerbread houses...

We did snowman building...

We did the Festival of Trees (or at least I did to watch my sweet niece dance)...

We did  cookie decorating...

 

...or just some frosting eating...

We did lights... (sorry no pics)

We did trips to the ice cream shop...

 

We did Santa visiting...

We enjoyed family...

We did  our annual Christmas Eve celebration...

 

We did our annual Nativity reenactment...

   (Can i just say I LOVE this picture)

We did presents...

We did baby showers...

We did Pirate Island...

We are exhausted...

We enjoyed our December!!!

Decorating

decorating  for Christmas

Chuck E. Cheeses

Again Ryan  made sure I had an awesome Birthday.

I slept in and he took me to lunch.

Let me go shopping by myself and then surprised me (sort of, Eli kind of spilled the beans), by going to Chuck E. Cheeses to celebrate with my family.  (It was Eli's idea).

picture courtesy of Eli

It was so much fun!! I love to play skeeball,. I got a whole bunch of my very own tokens and played like crazy. I loved having a party where everyone was having fun. The kids loved it, and had a blast playing games, and playing with their  cousins.

Thanks Ry. i had a great day!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year.

Thanksgiving day was spent with my family.

Ryan played Halo until crazy hours in the morning.

I did some fun after Thanksgiving shopping.

went to the lighting of the lights at Temple square, and then dinner, with my brothers and their families.

Up to Bancroft, Id. for our annual Thanksgiving dinner with my extended family. We ate our big dinner, visited, and had a pinata.

Helping Grandpa vacuum

Sat in the Hot Pots in Lava.

Went to the Pizza place to eat pizza. laugh, be silly, and eat shakes.

Haliie and her favorite great uncle, Kevin!! She thinks he is just another grandpa!1

I love going to Bancroft every Thanksgiving. We have so much with my cousins and extended family.

I just loved this picture-of Ryan doing Hallie's hair. He is so helpful.

Abrakadabra!!

Eli has been into magic lately. He loves watching magicians. But of course, he can't just take it for what it is. He always asks tons of questions about how  the magician is doing his tricks. And thinks about them for hours afterwards.

For his birthday this year he said he wanted to  invite friends over and have a magic party.

I had so much fun planning his party.

I made cute little magic capes for all the kids, and got some magician hats. At the party they all got to make their own magic wands.

We had a "real" magician come and do a magic show. Eli loved it. I wanted to hire a magician so that it wouldn't be anyone Eli knew. You know to help keep it mysterious and magical for Eli. I couldn't find a magician that was cheap enough  for me, so I improvised.

I asked Ryan's brother, Lance, to learn some tricks and dress up like a magician. I really wasn't sure if it would work. I thought for sure Eli would recognize him. We disguised Lance pretty good, and  Lance talked with an accent, and it worked! Eli I think was kind of skeptical but we kept telling him it was a real magician. So of course, he trusts his parents, and would never believe that they would lie to him, so he believed us and is now convinced it was a real magician from France.

  Lance did an awesome show and I really appreciate him doing it for us on such short notice.

I think the party was a hit. At least I had fun!

My E-man is 5!

Eli turned 5!! How that is possible, I do not know.  But man I love that kid. He truly has added so much to our  family.

He is such a smart little guy. He has always been curious and  wants to know how everything works.

He is constantly amazing me with the questions he comes up with and how observant he is with things around him. He has an incredible memory and retains so much information. (He gets that from his dad).

Right now he is into sounding out words and tries to read. He loves "playing" scrabble. The other day we were out shopping (shocking, I know), and as we were driving by Big Lots, he sounded it out and said, "Mom, that store is called Big Lots". I know not huge words, but he was so proud of himself, and I was equally proud of him.

He loves preschool and asks everyday if it is a preschool day. He loves learning. He was telling me today about a boy in the class that whines sometimes when they have to do their work, because the boy doesn't like doing it. I was telling Eli that I hoped he didn't act like that and how it wasn't appropriate. I told him that if they ever do anything in class he doesn't like that he should be polite and not whine. He said, "mom, we never do work I don't like." Can we say nerd? Just kidding. This just reaffirmed to me how much he likes to learn.

He is such a good big brother. Although, he fights a lot with Hallie, when it comes down to it, he is very protective and LOVES playing with her. She in return idolizes him and wants to do everything he does.

I love my little E-man, and am so glad he is a part of our family.

Let's just hope he is a better five year old than he was a four year old.

Partay

We  celebrated the October birthday's on Ryan's side of the Family. October is a busy month on his side, so we had just one big party.

Carson's was the only birthday we celebrated who was under the age of 25, so I made him his own special Spiderman cake. Every kid deserves to feel like it is his own special day!

Elli and her balloon.

Hallie's two cupcakes later face. Happy & dirty!

Ryan's sister's family.

   Eli and Bradley and their funny faces.

Hallie posed her baby, and then insisted I take a picture of her.

Ryan & his brother Marc.

Grandma & Grandpa Teeples with all the grand kids.

It is always so fun to get together with the fam.