Merry Christmas!

gingerbread home FHE

For FHE this week we let the kids decorate some gingerbread houses. Kellie & I decided it would be fun to hand make the gingerbread this year. It was a LOT of work, but totally worth it. Next year we'll have even more fancy stuff going on. The kids had a blast!


Now, if I can just keep them from eating the whole thing before Christmas. These boys are such good buds. We love having cousins near by.

This is the train Chris' dad had when he was a kid. There are some serious benefits to being (married to) the oldest son of the family:) Thanks Merlin.

Chris is 36

36 candles makes for a GIANT flame...

this is right after he blew them out (in one breath). check out Ian's face!

the aftermath

we found this giant gift bag at the dollar store. Inside it was an iTunes gift card. (tricky, huh) Later it was used as human gift wrap.

Happy Birthday Chris. Thanks for being such a good husband, father, son, YM president, instructional designer, garbage taker-outer, video guy, byu fan, scooter riding man. WE LOVE YOU!!

O Christmas Tree

Thanksgiving 2009

We had such a nice Thanksgiving this year. Chris' sister hosted our thanksgiving feast...it was DELICIOUS! It was so fun getting together with Chris' family. We ate, played games, played {BEATTLES} rockband, ate some more, relaxed, found out Chris brother's wife is pregnant!, ate again, Chris watched football, and Kari & I did a little black friday shopping. It was great times, thanks Galvagnos! We love living close to family (wish you could have been there Kellie & Kasey!)

roller skating party

Anna was invited to her first roller skating party this weekend. I had so much fun watching her and her little friends skating around (the edge) of the rink. I can totally remember learning how to roller skate. How scary and exciting it was. I even had my 9th birthday party at the rink near sunrise mall. Why do roller skating rinks all smell the same?

she worked those little legs so hard, she was tired and ready to go home. (that is frosting from a yummy dairy queen cake on her shirt)

here she is happy to be taking the skates off. We had so much fun!




oh, and here is a picture from New Moon on Friday. It was such a blast! Thanks Rachel!!

(minus 2, I guess the girl taking the pic didn't realize Paige and Michelle were with us) You can't totally tell from the pic but we all were sparkling like vampires. It took a few days to get off all the glitter:)

Notes

From: Anna To: Mom Love you mom!

Mom, I think you are nice to me and I love you mom!

From: Anna to: Everett and Connor

Everett I think that you are worse than mom! You too Connor!

Wait, what!? Because mom is {obviously} the worst? sad.

If you can believe it these notes were written on the exact same piece of paper. She just tore the sweet one from the bottom of the not so sweet one. She hand delivered the first to me, which I read and loved and gave lots of hugs and kisses for. About 5 minutes later I hear Everett and his friend Connor saying, "mom, Anna is trying to black male us". I had no idea what they were talking about until I saw the second (not so nice) note. I don't even know what to say, or think!

On a happier note, Ian had an orange hat on his head after dinner.

Happy Halloween part 2

So my sweet friend Rachel (who doesn't have 4 kids, I might add:) took some cute pictures of my little monkey Ian. Thank goodness for friends!

brothers

I love having 2 boys in a row. I'm so excited to see these two grow up together.
The other day we went for an afternoon walk. When we strolled into our driveway I realized they had both fallen asleep. When I peeked inside, this is what I saw. I had to run grab the camera. I love love love that they are holding hands. Too sweet.
I love my boys.

Funny thing Paul does right now: Whenever Ian goes to grab a toy that Paul wants Paul says, "no, no baby, Ian choke on it" It's never actually choking hazard size, it's just Paul's way of "protecting" his brother (or maybe just protecting his toy):)

Ian is crawling all over the place. He even climbs up the steps. Every time I go get him from his crib he is standing up! I can't believe how fast this little guy wants to grow up. He isn't little anymore!

Happy Halloween

on the way to the trunk-or-treat


Chris is facebook...it took anyone who didn't watch the Office a minute to figure it out:)
he's a mean old witch with a hat

Ian found a colored pencil and tried to eat it:)

I can't believe I didn't get a picture of him in his cute monkey costume. I'll have to dress him up again and get a pic for his first Halloween!! (poor 4th child)

pumpkin carving

we have some serious pumpkin carvers

here's the end result. Oh, and Ian checking out his pumpkin warming by the fire (they've been outside for a few days...we didn't want to freeze our hands!)

spider webs

it looks like some teenage spiders have been toilet papering our tree. I haven't seen the spider(s) responsible for this...but maybe that's a good thing!

we love food

conference morning pancakes

I just loved this picture. I love how the 3 older kids are so into eating, how I am all blurry in a hurry making pancakes, and Ian is staring right at his daddy. (does anyone else have half their cabinets open while cooking?)

I'm pretty sure Paul asked me if he could pour his own cinnamon, I guess I said yes...

a fruit pizza I made for our "annual" YM pres. BBQ.

I found this guy like this the other morning.

(a bagel for each hand)