Christmas

So sparkly! I love having a tree up all month. We put ours up Thanksgiving weekend and keep it up a few days past Christmas. I keep the lights on all day everyday! In fact if I saw the lights off I told the kids there would be no presents, so they raced each morning to be the one to turn on the lights. It was fun.

Here is the pre-morning mess "beauty" shot. All is calm....

We spent Christmas day at home this year. Mom, Dad, and Deb went to Michelle's in Idaho. Karen and Karolyn came over for presents and cinnamon rolls (yes I made them. For the first time EVER!). We had fun opening presents and playing with the kids. We didn't do a big dinner. We just snacked and enjoyed the day. What a great day it was.

Let the crazy mess begin!! This was the first year we did not have to wake up kids. They were up at 6:30! AWESOME!!!

Connor was THRILLED to get sillybands in his stocking.

Cody was so happy to get a new leapster game.


Elizabeth got the doll she has asked for all year!

MORE legos. Who would have guessed Tyler would get more legos!!

The little boys even got their own legos. Here is hoping there will be less lego wars. (Cross your figures too then maybe it will happen.)


We have WOODY!!!

and BUZZ!!!!!

Elizabeth also got the horse to go with her doll. I believe she wanted the horse more!


All the kids got a new game for their DS or leapster.

Karen AKA LEGO MASTER! helping Tyler put together his new set.

Me doing one of my top five favorite things...READING (Karen got a new book, but I read it first!)

So I can only stand the chaos so long. By Tuesday the living room was back to normal. Ok so way cleaner than normal. I was sitting there thinking , "Wow, it is so clean and peaceful." Then I looked at the kitchen and just started laughing. WHAT A DISASTER AREA! Nope the will be no pictures of that. LOL!!

Little boys BIG day!!

The actual birthday.

Daddy brought home doughnuts.

Connor has a pink frosted one with chocolate stripes.

Cody had the same.

Then they played a weird tag game with Jack. He sleeps in the sun. They crawl up and touch him, laugh like freaks, retreat and do it all again, and again , and again.....you get the idea.

Later that day they play out back. (Note the awesome green grass!!!)

After that they got to open their birthday present from Mom and Dad.

LEAPSTERS!!!!

They spent the rest of the evening in techno heaven.

Christmas

So here is our Christmas tree.  Don't go all crazy about all the presents most of those belong to James' mom, dad, and three sisters that will come over for the rest of present opening.  They bring them over the night befor so it cam look all perty!

Here is James holding the kids back so that they all come out togeather.  (I love his camo jammie pants!!)

Santa did good.  He got the lil' boys new noisy booms.  GO SANTA!

Tyler is trying to figure out how he is going to play his wii game.  HUMM...

Elizabeth is getting to be such a good reader.  She had to read the whole front of her wii game.Connor and Cody have fallen inlove with trians this year.  So their big gift from Mom and Dad was a train set.  It is safe to say they LOVED IT!  LOL!

Tyler and Elizabeth finally figured out we now have our own Wii to play games on.  Mom and Dad ROCK this year, if we say so ourselfs!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

July ended with a THUD!

We took down three of our ten back yard trees. James' best bud Rob came and chopped them down for us. It was two plus weekends of crazy hot messy work. The kids helped clean up the mess too (their choice for the most part) and they enjoyed watching the whole tree dropping business.

Then we took down the play house or toy garage as Tyler called it. What a mess. Again it was a family affair.

James and I got to grind out the stumps. Ohh Ahh! Then the big boys (James and Rob) took the bobcat to the yard and leveled it out.

So that wraps up July!

July.....in a nut shell

July 1-July19

Well July started off with a bang!

Daddy took all the kids on rides. Connor kept asking for Dad to go faster!

Cody making sure he stomped all hid pop-its!

Ryan was so cute helping the little boys with their sparklers.

We spent the eaving out at Rob and Mary's as is our norm for the 4th. The kids had a blast. And besides lighting a tree on fire the night went great!

On July 8th:

Auntie (no my kids do not call them auntie lol!) Karen and Auntie Deb took Tyler and Elizabeth to Seattle for the day.

There are ton of these crazy pigs all over Seattle!

The main attraction for the day was the Seattle Aqurium.

I guess Tyler thought he otter take a nap. Ha-ha-ha!

Elizabeth playing Next Top Model!

This is on the train coming home. Elizabeth was napping. She looks a little out of it. LOL!!

The Next Day

Then the next day they took Connor and Cody to Point Defience Zoo & Aqurium.

Aunt Deb and the boys. (Connor yellow/Cody blue)

The big FISH!

Con-man peacking through the log! He is so fun!


The Next Week

The following week Tyler started Scouts with a BANG at scout day camp. He had a blast!! He made a flower box, shot bows & arrows, shot BB guns!! And oh so much more.

No pictures sorry.

That Thurday (July 16th) Tyler turned 8!!! WOW!!!

Again oddly no pictures. I know I took some....I will add them in when I find them.

Saturday the 18th Tyler was baptised a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!!!!!! I will have to make a seperate post for all the gush on this!

We had a big family party afterwards. It was Tyler's b-day party, Karen's b-day party, & a Rhonda & Andy's "we got a little girl" party. It was nuts!
I thought I had pictures of this too, but all I can find are the pictures of KAren's birthday cake Dustin made!

On Sunday we went out to see the garden and beach by Point DefianceAhh She is so perty!

Tyler and Elizabeth climbed up the side of this big ole hill with Ben, Kristine and Aunt Deb. then they slide down. Dirty, dirty, dirty!

The gang.

Across the back: Ben, Karen, Deb, Michelle & Robert

Front: Aralee (Ben's friend), Karolyn, Grandma Shirley (try not to judge the pants LOL!) Elizabeth, Tyler, Me with Cody, Kristine with Connor and then Grandpa Dean.

So that is the first two weeks!!