Christmas 2012

I'm sorry, my pictures are nothing to brag about this year. I didn't sleep well Christmas Eve night and it was a very early Christmas morning (6pm!) So, honestly, I wasn't in any shape to take pictures. The ones I took at Chad's parent's house are a little better, but still not great.

Our Christmas was pretty fantastic. We spent Christmas Eve day with Chris and Julie, then went to Chad's parent's house for a Christmas party. We got together with a few family and friends, ate dinner, sang Christmas songs, and drove around looking at Christmas lights. One house in particular was pretty impressive. My description won't do it justice, but the house was completely lit up with a giant Christmas tree in the middle. And the decorations in the yard, including the tree, blinked in tune to Mannheim Steamroller. I was blown away!

And like I said, Christmas came early, but even that was fun because the kids were so excited about their presents. We spent Christmas day at Chad's parents. It was a happy and fun holiday, but we really missed our Ryan and Natalia!

Mykala got a digital camera for Christmas and she's already taken some great pictures!

I've posted the first bunch on her page.

  Bear is already making friends with Kala's new puppy

Purple bubbles!!

Mykala got cool purple bubbles in her stocking.

I love my mother-in-law.

Mykala's #7

This year we did an art birthday party for Mykala and it was really fun and very simple. It worked out pretty well! My clever husband had the idea and we ran with it, trying to make it as colorful as we could. Alicann did a great job decorating the pavilion with plastic tablecloths, and we put clothesline around three sides of the pavilion for the kids to hang up their artwork. We had a coloring table where kids could color pictures, and a painting table where they could paint wooden pieces, draw their own picture, or paint the clothespins to hang them up with. We had a lot of fun and a great turnout. The kids were having so much fun playing at the park, the party went for 3 hours.

Daisy, Jace, Lily, Mykala, Rachel, Claudette, Alison, Isabelle, & Julian

The kiddos

(Showing off their ringpops)

Julian painting a clothespin

Claudette & Rachel

The boys hard at work. 

Our little Jacer is a coloring machine and it's adorable... even if he likes to color Barbie. :)

Mykala pushing her friend Rachel on the swings. 

Alison, who had a birthday just last week, is on the swing next to them.

Julian & Jacer McRacer (they were inseparable)

Sweet little Daisy

Isabelle, Mykala, & Alison

The girls playing in the caves   :)

Claudette, Alison, Mykala, Rachel, & Lily

Butch & Carol

Crayon/Rainbow Cake

As soon as we came up with the art birthday party idea, I was stoked about doing a rainbow cake. :) As you can see, the layers didn't exactly come out even (or straight) but it's pretty dang colorful which was good! :) I did the cupcakes as well, which were a bit harder, but even those came out looking awesome.

 And the crayon candles we found for the cake were just too perfect.

The Birthday Girl

(who wanted to be called "7 year old")

The ring pops were a hit (hence the blue mouth).

Isabelle, Claudette's little brother, & Claudette

Lily

Daisy

The girls

Rachel, Claudette, Mykala, & Alison  

I think this picture is so cute. :)

Joyce & Doug

Artwork by Daisy, Julian, & Jace

Halloween 2012

                       Jacer as Iron Man                Mykala as Merida (from Brave)

Jace shooting

Princess Ball ~ Sept 2012

Kala's Quote of the Day

Kala's version of Journey: "Don't stop... believe me"