Sunday, December 26, 2010

Merry Christmas

This Christmas was a HUGE success!  i won't go into how bad derek and i and santa did in the past... let's just say that one of katelyn's famous quotes of 2010 was, "i never even used what i got for christmas last year."  part of the reason is our kids asked for ridiculous things, like laptops and flatscreen tvs.  this year was so much more do-able!!!

 Christmas Eve...  we stayed in Page and spent the night with our friends the Mallavias and the Buntings.  We ate some good food, the guys played ping-pong...
 and the moms helped the kids do some crafts!
 Katelyn Grace
 Alexis Rae
 Samantha Claire
 Annie Helen
We had the kids act out the Nativity.  it was the first time we ever did that on Christmas Eve, and i really liked it.  i think we may have to add that to our lists of traditions.
Trevor and Samantha as Joseph and Mary.
Katelyn and Natalie as the shepards.
 Annie and Alexis were the Wise Men.
 Aftert the Nativity we open Christmas Eve pjs.  sleeping that night was a little insane.  in our house the master bedroom is upstairs and the rest of the rooms are downstairs.  so we put up an airbed and had all the girls sleep in our room so they couldn't sneak and see what Santa brought before waking us up!  it made for a pretty crappy night's sleep honestly!  because of being pregnant i'm up 5 times a night and every time lex would wake up and cry so the other girls would wake up.   she ended up in our bed which is never good!!!  at 5:30am i was done trying to sleep and it was all i could do to just lay there and let the kids (and derek) sleep!! finally around 7 or 7:30 the big girls woke up!

Christmas Morning!!  Katie and Ann were happy to be awake...  Sam and Lex were a little annoyed about the whole situation!!





(sam was NOT excited to be awake, and it took her about 2 hours to really wake up... she was comatose pretty much the whole time she opened her presents too!!!)

 Lexi just asked for candy... so santa brought her something he thought she might like.
 annie asked for a  REAL gumball machine that her sisters would have to pay a quart to get a gumball.  quite the entrepreneur!!
 grandma and grandpa o. gave the girls pillow pets... i'm surprised all the windows didn't shatter from their high pitched screams when they opened them!!
i don't need to explain how happy katie was to get eclipse in her stocking!

another big highlight was the 3 bigger girls all got rollerblades.  now... isn't that the most reasonable thing a kid could ask for?!?!?  they have already put about 200 miles on them!  grandma and grandpa sullivan gave the 2 big girls church clothes which they were ecstatic about (they looked homeless at church up to that point)!  Samantha got a stash of puzzles which have been a lifesaver.

It was a great Christmas.  I love being home and just doing our own thing.  And... most importantly i love remembering the birth of the Savior.  It is a great time of year!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

"Hey Mom Look... it's a Kitty-Button!"

Hot Air Balloon Regatta-- first weekend in Novemeber

On Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning you can go outside early in the morning and see at least 10 balloons in the sky.  Then on Saturday night main street is closed for the Balloon Festival.  Balloonist from all over some set up, tons of vendors set up booths, and it's a great night to walk up and down the street.  We saw all our friends, ate some delicious kettle corn and just had a really fun night as a family.  The balloonist have a count down and all light up their balloons at the same time.  It was so awesome!









 On Sunday morning I had gotten all the girls ready for church, and I was upstairs drying my hair.  All of a sudden I heard a really loud noise and knew it was the flame of a hot air balloon... but it was way to close!  So i ran outside onto the deck that's outside my bedroom and saw this!!  A balloon was having trouble and had to land pretty much in our neighbors front yard!  The girls were freaking out, so I let them run over there and watch the balloon be deflated. 




Katelyn and Annie's 1st Races!

Katelyn has been running with a team called "Girls on the Run" after school on Mondays and Wednesday getting ready for a 5K.  November 6th was the big day!  Her cousin, Jordyn, ran the race with her.  
This was before the race.
 Annie wanted to run in a race too, so we signed her up for the 1 miler.  Her cousin, Kamryn, ran it too.

 When Katelyn had about 1/5 of a mile left I yelled, "Don't you dare let Jordyn beat you!!!"  Her competitive side kicked in and she booked it to the finish line.  She finished in 34 minutes, and place 4th for her age group.  She had a ton of energy left when she finished, so she decided to run the 1 miler with Annie and Kamryn.   (I have a feeling if she would have run it with a grown-up her time would have been a minute or 2 faster!)  ;)

 After the race.  This was Jordyn's 3rd or 4th 5k, and we were all really proud of her.  I could tell that Katelyn was really proud she did so well, especially for her 1st time!
 The starting line for Annie's 1 mile.  She was SO nervous!!!  It was so cute.
 I was so proud of her... she worked really hard and totally ditched Kamryn and Katelyn.
 Annie had about 50 yards to the finish line and she wanted to walk so bad, so I jumped on the track and made her sprint to the finish!!!  OK, a little embarrassing now that i think about it!  Apparently I'm a tiny bit competitive!!!  BUT, her goal was to finish under 10 minutes, and her time was 9:31!!! 
I love to run.  It's painful and torture sometimes, but I love it.  Races are so much fun too.  That atmosphere is so fun and everyone supports each other.  Watching Katelyn and Annie run was one of my favorite things ever.  They did so well, and I am so excited to have this baby and start running again so I can race with them.  It's great to see the excitement in your child's eyes when they accomplish a goal... and realize that they did a really good job!!!

Halloween... Finally!

SCHOOL PARADE
 Dr. Annie
Pirate Katelyn and one of her BFFs

PUMPKIN CARVING
(I seriously didn't get a picture of the finished product... lame i know!)
the girls' friends helped dig out the guts.









 We've collected a lot of costumes over the years so for the trunk-o-treat annie decided to be a vampire.
(those are her real eyelashes... amazing!)

Alexis thought everything was too scary, so she wouldn't dress up.  I did end up putting some make-up on her, but she never saw herself!  and yes, i dressed up for about an hour, then the wings and halo had to go... no laughing!
treats i made for a party.  they actually tasted pretty darn good!