Garden D'Lights

This year Michele & I wanted to try and make it to Zoo Lights with the girls, but Kevin's work schedule got a little busy during the holiday season and we decided we would try an evening at the Bellevue Botanical Garden's for their Garden D'Lights display as a quicker and closer to home option.  The night we picked ended up being really rainy.  At first we thought that it would ruin the experience, but it ended up being a great night for the experience!  The rain mean a warmer temperature than previous nights but still seemed to keep the crowds we'd been warned about away.  Both the girls really enjoyed seeing all of the lights and searching for the items in the iSpy list.  The adults were blown away with what can be created with lights and look forward to making this another part of our holiday tradition.

Santa Breakfast

As a fun way to kick of our advent activities Mommy took Clara & Janie to our local Santa Breakfast.  Right away we got in the line to meet Santa and I am sure glad we did.  Going into this experience I had no idea how Janie would respond to him and was a little nervous she'd be a screamer but you have to try, right!?!  When we had been in line for only a few minutes, Santa got up to stretch a minute and lead everyone in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  He got right down in Janie's face and patted her head and the kid lit up!  It made the next 20 minutes of waiting in line worth it!  Both girls were excited and I love this photo (the one above is just an iphone shot of the original). 

Clara asked Santa for a Merida doll and Janie asked him for a pig?!?

After meeting Santa we had a yummy pancake breakfast and then finished the morning off at the giant gingerbread house.  Hundreds of kids were given a bowl of candy and frosting to dip to decorate this playhouse sized gingerbread house.  The candy didn't stick well and slid down the side to piles on the floor.  Both our girls were a little obsessed with eating the candy and so after they attempted putting a few pieces up, I let them enjoy a piece or two as well. 

 

The Santa breakfast was a fun event we look forward to participating in next year!

 

Decorating the Tree {2012}

The Sunday after Thanksgiving Mama was excited to get decorated for Christmas this year.  Daddy got the lights done and got down all of the Christmas bins so we could make our home festive.  We put off decorating the tree until we had a nice mellow evening mid week.  It was so much fun! 

While our tree kind of has a theme of snowflakes with red, white & silver, there are actually quite a few keepsake ornaments from both Mommy & Daddy's childhood as well as some special ones for our family.  What a delight it is to pull them out each year and tell the girls about them.  We had a whole bin of pretty yet non-breakable ornaments that we let them attack.  After each one was placed we'd oooh and aaahh and they each would get so darn excited.  By Clara & Janie's bedtime several branches on the lower front of the tree were plastered with ornaments. 

Clara & Janie holding their special box ornaments.  One night sometime soon they may find a special treat in them! 

After they had worked at decorating for about an hour or so, we all enjoyed some yummy hot chocolate & marshmallows.  This probably was a mistake because we heard them both {wired} singing in their beds for the next hour, but sometimes you just have to break the rules and spoil these sweeties! 

 

After the girls were asleep bed Kevin & I turned up the holiday music and finished the decorating together.  Sometimes he acts like he's just "helping me" but I know he likes this fun tradition just as much as I do!  Not a whole lot of changes in decorations this year, but it is a tree full of special memories and in my opinion comes together quite beautifully.

Christmas PJ's

Thanksgiving Blessings

 

We are so blessed!  We have such an awesome family!  Our girls are SO lucky to have such wonderful grandparents, great-grandparents, auntie & uncles and cousins in their lives.  So much love from both sides of our family!

 

This Thanksgiving we were in Chehalis with my side of the family and we had the extra-special treat of having Uncle Den, Auntie Mikki & my cousin Dusty with her family, Brian, Braeden & Kennedy join us from Coeur 'd Alene a few days. 

 

 

We enjoyed just being together... 

 

 

~ Cousins ~

 

We enjoyed a fabulous Thanksgiving feast...

We enjoyed some fun family traditions, like rounds of  Back Alley Bridge and movie night...

A best of all, we now get to enjoy the beautiful memories of our fun weekend together! 

Gingerbread Houses & Sugar Highs!

 

For years Clara's cousins have been talking about all the fun they have had decorating gingerbread houses at the home of one of Grandma Carol's friends in Quincy.  With Clara being a good age for the experience, this year we picked a weekend and made a trip to Quincy to share in the fun of this sweet holiday tradition!

  

 

 


Within minutes of being there Kevin & I knew why this was indeed a tradition for our nieces and nephews.  She was prepared with a house for each of the kids (different styles available).  First... It smelled heavenly!!  Each house was constructed beautifully with candy windows and a light up feature.  Then she had every candy imaginable, some even sorted into colors, so the kids could create anything they could imagine up. 

It was neat to watch each kid work!  When it was all done their fun personalities shined through in their designs.  Of course, that meant that by the end Clara's was virtually COVERED in candy!

Janie refused to nap on the way over.  She still had a great time munching on some candy and falling asleep snuggled with Uncle Elmer.  Her unwillingness to nap may have had something to do with the fun that morning when we met Hal, Karen & Lucy and Peter, Christina & Jackson for breakfast. 
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The kids had so much fun playing together and running around like crazy kids after they syrup-y breakfasts!  Clara and Lucy, both dressed in their red striped, had fun eating their Teddy Bear Pancakes and coloring. 

 

 

Jackson provided Janie with an etiquette lesson in dining out.  He put his napkin in his lap, ate with his utensils and remembered to say "please & thank you."  It was a bit of a contrast from Janie's, grabbing, throwing and screeching!

 

This is the closest we got to a kid photo for the morning.  Hopefully we can tradition of getting together around the holidays with this fun group although next year Baby Girl Blanton will be in the mix!

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Clara watched on carefully as icicles are applied to her gingerbread house! 

The end results were beautiful! We hope to be able to do this again next year!

Backyard Fun in the Leaves