All the Stockings Were Hung...

All the kids had high hopes, but would Santa come?  Kyleigh was sweet enough to let us use her cookie kit she got at her class party to decorate cookies for Santa.  We laid them out carefully and got ready for bed.  We listened to GPa read the night before Christmas on our recorded book and went to bed, with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads.  Santa came and boy did he come!  He even responded to Kyleigh's note.

Sugar Cookie Families

We made sugar cookie gingerbread people (if that makes sense).  Everyone had fun. Ridge especially enjoyed it.  He "frosted" one cookie then ate LARGE spoonfuls of frosting.  Lucky for us, our kids have a very high sugar tolerance. I think we can thank Grandpa Al for that. 

Gingerbread Train

I know we have done one of these before.  However, now we have a train/Christmas loving little boy and the candy won't melt into the mushy gingerbread that is falling on itself less than 12 hours after it is done.  We had a great time.  When we were done Ridge insisted that we were not done.  Every train needs a "train driver.''  Don't worry, Ridge took care of that for us with one of his army guys! 

Decorating for Christmas

Rusty's favorite day of the year.

Something new, we got a train to go around our tree.

Ridge's first year putting the hat on the tree. 

He refused to do it last year, but was super excited this year.

We have a hat on our tree because it was all we could afford in college.

We still have the same hat.  It's a happy memory for us.

Graves Family Pics

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was with the Graves family.  We had everybody there.  It is so fun to see the cute little cousins playing together.  Ridge has a train playing partner in Hadrian.  Brynlee has girls to color and primp with.  Tucker and Kyleigh find all sorts of adventures.  Katelyn and Payton spy on Tucker and Kyleigh.  Every single one of the kids adores Alma and she can show them all up with her Ipad games, which they love to watch her play.  My personal favorite was when Tucker, looking all sweet, put his arm around Alma, then coyly tried to take the Ipad away.  She would have none of that. GG and Gpa have a little crawl space type storage area that the kids think is magical.  They spend hours under there.  It helps that GG has stored some of our old toys under there to make it even more magical. 

 

Besides good company we had good food.  GG made the works for Thanksgiving dinner.  And that was just dinner.  We had dips, chex mix, and about a million other appetizers.  When it was all over we ate pie and then started again with leftovers. 

 

Thanksgiving day there was a backyard football game to get all the energy out of the kids (and Dads).  When all else fails there is always Gpa's helicopter to entertain the kids (and Dads).  We also went roller skating and to the outer limits fun zone, a new Pocatello favorite.  To top off the weekend we had an early Christmas with cousin presents.  They drew each others names and got to open the gifts when they were together.  Every single one of them loved their gifts. 

 

We ended our time together with family pictures.  The photographer did a great job.  I'll post those later.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kyleigh's 9th Birthday

I already wrote a little about Kyleigh's birthday this year, but then I found some of my lost pictures.  It's been awhile so I don't recall why all of the kids are stripped down to diapers and in pajamas?  I do know that Kyleigh wanted a tic tac toe birthday party.  Hence, the tic tac toe cupcakes.  We drew tic tac toe boards on the plastic tablecloth and had a little tournament.  Kyleigh looks darn cute with her bow, if I do say so myself.  She is such a fun girl with so many fun interests and hobbies.  We love her and appreciate all of her big sister help.  She is SO willing to share and give what she has.  She saves like her Dad, especially when it comes to candy.  But she is a little firey and speaks her mind.  There is really no question where that came from.  We love our Kyleigh!!!