Our Christmas Card

December Fun

It always surprises me how much we pack into December. Here is a quick recap:


Our first HUGE snowstorm of the year. We woke up to at least 2' overnight and more came down all day long (12/23). It was also the first good sledding day.Our Magic Elves have been here bringing fun and mischief. We've found them doing all kinds of things from decorating the bathroom mirror, to bringing fun gifts for the kids, to making "snow angels" in the kitchen.

The town tree lighting with sleigh rides pulled by horses and a visit with Santa (12/7)


More snow fun at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Grandpa and the kids took the backhoe and drug a big 'ole tire down the hill to make a fantastic sledding trail.

Kaitlyn's very first school Christmas program. The kindergarten sang 2 songs - Must Be Christmas and Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer

Ty Turns Three!

What more can I say? He's three. Our baby isn't a baby anymore. Probably not even a toddler anymore. But on the bright side, this means I might have some hope of him growing out of the no-to-everything-stage soon, right? RIGHT?!! Ok maybe not. But he's still a cutie. And he had a wonderful birthday.

Kaitlyn helped me fill the floor of his room with balloons. Ok, she contributed very little to the blowing up part, but was the thought behind everything. She also insisted that he open one present first thing in the morning. It's drill weekend, so the rest of the presents had to wait until Sam could get home for the cake and ice cream party. But first we had to prep for the kids' party. The kids helped decorate cupcakes and sort-of stayed out of the way while I got everything set up.

The theme for his party this year was Farm. Fitting, since next to heavy equipment, he likes to go feed the cows (which I guess still involves heavy equipment). We had a few of the neighborhood kids over for a fun little party. (details can be found on my craft blog)

(Kaitlyn is straight-faced because she was annoyed that I asked her to move to the far side of the line for the sake of getting the kids out from in front of the window, and in so doing she didn't get to stand by Kaylee and was annoyed at me)

And then, according to our tradition, the "people party" (Kaitlyn-speak for grown-ups/family) with cake and ice cream was that evening. I love this one because I don't have to be the activity director as I do at the kids party. Instead I just sit back and let everyone spoil my kids :) And yes, my kids always get great loot.

And there's the cake! Happy Birthday Tyler!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day was really low key around here. We had plenty of time to just hang out and slowly get things ready. Sam did most of the cooking. Ty helped with the pies :)
Mom, Dad and Wyatt came over to our house for dinner.

Then the party continued with a big birthday bash for Sam's Grandma Swapp, who is 80 this year. The majority the family was able to make the trek up here to celebrate. That's quite a tribute to grandma and shows just how close this rather large family remains.

The wheels are off!

Check off another milestone for Miss Kate. She can now ride a "2-wheeler!"
This is the second or third time in the last year or so that she has made up her mind to take the training wheels off her bike, but this time she didn't get scared after a few tries and have them put back on. In fact, she rode all by herself on her first try! She now has to go out many times each day - despite the cold temperatures and the fact that it makes her cough up a storm (stupid lingering cough from the cold a couple weeks ago) - to "practice." She can ride straight and isn't bad at stopping and turning. Pretty soon she'll be back to tearing around the loop as fast as her legs can peddle.

Halloween

Just a few quick photos of the day.

Catching Up

It's completely unlike me, but I've let this blog go for a whole month without updating! *gasp* Don't worry, I'll catch up. In fact, check back in a bit as I will be backdating posts through the last week of Sept. So don't forget to scroll down.

Fall is a busy time for us - the typical fall activities, newly added school stuff, and a whole slew of birthdays. Some of the more noteworthy events include:

The first snow of the season. Sept 30. Snowed overnight and was gone by noon but the kids sure had fun while it lasted. It had been a mild fall up until that point but since then it seems as if the weather said "oooo October - time to show them what Fall is all about." We've been in jackets ever since.

Parent/teach conference. Glowing report for our Kaitlyn - not that we expected any different!

My birthday. Turned out to be a low key, but very enjoyable day. Phone calls, emails, and people dropping by all day made me feel so loved. We ended the day with dinner I didn't have to cook (yay!). And a small party with my family and a very nice ice cream cake from Cold Stone. Nice!

My gifts included a Dance Dance Revolution game. The kids loved it. Kaitlyn had to try it out as soon as she was home from school. Gotta love the freestyle break dancing moves she was teaching Ty :)

The kids started dance class. Mom has decided to teach again this year, but that decision wasn't finalized until dance should have been starting. Thus the late start. And not only is she teaching a class for Kaitlyn, but Tyler also got to start dance! He was so excited the first day. He wore his tap shoes the entire morning :) And did, oh so well in class. I actually think he's more suited to that sort of thing than Kaitlyn. She isn't a performer, nor does she like following other people (lol). But Ty, he's a ham. And he loves to sing, dance, and tumble. My prediction is he will love gymnastics when he's a bit older. But for now, dance class is good.
Kaitlyn looks so OLD this year. Very tall and skinny and mature.

Wyatt's birthday. The day after mine and the day dance class started. Big week for us.

Next up: Halloween!

Kaitlyn turns 6!

Oh, my sweet girl is getting so big! 6 is really very old in kid years right? Kaitlyn thinks so. Luckily that means she does more things for herself, is more helpful, and more willing to do what she is asked. It also means that she is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the tooth fairy - but so far no loose teeth!

Kaitlyn had a very fun, and very full birthday. Her day included:
-waking up to a birthday banner and a shower of balloons when she opened the door (very proud of myself for figuring out how to rig that one up! :) )
-excitedly opening presents first thing
-breakfast with special blueberry pancakes
-being the "leader" at school. Which also means it was her day to do "show and teach." She chose to teach them how to make a card. Gma Alene, Tyler and myself were able to go up to the school to watch her, and deliver cupcakes for her class. She also got to wear a special birthday crown all day. A crown which she liked enough to wear a good part of the day at home too.
-a fun Monkey themed birthday party with her friends (all girls since she said "I don't want boys at my party mom"), complete with games, pinata (THE thing to have if you are Kaitlyn. no bday is complete without a pinata), and monkey cupcakes.
-her favorite dinner - won tons and yakisoba noodle stir fry
-a cake and ice cream party with the "family grown-ups"

Corn Maze

It's maze time again! We thought about trying out a different location this year but when it comes right down to it, Thanksgiving Point has the most kid friendly activites. And the kids loved it last year so why not?Looks like fun huh? And that's only a small portion of all the fun stuff. I'm pretty sure we only tried out 80% of it. But we did end the morning with a trip through the corn maze.

We all took turns deciding which direction to go and surprisingly didn't take too many wrong turns (thanks to some of their handy Clue signs and texts). Grand total for the time to traverse the maze: 1 hour 37 minutes. No wonder Ty wanted me to carry him the last 20 or so minutes.

Zoo

We'd been hearing a lot about all the baby animals at the zoo. So my mom and I decided to take the kids before it got too cold. And all the reports were correct - the babies were so cute and fun to watch!