Happy Birthday Sam!

He finally turned 30! (haha) He doesn't seem bugged by it, but he did have a "who is the baldest?" contest at his birthday party. He didn't "win" :)

We celebrated on Saturday with a bunch of family and friends and had a great time. I didn't take many photos, in fact I'm pretty sure the only ones I got of Sam were with the cake. So here are a few of the kids.

Xzavier was totally adorable laying there playing with the balloons while the big kids ran around like crazy monkeys.
Ty was posing. He doesn't do it often but he wanted to see photos of himself on the camera. I love the crossed leg.

Again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM. We love you! We're lucky to have such a great husband/dad.

Holidays

This year our holiday festivities included:

Christmas Eve:
Making cookies for Santa

Party with Sam's family

Setting out the cookies for Santa


Christmas Morning:
Kaitlyn woke up at 5AM and was so excited to see that Santa really had left her a bike. (A doubtful friend at school had had her asking "Mom is Santa real?" more than once the last few weeks.) Tyler had had a restless night and ended up in our bed, so she and I chatted in her room for another hour - until she couldn't stand it any more and we had to wake up the boys. Lots of gift unwrapping followed.

My family - including the usual Mom, Dad, Wyatt, plus Bonnie and Larry, Gram, and my Aunt Lenore and her family - came over for breakfast. Then we migrated to Mom's house for more presents.

Kaitlyn tried out her new bike and the boys their new scooter and pogo stick. Tyler played with his new crane and dump truck all day long. Back to Mom's house that evening for dinner and games
Day after Christmas - party with the Taylors. I can't remember the last time we all got together. We had dinner and played all kinds of games.

New Years Eve - Kaitlyn and I took a little cake over to Mom for her birthday. Then we celebrated with Dari and KC, McKenzie and Clay and all the kids. Hanging out with couple friends is so fun - why do we only do that once a year?? The kids were great. They would pop in on us once in a while for snacks or drinks but most of the time played really well together. Kaitlyn was the only one to protest the late night. Around 10:30 she started asking for her blanket and her "nice comfy bed." We told her it was part of New Year's Eve to stay up until midnight. So when we gave in and took the kids home shortly after 11 she got in her pjs and asked "can I go to bed yet?"