The Boys Turn Another Year Older

It is crazy that Brandon and Dylan have turned yet another year older. They are growing up too fast!

Brandon requested Chinese food again this year. And it was yummy!

Eleven? Really?

Love the lovely sign made by Lindsey

Lots of love!

His other request: a BYU cake. This is as fancy as I get folks!

And this boy can't be 4! Where did the time go? He requested pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and OJ. Yum again!

Trying to do a lay down in front of your presents pose, like Brandon did the day before. :)

 

Dylan got a box full of swords that are just his size. Everyone grabbed one and we had a sword fight!

Weston tried to eat his.

Everyone got BYU gear for their birthday. Here's Dylan in his new hat and shirt, coloring his new dot-to-dot book.

And here is Brandon sporting his new hat and shirt. They were both very excited!

How do I stop the clock???

Happy birthday Brandon and Dylan!

Christmas Day

Christmas day was just what we needed it to be....slow and relaxing. And lots of time to sit around in our jammies if we wanted to. Ahhhhhh.

I didn't get many pictures. But here are a few. Hope your Christmas was wonderful!

Here is the way Santa left things Christmas Eve. I think we've been overrun with jungle animals!

The kids were very excited about them Christmas morning!

Lobster Bisque, anyone??? 

Success!

Almost ready for Christmas and Ensign Symphony and Chorus Concert!

We love Christmas around here. It is so fun! Here are the kids ready for church the Sunday before Christmas

Oh, and here is a picture of a proud Katelyn....she figured out that if she put jingle bells in her back pockets and jumped up and down she could sing jingle bells and be ringing at the same time. Justin came home from work that day to a chorus of Lindsey and Katelyn singing and jingling.

We are very happy to report that Weston can now scale the stair safely in both directions. He picked up coming down the stairs very quickly, which I am grateful for!

Love the way Katelyn wrapped this gift she bought for Dylan.

Justin and Brandon made swords out of PVC pipe and swim noodles and duct tape. So now we have sword fights in the dining room

A sweet family in our ward made gingerbread people for everyone in our family

Our Christmas Eve was a bit different this year. I had a concert with the Ensign Symphony and Chorus at 4:00 up at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. So I spent the afternoon up there, and Justin brought the kids up for the concert (minus Weston). It was a marvelous experience! Totally amazing to sing Christmas songs on Christmas Eve in a place like that!

It was beautiful.

Here is a picture of us rehearsing that someone snapped and put on the website. If you want to check it out go to seattleensign.net

My super supportive family after the concert!

We came right home, and had a warm dinner awaiting us. Then we opened our traditional Christmas jammies! The kids were so excited, they kept on finding poses that they wanted a picture of. So here are a few of them....

 What a busy, fun day!

Snow!

It doesn't take much snow around here to create mayhem. On this particular morning, I think we probably got an inch. Maybe an inch and a half. Justin tried 3 different ways of going to the train station and finally got there late. The roads were super slippery and icey and he slid down a hill and almost played bumper cars. So on this day, the kids had a 2 hour late start. They played their little hearts out with some neighbors before they had to go to school. And as you can see, we don't need much snow to be able to go sledding on our driveway!

Snow angels

My geraniums finally died. But here's our Christmas-y front door

I like Seattle snow like this! It's fun, we play, and then it melts. It was gone by dinner time. :)