Christmas and Alec's Birthday

We had a wonderful Christmas. All the family together in matching pajamas eating chocolate at 8:00 in the morning (or maybe that was just me!) It was fun to watch so many little kids get so happy opening and playing with their (and others') presents. People were very thoughtful and generous with their gift-giving to us. We're were unexpectedly blessed with nice sweaters, games, a food mill, pride & prejudice, stuffed animals, toys and trains. Pictures from other parts of the break will come soon. The last picture is of all the paper soldiers we did of all the grandkids as a surprise for Grandma and Grandpa.


For Alec's Birthday we went to Round Table Pizza's lunch buffet....WITH DESSERT PIZZA. This is the best stuff ever, and no other Round Table that I know of has it except the one in U.P. WA. After dinner and a fun game of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" with cousins, we ate the Train-under-the-Tunnel cake I made for him. He loved us singing Happy Birthday to Alec so much that he kept singing it to himself while he ate his cake, "happy day ayec." It was indeed a happy day to think that 2 years ago we were welcoming our sweet Alec into our family. We have been crazy happy ever since.

Alec on Christmas Eve

Tonight, after fun celebrations with both Alec and Brittney's cousins here in Washington, Alec and some of the other little cousins set some cookies and milk out for Santa, and sprinkled some granola in the snow out front for the reindeer to eat. He was being very talkative afterwords, in his very cute and excited manner, and we busted out the camera.



Here is what was said, for those of you who don't speak Alecese.

Alec : Santa hungry
Mommy: Santa's hungry? What is he gonna eat?
A: Reindeer hungry. Sky. Ground.
M: The reindeer?
A: Eat it. Sky. Eat it. Mouth.
M: What are they gonna put in their mouth?
A: Eat it. Go sky. Eat it.
M: Are the reindeer gonna eat their food, when they come down from the sky?
A: Uh huh.
M: Can you say Merry Christmas?
A: Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Let it Snow!

This has been the biggest snow storm this area has seen in over 20 years. It is so fun and a bit scary at times. But we almost died only once, so no worries. Our house has the perfect setup for snow play with our humonguously steep drive way and surrounding area. We had such a blast sledding, and building snow balls. Who knew we'd have a white Christmas here in Tacoma? Although we're quite a bit short on quiet rooms, we are nice and cozy. I love having everyone in one house. The kids are even doing really well with each other. Alec is a big tease (where did that come from?) and even picks on some of the older cousins who are more sensitive, but generally they all play well together. Thanks, Grandma for all the fun toys!

Christmas Time

We've had loads of Christmas parties this season, the time has really flown. All of a sudden we're here in WA with my family, what I've been excited about for the past 3 months! Unfortunately we already uploaded our pictures from our camera to our computer of our Ward Christmas party, our 3-D five foot tall paper machee-ed snowman, courtyard nut roasting party and other festivities so we can't post any of our pictures with this post. I will pull a few off of our friends blog illegally so you can at least see our Frosty. (Just look at this as free advertising, p-dogg, you're pictures are amazing)


We drove 14 hours from our home to Chris' aunt and uncles in Seaside, OR. Its crazy that during our short one and a half day visit, they get the nastiest snowstorm they've seen ever. In fact the local news gave it a name: Arctic Blast 2008. Sounds like a movie. So now we we think of the beautiful coastal town of Gearhart, we'll picture a snowy beach town covered in ice. We had lots of fun talking and hanging out with Chris' family and cousins. They're sense of humor is very enjoyable and its fun to see Chris looking like the shrimp next to his offensive-line sized cousins.

Now we're enjoying the once-a-year snow fall here in Tacoma with my family. After today, everyone will be home: 12 adults, 1 tween, and 9 grandchildren under 5 years old... including 6 boys between the ages of 2 and 4. Its going to be crazy.... crazy fun.

Blessing Day

Chris gave Charlie a name and a blessing today. It was a bit eventful with our bishopric forgetting about us and with Alec being a handful during the blessing. Lesson learned? Next time we bless a baby, ask someone (a friend, or hopefully a family member) to help with the younger children so I can focus on listening to the blessing. Anyways, from what I heard, Charlie received a wonderful blessing. Three parts that stood out to us said he was blessed with a love for work and service, that he would have compassion and see the needs of those around him and that he'd recognize and magnify his talents. To celebrate this special day, I'll post some recent pictures of Charles smiling. He is so adorable and happy and wonderful. We're lucky to have him in our family. Look forward to an upcoming post about the ward Christmas party and a friend's 30ish kid nativity pageant the boys took part in.

Stroller Happy

Thanks to the generosity of many, we got an amazing double stroller that we love. We are stroller happy. We got the Phil and Ted's sport stroller in Navy earlier this week. I've absolutely loved using it. It rides so smooth and has so many options to fit my current and future needs. Alec loves riding it. While the Phil and Ted's works for me, its fun to think that other kinds work for better for others. I'm glad I live at such a time when we have so many options in life. Enjoy these fun pictures of our first outing to the park using our new stroller.

Brothers

Here are some fun pictures of both Alec and Charlie at the same ages, in roughly the same positions or outfits. I think they look very similar! Please ignore picture quality as I was only focused on choosing similar picture content.

Pictures 1

Pictures 2

Pictures 3

If you want to guess which one is which, go ahead and make your guess. I've posted the answers in the comment section already so click the comments section to see if you're right!