Merry Christmas!

Day "Camp Owen"

This picture went on his invitations to his camp Owen party at the park.  Pretty handsome guy.

We had a day camp/outdoor theme, so we did a hotdog lunch, with cheese puffs, fruit, and "dirt & worms" (yogurt, graham cracker, and gummy worm).

They had fun playing "swat the fly."  One person has a picture of a fly attached to a string.  They run and another person tries to swat the fly.  Alex took all the kids on a mini hike, collecting things in nature.  They also went on a bear hunt and then bashed open the pinata bear after they found it.  The pinata had teddy grahams and gummy bears in it (although the teddy grahams got smashed to bits - bad idea).

I found a simple bear cake on Pinterest.  I also did campfire cupcakes with mini smores.  I had hoped each kid could "roast" their mini smore on a candle, but it was too windy for a flame to stay.  The big marshmallow pretzels were fun to make.  I rolled/dabbed them in chocolate to make them look roasted.  I chickened out on an edible flame and printed one out on paper.  Much easier than trying to melt candy or whatever to make an edible flame.  

The favors I had planned to give didn't arrive in time - apparently they are still being shipped from CHINA, which I didn't realize when I bought them.  I'll save them for another time IF they ever arrive.  We put together these treat bags instead (smores and campfire candy "stew".)  They also got to take home trail mix.

And this was part of the mess that we had to clean up later... It was too embarrassing to photograph the rest of it!

Whew!  Another party done.  It's not fair to have to do these right before a big holiday... but we're so glad to be able to celebrate 5 years of Owen being in our family!

peace, joy, and soap

I tried out these soaps I saw on Pinterest.  They turned out pretty good, but I had no idea it would require so much time to shave the soap down to something pretty.  It was supposed to be a quick project, but not so.  If you have a bit of time, here's the link for peppermint soap.  We also included something edible with our gifts - M&Ms and Christmas poem (google it and several versions come up).

2Oh13 Christmas Tree

I think it's about time to get a new tree... but this one is a little sentimental.  We have been using this one every year since Alex and I were married (13 years).  It was the cheapest one we could find at K-Mart.  I think the lights are pretty old too.  Half of the white strand went out.  Maybe we'll pick up some new lights after Christmas...  It's fun to see that Nathan is nearly as tall as the tree now!

I loved watching Savannah explore the balls on the tree.  She was so excited when she was able to pull one off the tree.  

number 28

We took advantage of being relatively close to the Sacramento Temple over Thanksgiving break.  We had planned on taking all the kids with us, but Mike & Carrie graciously watched them while we went.  They even braved the zoo with the 6 boys.  We brought Savannah with us, since she has been particularly needy and requires extra attention.  It couldn't have been a more beautiful day.  Savannah enjoyed hanging out on the temple grounds while we traded off going in the temple.  

While Alex and Savannah were hanging out, they saw these:  

Thanksgiving 2013

We spent Thanksgiving with my brother and his family.  Thanksgiving morning started off with a turkey trot.  Mike, Carrie, and I ran a 10K (6.2 miles).  Nathan, Jared, Owen, and Nicholas ran the kids fun run (1/2 mile or 1/4 mile).  We all ran well - Carrie showed us up on the 10K, coming in a few minutes before Mike and me.  I nearly reached my goal of under 8:30 pace, with a time of 52:53 (8:31 pace).  Mike came in about 10 seconds after me, which was awesome since he had only run about 3 miles in his running recently.  It was fun to see the kids run, although I couldn't actually get a picture of all of them finishing since all the parents swarmed the finish line.  It was nuts with all the eager parents with cameras.  I had my camera out too, but I stayed behind the barrier... snapped a good one of Nathan at least.  

Doing this turkey trot reminded me of the races Mike and I ran as kids.  We used to do an annual turkey trot when we lived in Colorado.  I wonder if we have any pictures from those... I think Mike and I used to win turkeys because we were about the only ones in our age group doing the longer race. 

We did a little paper craft in the afternoon. Nicholas is quite talented - he constructed a macaw.  

Dinner was so yummy!  And I didn't have to make the meal this year!   

On Friday evening, my sister Alison and her daughter Emmy flew in from Utah.  We only had about a day overlap with their visit.  On Saturday morning, Mike made a nice pancake, bacon & eggs breakfast.  We had hotdogs, hamburgers, and rootbeer floats for lunch.  

  

We tried to take a few pictures of the kids... didn't work!  

Marpi (the dog) was cooperating.  :)  Weston called him "Puffy."  He kept wanting to see "Puffy" again after we left.

november hike

encouraging healthy eating...

We had to get Savannah started early on the hamburgers and fries!  She likes it.  It may not be healthy, but it's easy, cheap, and tasty.  And essential for traveling.  

trendy hair day?

This was their hairdo for crazy hair day.  We can't seem to do anything besides sticking straight up.  Isn't that the trend these days anyway?    

diaper cakes

I helped do a baby shower for a lady having twin baby girls.  I enjoyed putting together the diaper cakes, although pretty simple.  I know there are much more fancy diaper cakes out there, but I like to stick with simple (and less expensive).  I made another one for a friend who just had her 4th - not in need of much besides diapers.  I spiced the diapers up a bit!  With baby girls, you can use headbands to decorate the "cakes".

I ended up taking pictures at the baby shower, so I included a few pictures of some of the gifts.  So fun and cute!

Visitors from the "East"

In October, Alex's aunt and uncle came to visit from Florida.  We enjoyed outings to the beach, zoo, museums, and out to eat.  They were brave and rode in our suburban with our crew to most of these outings (you should have seen me crawling in and out of the back seat).

   Hopefully our kids didn't drive them crazy... I'm sure they did.  I guess everyone who comes to visit knows what they're getting into by now.  Ha ha.