He picked this pose all by himself. He was super proud.
We couldn't get Lucy to sit by herself so we had to give her an ornament to play with. That ornament was later broken when Blake decided to throw it at me like a baseball while I wasn't looking.
Every other year Cameron's mom does a whole family Christmas party with Cameron's aunts and uncles and cousins. We eat and play bingo like always but the last two times she has also had Santa come by for a visit. The kids think that it is so fantastic that grandpa and grandma know Santa. This year Santa told Blake that he is on the in between list. This has helped when he is having a naughty moment and we ask if he wants Santa to move him all the way on the naughty list, he quickly straightens up. We all had a good time and won lots of fun prizes!
Grace and Santa.
Blake and Santa.
So we thought this time maybe she would like Santa. He bribed her with a candy cane and she was ok for a nano second but as soon as Cameron moved his hands she freaked.
Grandma and grandpa with all the grandkids minus new baby Tate and Natalie and Santa of course.
A few weeks ago we were able to go on the North Pole Express with some of Cameron's family. We did this train ride last year and I'm glad we did because they changed some things this year. It is no longer the "Polar Express" , the no longer read that book and they don't give out bells. We did still have lots of fun and got to the North Pole where Santa boarded the train and visited all the children. The kids loved singing all the songs and Grace even did a solo for our train car into the microphone of Jolly Old St. Nickolas. The kids loved it and really think we made it to the North Pole. Oh to be a child and enjoy the magic of Christmas! Above us boarding the train.
Grandpa and Grandma with the grandkids.
Lucy and Grace with Mrs. Claus. At least Lucy liked her because she hates Santa!
Blake with Santa. 
For the 3rd year we were able to host Cameron's family for ginger bread houses. It is fun to be able to all get together during the holidays. One of these days though I am going to have to relinquish control and let the kids actually do the decorating!
Our beautiful house!
Top: Cameron's parents, his brother Jason and his family.
Bottom: His brother Dan and his family, his sister Randi and her family
I guess that it is about time that I put up some Christmas posts since we have done some fun things. The first event of the year was our annual visit to Santa and buying of tree ornaments complements of Cameron's mom. This is such a great tradition and the kids absolutely love it. I did however get my first picture with a child screaming on Santa's lap. Oh well when Grace was that age she screamed too so I just gave up and didn't get a picture and it has always bugged me so poor Lucy was made to sit in his lap, one day she will thank me right?!
All the cousins waiting for Santa.
The kids with Grandma and their ornaments. Grace this year decided she needed to get something that looked like Christmas to her instead of her usually Barbie or Disney character. She even told Blake he should not get the Indiana Jones because it was not Christmas.
Chris also let's all the kids ride the train. Above is Lucy and Grace getting ready to head out.
All the kids on the train.
This week Grace has received two awards. First from school she was named Star Student of the Week. She will have her picture in the paper with all the other Star Students from the school. I don't really know what else this entails but we are super proud of her. Also she started doing gymnastics again this year. At the gym she is taking at they start you in a group called red stars. Once you pass off all the requirements they move you up to the next level which is orange stars. You keep moving up through yellow and green stars(or something like that) and then team. She was one of three from her class to make the move this week. Maybe gymnastics will be her thing after all! Above is Grace with her certificate for Star Student. Oh yeah and she got bangs!
Halloween this year was rainy and cold. We started out at 6 and made it to about 5 houses and came back home because of the rain and all the kids were shivering. About a half hour later in stopped and Grace and Lucy wanted to go back out but Blake wanted to stay home with Cameron and pass out the candy. We made it around the big loop in our neighborhood before finally calling it a night and heading home. Lucy thought it was the best thing ever, she'd hold up her bag and people just dropped in candy. She drug that bag around all night and all Sunday eating as much candy as she could, til she finally throw up. Poor girl she didn't beg for any all day today. I guess she learned her lesson!
Grace as a Barbie Mermaid princess. She begged for a blond wig but we compromised on fake eyelashes.
Blake as Boba Fett. We borrowed the costume which was fantastic because the one Boba Fett one he wanted was way to much so I bought him the gun.
Lucy as Tinker Belle. Poor baby might not ever get a costume of her own since we have so many.
My babies and me.
Cameron and I got invited to a friends for a Halloween party. They said that everyone needed to dress up. after many nos I finally got he to commit to being a football player if I was his cheerleader. I couldn't find matching teams but oh well this worked.
Last week we got together with our friends Ryan and Chalan and did spooky ginger bread houses. We have done this before and Grace begged to do it again. It was lots of fun so I said yes. The kids picked the design off the box that they wanted to do and I am a little OCD so we did our best to recreate it. I should have taken a picture of the cobwebs on the roof because I did a fantastic job. Grace placed all the candy and she copied the picture super close. It turned out fantastic. Our little thief in the house has since eaten the candy corn fence, I guess I should not put candy where she can reach it, because why would you use candy for decorating not eating, right?!
Our super cute house.
Ryan, Chalan, Blythe, Creed and Baron and their house.
On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch with Ryan and Chalan. They had a little petting zoo, a hay arch you can climb, a hay ride, a hay maze and a big corn pit to play int. The kids had a blast and the best part was it was free, except for the purchase of the pumpkins of course. Our family on the hay ride.
The kids with their pumpkins. Blake had to get one with no dirt on it and Graces had to be perfect. lucky for us they both found one that fit their guidelines.
Lucy in the pile of pumpkins.
On top of the hay arch.
In the corn pit.
On the hay ride with Blythe and Creed.
Ok so I am three weeks late with this post but hey it wouldn't be me if I was late on posting something right. So this year Blake can finally play and I thought for sure he would love it since for the last two years we have had to do everything in our power to keep him off the field during Grace's games. Well we were wrong, he totally doesn't like it. The running hurts his legs and his shin guards make him sweat. So I guess soccer is not the sport for him. Grace on the other hand says she really loves soccer. She is not the most aggressive player on the team but she tries very hard to stick with the ball and even made a goal her first game and is really good at defending the goal. I missed her goal because I was trying to wrestle the camera away from Lucy who was deleting all my pictures, fun times. Their games also fall on all the same days and some at the same time so there has been a lot of splitting up to make it everywhere, but there is only 6 games left so I can do this... but whose counting!
Blake finally started preschool last week and I think he was as excited as me. He has been so bored since all the older kids have gone back to school and he now has no one to play with. On Wednesday he had an open house that I attended with him. They did a little scavenger hunt around the room so they became acquainted with the room and they met their teacher. On Friday he had his first real class and he said he had lots of fun. When I picked him up his teacher said he had a fun personality, is that code for rowdy? The picture above is with his teacher.
Blake is super excited that his friend Creed is in his class again this year.
During the scavenger hunt they had to find the dress ups and put something on, he chose the fisherman hat as he called it.
Getting ready for the first real day.
My baby boy and me.
His teacher is very specific about the bag they bring and since I made one for Grace when she went here I decided to make one for Blake too. He picked the fabric because it had orange and yellow.
This year for my birthday my totally awesome friend Scotty whom I have know since kindergarten hooked me up with some fantastic seats to the John Mayer concert. Since I am going to be completely old, 30 if you must know, and I have been feeling pretty depressed about it since finding the gray hair and all he took pitty on me and found me two seats. And let me say that these seats were really good, center section 10 rows from the stage good. My husband being lame decided that since it was a work night he probably shouldn't go so I invited along my good friend Leah. We had a great dinner at Rumbi and then headed to USANA to snag our tickets. The pleasant surprise of the night was that Owl City would be opening and they were totally great to watch. John was also very enjoyable and we had so much fun. I really big thank you to Scotty and a happy early birthday to me!
Since it was pretty dark when he got on stage I was having a hard time getting a good picture so I photographed the big screen instead and it worked great.
They were really awesome and just how I hoped they would be. I really want to download a bunch of their songs.
This was Leah and my favorite person of the evening. First let me say you do not find jerry curl that nice in Utah. He for sure is an out of stater. Next that gun holster man purse is something of a marvel. I am totally thinking of getting Cameron one for Christmas but shhh don't tell!