Happy Birthday Ryan

Sunday was Ryan's birthday. He was so cute. All he wanted for his birthday was to have all the Elders in Elder's Quorum for one day. So he completely arranged it all and taught part of the lesson. I guess we all have different ideas of what makes a happy birthday.

Here he is in the morning opening presents:
He loves the cotton scented soap from Bath & Body Works.


Key Lime Pie:

My mom sent Ryan money to buy root beer float stuff (and whatever else he wanted). So here we are:
Brandon needed a picture of himself for a class project. This is what he got. So cute.

Snow Fun

We had our Thanksgiving dinner today. Yes, that is right. It is always so much fun to visit family for Thanksgiving, but we really miss out on all the left-overs. So every year we have our own Thanksgiving separate from the family. It was sooooooo good.We go a TON of snow in the last week, which is really strange for this area generally. Today we decided to build the kids a little snow fort/igloo.

What really surprised me was how wide it was on the inside.
We had our ward Christmas party at our church. The kids got to talk to Santa.


Kathleen and some of her cute friends singing Christmas carols.
The boys decided to make a tunnel for our train.
Brandon is a cute little piano player. He is working really hard right now on a Christmas song for his piano recital. it is so cute to hear him and watch him play.
So on Wednesday, when school was cancelled because of the snow, we spent about 5 hours outside in the snow. What does a kids hair look like after all that fun one may ask? Well we have the answer right here:
And here is what Cody did for fun while mom shoveled the driveway (sat on a mound eating snow):
We set up our Christmas trees. Here I am with the "red" tree:
And here the kids are setting up their tree in the playroom:



And here is the first day of our own "Elf on the Shelf." The kids named him Freddie. They LOVE Freddie and even made us put up a stocking for him. That first day was the best behavior I have EVER seen out of my kids, knowing that Freddie was watching them. But don't worry, they are back to normal now.
Setting up the tree:

And since I didn't take a single picture of Cam's wedding, I decided I had better put at least one on my blog that I stole from someone else. I really liked this picture. Although it was hard to choose because they were all so good.

Thanksgiving and a Wedding

Yes, my title of the post says Thanksgiving and a Wedding. But since I am terrible at taking pictures, I don't have any from either of those. In fact, most of the pictures I do have I stole from other blogs. At any rate, we did go to Spokane for both Thanksgiving and the wedding of Ryan's youngest (and one of his coolest) brother.

On the way there the weather was AMAZING! Snow everywhere through the mountains but not a drop on the roads. We stopped at the top of the pass and had a snowball fight with the kids.
Brandon might just be a photographer. Every chance he got, he was taking pictures with Grandma's camera.


Then, of course, Spokane decided that the snow it got two years ago wasn't enough. So the weather got a jump start this year and DUMPED snow on us the entire week we were there.

The kids had fun at the church with cousins while we decorated for the reception.

Me and my sis:
Brandon LOVED playing with Lincoln logs. Especially if grandpa would build with him.




Brandon and Uncle Boo went nuts with some flavored popcorn.



Play dough:
Cody loved Uncle Jon's dogs Gage and Darby.
Aunt Michelle teaches at a dance studio. Kathleen got to go to one of her classes with cousin Katie. But the best part is that Michelle knitted Kathleen some leg warmers. SUPER CUTE!
My one lame-o Thanksgiving picture.
Ryan's sister Emily made these cute crafts with us while we were there. I love them!
Then, we took a few hours longer than normal, but we made it home. The weather was atrocious the ENTIRE way. But we are so glad to be home after a long week in Spokane.
And when we got home, we discovered that one of our kids left the back door open and we heated the entire world for a whole week. I guess no matter how many last checks of the house you do, they will always sneak in something awesome. Sorry thieves, you missed your chance. Can't wait to get that bill...