Bake Day

Of course we had bake day right before Christmas as usual! We ended up with all sorts of delish goodies!

how beautiful are these peanut butter balls?!?

miss Kloe got in on the fun for a bit!

she only wishes she could dive into all those yummy babies!

the finished goods!

all boxed and wrapped up for friends and neighbors!!

We had lots of fun with Elfie this year! He stayed for 10 fun nights and the kids were sad when he headed home with Santa on Christmas Eve!

1. He appeared for his first night with books!

2. He took down all the stocking and replaced them with real socks and then decided to hang out in one!

3. He was very bad one night and tipped over the couch and wrapped it!

4. He hung out with all the girls stuffed animals one night, he was hard to spot wearing a Hannah Montanna build a bear wig!

5. He moved Lexi and Lilly's tree into Kloes room and hung himself up on her wall in a stocking!

6. He dressed up in a Christmas tree build a bear costume and moved lots of presents under himself!

7. He made himself a little tent out of wrapping paper and camped out with some Captain Crunch and some Dr. Pepper!

8. He turned the dining room table and chairs over, wrapped them with lights and hung bowls and pans off all the legs. He got too carried away with the lights and wrapped himself up too!

9. He put a bunch of presents on the ceiling fan and then decided to hang out up there too!

10. On his last night he strung lights through the whole living room, gathered Cinderella, a Care Bear and Superman covered them with blankies and read a Christmas story to them while enjoying cookies and milk under all the lights!!

Til next year Elfie...

Class parties!

I was in charge of Lexi's class party again so another mom and I decided decorating sugar cookies would be fun for all the kids! Goodies plus an activity, win/win!

22 kids plus mounds of frosting, sprinkles and candies, you'd think disaster....

but it wasn't at all!!! They did great and some of their cookies actually looked way cute!
(Lilly loved coming to hang out with her sister for the day!)

Preston also had a little party for Christmas at school!

they got lots of "free" time...

all the kids loved the baby but Preston was very protective over her!

yummy snacks!

and only at school would he get away with playing in a mess of birdseed!!

He's bAAAaaack.....

Elfie!

as usual before he starts his mischief he comes bearing little gifts, books for the older ones and a rattle for Kloe!

she likes...

1st stop, The NORTH POLE!

Last Saturday night we took the kids on a train ride to go see Santa at the North Pole! They had such a blast and you could just see the magic in their eyes, they're true believers! I was a little worried having such a late ride but they did awesome and when we rolled home that night a bit after 11:00 they were already asking when we get to go back!

When we got off at the North Pole Kloe had to snuggle in dads jacket!

our girls with Santa!

What a fun night we had!

Some excited kids!

This was on the porch when we came home yesterday!

he must of liked us last year!

there was an Advent calendar for each of the kids and a note from Elfie letting us know that he'd be making his appearance in about two weeks!

Just what we need in this house...more mischief!

Some Visitors.

Monday night we got a great surprise phone call from my brother Rhett and his cute little family letting us know they'll be joining us for Thanksgiving!!

Then there was a double surprise....

my brother Robby showed up with them, YaY!!!

Kloe and Aunt Charlotte bonded a lot, mostly cuddling and clothes changing is what they did best!

and the itty bitty Bryce, poor boy had three kids coming at him at all times!

We had a great dinner at my Aunts for Thanksgiving!

Me and Rhett.

cousins.

and as usual we hit up Black Friday!!! Up and at em at 3am, Target was our first stop this year, I was all about the flat screen there and I got it,woot woot! As a matter of fact I got everything I had planned and then some except 1 thing at Walmart! There was 4 of us this year and it was a blast! Nothing better than laughing, shopping and eating yummy food from the weee morning til night!

Saturday night we went down town and did our "Christmas walk"

then came home and had us some Los Betos, Rhett had been dieing to have it since they got here!

It was a great visit, lots of chatting, hanging out, loud kids, playing ps3 til 4am, food, pics, shopping, a birthday party, hanging lights, present wrapping, sneaking off to see New Moon (3rd time for me!), watching Four Christmases at home, football, football and football, not too shabby for a 4 day visit! Thanks guys it was fun!

a little catch-up!

The days seem to just run into each other lately as do the months for that matter. There's been PTO meetings, dentist appts, Dr. appt, grocery shopping, parent teacher conferences, Chuck E. Cheese, movie night, sleep overs, play dates and so on! Just everyday things yet some days they seem soooo overwhelming! We haven't seen much of Chris as he leaves before the kids get up in the morning and doesn't get home til way after bedtime! He's building a house in Idaho City which is about a 2 hour drive from home so needless to say his days are loooong especially when your commuting 4 hours! Time is of the essence though as the house needs to be framed in or whatever before they get their big snow which could be any day now! So for now we'll just be thankful that he's got plenty of work and then some and I'll try to be patient and look forward to him having a day off some day...

this is what miss Kloe thinks about having the camera in her face 24/7!

always having someone lovin all over her!

showin off her new beanie!

and her adorable jammies!

Tuesday morning me, Lilly and Kloe went shopping while the others were at school and Lilly insisted on this adorable purple tree for their room!

who could resist this cute thing?!?

it was a long day for Lilly since I made her wait til Lexi got home to set it up!

and Klo bears just hung out on Lexi's bed watching them decorate!

starting to get cold enough for some winter gear!

our sweet, sweet girl.

the kids' cousin Riley slept over for the first time, 6 years old and he's finally warming up to us, lol!

they thought I was pretty neat for making mac and cheese and pizza rolls AND letting them eat it in the girls' room while watching the new Christmas Dora!

these pics crack me up, one night I let the kids stay up and wait for Chris. I had went and got him some new hats earlier that day, so the minute he walked through the door preston insisted on him trying them all on and digging out his old one so they could match. Then Preston wanted a pic so he could say cheese in his matching hat, Chris started making these "serious" faces and we were dieing watching Preston try to copy him. I'm sure it was one of those "had to be there" moments!

last Wednesday we went to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese

Chris surprised the kids by meeting us there! They were getting their grove on with "the band", Preston was dancing all over the place!

and I think the 10 minutes Kloe was awake she enjoyed herself with all the bright lights!

So there's some of our highlights, now next to come is girls night out tomorrow, then I'll make my way home sometime in weeee hours Friday morning after indulging in some Edward on the big screen!!!