Santa Al & Mrs Claus' Visit!

A couple months back my Dad sent me an email saying that our family friend who is a real beard Santa would like to set up a time to meet with the kids during the Christmas Season. I called up Santa Al and we set the date for December 5th. Usually Santa Al is SUPER busy during the Christmas Season as you can imagine, but this year he had canceled all his engagements due to a cancer diagnosis earlier in the year. The doctors were sure that his beard would never grow back, but God had other plans! Not only has his beard grown back, but health wise he's doing better than they expected. This year he's been doing charity work as Santa. It was so wonderful to get a whole evening with Santa all to ourselves! 

We decided to have the event at my parents since there house is a Christmas wonderland! When Santa first came in he gave the kids these cute mini stockings with candy canes in them. 

Our kids know that we are really Santa for them, but they also understand that Santa is based off St. Nicholas and that he was a real man that loved to give to others and Santa Al is doing just that. First we had dinner and then we got the kids dressed in their nice Christmas clothes for pictures with Santa. 

My Dad had it all set up with a chair next to the tree. 

The kids have all seen Santa Al over the years so none of them were scared at all. 

Santa Al's Santa suit is so wonderful...he truly looks like Santa Claus! 

Not sure what happened with the lighting in this picture, but it still looks great! Zeke was a little apprehensive at first, but then he ran right over and sat on Santa Al's lap! 

This is the picture of the kids and Santa Al that we included in our Christmas card this year! After pictures Santa had another special treat for each of the kids...presents!!! My Dad was sitting on the other side of the living room and the kids were opening their presents towards me so I took pictures with my phone. I have since come to the conclusion that I'm going to start bringing my real camera with me everywhere. My phone will not take good pictures if the kids are moving around at all! So frustrating! 

Santa talked with each of the kids first. He read the name on the first present and then he asked Owen if he was Owen. How was Santa supposed to know he was really Owen? It was so funny hearing Owen try to explain to him that he was Owen. Daddy happened to have a photo id for each of the school kids so they could prove that they actually were who they said they were! So funny! 

Owen got a LEGO construction set with a truck and a Port-A-Potty. It is so funny! It has a cute little toilet seat inside and a roll of toilet paper! 

Ella gave Santa Al her photo ID as well. 

As you can see she was pretty excited about her present! 

She got an Elsa doll with a dress that matched hers! 

Zeke man was the only one that didn't have any photo ID, but Santa Al let that one slide! 

Zeke got Marshall from Paw Patrol...his favorite character! 

Jack and Santa Al talked the longest. He asked Jack to sing a Christmas song and he actually did. Super cute! 

Jackson got a LEGO Jurassic World set! We had just watched all the movies with the kids so the LEGO set made total sense to him. It's the helicopter that crashes into the Aviary...the coolest part is it shoots a net out trying to capture one of the dinosaurs!

I was just totally shocked that Santa Al got all the kids such spot on gifts! I was pretty sure that Ga-Ga had told him what to get, but then later I found out that Ga-Ga was actually the one that bought them and when Santa Al showed up Pa ran out through the garage door to give him the bag of presents so it looked liked they were from Santa! Such sneaky, clever grandparents they are!!! 

It was such a fun evening spent with Santa Al and Mrs. Claus...AKA Ellen. What a joy they both are to our kids. We are praising God that Al is doing so well...even better than doctors had thought, but you know they aren't called the Great Healer...God is and He's in control!

Family Pictures 2015

Every year we have my friend Starr take our family pictures. We usually do them in November when it's cold out and we suffer for it. This year Starr had a great deal to have your pictures taken at a time of your choosing. My mom really wanted pictures with fall foliage so we chose the end of October. We were trying to miss the super cold weather, but on the day we had them taken it turned out to be really really cold anyway! Next year Mom says were having our pictures taken in the summer! Part of the photo deal was that we could also choose where we wanted the pictures taken at, but we decided to leave that up to Starr. She's the pro! We went to this cute museum out in Buckley. It had these nice buildings and then a grassy area with beautiful trees with fall leaves on them. Ryan and Steph weren't able to join us for pictures this year so instead of doing formal family pictures we decided to do something fun and all wear our Seahawks shirts! 

Starr started out with cute close ups of the kiddos. 

She is so good at getting Zeke to smile. This year he really was a big boy about getting his pictures taken. He almost started to cry once, but I had told the kids if they were good while getting pictures they could each have a big bag of M & M's. The candy was even waiting for them in the van. All I had to do was remind him of the candy and then he was fine! 

I can't believe this boy of mine is going to be 9 next month! 

Ella is just a little fashion model with her hand on her hip! 

Ga-Ga looked so nice in her Seahawks shirt, hoodie and she even had Seahawks earrings on. Pa is not a t-shirt kind of guy so he found a perfect shirt that was just the right colors! 

Michael has a Russell Wilson jersey that my mom gave him last year...she got it from a guy when we went to the Mill Creek Garage Sales. Earlier in the month when we went to the garage sales she got Earl Thomas' jersey from the same guy. Michael isn't a super Russell Wilson fan...he doesn't not like him, but he felt weird wearing a jersey for someone he's not super excited about. Now Earl Thomas is someone Michael really likes. He's such a passionate player so Michael feels great wearing his jersey! 

I normally don't pictures of myself when I'm not fully smiling, but I really liked this one! 

Our church has Community Groups....they are basically small groups like a home Bible Study. Sometimes the community groups go more in-depth into the sermons we hear on Sunday and other times the groups get to choose what they want to do. It's all about fellowship and getting to know people. This time around we decided to have a group geared around the Seahawks. We have people come over to our house and we eat yummy food and watch the game together. It's been so much fun connecting with other people that have a love for the Seahawks like we do. Anyway when we figured out that we were doing Seahawks pictures I asked a couple from our group if they had a flag we could borrow. Sharon was so nice she washed their flag and Michael picked it up the day before our pictures. 

Mom got her wish of pretty fall foliage! 

There happen to be a feed store next to this park area so it made a great backdrop for pictures. 

This picture looks very similar to a picture Starr took of us 2 years ago at Fort Steliacoom Park. I had it turned into a canvas and it's mounted above our fireplace in the dining room. 

Here it is! The kids have grown a lot in 2 years! 

I decided to bring a football with us so we could do cute prop shots! 

Jackson thought it would be fun to photobomb Ella's shot! 

Jackson's Wilson shirt with the Wilson ball! 

Cute football player! 

This is by far my most favorite shot of Zeke ever! He is so stinkin' cute!!! 

Even though it was cold and windy and the kids complained about it the pictures turned out great! 

This family of mine sure is a Blessing! 

This is the fourth year of Blessings pictures and I can't wait to have many more! 

If you want to have awesome pictures taken by an awesome lady check her out at Starr Michelle Photography on Facebook! 

At Home Slumber Party & French Braids!

I completely forgot to blog about me and Ella having an at home slumber party. It all started because our church was having a slumber party for the girls that were in 1st grade - 6th grade. Even though Ella is only in Kindergarten Ms. Colleen said that Ella could come as long as I came and stayed the night as well. Ella was super excited about it and I thought it might be a fun experience for us to have together. I borrowed my mom's twin air mattresses so we didn't have to sleep on the hard floor. The slumber party was on a Friday night and it started at 6:30pm. Ella's normal bedtime since she's started school has been 7:30...earlier in the week I let her stay up in 8pm and it was awful! She had a total meltdown and that's when I knew that we were NOT going to the slumber party. I decided that we would have our own stay at home slumber party and we would just sleep on the air mattresses in the playroom together. I really wanted her to think it was her idea to stay home so I really sold it to her...for instance she would get to pick the movie we were going to watch and she would get to pick the snacks. If we went to church she wouldn't be in control of those things. She bought it! 

Earlier in the evening we had been at our neighbor Rachael's house for a Tupperware party so we didn't get home until around 6pm. Ella wanted to watch Frozen and we did our nails at the same time. We also ate popcorn. I had planned on doing our hair as well, but we just didn't have enough time. 

When it was time for Ella to go to bed we got the air mattresses all aired up, put sheets on them and covers. I explained that Mommy wasn't tired yet and I wanted to go spend some time with Daddy, but I would come in later and sleep with her and she'd be able to snuggle with me when she woke up in the morning. She was fine with this arrangement since she got to sleep in my big bed at Seabrook for one night. 

I kissed her and tucked her in and then went downstairs to watch TV with Michael. Around 11pm I came up to go to bed. Ella was tossing and turning a bit, but so was I. Sleeping on an air mattress isn't the most comfortable. She was also coughing a little bit. After about an hour she made this noise and a cough sound and I knew what was going on. I grabbed my blanket and threw it over in front of her and told her to puke on the blanket. I was a little late so some of it got on the carpet. Normally our routine if one of the kids pukes Michael is the one that takes care of the mess while I take care of the kid. Since Michael had just gone to bed I didn't want to wake him up. I took all the covers downstairs and put them in the washing machine. I knew there was no way we were going to sleep in the playroom...for one there was puke on the floor and on the air mattress and second...it was the nastiest smell ever! I was trying not to puke myself. After cleaning up Ella I got her into bed and then went in and tried to go to bed myself. First I felt something cold on my chest...yep there was puke on me. So I changed my top and tried to go to sleep. I could not get that nasty smell out of my nose though. I was laying feeling sick to my stomach. Then I went to roll over and I reached up to grab my pillow and grabbed....puke! It was on my pillowcase! Thankfully it didn't go through to my pillow since it's one of those expensive contour neck pillows. I got up and changed my pillowcase and then I ran downstairs and got my diffuser and some of my oils and brought that upstairs so I could get the smell out of my nose. Finally around 1am I was able to get in bed and stay in bed. Of course Michael did end of waking up during all of this. He thought I had puked! No, but almost! Needless to say it was the night from hell and I'm SO happy we decided to stay home and not go to church. I could not imagine being THAT mom that brought my puking, sick child to a slumber party. Plus the whole thought of dealing with yucky covers, a sick kid and having to drive home...no thank you! The next day Ella was fine. She wasn't acting sick before bed and she didn't act sick the next day. It was just a one time thing!  

On a side note: I have finally figured out how to make a nice looking French Braid in her hair! 

LEGO Mini Build & LEGO Club!

Back on November 15th Kim texted me and let me know about signing up for the free LEGO mini build at the LEGO store in December. We've tried to sign up before, but the classes were all full. This time around we were able to get signed up at the same time as Andrew was signed up. We showed up at the mall a little early so first we stopped at Kay Jewelers to get my rings cleaned and then it was off to the LEGO store.  

I had never been to a mini build so I really didn't know what to expect. I thought that it might be where we had to wait for all the other kids that were signed up at that time to show up and then they would show everyone what to do as once, but nope! We walked in gave the lady our name and the boys went to a table and started building. It was super laid back! 

I only signed up Owen and Jack since you have to be 7 years old to participate. The guy that was at the table told me I could definitely sign up Ella next time even though she's not even 6 yet. He said that they have the age range just so parents don't drop their 2 year olds off and expect them to put it together on their own. Sheesh...who would do that! 

My boys love LEGO's and I will say since going to the mini build they have gotten even more interested in them. Now Andrew.....he's an absolute pro! This kid needs to work for LEGO as a Master Builder someday. He amazes me! He could probably put LEGO's together faster than I could! 

All the kids got one kit and built the same thing. It's hard to tell what Andrew built, but it was an underwater submersible....think the remote controlled camera ship they sent down to take pictures of the Titanic. It's super cute.  

During pretty much the whole time we were in the LEGO store Zeke was being a total pill. He was super tired since we had a busy day and he was just not having it. When we went to the LEGO store on opening day he cried as well...in fact he was the first kid to cry in that store ever! Then of course Ella needed to go to the bathroom...thankfully Kim was there was she watched Owen and Jack while I took Ella and Zeke. Jack had "grown" so much money from his teeth that he decided to spend $10 on 3 mini figures. It so fun because you get to pick out everything for your custom mini figures...legs, body, head, hair or hat and then one accessory.

Here are the mini figures Jack built. The football player has a #12 jersey...love it. Kai and Jai from Ninjago each had an accessory...one had a fish and the other had a scorpion. Jack just didn't gather those up for the picture. 

The very next day at school was the boys first LEGO Club. Jack's teacher from last year Mr. Heintz is heading this up. It worked out perfectly since I volunteer all day at the school on Thursdays so I just stay after and volunteer for LEGO club as well. The K-2 graders are really supposed to have LEGO club on Tuesdays, but Jackson is involved in ELO...Extended Learning Opportunity on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays so he wasn't going to be able to go to LEGO Club. Thankfully Mr. Heintz is just awesome and he lets Jack and a few other 1st and 2nd graders that are also in ELO come to the 3rd - 5th grader LEGO club on Thursdays. 

The first day of LEGO club was a bit crazy....over 60 kids in the school library is a bit much. It got super hot in there as well. Mr Heintz laid out the rules...my favorite being for each LEGO he found on the floor after LEGO club was over would count for 1 minute that the kids would have to sit on the floor doing nothing at the next LEGO club! He didn't find one LEGO...genius! 

After laying out the rules the kids got to free build for about a half and hour. The next week they got to build marble mazes. It's so fun to see what the kids come up with and also to see them working together. Plus they aren't sitting in front of a TV or computer screen! I know for a fact that my boys are definitely more into LEGO's now than they were before! 

Thanksgiving Weekend!

Oh my word life has been crazy...not with all super, super fun stuff mainly just normal, daily life and responsibilities that make it very hard to keep up with blogging. Twice now I've planned to blog during my day and had that idea fly out the window. Once due to a power outage and the next time due to taking Zeke to the ER...both of those I'll be posting blogs about in the future. Anyway...I'm back now and hopefully I'll be able to etch out time to post more blogs more regularly. 

Our Thanksgiving this year was very different than normal. Michael was on-call at work so we couldn't go any further south. That meant not going to Oregon to see his family or going to Graham to see mine. I knew that I wasn't going to make a big Thanksgiving dinner for us since our kids wouldn't actually eat any of it. We decided to put up the Christmas decorations to get in a festive mood. Michael brought in all the indoor decorations and then he got started on the outside lights. Michael hates putting up lights, but he does it because he knows that the kids love it. It is kind of weird to spend hours outside working on your house where you spend most of your time inside not getting to enjoy your hard work. I've tried really hard to make sure the lights are always on for Michael when he comes home at night so he can drive up and see his hard work! 

The kids had lots of fun helping me decorate. The first thing they did was gather up all the Fall decorations. Of course this turned into a competition to see how many each of the kids could gather up. While we were taking out the Christmas decorations the kids found their stockings. Ella got a special surprise...she found her candy filled candy cane from last year. It wasn't even opened! You would think she'd want to open it and chow down, but she ended up wanting to put it back in her stocking when he hung it on the mantle! Silly girl. 

We decorated the whole house except for the tree! Our old artificial tree had been on it's last leg literally for a few years. When Michael and I were remodeling our house there was a pile of stuff in the garage that needed to go to the dump. I remembered seeing this funny plastic piece, but I thought it didn't go to anything special. Turned out it was one of our tree legs! Michael ended up fashioning a leg from some plywood. It worked, but we usually had to prop the leg up with some books to get the tree straight. Last year the kids and I came home from IKEA and the whole tree had fallen over. The time had come to say goodbye to our gimpy tree! 

On Black Friday my mom and I went out shopping. I had seen an ad for a 7.5 ft tree with both white and multi-colored lights with a remote for only $79 at Home Depot. My mom and I are not crazy Black Friday shoppers we usually don't get out until 10am, but we've always been able to get everything we want. When we showed up at Home Depot there was one tree left...the display and one of the workers was holding it for another shopper. I was bummed, but oh well I figured we'd find another one at a different store for maybe a little more money. 

Off to Walmart we went! We went right to the tree section and lo and behold we found a 7.5 ft tree with both white and multi-colored lights with no remote for $77! Score!!! We snatched it up! One thing we noticed while shopping was that there were barely any people out. We went to 3 places Home Depot, Walmart and Fred Meyer's and got front row parking each time and we were only out for 3 hours! It's kind of sad....I really enjoy being out shopping with a bunch of other people....not crazy stampede people, but it is nice to participate in some rushing around. It's fun to chat with other people and it just feels like the beginning of the Christmas season. Since so many of the stores are opening at such crazy hours....as early as 4pm on Thanksgiving night....ridiculous...it's not nearly as fun anymore. Not to mention those poor workers should be at home celebrating with their families instead of working. I heard that Black Friday shopping was down this year due to so much online shopping...not sure if that is accurate or not, but I definitely did buy more stuff from Amazon this year than I did the year before. Maybe the stores will figure out that those extra hours aren't really worth it and go back to opening at 6am on Friday instead. Not likely, but wishful thinking right! 

On Saturday morning we went and decorated our church and then came home and put up our tree. Oh my how they have improved artificial trees. It was so easy! Click, Click and Click and it was up! A little fluffing of the branches and it was done! 

After we decorated it Michael helped Jack put the star up. This is a tradition that we let Jack do every year. It's his special job! The other kids...mostly Owen gets really jealous about it, but Owen gets to do lots of things before Jack does just because he's the firstborn. So this is all Jack's! 

Turns out a 7.5 ft tree was the tallest possible tree we could have gotten. The star literally touches the ceiling! 

Sadly our light up star had a malfunction and it stopped working. Michael changed the fuses and replaced the bulbs that turned black. A few days later it burned out again and all the lights were black. Michael decided it would be safer to just toss it because there was definitely something wrong with it. Since then we've put my old wooden star on top. 

On Sunday while we watched the Seahawks game my friend Desi came over to work on Christmas cards. I had just gotten a new Stampin' Up set to make gift tags with. Once we were done with her cards I got to work on making tags. They were so easy and so much fun! 

On Thanksgiving night I got really depressed looking at all the pictures people were posting on FB of their families and all the good food they enjoyed together. I did make a nice pork roast for Michael and I...the kids ate something kid friendly that I can't even remember now. It smelled amazing, but unfortunately tasted gross! You win some you lose some! I was a little bit down in the dumps for about a week and then my mom suggested that I play Christmas music during the day to get me in a festive mood. I also pulled out my diffuser and made the house smell like Christmas by using my Holiday Joy oil. Since doing that my mood has really been lifted and I'm definitely in the Christmas spirit!