Brody's #5 Birthday...A Pirate Party!

Brody has never really had a "Friend" birthday party before. We are usually traveling to see family around his Birthday, since it's so close to Christmas. But, since we decided to stay home this year...he made a list...a long list...of friends he wanted to invite. He ended up having 9 kiddos show up + our 4 = 13 kids having a blast!!! And he wanted a pirate party. So first we made hooks and eye patches. Then we had dinner. After dinner we played pin the parrot on the pirate.
Then we did presents and after all the wrapping paper and toys were picked up (thanks to uncle Brad), we embarked on a pirate treasure hunt. I looked online and found a ton of "pirate talk"....so using all the pirate terms I made clues and a map for the kids to hunt down their treasure. It was pretty fun.

Teagan, of course, was a big helper...being the oldest one there.
At the end of their hunt...they found these little treasure chests...for each kid. (These were just made out of paper bags, that I cut and folded to look like chests. The drawing of the "wood" took FOREVER, but I thought they turned out pretty cute.) And I just put gold coins, necklaces, rings, candy, etc inside for their treasure.
Last of all was Birthday cake and ice cream. This cake was one of the easiest that I've done lately. And Brody LOVED it! John helped by printing off sails and a pirate flag for me. And I opened 2 of Brody's presents early to retrieve the pirates and treasure chest.
Love this pic....especially since there are 2 others besides Brody puckering their lips to blow!
Happy Birthday to my sweet Brody Bug. Love, love, love you!

Christmas 2011

We always think we're going to have a slim Christmas...but some how our living room is always full with gifts under our tree come Christmas morning. I kinda shop during the year and shove things in my closet...never remembering just how much I have until it's all wrapped and under the tree. Santa's gifts always add to it as well. And Santa pleased the kiddos with a Wii this year. Woohoo!
We forgot to make cookies for Santa...so last minute I borrowed some from a plate of goodies a friend had brought to us. Phew!
Someday we will have a mantle to hang our stockings on. But for now, they are cozy on the couch.
This is the only picture I took of the kids. *sigh* But, we did have the video camera going. It was a wonderful Christmas. And a first in a Looooong time that we actually stayed home. Nice, mellow, somewhat-quiet, happy Christmas.

Gingerbread Houses

Someone gave me the awesome idea of saving some Halloween candy for making gingerbread houses. So I saved a baggie of Dots, Skittles, Starbursts, M&Ms, etc. and we had the kids make their own gingerbread houses with graham crackers. They loved it.
Liam supervised and was the candy taster.
This cute girl had a little construction help from Mommy....but basically did it by herself.

This is how I found Kamryn's house 2 days later. Apparently a tornado blew through and stripped all the candy and shot the tree right through the house!
Brody was ready to eat his right away. Love his face!
Teagan made this all on his own. He's growing up way faster than I could have imagined.

December Randoms

Liam is really such a joy to have around. He is silly and sweet and oh so funny!
Love these pictures where my kids are just totally enjoying each other.
Cute, happy children.
Okay...I am seriously worried about this girl becoming a teenager. She is too cute for her own good.
LOVED when I found this in Teagan's back pack!
This is how Brody writes his name. Terribly cute.
Teagan decided to add Cheetos to the grocery list. Ha!
I got a kick out of his "handsome" picture and the sentence he wrote using the word.
Best way to exercise...ever! (And have you noticed???...John has lost about 50 pounds in the last couple years. Hot...hot...hot!)

November Randoms

Brody and Teagan in the middle of a very intense game of Sequence.
Gma and Kiddos watching Daddy make a pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving.
Showing off their Home Depot projects that they did with Daddy while Mommy was out with her friends.
My girl.

Teagan's Dream

"I dreamt that Dad was hitting the ground to get some water out. Then he got some noodles and put them together to make soup. Then all of a sudden a T-rex came and was making a square where one of his family members had died. And then it started coming after Dad. And then a guy stood in front of the T-rex and said, 'Ye Shall Go Away.' And the T-rex ran away. And then we were free. And I was happy because I ate cake and a giant chocolate turn over."

Halloween 2011

Decorating pumpkins....the non-messy guts way.
Smile! (Notice Teagan's socks. It was crazy sock day at school. Go SJE Eagles!) LOVE my happy children!
Teagan was excellent as Dracula.
Creeeepy.
Brody was Bumble Bee from Transformers. (Although, he changed his costume several times...even as I was trying to get us out the door. He was Darth Vader for a bit.)
Cutest little bumble bee I've ever seen.
And a princess, of course. (She really didn't have to dress up for this. This is her...everyday.)
Pretty scary bunch.
Holy candy! Makes me sick just thinking about all the chocolate I stole from them. Happy Halloween!!!

Kamryn's #3 Birthday!!!

Kamryn wanted a princess castle cake. This is what I came up with. I thought it turned out cute and Kamryn LOVED it...so I was happy.


We had several friends over for presents, cake, and ice cream. It made Kamryn's day to have her friends there, especially Kaitlyn. This teenage girl is a FAVORITE of Kamryn's...and pretty much worthy of her admiration. I'll be more than pleased if Kamryn turns out to be the kind of young woman that Kaitlyn is.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl! We love you oh so much...and you make our days bright and joyful!

Day 4 & 5

Our last 2 days we spent hopping back and forth between the parks, riding favorites rides multiple times, and trying REALLY hard to find Belle for Kamryn and to get Brody in the Jedi Training Academy.
We went on the Jungle Safari ride...I don't know how many times. It's great in the dark, by the way.
I look plastic...but it's just a mixture between a lot of sun, sweat, and flash.
John did all the spin-around-make-me-sick rides with the kids.
We also went on the Little Mermaid ride a ton. Kamryn and Liam loved it and the rest of us loved the cool temperatures inside.
So, we tried for 5 days to find Belle, from Beauty and the Beast...Kamryn's favorite princess.
We failed.
John would ask the character workers and nobody could seem to tell us a good time/place to find her. Needless to say, Kamryn has moved on. Sure, she still plays with her princess dolls....but since Belle didn't give her time to Kamryn, Kamryn has a new best friend, Aurora, from Sleeping Beauty.

Pretty sure I would not have cared about the princesses at her age (or really ever), but Kamryn loves her princesses and still can not get over the fact that she got to meet a bunch of them in person.

Brody almost gave up on his dream too. We tried 4 times to get him into the Jedi Training Academy. Teagan was chosen the first time...Kamryn was chosen the 2nd time, but denied because she was too young...and finally after being disappointed 3 times, Brody didn't want to try again. But, he has stubborn parents. So I made him 2 signs to hold up. "PICK ME!" and "I'M CUTE!" So, with him holding the signs and John holding Brody up in the air....he was finally chosen!!! Brody was sooo excited and I was almost on the verge of tears, because he wanted it so bad.
He really didn't need the training, however.
He received a lot of attention from the trainers, but he KNEW exactly what to do.
Brody took on Darth Vader and was triumphant.
We had so much fun during our week in California. We were exhausted and broke by the time we left, but we created a ton of memories...and the kids couldn't have been happier. So glad we were able to take this family vacation together. I think we'll try it in another 5 years...minus diapers, strollers, and me constantly scanning a gazillion people to make sure I have my little munchins nearby.