Meeting Santa

Gabe is at the perfect age for Christmas.  He is just discovering Santa, and it is so fun.  He actually got to meet Santa at the Ward Christmas party.  And so did Luke.  My older kids had no interest.

Family Pictures

If you are the mom or dad of a large family you know how stressful family pictures can be.  At my house, it's something I get ready for for a week. I buy everyone new shirts, typically going to 3-4 different stores to find just the right ones.  I'm very picky about the details of our clothing, accessories, shoes, background and hair.  This particular photo shoot was a little more rushed because of my new baby.  Usually I get family pictures in October so I can have Christmas Cards out the first week of December.  Not this year.  This year I got the pictures taken the second week of December. Yeah, cutting it close.  Anyways, we were getting ready, frantically I might add, and Gabe saw everyone else putting gel in their hair.  So he took a big gob and put it in his hair.  I asked Darren to wash it out and do Gabe's hair.  Darren didn't listen and for some reason thought that more gel would fix the problem.  Not so.  Gabe ended up with a disgustingly greasy head of hair that closely resembled Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber. As the photographer arrived at our house I quickly put Gabe's head in the shower, shampooed it, and started over.  It ended up looking ok, but I learned my lesson.  Never ask a man to do your kids hair for family pictures, or anything important for that matter.  Oh, and ignore the mess in the pictures, there were clothes flying every direction for about half hour prior to these pictures.

Fixer Upper

I'm not a big fan of TV.  Especially reality TV shows.  I hate drama and contention.  What I do love is decorating shows.  There is nothing better than a great before and after.  And so, I love Fixer Upper.  If you haven't seen it you should immediately repent and watch it! Just kidding, I know decorating shows aren't for everyone.  It's a show where this family- Chip and Joanna Gaines and their 4 kids helps another families buy an older home and fixes them up.  Thus the name- Fixer Upper.  Chip is the construction guy, and Joanna is the decorator.  She is like a decorating magician!  I love her style. Everything she does ends up beautiful.  Watching her show has taught me so much about decorating.  I love what a great family they are and how nice they are to each other.  It's about time there was a show on TV where the people get along and are good examples.  Everyone who watches that show who knows Darren and me tells me, that Darren and I are just like Chip and Joanna.  I totally agree! They crack me up.   I'll take being compared to Joanna Gaines any day!  And I have to admit, Darren is just like Chip- only, well, a little more, ummm edgy.     
So, I had a little Fixer Upper party for the first episode of season 3.  I invited my good friends Debbie, Katie, and Karley over to watch it.  We had a great time and were laughing at Chip so much.  I had to re-watch the show the next day. Darren got a kick out of hearing us downstairs laughing.  Thanks girls for the fun night!

State Piano

The kids recently played in a regional piano recital and got chosen to go to State.  Darren refused to go, so I took the kids to Salem, by myself (ahemm). Salem happens to be the capital of Oregon, which I did not know until we went there.  They played great, and I took a ton of pictures and recorded them.  They played on stage on a beautiful grand piano.  Kyle played 2 songs so he got 2 medals.   Unfortunately, my SD card got corrupted and I lost all my pictures.  I was so sad- I tried everything to get them back, but they are gone.  I think I will record them playing at home and post in on youtube.  But for now, that's all you get.

Oh Christmas Tree

Buying a Christmas tree each year just might be one of my favorite Christmas traditions, besides Christmas Carols, Christmas lights, Christmas cookies, and Christmas presents. It always reminds me of the Christmas Story, and Ralfie.  I love that movie.   I love to support the local guys who grow the trees.  I wonder if they even make any money.  This tree grower was so enthusiastic- he must have wished us Merry Christmas 10 times! To which we wished him a Merry Christmas back 3 fold. Ellie missed out on the fun because she was sick.  We missed her.

Darren was being difficult in these pictures.  I took 10 of them- all of which he refused to smile. As soon as I put the camera down, he burst out laughing.  I swear, I'm married to a kid!

I love these guys! What's better in life than taking your kids to pick out a Christmas tree? Not much.

Thanksgiving

Holy Hanukkah, time is just going by way to fast.  I wish I could push pause on life for 2 days to get caught up and ready for Christmas.  Make that 5.  I need to blog about Thanksgiving before Christmas gets here.

Thanksgiving this year was low key.  I ran the annual Turkey trot.  5k.  my goal was 9 min. miles and I did it! Yea! It was FREEZING that morning- so I went by myself and was home by 9 in the morning to get ready for Thanksgiving.  We hung out and went to our friends Jenna and Craig's house.  Their kids, Savannah and Carson are Ellie and Kyle's good friends, so we all had a great time.  They have a ping pong table and a pool table.  Darren has totally gotten into ping pong again.  He and Craig have a great time playing.  Jenna was so helpful to me during my pregnancy and my recovery- they are the sweetest family.

Climbing!

Yes, you heard me right.  We went climbing!! One of my all time favorite things to do.  It has been sooo long.  I'm trying to remember the last time- probably climbing the Grand Teton 7 years ago?   

Sometimes it's hard to remember who I am deep down.  My pre-5 kids self.  The one with time to fulfill her passions. Not just working all day trying to keep my head above water.  Life can be so demanding and some days it seems impossible to find time for myself.  I love climbing.  It was such a big part of my life for so many years.  In fact- I was going through some old photos and found some of me climbing.  I will scan them in and post them when I get the chance.
When Darren and I had 1 child we were still able to go climbing.  We would take Paul to the Quarry and let him hang out in his car seat while we climbed.  After 2 kids -it just became too hard. 
But, thankfully, it is slowly going to be incorporated back into my life.   Darren discovered that there is a climbing gym about an hour from our house in Walla Walla.   He took Kyle a while ago, and I have been wanting to go since then.   We got the chance on Tuesday when our friend DL had a night off and suggested we go.  We brought Kyle along and had a great time.

 Here Darren is showing Kyle the ropes. Hahaha.  Ok, he is teaching him how to tie a figure 8.  Kyle was a natural.  He did a bunch of pull ups on the climbing bar- it was amazing!  I wish I had gotten a video of it.  Next time.
  DL wouldn't let us take any pictures of him but he was happy to take lots of pictures of us.  It was like having our own private photographer. 
I can not even explain how excited I was.  I felt totally comfortable and in love the second I started climbing.  This is going to happen more.

 Darren on-sighted a 5.10c which was so impressive.  He was having the time of his life too.  DL had some impressive moves and Kyle was a rock star!

 Hahaha- these pictures crack me up.  DL wouldn't let me take a picture of him- but I managed to get 2 of his feet.  Perhaps his face will always remain a mystery.

 After dinner we changed and headed to a nice French restaurant.  It was fun because DL is French and so his first language is French.  He explained the menu to us and helped us order.  We got cheese Fondue, which was too much cheese and not enough healthy food- (who'd have guessed?) but that's ok.  It was part of the experience.  Kyle was so cute- he brought a suit to wear.    I had to get a picture of these two.
We had a great time. I think Darren had just as great of a time climbing as I did.  Now that I am done having kids, we are going to try to start climbing more.  And taking our kids. We are going to be a climbing family! Let the good times begin.