I have been trying for weeks to post this but have been having issues with blogger. Carson's brother Cody and his family came to visit us for Thanksgiving. They drove from Utah on Wednesday and then drove back Sunday! We're so grateful that they were willing to make the long trip with their 3 cute kids so we could see them. Our kids were beyond excited to spend the weekend with their cousins. On Saturday night we exchanged Christmas presents:
And had some friends over that we all knew in Baltimore, including my cousin Kevin's family:
There were 14 kids total between the 5 families and 3 more on the way!
Saturday morning we went to Pike's Place Market in the morning and had lunch at the park outside
Trey seems to be getting so big
Cody and the kids ran around and tried to catch pigeons
Tucker (and everyone else!) was pretty cold
Thursday we all cooked in the morning and made a fantastic Thanksgiving feast:
Complete with my favorite french bread bacon cranberry apple stuffing
And an apple pie with streusel topping
Carson played football this year for the Maple Valley Rec league with some other LDS guys from the area and they named themselves the "Saints." They did really well and went to the championship game but lost to their arch rivals, the Curtis Lang team (ironically, the company who built our house). I think adult flag football is about the most dangerous sport you can play, because they are so aggressive that they play almost like tackle football, but without any helmets or pads. Two of our friends have had to have surgery because of it and now in this last game, a guy on the team broke his jaw, had surgery and is going to have some major short-term complications. Carson is talking about not playing next year and although I hate to see him give up his favorite activity, it does make me rest a little easier. We would be in big trouble if he injured his right hand, arm, or eyes.
About a month ago I was in the kitchen when I saw Beckham heading outside carrying his skateboard and wearing his jacket with a skateboard on the back, his favorite quiksilver dragon shirt and a hat backwards. He actually bought that skateboard with his own money at Target last year, when he was only 3. This kid thinks he can do anything and is just naturally cool. He doesn't really know how to ride the skateboard but he tries to do tricks. Check out these action shots:
I don't know what he's doing here but he definitely thinks he's cool:
You can see the skateboard on the back of his jacket. We bought this jacket at Gymboree a few years ago and it is one of my favorite pieces of kids clothing ever. Usually I think the stuff at Gymboree for little boys is too cheesy and overpriced, but every once in a while they have something awesome.
Of course I was SO excited to find out we're having a baby girl, but the bummer is that with Carson starting his business this year I have NO cash to buy all the cute things I've been drooling over for years! So I've been trying to find creative ways around it. First of all, I've been hitting up the local Goodwill on a regular basis. Usually the shirts are $1 and the pants are $2. If I go every week or two, I can get a couple of good things every time I go, and often with names like Gap and Babystyle! Secondly, we cashed in some credit card rewards for $400 worth of Gap/Old Navy gift cards. Unfortunately, I used the bulk of it to buy late back-to-school clothes for my boys since I wasn't able to get them anything at the beginning of the school year, but I was still able to find some cute baby girl things... here are 3 pairs of tiny shoes, all from Old Navy, the charcoal moccasins courtesy of my sister Hillary!
The jackets were all 50% off so I got these 3 for next winter. The brown sherpa one might not look very girly but I'm sure with a pair of embroidered jeans and a pink beanie she won't be mistaken for a boy! And it looks very warm and comfortable.
Two pairs of embroidered jeans for next fall and a jean skirt... now all I need is a pair of striped tights! I already made hairclips to go with the jeans, a pink felt butterfly and a purple felt flower. I plan to post some of my creations in the near future!
These 3 outfits don't look super special but I was excited to get some good separates in my favorite colors that were on a great sale and will go with anything.
And last, the boys all did the summer reading program at the library this year and earned an art set. Trey doesn't like to sit still long enough to read much so it was really a challenge for him to get in 1000 minutes but he barely made it! They always feel like it's a special day when we pull out the art sets and I think they love them so much more because they earned them.
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I gave the kids dinosaur pajamas on Christmas Eve. We have never done this on Christmas before, but the kids LOVE to match and they did need new pajamas. .jpg)
Caeden looks old in a weird way in this picture but it's cute that they're hugging and they're so happy._edited-2.jpg)
Beckham with his chipmunk smile:
I love staying home for Christmas. I feel badly that we can't be with both sets of grandparents at the same time, but it's SO much easier to just have Christmas morning at our house, with no traveling, no coordination, last-minute wrapping and our own beds to sleep in. Here are the kids waiting to go into the family room (please excuse the huge pregnant woman with the video camera):
The kids were so excited they were running and jumping everywhere... I feel like the word "active" only begins to describe my boys.
I love how Trey looks perfectly happy and you can see the day beginning to dawn in the background:
Becks in mid-air
Caeden holding up his pajama pants as he runs to show me his monkey book, another Goodwill stocking stuffer:
Someone from Carson's work got the kids these M&M candy canes and they all pretended to use them as real canes saying "I'm an old man! I'm an old man!"
The nerf gun tag set was a big hit:
Here's Christmas morning from the parents' point of view:
In the afternoon we went up to my parents' house for dinner.
I was worried that the kids would be disappointed with Christmas this year since we didn't have a lot of money to spend on it, but they were just as happy as ever, and with the presents from the extended family I think they got everything they truly wanted. We had a lot of fun and were able to do all the activities we wanted to as a family, despite my pregnancy-induced tiredness and Carson's busiest month at work. It's awesome to have kids. They make Christmas special and they have such an endless supply of energy and hope.
