Christmas festivities

this was a live nativity that the stake put on

this year I was sick Christmas day so we have no photos of Christmas.  its like it never happened.  The boys had a lovely Christmas and Sean discovered that he doesn't want to be a stay at home dad.  Isaac put on a Christmas show with his preschool where he got to be the donkey.  I didn't get any pictures of that either so just pretend you see zac in a gray furry hoodie with ears saying hee-haw all the way down the isle of a church. 

the kiddos loved the natvity animals.  that is one cute baby goat.

 since we were missing the Christmas lights at river oaks this year I found out about lights at va beach.  it was pretty cool.  we got to drive down the boardwalk and they set up lots of lights on the beach. 

One

Happy Birthday Elise!

We made it! a whole year.  So fast.  Here is some things you've been doing this past year...

You can say 4 words. ba - book/bath.  ma - mum. cheesss - cheese. da - dad. in that order. for everything else you just point and sign toilet, which is supposed to be the more sign but whatever, i know what you mean.
You are running around and love to escape from the bath.
Your hair went from dark to light.
you love playing peek-a-boo and wrestling with your brothers.
you love to read books espeically ones with animals
you go crazy over dogs - so sad that we will never ever ever own one.
you love to dance, you bounce, spin, sumo one leg kick and do a mean downward dog
you are very coordinated. that or your brothers were super slow
you love to play with balls and cars
you are the only person who helps me with the laundry

Next year ask daddy for a pony because you are his little princess.

Utah

A couple of weeks ago Sean, Elise and I went to Salt Lake his brothers wedding.  We left on friday and came back on sunday.  Such a short trip for a long flight, it was worth it, the wedding was lovely and the boys had lots of fun at their very first non-cousin sleep over.   We really couldn't do much since we were either travelling or going to wedding activities.  seriously, why do wedding take up so much time? 

Elise and I outside the new fancy city creek center.  we stopped there on the way to the wedding because Sean didn't have a suit and he was one of the groomsman.

the happy couple.  20 minute limit for picture taking at slc and it was freezing.

uncle curt, elise new bff

waiting to get out of the parking garage to drive to the reception

grooms cake

the bridal party

instead of rice everyone got a lantern and almost set lots of things on fire.

fresh snow! I do not miss living in snow at all. 
this is before baby taylor was blessed.

after the blessing we headed to the airport and went home. 

E and the V

Why my house is never vacuumed

November

oh yeah i have a blog. so, um, November was fun.

 

We spent thanksgiving with friends and ate ourselves silly.  

I totally forgot about doing our thanksgiving tree tradition...no one else remembered either. not sure if that's good or bad. 

 

We got all historical and went to Jamestowne and Colonial Williamsburg. Some pretty interesting stuff, kinda wish i listened in my American heritage class. here goes...

There were three life size replicas of the boats the english used to get here.



a pretty awesome museum that goes through the centuries starting at 1607.  I gotta say that Disney really took some liberties with the whole Pocahontas movie. 

entering the fort

Will making some corn meal in the Indian village

Sean trying out his new panoramic thingo

a very cute guard.  they had lots of these for the kids to wear around. 

playing some jamestowne fort games.  The boys werent' really interested in anything else, even though there were lots of costumed people about ready to show them/tell them about life in jamestowne.  I regret not getting a picture of Elise and the chickens they were her favourite.

Now for Colonial Williamsburg.  Williamsburg was a lot bigger than we expected and we didn't bring any snack or the double stroller so our visit was brief.

at the working plantation

Gardens of the governors house

governors house

more garden

more governors house

even more governors house gardens

awesome tree outside the church.  I love autumn in Virginia

the old gaol, Blackbeard's pirate crew were held here!!  it was the only place the boys wanted to see.

all pictures courtesey of seans phone. our camera was fixed but now its not.

Life Line

So turns out someone dropped our camera and someone hasn't fixed it yet so someone has been taking pictures with her phone. its all ok though because football has taken over our Saturday's (boo! seriously byu if you are going to ruin my social life at least win) so we really haven't been doing anything super fun and regular life just looks better when taken with a grainy iphone camera right?

Tow Mater at the Commissary. According to his number plate it was Tom's tow mater.

Virginia Living Museum that isn't so living anymore since the entire bottom floor flooded.

Learning to play new instruments

Elise and the kitchen drawers.  Either elise is super curious or i don't remember the boys getting into this much stuff.

Zac taking pics while waiting in the car pool line at preschool

selfie

my epic fail.  never believe a cookbook author when they say its super easy and that they don't make pasta and that anyone could make this.  yes i still ate it. it was gross but i used all my basil and spinach.

this chicky does not want anyone else to feed her.

pirates that can't see with either eye

watching the brothers play outside

lovely fall walks around the lake

the moustache brothers

zac had this hanging on our front door for a while.  it says no bad guys

waiting at preschool again

church Halloween party

i had a baby boots finally christened

cuddles at the library

putting blocks in daddy's boots

I can swim!

big boys swim in the big pool

so those two dots are jets.   we have jets flying around everyday and I've been trying to get a picture of them but they are just too fast.  if you want to see them you'll just have to visit.  one time while i was stopped at a red light just off base a F-22 took off and flew straight over the car.  totally freaked me out.

went to the opening of a whole foods just when sandy rain started coming

making some apple lady bugs at the whole food festivities.  the apples were so yummy we went in and got a huge bag.  lucky it was opening week specials or we would have spent our whole paycheck on them.



making yummy food while Sandy is making lots of rain outside. So lucky that we just got the rain and a bit of wind.

and finally... mummy in her natural habitat, by william