Fun with friends

We did a gift exchange just before we decorated Gingerbread Men.  The funny thing was, is that none of the kids knew what they were giving each other.  Luke and Jevin gave each other Speed Stacks (the cup stacking racing game), and "flags" for playing flag football.  Luke knew that we wanted to get the speed stacks, but I tricked him into thinking we missed the order time at the school.  His P.E. teacher played along and told Luke that the order had already closed, so he was pretty excited about getting them.
For Derek we got him whatr every 5 year old wants-  2 yards of felt, and a stapler.  He was in heaven.  He loves to create things with felt and a stapler.  Cracks me up.
For Olivia and Maddie, Stephanie and I took on a project and we (and by we, I mean Stephanie) actually finished it um, an hour before the gift exchange.  We sewed the girls the matching dresses.  They turned out so cute.  Luckily Steph knows what she's doing, but a seamtress I am not.  The girls were so excited and had to put them on right away.  Livvy wore hers 2 days in a row. 
Stephanie also surprised our family with a gift of dinner.  She made us our favorite- Kalua Pork, complete with a fresh pineapple, green onions, and a head of cabbage.  We were in heaven that night. 
We are so blessed to have such great friends. 

Gingerbread Families

Bird's eye view

Luke and Jevin

Maddie concentrating.                                              Isn't Derek so cute? 

Maddie is displaying her cute gingerbread boy.

Aren't Livvy's teeth beautiful?

We had our friends over to decorate Gingerbread Men the Monday before Christmas.  We wanted to have Livvy's friend Maddie over when we did the Gingerbread Houses, but Livvy and Maddie are on opposite Preschool schedules, so it makes it hard to have them get together during the weeks, so we planned something when all the kids could come.  It was another fun sugar fest. 
As you can tell from Livvy's eyes, she was going down hill as the evening progressed.  She ended up spiking a fever later that night.  Poor little girl had an ear infection.

3rd Grade Christmas Party

The Christmas Spread.

There were 3 events planned, game, gift exchange, and food.  They got to vote to see which activity would come first.  Food won by a landslide, then gift exchange, then game.

Luke with his teacher Mrs. Shockley.

Mrs. Shockley has the kids separated into "tribes."  They work together to earn special rewards.  Luke's Tribe was able to earn the right to be the "Rudolph" Tribe for Christmas.  Go Team!

Above, Mrs. Shockley is giving the kids lecture #397 as she called it.  It is a reminder that at the gift exchange, no one is going to get their most desired gift.  She is warning them to be gracious even if they hate the gift, because they could hurt their friend's feelings if they cry or get mad that they didn't get what they wanted.  The kids were all good, and no one had any outbursts or scenes. 

After I left Olivia's Christmas Party at the preschool, I got to run over to Luke's Christmas Party.  I was in charge of his party,  His teacher had all the activities, all I had to do was come up with the refreshments and then help out where I was needed.  It was fun to be in his classroom, and to see the excitement of all the kids.   The kids had a lot of fun, and were full of sugar for their bus ride home.

Preschool Christmas Sing a long

Olivia's Preschool had a Christmas Sing a long that the parents were invited to.  Their party went long, so the sing a long turned into only one song and then they presented us with the gifts they made for us.  They were calendars with art projects attached to each page.  They are really fun. 

Maybe soon I can figure out how to attach the video of her song. 

Gingerbread Houses

The Gingerbread Village

My happy smiling girl with her house.

Kids from L-R Eva, Kaden, Alex, McKenna, Livs, Christina.  Somehow Penelope escaped from the picture.

We had some friends over for a playgroup to decorate Gingerbread Houses and of course play.  The weather was pretty stinky that day, but our friends braved the roads and came over anyway.  (Luke was really hoping it was a snow day so he could stay home and decorate one too, but as you can see from his absence in the pictures, he was at school). 
I had built the houses the night before so the frosting would have time to set.  Each friend brought a different candy to decorate the houses with.  We had so many choices to pick from and the kids had fun decorating their houses.  And of course they enjoyed eating as much candy as they could.  Penelope had fun eating her house rather than decorate it.  It was a very fun day, we may have to make this a yearly tradition.

Christmas Photo Shoot 2009

Luke got a haircut a couple of weeks ago, and the lady did not listen to the instructions we gave her.  She cut the layers so short (for Luke's hair) and he was devastated.  We had a meltdown for hours.  Luke wanted to sue the lady and ruin her life like she had ruined his.  He was so mad because when he said it was too short, her reply was "It will grow back."  Needless to say we had a talk about that fact that even though she messed up, we don't try to ruin someone elses life because they've wronged you.  Well, with a lot of styling products, including hair glue we were able to fix Luke's hair in a way that he felt good about.  So I decided since the kids looked so good, we'd take some pictures.  I mean they're so cute, how could I not?

This next one is Olivia running to check out the picture before the camara had taken it.  I love that Luke is still posed even though Livvy is running away.

After some "posed" pictures I let them show some personality.

And here is my favorite "posed" shot.

Sorry we didn't get cards out.  But we do want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  We love you and are so glad we can keep in touch through the blogs and facebook.  We hope that the Spirit of Christ fills your Christmas Season. 

Love,

Ryan, Katie, Lukas, and Olivia

Time Out

A few weeks ago Luke came home from school in a foul (to say the least) mood.  I sent him to his room to settle down.  When I went up to check on him I found him sound asleep between his bed and the wall.  He slept for 2 hours.  No wonder he was off, he was exhausted.

Thanksgiving 2009

Olivia and Kaiya had so much fun "hugging" each other.  Then their hugs would turn into tackles and they would fall on the floor laughing so hard.

Isn't this the best look?

Mmmmm, guess who got to eat at Red Robin?

Angella was eating some slush that we had for Thanksgiving Dinner and the two girls came over begging like little birds to get spoonfuls of it.  We had to get a shot of them with their little mouths open waiting for something to eat.  :)

This year we went to Eric and Angella's for Thanksgiving.  I really didn't get any good pictures of our actual dinner.  It seems like we're always too busy cooking to worry about saving the memory.  We had a great meal, and the kids had so much fun playing with their cousins.  Olivia and Kaiya are just two peas in a pod when it comes to trouble and they keep you on your toes at all time.  Cute little Sarah, is now crawling around and she's so quiet she can sneak up on you and you don't know it and step on her.  I hurt my arm, (flared up my tennis elbow), of course you have to work through the pain right?  I had a gallon of milk out that was 2/3 full, when I went to step backwards and realized that little Sarah was under my foot.  To keep from putting on any pressure on her hand, I threw the gallon of milk across the kitchen, and grabbed at the counter to keep from falling on her.  Milk was spilling everywhere, and I strained my elbow a bit more, but little Sarah was spared from injury, she just had a good scare.  It's nice too that the dog was able to clean up most of the spilled milk. 

We built a scooter with the Tinker Toys. 

Photo shoot with the two adorable 3 year olds and one 11 month old. 

Halloween 2009

       

Okay I know it's been a while since I've posted, but seriously what did they do with the format to blog?  I am so confused.  Only 1 picture is posted at a time, and when I add the other ones they go where they want and I haven't figured out how to position them where I want to.  I mean, hello, I am an old dog...I can't learn new tricks.  GRRRRRRR

Back to the post.  Luke was Will from the Ranger's Apprentice book series this year.  No one knew who he was, but he loves his cloak.  Olivia as you can tell was Minnie Mouse.  They had fun, and luckily we all recover from the stinking swine flu in time to trick or treat. 

First Day of Preschool

Our sweet little, (really little- I mean she just turned 3) girl just started her first day of Preschool.  She loves it and is so excited to go.  She loves her teacher, and the playground.  She likes it best when I, or our friend Sarah are the parent helpers.  We really like her teacher.  I can't believe our little girl is this big already.  Where does the time go?

By the way, if anyone really does know where the spell check went could you tell me?

Well, would you look at that!

I just noticed I stil have a blog.  It's been a while since I've posted anything.  I really need to find that cord to transfer pictures to the computer.  Here I am with supposibly more time on my hands, and I have let this slip through the cracks.  I will do better. 
It's been so long they changed the headers on the posts.  Where'd my spell check go? Do I have to actually spell correctly now?

First Day of 3rd Grade

Oh yes, I'm so happy to go to school.

I can't believe that time has marched forward yet another year. My ever growing boy is now in 3rd grade!!!!! Wow. Time flies. He is excited to be going to a new school, and we are very excited for his teacher this year. Mrs. S is one who goes the extra mile. In August she went to each and every one of her student's homes to meet her children and their families. She is doing all she can to make this year a great one. After the past 2 years of school, we look forward to working with her.

Happy Birthday Celebration #3

When you're a 3 year old little princess, I guess you should have 3 birthday celebrations. Olivia was so excited for her birthday this year, since we were gone for her actual birthday, we decided to let her have a party with her friends after we got home. She had a Princess Tea Party.

We had finger sandwiches, cut in shapes of flowers and butterflies, fruit kabobs(the hit of the party), jello jigglers, chips, and veggie sticks. We served pink lemonade out of her tea service.

The Table

We had a wonderful lunch.

After lunch we painted fingernails and toenail. Lisa and Madi came to help. They did an awesome job.

Olivia and Maddie decided they wanted to paint my fingernails. They both attacked my hands with a different color. Luckily they chose light colors so you couldn't see the paint up to my wrists unless you were looking for it.

After the nails dried, we made a princess craft, and then we had cake and ice cream. I stayed up until 3 AM finishing the cake. I was happy with the way it turned out.

Yep, she's still afraid of fire.

Enjoying the cake and ice cream.

Time for presents.

I couldn't resist putting the wrapping on my head.

Uh hummmm! Is that a Barbie? So it has begun.

Ryan and I had picked out a present for Olivia back in May, but after the bike ride at the Celery Flats, Livvy wanted a bike so bad that we decided to put away her other present until Christmas and we got her a bike. She was in heaven. She loves her birthday bike and we have taken in out on many a bike ride since then. It really was a great thing to do, because she can enjoy the rest of the good weather to ride her bike, and her other present will be perfect at Christmas.

Happy Birthday our little princess.

Olivia wore a permanent track riding her bike around the main level of the house. She is a little speed demon.