Christmas at home

For Christmas this year we decided to stay home rather than travel up to Reno to be with family.  It's just getting too difficult to travel with four kids.  We had a great time at home though, I decorated the inside of the house and Matt & Nathan put up lights all over the front of the house, very cute!  Here's some of my favorite pictures.

Alivia helping me with the cookies for Santa

Looks like Santa was here

can't open fast enough

Stopping to play with the the new firehouse

Loving the new mini van

Baylee loves the little school bus

Aaron loves the Diego jeep

and of course Alivia loves her new doll house, or girl house as she calls it

Baylee's walking

Baylee started taking a couple steps a few weeks ago, now she's up to about 8-10 steps at a time.

The Halls are Decked

The tree is up, the ornaments are on.  The stocking are hanging and the house has been given a sprinkle of Christmas cheer.  And of course the snow has been falling.  It's definatly Christmas time.

I'm Thankful for...

My family.  We had a great thanksgiving at our house this year.  Matt's sister Melissa, her family, Andreas and baby Isaac joined us.  Also a good friend, Slim was able to make it down.  Unfortunately my dad wasn't able to make the drive due to a recent surgery.  Maybe he can make it for Christmas.

We decided to deep fry the turkey this year. 

Here's Slim and Matt hard at work cooking the turkey to perfection.

Here's a couple pictures of Baylee, she provided the entertainment.

Snow for thanksgiving?  Better hit the beach.

The kids love running around freely on the sand.

Time to watch the sunset.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

haircuts

I finally decided to do something about Alivia's rats nest hair.  It's so curly it would get tangled very easily, so a short cut it is.  It actually turned out pretty cute.

Aaron needed a cut too, I love his wavy hair, but it was just getting too wild.  I was surprised he actually wanted me to cut his hair.  Very handsome!

"Love your hair sis!"

I wanna ride my scooter

I bought the kids scooters a few days ago, and ever since I hear "I wanna ride my scooter" every day. Luckily we've had some nice weather for a few days, but today was too chilly for me. Not for the kids though, Alivia went around the house looking for her jacket.

Aaron really got the hang of it quickly and was off racing around the yard. To be fair, he did have some practice on his big brothers scooter

Alivia was a little confused on how to make it go at first. She stood up on it with one foot and would swing the other foot (which is barely touching the ground) back and forth. She's getting better at it, but it's still cute to watch.

Trick or Treat

I love dressing my kids up for Halloween. And this year Alivia loved it too. As for the others, well, see for yourself... This was the dress rehearsal, Alivia was so excited to be a kitty cat for Halloween she wanted to wear the costume all day. Aaron, well I think the look on his face says it all. And Baylee was just a little too snug in the banana costume so we swapped it out for Eeyore.

Much Happier.
So glad it warmed up this weekend. We headed into town while it was still light out so the kids wouldn't be too scared, last year it was dark and raining and the kids were too scared to go up to most of the merchants.

We decided to visit a couple of our neighbors before calling it a night. This is the only picture of Nathan, he decided not to dress up this year.

Enough candy to last through the year, although I'm sure Nathan will be sneaking most of it when I'm not looking.

Mickey Mouse's House

Alivia has been asking to go to Mickey Mouse's House for months now, and how can I say no to such a sweet little face. We decided to go on Matt's Birthday, for a couple reasons, it's in the fall and wouldn't be too hot, Disney let's you in free on your birthday, and my mom was in town to help out with the kids.

Here we are waiting for daddy to get the tickets so we can

finally see where Mickey Mouse lives

Once inside, a quick trip on the submarine to see Nemo, then off to Toon Town to meet Mickey. The first stop was a visit with Goofy. Aaron was too shy to say hello to any of the characters. Here they are in line to meet Minnie and Mickey Having a snack in Minnie's KitchenMy Sleeping Beauty Alivia was also very excited to meet Pooh and friends, Aaron on the other hand decided he would just watch, but he did insist that his "Pengy" go and meet the gang. The kids loved splashing around on this giant floating rock,

while the grown-ups took turns riding Space Mountain.The kids favorite ride, Dumbo. Even Baylee & Nathan loved it.The other favorite ride was the Carousel And of course to remember this wonderful day we had to purchase some special souvenirs