Christmas Activities and more! :)

We've been busy the past couple of weeks getting into the Christmas spirit! :) What a wonderful time of year!!
Last weekend we headed to MA to spend the weekend with my parents and have the kids ride in the lighted Christmas parade on Saturday night. We weren't blessed with great weather, it was rainy most of the day, so instead of driving the convertible in the parade like my parents had hoped they had to settle for the mini van. The kids didn't care, they still had a ball!
Mike and Wes spent a few hours getting the car decked out to look like the "Griswolds on wheels"! We missed having the Cunninghams in attendance this year, but look forward to them being there next year!
Here are Mike and Wes getting the van decked out in lights. I didn't get a shot of the back of the van but they had a "W" (for Watson!) in the rear window of the van. Very clever, boys!! :) Luckily for them, the garage is heated so they stayed nice and toasty warm. The van headed to the parade.

Rex made the trip to MA with us, he really seems to enjoy hanging out on the quilts in the pie safe.

The van during the parade. The theme this year was something about family traditions.

After the parade, enjoying some of Nana's sugar cookies!

Porter loading up his stick with marshmallows for some S'mores.
A few people stopped over on Saturday night. Aunt Karleen is SO GOOD with the kids. She played Cats Cradle with them forever!

Dad making S'mores with the kiddos. (Funny....I don't remember EVER making S'mores in the fireplace when I was a child!! Guess grandparenthood has chilled him out!)

Poor Stella---eating a S'more is hard with no front teeth!

Hannah approves!

Monday we decided to give Rex his first bath! Needless to say, Rex was NOT happy about this! I waited until Mike got home from work for the bath (good decision on my part!), we both still ended up soaked!

Rexy after his bath.

He looks so skinny and small when he was all wet!

Thursday night we hosted our annual Christmas party for my mom's group (it was total chaos with close to 50 people in attendance and I didn't get any photos taken! :( ). The night before we had the kids decorate their "kids" tree. We purchased a live tree (Stella didn't know you could have a REAL tree for a Christmas tree as we have only had artificials in the past), and the kids decorated it all by themselves with their ornaments.

All lit up!

The party was Thursday night so Friday night we took it easy and decorated gingerbread houses after baths. As always, they were a big hit!

Porter's finished house.

Stella's finished house.

Saturday morning kicked off the first of our holiday baking. We made melted snowman cookies. It was a lot of fun! We'll make lots more cookies next week once Stella is out of school.

Some of the finished products. They turned out pretty cute. :)

And last but not least!!! Stella playing with the Magnatiles on Sunday afternoon.

Ho, Ho, Ho.....a little early!! :)

The Friday after Thanksgiving we celebrated Christmas with Mike's family. We had such a good time! The kids LOVED playing together. It was so fun to see the 3 little boys just fall right into place with each other and Stella of course ADORES Grace and Grace is so good to Stella! The only thing missing was Chris who was unable to get time off work and join us. But we'll be in AZ in December so we'll get to see him then! :)

Grandpa and the kids reading stories before bedtime one evening. "Christmas" night. Grace, who turns 13 (who is that possible!!?!?!?) next week.

Guy opening a gift.

Grant was VERY excited about the Mario Cart game he got for the Wii from Grandpa and Grandma. He and Guy dressed up as Mario and Luigi for Halloween and are big fans!

Stella with her gift from uncle Chris. She's had her eye on this at Target for some time now!

Porter with the Nerf gun from uncle Chris. He loves it, of course!!!!!
Linda

Not the best pic, but I have to explain the gift. Last summer Mike and Scott committed to biking RAGBRAI this coming summer together! Linda picked out bike jerseys for them Iowa and Iowa State accordingly and padded biker shorts for them. Now we'll see how serious they get about training!! LOL!

Stella, Nora and Grace

Scott with the Bathroom Reader Mike picked out for him!

Stellie and Gracie

Grant and Guy received light sabers from Uncle Chris, they were over the moon about getting these!! Nora, Grant and Porter playing with them on Saturday morning (Porter already had one).

The Fab 5!! Grant (age 5), Stella (age 6), Grace (age 12--13 on Dec 5th), Porter (age 4), Guy (age 3, will be 4 on Dec 1st).

Grandma and Grandpa with their "babies"!!!

Santa Visit

Since Steve and Linda were in town and the kids were VERY excited about seeing Jolly Old St. Nicholas, we headed to visit him on Sunday afternoon. Saturday afternoon they spent a lot of time writing their letters to him. They did a great job with their letters and both decorated them very cute! They both asked him some cute questions, Stella wanted to know how he was able to deliver gifts to all the kids in the WHOLE world in one night and Porter wanted to know if he was allergic to cats now that we have Rex!! LOL!!!

Writing their letters.

Going over her list.

Best buddies!!

Grandma and Grandpa with Stella and Porter

Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Steve, Linda, Scott, Nora, Grace, Grant, Guy and my mom and dad were all able to spend the holiday together at our house.
We had absolutely AMAZING weather the day of Thanksgiving! The kids were able to play outside a TON without even wearing jackets! (Unheard of in Iowa in late November!). Just one more thing for us to be Thankful for!

I decided to brine the turkey this year, it was the first time I have ever done it. Everyone said it was delicious, I don't know if it really was or if they were just being kind!! (Being vegetarian makes it hard to taste test the main course!).

I soaked Theodore (our bird) the night before in a water/salt bath. Linda and Mike were nice enough to help me out doing that, as again, being vegetarian it grosses me out sticking my hand up inside a turkey! But I was all on my own the next morning getting him ready for the oven so I had to do that anyway!

Linda getting Theo ready for his salt bath:

Where I spent most of my time, in the kitchen, reading my recipes! I loved every minute of it. Hosting is so much fun!! :)

Resident wino! Oh wait, that is cooking wine. Bummer!

I didn't really get any photos of actual Thanksgiving. For those of you who have been to our house I set up our dining room table in the sun room. It worked out perfect. Then the 3 boys sat at the boys table right next to us. They looked so cute all dressed in orange (that was not planned, BTW!). I love that the light saber made it to the Thanksgiving table. LOL!!

My mom and I have a tradition of Black Friday shopping every year!!! Woot! We LOVE IT!!!! This year Linda was able to join us. Here's mom surrounded by all the ads, getting our night all planned out! :)

The men enjoyed taking it easy and watching football.

Nora was the smart one of the bunch and did her Black Friday shopping from the comfort of home via the Internet! She scored some awesome deals!

A few random photos

I was pretty bad about taking photos the month of November. But here are a few from our busy month!
Porter dressed up for cowboy day at preschool. He actually was very excited about this, but didn't want to smile for this picture! We got snow mid month and the kids were EXCITED about that to say the least!! Stella was at school during this pictures, but she had a blast playing in the snow at recess.

Rex came outside for a little bit, but was pretty hesitant about the snow. It was his first time seeing it or touching it!

A couple Sundays ago Stella and I went downtown to celebrate the 100th year anniversary for our diocese. Of course Stella wanted to get all fancy! She loves dressing up and being fancy these days! :)

Better Late Than Never....Halloween!! :)

Finally updating my blog! Halloween seems like ages ago and this past weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with Mike's side of the family, so I'll have lots of post coming soon. But needed to start with Trick or Treating first! :0)

We lucked out with fabulous trick or treating weather! It was awesome outside that evening. The kids were very excited to put on their costumes and knock on doors and get some candy!
Here they are getting ready to go out.
Stella was an ice cream cone and is posing with her pumpkin.

Porter the mighty Red Power Ranger! (They are wearing their mittens, not because it was cold, but because they were new and they insisted they have them on!)

Stella's friend Kaylen and Kaylen's brother Nate joined us again this year to trick or treat. Nate's mask was bothering him by this point so he had it off.

With all their loot!