Happy Birthday David

It is Davids birthday!

We celebrated his birthday and had a family white elephant exchange.

A charger and a Christmas necklace

This was pretty good.  It is a fake product.

When you open the box it says you've been tricked.  There is no such thing as a sleep hood.

There was actually chocolate in the box.

Maple syrup and a fly swatter

 Candy and a pillow case.

Wait...let's take a look at that pillow case close up.

David took a picture of himself sleeping and put it on the case so the person could have sweet dreams.

And a chocolate fish.

Happy birthday David and Merry Christmas Family

New Tree

We needed a table top tree this year because we have a toddler in the house. We will have a toddler next year too.  Henry and Lily.

To decorate this tree we choose new ornaments to represent each of the grandchildren and the three unmarried children.  

A Penguin for Joey

This doll represents Madison

This doll for Hailey

Here is the Lily doll

This animal is for Calvin

Bradley is into foxes now

This little bird is for our Henry

This tent represents Thomas

And an E for Emma.

Even though it's a small tree we can still take nice family pictures in front of it.

We also planted bulbs this year.  Paper whites and amaryllis.  I planted them in glass containers so we could see their roots.  Come  on and bloom amaryllis because its almost Christmas.

Girls luncheon at the Fairmont Olympic hotel

The Bell's were kind enough to as us to join them at the annual Christmas girls luncheon.

The hotel is beautiful especially when it is decorated for Christmas.

Santa was in the entrance so Hailey wanted to see if she was on the nice list.

Susan, Kristy, and Mary Bell

Theresa, Jaeden, Sarah, and Lily Bell

The Lunch was delicious.

Hailey was there too.

Hailey practiced her dancing in the ballroom,

and visited the teddy bear suite.

with her mom.

When we first arrived we heard the Issaquah High School choir.  The choir director remembered Sarah by name.  It was fun to hear her old group sing. 

Thank you Mary Bell.  We had a wonderful time.

Keystone gets snow too. A Thomas adventure update.

Here is Tommy at work in Keystone Colorado

They have snow in Keystone so now Thomas is busy clearing streets and parking lots..and doing lots of snowboarding.

His friend Kyle got to go up and spend time with him.  They did lots of snowboarding.

Keystone is a very family friendly resort.  Here is a picture Thomas took of the largest snow fort they have there. He took this picture when he wasn't snowboarding. They light fireworks here at night.

Stay warm Tommy and keep sending pictures.

This is what the fort looks like on Keystone's instagram

December 9th

We got snow!
The kids built a snowman.

Madison and Calvin got snow the night before.

Joey built Alfie the disapproving snowman. Joey got to run over him on Sunday.  As you can see he is right in front of Joey's car, and he does not approve.

Lily Anne turned one month today.

December is here...let the parties begin.

Happy Thanksgiving

The gangs all here.

We started out decorating our turkey cookies.  This has been a tradition every year.

We put the cookies in cellophane bags and now the kids are making leaf name tags to label the bags with.  These will be our place cards. 

Madison and Calvin meet Lily.

The traditional clock picture

Here is one of the first ones we did.

The table is set, kinda.  I don't know where the plate is for the place setting at the bottom of the picture.

The next day we went on a hike to Lake tradition. ( A stroller friendly hike.)

The kids almost de-mossed the whole forest.  I guess we need to talk about leave no trace.

We love that Joey always has a birthday close to Thanksgiving because he always chooses the ice cream cake and we all love that.  Happy 17th Birthday Joseph!

Emma also had a birthday at the end of the month.  We didn't get to celebrate with her in person, but here she is doing what she loves.  Happy Birthday Emma!

Lily is a November birthday too.

We ended the holiday weekend by Lily being blessed.  Here are the two grandmas holding Lily and Lily is wearing a dress her great grandma Rae made.  Grandma Rae did all the smocking around the collar of the dress.

Busy Thanksgiving.

Thomas Update

Thomas is learning to snowboard....

because they finally got snow.