merry christmas!!!

love,

evelyn & allie

xoxoxoxo

let the holidays begin!

last weekend we had our annual christmas celebration with my mom and siblings. the kids are at a really fun age, so it was fun to watch them in all the excitement. my mom made an awesome pot of jambalaya for dinner, it was her first time making so we were all pretty impressed with how yummy it was!

our attempt at getting a picture of mom with the grandkids :)

gwynny, so excited about christmas!
the night before "christmas" the kids got to open one present from grandma...it was pjs and a small toy. payton got buzz light year pjs with green wing arms, he also got the slinky dog from toy story. he played under the table with his new dog toy and allie for hours!
santa brought gwynn and payton bean bags..
evelyn wanted to share her peez candies from her stocking with dad...
evelyn and aunt sasa being silly in the kitchen...

miss e sporting her new back pack from gwynn and payton, it was a hit!

everybody wanted to open payton's airplane :)

being silly with her new tea set, which was also a favorite of hers. we have tea together every morning now!

yippee more toys...

i had to post this picture of the ornaments sarah made this year, each family got a bird and the deer one was for miss evie! sarah was super crafty this year, she made gwynn and payton the cutest pillows for their beds....i love when she gets crafty!

that evening we headed out to the zoo lights...i always look forward to the lights. miss evie is really into christmas lights this year, so it was fun to show them to her.

sisters...

mom (i mean santa) and i...

macdonald fam...

aunt lucy being silly with gwynn...

tenbusch clan...

the train was super cool, you can see the steam from it in the picture. the whole train covered in lights and then you can ride it around the zoo to look at all the other lights.

thanks mom for such a wonderful christmas, we all had a great time. we have three more to go, so holidays are really just beginning for us!!!

ps-our neighbors have been spoiling us this year with yummy holiday goodies, i think i just ate an entire bag of homemade carmel corn...whoops, it was just so yummy i couldn't stop! i hope your all are getting spoiled by your neighbors and friends too!

santa visit...

not so sure about him...

and hear comes the tears :(
so, we went and visited santa last week while we were in portland. i really thought evelyn might do good. we have been reading lots of books about santa and every time she sees santa she gets excited and tries to say "ho, ho, ho". she also thinks its really neat that santa has deer that pull his sleigh, as most of you know "deer" is evelyn's favorite animal that she sleeps with. she wanted to bring deer with us to the santa visit , so i was starting to think this santa visit might work. when we got in line, she wanted me to get deer out of my purse. as you can see in the pictures above she had a tight grip on deer, but she still couldn't hold back the tears. :( she got a color book out of the deal, so i guess it was worth it. the crazy thing is that she does like santa and wanted to get up on his lap and show him "deer", but i think siting on his lap is just too close for miss evie. better luck next year sweet pea!

marsh mellows...

marsh mellowing roasting on on the back deck....yummy!

evelyn really likes marsh mellows, in fact i think we lost count on how many she had eaten! i hope your all enjoying some of the breaks in the rainy weather we have been having.

o chirstmas tree!

last weekend we went hunting...

for a tree
and we played peek-a-boo
in the trees!
evelyn picked this one...

watching dad cut it...

i think this one is going to be prefect (don't worry there is a guard on the saw!)

decorating it...evie liked handing us the ornaments to put on.

putting her felt bird that aunt sasa made for her in the tree

(and yes she has a headlamp around her neck, we are a little random sometimes!)

look at my pretty tree...evelyn is fascinated with it, sometimes she forgets about it and then when she notices it she starts pointing and yelling at it!

evie also had an opportunity to meet santa while he was visiting brownsville over the weekend. she wasn't to fond of him, but decided to at least take a candy cane from him. :)

decorating cookies with some kids...i think i actually ended up decorating it and she ate it...not fair! :) the holidays are so much fun with kids, we are loving it this year!

a lot to be thankful for...

thanksgiving turned out to be busy, yummy, and full of lots of outdoor fun. we had three thanksgiving to enjoy this year, the first was the weekend before at my mom's. we ate lots and then went for an cold but refreshing hike the next day. i didn't take many pictures and the ones i did didn't turn out. :( my camera is at the repair shop and will hopefully come back in tip top shape real soon. the pics I do have are courtesy of aunt sasa's i-phone. :)

evelyn and gwynn showing off there cute skirts aunt sasa made for them...they have a cute colorful apple pattern on them.

our 2nd thanksgiving was at brian's parents house. we decided to opt out of the turkey run this year and went for a snowy wintery hike in the mcdonald forest on thanksgiving. it was a gorgeous sunny day with a lite dust on snow on the ground, perfect day to enjoy the northwest while its not raining. :) brain's mom always makes a yummy traditional thanksgiving that i look forward to because we normally do something less traditional at our other thanksgiving so we don't get burned out with turkey. :)

last stop was our house were we hosted my dad, gale, and siblings for dinner. before dinner we visited a water powered grain mill that the state parks recently bought. it was very interesting and was enjoyed by all, even payton got into it! there was so many great opportunities for good pics; like us all wearing hardhats, or payton getting weighed on the huge grain scale, etc. maybe next time we can capture a few.

evelyn and payton playing music under the table...

aunt sasa with payton and gwynn...

i know this is a little late, but i hope everyone had a great thanksgivng celebrating with friends and family. i always look forward to this time of year...good food and fun times with family and now the christmas holiday begins!

the journey to 18 months...

2 weeks old...

3 months...
6 months...
9 months...

1 year old...

and now..18 months old!

WOW....it sure has went quick! miss evie continues to be our constant entertainment, we often wonder what we use to do with out her. :) this last six months she has been learning and growing so much. i just measured her on the growth chart and she has grown 3 inches in 6 months! is that even possible?! she is continuing to say new words everyday, but really likes to just wine to get her way.:) she has just recently gotten in to mothering her baby dolls, monkeys, and allie. poor allie, i think sometimes she just wants to be left alone and not bothered by pesky evelyn. evelyn is a girl of routine, she likes everything to be just like it always is. she wants brian to do his belt before he even has his pants on. her bath time routine is pretty funny; undress, throw dirty cloths in the hallway, get a wash cloth, get in the tub, wash her body (in a certain order of course!), dry off, vitamin, brush teeth, comb hair, read books, and turn the light off. i'm not kidding she can do all this on her own and she wants it done is this order! she is like this with everything...a girl of routine!!!

she LOVES books right now, in fact brian and i are getting tired of our options of books to read. we are hopping santa brings her some new ones!

the multi-tasker...notice she is playing her music table while holding her pumpkin full of toys and riding ladybug! :)

we can no longer just run by the play structure at the park, we have to of course stop and play!

hmmm...

she loves stickers lately, in fact so much that she thought she would cover her body in elk address labels!

happy 18 months sweetpea!!!