The Nutcracker vs. Trail Blazers

The week before Christmas, Ella and I went with our good friend Odelsa to see the Nutcracker! Odelsa has 4 boys so she comes on our girl outings every once in a while. Ella is quite fond of her, she says she is her best friend. Never mind that she is a couple years older. :)

Ella and her best friend! :)

At intermission Ella had to go to the bathroom. She was quite excited to see the wardrobe mirrors in there!

And the spinning chairs!

The Keller Auditorium in Portland. It was our first time there. Not Pantages, but it was pretty cool. :)

While we were out doing girl things, Brady wanted to do something with Carter. He decided to take him to a basketball game! Since my dad was here, he went along! I only have a couple pictures my dad took on his phone. Looks like he had a GREAT time!

He's been chanting "Let's go Blazers!" since. He's a huge fan now!

Christmas time

I figure I will start with the Christmas odds and ends...

Opening some Christmas jammies!

Auntie Cass sent these hats for the kids. Aren't they cute?!

He loves his new hat!

Grammy sent this awesome Christmas craft. It was work I tell you! :)

The modeling of the jammies.  Best picture I got. Seriously. He was not cooperating! 

Ella's Christmas gift to her teacher. She loves monkeys, so we made her a folder. Along with some cute page savers we made! 

Her teacher gave them each a gift. I thought that was so thoughtful! Ella loved it!

Papa showed  up the about 10 days before Christmas. We had to give him his Christmas gift early! He was going to a Blazers game with Carter and Brady. "Let's go Blazers!". More to come on that in the future. 

Carter's classic guns. :)

We did make a real life gingerbread train but I don't have pictures for some reason. I helped in Ella's class when they made gingerbread houses and since there was a ton leftover her teacher gave me half the extras! So the kids and I did them again at home. I am all for the ones you just eat right away. Next year I am going for that option only!

And it's Christmas time!

We are finally caught up! We are all decorated and ready for the holidays. Let the baking begin! :)

  We wrote our letters to Santa! They have yet to be mailed, but we will get to that. :)

I am looking forward to Christmas this year. The kids are both old enough to really enjoy everything. Now that I am finally caught up I will post as we go about our month!

Thanksgiving

We had a very mellow, relaxing Thanksgiving this year. It was kind of weird but nice at the same time. Ella of course made out centerpiece.

 Ella's teacher talked the "feast" up a lot at school. So much that our mounds of food did not qualify as a feast in her mind. :)

The kids put on a play for us! I would put the video up but since I am already stealing Brady's identity to post I figure I better not waste the storage. :) It was pretty cute though I will tell you that!

This is just a random shot from last month. Brady has been traveling quite a bit and always brings something back for the kids. This time he brough them a geode. They were thrilled!

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It's a birthday wrap.

Last  month we had our last birthday of the year. Brady turned 31! Kids had a blast this year planning his "party". They helped decorate, make his cake, and Ella even made a game for it! Below is my favorite picture. We would sing and Carter would blow the candles out right before we would finish the song. He did it three times. We had to re-light and according to Ella, re-sing. It was hilarious (although Ella was a little more than irritated!). :) 

 Pin the tail on the pig was her game! 

Birthday's were so much fun this year. The kids were so into celebrating. Until next year...

Halloween...

It happened. Sort of. We were once again moving. We like to move that time of year for some reason. We did the trunk or treat and trick or treating. We never actually made it to the carving of pumpkins. Oh well. There's always next year. Look at my cute little kids all dressed up though. :)