Exciting December

Thanksgiving was spent with my Mom and Mark coming to visit this year it was very relaxing and quiet and perfect!  We had such a nice time with them and the kids got a lot of one on one which can be hard when we're in Boise being pulled in so many directions so it was good for them too.  Haylee took lots of drawing tips and lessons, we did puzzles, ate really great food and played some fierce games of banagrams! :)

 

We did have some pretty amazing food on our big day and no shortage of pies either thanks to Nana so we all had full bellies and lots of sweats being worn.  I am so glad we got to make this memory.

Both our girls got the chance to be Western Washington ball girls this Fall and they got the same night which was very fun.  They were super excited!

We sat in the stands and ate popcorn. :)

Sweep girls sweep!!

Well done!

Grace has been in school choir and has had two performances we got to go watch.  It's been a good experience for her I think learning a little about the music and not just singing.  It's not too structured yet but still a fun activity.

After the Christmas performance we raced off to get our tree before rain hit and the stand closed.  We go with the Stoddards every year and babies slept while we picked.....and posed for some shots.

This little boy LOVES his Ben time!!!!  Ben has Gavin as his screen saver of his ipod and is always so good with him whenever we see him.  We got his old lamp and you would have thought Gavin won the lottery......so cute!!  Makes me smile. :)

Haylee still smiling even though sisters' head's coming off.....nice!

Cute little friends.

Stoddard family babies sleeping......

Stoddard family babies awake......crazy!!!!

Brandon and Alexa looking at the train.

Nicole and Avery

Gavin has LOVED all the decorations and ornaments this year.  It has been one of my favorite parts of this season to watch him play with all of it.  Just melts my heart it's so sweet.  He plays with the mini trees as rocket ships.

 Ornaments were all his little friends.

And his train always had some pretty special passengers. ;)

With baby Jesus taking the lead of course. ;)

SOOO CUTE!!!

Don't know if it's a youngest child thing or what but this boy has an amazing imagination!  He will do this for hours......

Kids did a great job on the tree too.

In other exciting Christmas news we got a dog!! Crazy I know since this is numero tres but we really felt like this little guy belonged in our family and there has been not one regret!  We told the girls to just start praying about a dog and when one was right for our family we would know and here is his story:

                                    Meet Jake!                             

Justin saw him at the pound about a month or so before we got him and mentioned a cute little dog we should look at, I of course said "take your meds dear because I think you just said DOG".....a few weeks later he went back and he was still there (getting over kennel cough)so he sent me a picture and said "he's really cute".  Well he was pretty cute but I still said "no" but began to pray that if and when there is a dog out there right for us we would know....well a week or so later Justin says he's bummed out because he went back to check and the dog got adopted so he felt like we missed our chance.  I thought: "not right for us, moving on"......well he goes back again a few days later and here is Jake back at the pound because the lady who took him had unfriendly dogs that didn't care for him.  SO....we decided we would NOT tell kids but go look on Justins lunch hour and see how he is with us.   K- so we get in there and find that not only is the phone ringing off the hook for this dog but he has 2 holds...yes 2 on him for the next 48 hours. :(  I once again thought okay we need to let this go and move on...right?  Wrong!  48 hours later they tell us he was never picked up by either person and there are lots of people requesting to see him but because we had been in so many times they would hold him one more day for us(actually 3 because it was now the weekend and they were closed Sun and Mon) so we had a while to ponder what we were thinking  and told the kids we had a dog we needed them to meet.  We got in there and we just sort of knew there was no way this dog was not meant for us. :)

So a little 7 year old poodle/Maltese mix who doesn't shed, bite, bark, who listens, obeys, has the sweetest temperament ever has found it's way home to our family.

 And he is a perfect little addition to our family this Christmas.

A little scraggly and no one knows where he even came from but now he's ours and we are thrilled we found him!

Sheesh just finished pre Christmas and tomorrow is New Years Eve.....maybe I'll find some time in our weekend to finally get caught up.  If not happy New Year......2012 will be a good one I just know it! :)