Christmas with Grandma Kelly...

My mom got back into town a few days before Christmas and we decided to do our Christmas with her while she was here. She got back into town, and funny story...I got a phone call from my dad from the Seattle Airport. Him and Kathryn had left for Mexico right after Tucker's baptism and my mom left for Kansas City right after his baptism, and I just didn't even put it together until the day before, but they had both asked me to pick them up at the airport on Sunday night. The Sunday night before Christmas. Actually, when it got closer, I was worried I wouldn't be able to do it, because my mom told me she was coming in at 9 and my dad at 10. I thought, how in the world am I going to get both of them??? Then, my dad called me from the Seattle airport telling me that he saw my mom in the Seattle airport and they were on the same flight!!! ha ha!! :) I was dying, but it made it easier for me, just one trip to the airport! :) ha ha

Anyway, my mom was here and she said she wanted to run and pick up a few more things for the kids, so off to Target we went. Jackson found this little push toy and held on to it for dear life, which in grandma's world that means that he HAS to have it. So, of course, she got it for him, 2 days before Christmas. The stinker. He then fell asleep with it in his arms.

Since not a single one of my siblings came home for Christmas, we had grandma all to ourselves. The kids loved that. We had a nice relaxing dinner at home and then opened up gifts:

It was a wonderful night of opening gifts and just having a ton of fun together. There were lots of happy and excited faces, like this:

Grandma is so good to us. And, of course, my sweet Tucker is always so grateful. He is the most grateful kid I know, and always, without even any prompting from me, will thank people for the things that they give him. I love that about him. There were lots of bear hugs for grandma. 

This Jackson boy was very protective of his grandma. Every time someone would give her a hug he would go over and try and get inbetween them and then he would be right there to hug on her himself. Jealous much???

Grandma giving me an air hug from across the room:

Big group thank you hug on grandma:

We then, of course, got to play with our new toys all night. Lucky kids! Thanks grandma for the low-key, wonderful, full of love Christmas! We love you so much!

Kassie's birthday...

My bestie has 4 daughters. And I love all of them. Her second daughter, Kassie turned 12 in December. It was her year to have a big friend party. Katrina planned this super fun night of taking all the girls to Wal-Mart for a scavenger hunt. It was a lot of girls and a lot of work, so I offered to help her for the night. Taylor and I went and partied with a bunch of 12 year olds.

Katrina explaining to us the rules:

We got into 4 groups and another one of moms came to help, too. A friend of Katrina's, Tami Perrin. This was my group of awesome girls. I got all the sisters and sister's friends. But we still rocked it. :) We definitely didn't win, but we sure had a good time. There were about 20 things we had to collect, things like; the ugliest toy, the smallest shoes, the brightest pink thing you can find, the grossest food. I felt kind of bad, that we collected all of these things and then just left them in the carts, but I guess that's why the people have jobs, right!? :) Some funny things about that night, was that we had all gathered our things, we met at the back of the store. All of us were squeezed into this small area, and Gary leaned on a door and the alarm in the store went off!! It was so funny, all the girls started to scream and we went into a different aisle. Then...as we were walking out of the store after, there was a man getting arrested right there in the parking lot at the front of the store. All the girls were so creeped out by that, we had to keep on telling them that he probably just stole something, but literally, the cops had him on his knees and he was getting his hands cuffed behind his head, and everything! Of course it happened right as we were walking out! :)

We then went back to their house for pizza and cake and ice cream and presents. Taylor and Maggie; cute girls!!!

Cute Kassie and all of her friends:

I forgot how much energy and high pitched screaming happens at 12 year old birthday parties. Although, it does just seem that I was just at that age a few years ago!!!

All of the girls were so sweet to Taylor, They did a little white elephant gift exchange. Katrina went and got a whole bunch of dollar store gifts, and they were so sweet giving Taylor what she wanted. 

It's funny because I was taking this picture of Gary taking a selfie with all the girls...

Then, Katrina thought it was funny to take a picture of Gary taking a picture with the girls, and I got a picture of them all! :) Such a fun night! I sure am glad that I have a few more years before I have to go through this!!!

Christmas Festivities...

I love that the holiday's are so full of fun activities. There are always treats to be made, concerts to go to, people to visit. But I'd say my most favorite part about the holiday's is after the kids go to bed, and I can just sit for a few minutes in a quiet living room with the lights from the tree glowing. There is nothing better in the world!

Also, I found the perfect birthday present for my brother! :) I saw this and it made me laugh so hard. Funny story, I bought it for him for his birthday in November. I bought it from an ETSY shop. It said it was a US shop. No biggie, I really didn't care. But, after I ordered it, it took like A MONTH to get to me! There is a tab on etsy where you can track your orders, and I'm pretty sure this came from one of those little sweat shops that I saw in Jerusalem. The shirt really did come from Jerusalem, that is what the tracking thing said. And since I've been there, and I know how the commerce is there, I know that this was probably totally made on the side of the street somewhere using superglue or something. But, it finally got to me mid-december, and I was able to send it to my brother for his November 13th birthday. Regardless, I still love the shirt! :) ha ha!

We definitely had to drive by this guy a few times. Every Time we were in the neighborhood at night, we would do a quick drive by. It's just the coolest tree, and it's so huge! I really don't know how they do it, and the whole street is decorated to the nines for Christmas. The kids love it.

Last year I made up this cute little Christmas light scavenger hunt that we did with the kids and it was so much fun, and I was totally planning on doing it again this year, but just didn't have time. So, we just went really quick one night to this one house. It is so ugly that it's good! :) The kids love it, and I think we stopped counting at 37 blow up decorations in their front yard. Pure Christmas awesomeness.

Of course, matching Christmas PJ's are a must for December:

{Star Wars ones to boot!!! Thanks Grandma!}

My office turned into Santas workshop. My mom had me shipping Christmas gifts and boxes all over the country for her.

Not to mention the gifts I was storing for my own friends and family members. Candles, ornaments, cards, candy...

Ben does some work on the side for Kirt, and they had  'Trading Science' work Christmas party. Dinner at Black Angus. Good times with this group!!! :)

I was wanting to go to Tucker's Christmas party this year, but I couldn't find someone to take Jackson for me, which was fine. It wasn't the end of the world. But the office did tell me I could come to the sing-a-long which was the half hour before the parties, and I could bring the kids to that. The little Sunrise choir would be singing some songs and the  kids and parents could join in. I didn't tell Tucker we were coming for that, and so we surprised him and he sat back with us.

Jackson couldn't get enough of his big brother...

And they sang and danced the whole time. I'm glad that Tucker is still young and innocent enough to want to be with us and sing and dance with his baby brother. This is such  fun stage for him, but I have a feeling soon enough, he won't want us to be coming around. I'm going to be  taking advantage of it as long as I can!!!!

Of course, the Christmas clothes picture. Lots of work to get this picture. Crazy kids, it's the best we could do.

Also, my mom came into town to fly out to Kansas City for a week, and she left her car here. It was always a little bitter for Ben to see this lanyard hanging on our key hooks next to his. :(

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Also, Ben and I snuck out on a date night and had Jennifer and Andrew Judkins watch the kids. They are so good like that, and we miss that they aren't living in Spokane any more. Anyway, they took the kids to their ward Christmas party and she texted me these pictures. I think that they turned out so cute, for being cell pics. :)

 

 

Christmas Treats...

Of course, Christmas time wouldn't be Christmas time without treats and goodies and lots and lots of sugar!!! :) One night for FHE we made gingerbread houses. 

The kids loved it:

{This little stinker--I love those chubby cheeks so much!}

But I think that this big man child of mine loved it the most. He was channeling his inner architect, being very precise and exact and particular with his house.

Our completed village of gingerbread houses:

My friend Katrina and I usually have a baking day together, putting together our plates of goodies for friends and families. We just couldn't make it work this year with our schedules, and I was super sad about it, but Taylor and I pushed on and had a baking day to ourselves. We made Fudge, no bake cookies, homemade Oreos, and this new recipe I found for cookies that have crushed oreos and candy canes and white chocolate chips in them, they sounded divine. So we gave them a try.

One little helper and One little anti-helper:

I love it when my table looks like this:

We also went to our friends, the Nelson's, house to make graham cracker houses. Danna was so good an had everything there and ready for us when we got there. The kids had a ball. I had a ball eating all the treats and drinking from the delicious hot chocolate station she had set up there:

The big kids got to go downstairs to decorate theirs while the littles were upstairs closer to the parents. That's alotta kids right there!!! :) The Nelsons, Mortensens, us and the Barkers:

We are so lucky to have such awesome friends. I love the holiday's for giving us excuses to play with our friends and family and eat lots and lots of treats!!!

Tucker's Baptism...

My little boy got baptized!!! He is so sweet, I can't even believe it. It was such a fun event and baptism to plan. We had some great moments with this whole experience. Tucker and his BFF Owen had planned on getting baptized together for the past year. They both have November birthdays and were so excited.  I was excited for them to go through something like this together. We planned, and prepared, and they both wanted their papa's to speak, and I made some cute little baptism invites. It was totally in the works. Also, Owen and Tucker were getting baptized on their own, because my dad was in Alaska still on the day of the stake baptism, and since they had planned on getting baptized together, Owen joined in our personal baptism, which we were super excited about. Then, on Halloween night, as we were trick or treating with some friends, the Stake Primary president saw us (well, I was with Jackson at home, but she saw Ben and Meg and Wes and all of our kids) and she said that she just couldn't stop thinking about Taylor Kartchner, a boy in Tucker's class, in the Evergreen ward, whose family hadn't been to church for a while. But she just couldn't stop thinking about him, and Meg had told her that Tucker was friends with him at school, and that Meg was his mom's visiting teacher, and that we would invite him to get baptized with Owen and Tucker. Maybe the idea of a smaller baptism would interest them more. After the baptism we found out that there were three things that all kind of worked together to get Taylor to decide to get baptized. Meg had called Marianne, his mom, and told her how Owen and Tucker were getting baptized together in a smaller service, and that we would love for Taylor to join them. Meg said that she sounded kind of shocked a little but she is awesome, and she said that she would talk to Taylor and see if he wanted to do that. The second thing was that Tucker asked Taylor at school if he wanted to get baptized with him and Owen. I'm not sure that Taylor even knew how that all worked, but it planted the seed in Taylor and he told Tucker he didn't know. And lastly, the Stake Primary presidency sends out baptismal information a month or so before the month you are supposed to get baptized in. Taylor had checked the mail at his house the day that this information arrived and opened it and read it, and initiated the conversation with his mom about his baptism, and since he had just been invited by Tucker, and since Meg had just spoken to Marianne about it, they talked about it. And Taylor decided, on his own, that he wanted to get baptized, I just think that this is such a cool story and experience for Taylor, and I really hope that one day we will see the benefit of it all.

Anyway, I made these cute announcements for the boys to give to their family and friends:

I'm sure that Meg and Marianne thought I was crazy, I was e-mailing them all the time about planning food, etc... Taylor is the youngest in his family and Owen the middle, but Tucker was my first, and being a planner by nature, I was a little psychotic!!! In the end, we decided to get Jimmy John's (They are Tucker's favorite, and I don't think the other boy's cared!) :) and Marianne made some yummy salads, and Meg got some yummy cupcakes. (We were going to do Krispy Kreme doughnuts, but Meg went in to get some, and the machine was broken down and they didn't have doughnuts! Can you believe that!!! Of all days!)

Tucker got this cool new CTR ring from his Aunt Kayla:

The day of the baptism came, and it was perfect. Nice, peaceful filled with family and friends. I'm glad all the crazy work was done ahead of time, because the day of was perfect!

Our little fam bam. I love these guys:

These two. I tell you, they are like two peas in a pod. I tell them to pose, and this is what they do:

So, I handed my mom my camera, and she took the above pictures of our family. Then she told me she was going to keep my camera the rest of the baptism so she could get some pictures. Well, she must have bumped the autofocus to manual focus, because the next few pictures were all blurry and I realized at the end of the service that it was on manual focus and I was able to switch it back for the last few pictures.

Cute Avery handing out the programs:

The three boys and their dads:

Bishop Clark of the Evergreen ward conducting:

My dad spoke on Baptism:

Ron spoke on the Holy Ghost:

Us moms all did a little spotlight on the boys, talking a little bit about them:

Then the baptism. It is so cool watching your baby boy get baptized. Him and his daddy were so sweet together. One thing I love about this picture, are all of the hispanic heads that are in it. I loved that so many of his little buddy's from the branch came to his baptism. We are so blessed with so many great friends. The whole RS room was full of friends and family from all of our different wards and branches.

This was when I finally realized it was on Manual Focus, so I was able to switch it. The three boys all looking out at their family and friends there to support them.

Stinkers:

Carmen, Maria and Yulissa all came. Some of my greatest friends from our branch:

3 generations of friends, the Campbell's and the Schlerfs, Pyper and Mortensens:

They boys and their Papa's:

I love these cute boys so much and I'm so glad that Tucker has a BFF that he gets to experience things like this with. I am so glad that he is a good kid. He really truly wants to do good and is the boy that when I ask him to do something will do it! I just hope that he continues to have that strong desire to do good and be good! I love him so much and feel so blessed to have a big boy like him being a good example to our other kids!

Decorating for Christmas...

With the craft day out of the way, and all of the Thanksgiving decor down, I knew it was time. I love love love decorating for Christmas, and get really excited about it. It's a lot of work, so I usually take one whole day where I am going through tubs and boxes and trying to figure out where everything will fit this year. It's super fun to me. We did change one itty bitty teeny tiny thing this year. We got a fake tree!!! Can you believe that?!?! Something that Ben and I vowed we would never do. Ben was the one who first mentioned it to me. And I said no way, absolutely not. Well, little by little the idea grew on me, and I thought, well, let's give it a try. Ben, of course, found a great deal at Home Depot, and he is like a premier customer there, so he get's great discounts. So, we went for it. He put it up one night after work, and we just left it bare. Tucker and I both the next morning were just not feeling it. We were both like, nope, this was a nice try, but no way! It kind of made me sad rather than IN the Christmas spirit. But there it sat all day, and I was itching to get decorations up, so then we thought, well, let's see if the decorations help. So, that night when Ben got home, we decided to go for it, knowing that if we still hated it, we could change.

The kids had a great time, especially Jackson who was the anti-helper (as usual) and just wanted to throw everything everywhere...

Little by little we got the thing decorated...

I still did wish that it was more fluffy, it seemed to be missing some of the branches, not really, but it seemed like it needed more.

Once the decorating began, the kids didn't seem to mind the fakeness of the tree! :)

And by the end, it was definitely a hit. It wasn't the fullest tree we have ever had, but once decorated it was equally as beautiful, and I could begin to see the benefits of not having to water the freaking tree all season long. That was a wonderful benefit!!! I even went out and bought these little tree smelling ornaments that you can hang on your tree so at least your house smells like a fresh tree. That is what I really missed, the smell...

The mantle and all the hung stockings... (I'm dying to beef up my mantle one day...soon...hopefully!)

I found this cute little vintage side table that a lady had refinished and was selling on craigslist, for like $10. I was so excited. It was perfect for a little extra Christmas decor and some of the Christmas books.

My nativity from Bethlehem and Christus statue...

And Tucker couldn't let our friendly gargoyle on our front porch be left out of the Christmas decor...

And my table and window pane with our Christmas cards on it. This was at the beginning of the season, but by the end, that whole window pane was full of cards from friends and family! I loved it!!! 

Relief Society Craft day...

Have I mentioned how much I love our branch? We had a craft day and it was so much fun. I always love getting together with the women of our branch. We really are like a big family. Hermana Cabrera taught us how to make pupusas. We made some beautiful infinity scarves, and some wooden signs and I made a whole butt load of these nativity ornaments. They were little 2x2 inch wooden blocks, and I thought that they would be perfect as friends and family gifts. I made 12 and in the end I wish I would have made 20!!!

It's so fun having Angie Stroh in our ward. So crazy how life works and ends up, and how we are now friends again. She just married a hispanic man in our branch, Augustine Reyes, and they are the cutest couple ever. She doesn't speak a word of spanish, but her and her two boys and her husband are strong members in our branch and it's so fun!

Sonia with her sign:

Angie making an apron:

Carmen, Maria, Karla and Linda making their family signs:

Back to Reality...

We finally got home and had to get back to reality! boo! All of my fall decor was still up and we were DEFINITELY ready for Christmas to begin, so that was first up on the docket!

But not before first enjoying just a few days of the fall decor and adjusting back to reality. It usually takes me a few days to get back into the swing of things.

Back to wearing PJ's for a few days while mom spends all day doing laundry and cleaning...

Back to reality for Tucker meant that he got to start scouts! He was so excited. Me...not so much. I don't know why, I don't have a love for the scouting program and have always kind of dreaded it for my own kids. I know I need to think better of it, and encourage Tucker to do it, I know it's good for him. I'm just dreading a scout calling!!! (maybe one more reason to stay longer in the branch, since we don't have scouts and have to join with the Pines ward) :)

But, alas, here it is...the adventure begins...

His very first den meeting....

Back to reality meant that this girl gave her first talk in Primary! She wanted her daddy to help her, so we went in and were sitting in the back and when she noticed that Ben had his phone out to take a picture, she made this face. You know, keepin' it classy! :) The little stinker!

But now that we've got some formalities out of the way, let's get this Christmas Season underway!!!

Beautiful Fredricksburg...

So, the plan was that we were all going to stay until Tuesday and fly back together. But some drama came up with his guys at work, and he ended up getting a flight back to Spokane on Sunday. Ben's mom also had to leave to get back to work, school started for her on Monday, so she took Ben to the airport and then headed straight home. People always think that since we own our own business, that that means that we can do whatever we want whenever we want. And it's nice, things come up during the day, and Ben can have some flexibility if he needs, but it also means, that when things go wrong, he is the one that has to be there to take care of it. So, yes, it was nice that we could leave for the week and be together, but then he had to cut his trip short, which totally sucked!

But, the kids and I made the most of it, and had a good time. Noah and Jonah couldn't miss any more school, so they went to school on Monday. Lynlee took me and the littles to see some Fredricksburg sites. It is a big Civil war city, there was a battle of Fredricksburg.

We toured the Chatham manor, that has total ties to the Civil war, where even George Washington stayed at one point. (way before the Civil war, obviously!)

The view from Chatham manor, overlooking the Rappahannock river and Fredricksburg. It is such a charming and old little town. David and Lynlee live so far out in the country, that this was the only time we actually got to go in and see the cute little city.

Cute cousins...

And then we were off the next day. Lynlee took me to get one last fix of Chic-fil-A and then dropped us off at the airport. A few funny things about our ride home. First of all, I left my phone in Lynlee's car and didn't realize it until I was all checked in and sitting at the gate. If you've ever lost your phone, you know how lost you feel without it. Luckily, I had my kindle, and I knew that I could Skype Ben and he could call his sister. So, I did that really fast, like literally, just as we were about to board our plane. By the time we landed in Chicago, Ben had skyped me back saying he had gotten a hold of  Lynlee and she was overnighting it to me. I love modern technology! :)

Another crazy thing that happened is that our stop in Chicago wasn't a layover, it was just a stop to let off and on passengers. So, the kids and I stayed on the plane, and as the new passengers were getting on, one of the passengers was Wendy Perry, my mom's cousin! And her husband, Russ. They live in LaGrande, Oregon and were flying in to Boise! It was so fun to see them as they passed, and because we were flying Southwest, they had to go to the back where the seats were, so we didn't get to see them during the flight at all. Our actual layover as in Denver (Uggh!) When we got off in Denver, she immediately found me and we were able to spend some time at the Denver airport together, eating some Mexican food and TCBY. She has a daughter my age who lives outside of Chicago whom they had been visiting for Thanksgiving. I really remember her and her husband a lot from when I was little, but hadn't seen them in a long time (except at both of my grandparents funerals, recently) Wendy helped me with some luggage while chasing around Jackson, and it was nice to have a helping hand, and super fun just to see them and catch up! 

Luckily, at this point in their lives, these three are great travelers, and I've learned how to be best prepared for an across country flight by myself. So, we made it home, and although we had a wonderful trip, it is always so nice to be at home in your own bed.

Our Thanksgiving ...

We had our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday, and it was perfect. We had a nice relaxing day in the morning. Us ladies went out and got some last minute groceries. The men folk went to a movie. David went hunting in the early morning. And we just cooked and waited and waited for the Turkey. David wanted to smoke it, and so he put it in in the morning, and it was his first time smoking a Turkey, and we realized sometime in the afternoon that it wasn't cooking fast enough, so we turned on the oven and finished cooking it in the oven. So, we waited and waited. Also, during this time, Ben started getting sick. He actually spent the whole day with diarrhea, and was in bed all day. So, we were also kind of waiting for him to see if he perked up at all so he could enjoy Thanksgiving meal with us. No such luck. He was down for the count. He spent all day and evening in bed and in the bathroom. Poor guy! Finally like at 7pm we ate! It was SO delicious! But it was just kind of chaotic, because Ben wasn't even there with us, it was so late, we were like ready to put the little kids down for bed. I mean, it was totally fun and nice being together, and we had a good day, but it just wasn't your typical Thanksgiving meal. 

Here is Uncle David giving the boys a lesson on gratitude. Uncle David is such a good guy, we are lucky to have him as an uncle!

The kid table:

Because of the illness, we didn't even do anything to make it fancy or special, and I didn't even get a picture of the adult table in the formal dining room. But even though it was a bit different than normal and than usual, we DID have a wonderfully delicious thanksgiving meal!!!

Our favorite part of the meal? My mother in law's famous banana cream pudding. Oh my gosh, it's to die for! I requested it for Thanksgiving dessert on the first day that we got there, and my mother in law being the wonderful woman that she is, she made it for me!!! She also made Ben a peanut butter chocolate cake, that was delicious, but he, of course, only ate like 2 bites of it!!! The stinker, asked her to make it, then only ate just a little bit, leaving the rest of it for us to eat! Thanks Ben!

We also tried to recreate the delicious brie and turkey sandwiches that we had for lunch in the city at the cafe in the Museum of  Natural History for lunch the day before. They were good, but just not quite as good as at the restaurant, of course! :)

This year, I'm thankful for in-laws that seem more like blood relatives, and the comfort and love we feel when we're with them! And cousins that feel more like brothers. We are so lucky to have such wonderful families!!!

Thanksgiving day in DC; the Museum of Air and Space...

We were quite the group walking around the mall. Really, the only other people there that day, on Thanksgiving day were from other countries. I'm not even sure why these museums are open since I thought Thanksgiving was a National Holiday! :) But, I'm not complaining, since we had such a nice day with easy parking, and no crowds.

This girl loves to soak up every minute she can with her daddy when he's not working.

And, once they noticed me snapping pictures, they had to ham it up for the camera:

The Capitol Building to one side:

And the Washington Monument on the other:

The Museum of Air and Space:

We somehow got disconnected from the group, and so just Tucker and I had a lot of time just the two of us at the museum. It was fun doing everything with just him and I. He was definitely one of the most excited about all the cool things in this museum.

I didn't have my phone with me when we got separated, so after a while, I wanted to just wait in the middle of the museum to see if anyone passed by us. So, while we waited, Tucker just stood there on the ledge looking over at all the cool things around him. I would have loved to know what he was thinking!!! :)

And this was all that he was looking at. You can still see him teeny tiny in the corner over there, looking out over the ledge:

Our whole fam damily:

On our way home that afternoon, we drove by the White house. As we were driving by, right after I took this picture, there were people standing on the sidewalk just staring at me--so I said hello. It was pretty funny! (but I guess you had to be there) :)

A closer look at the Washington Monument:

I would have also loved to have gone to the Lincoln memorial, but we just didn't have enough time. Next time, we're going to have to plan at least two days in the city. Plus, with all the kids, we were wiped out. They were done touring. And it was starting to get really cold. So, we headed home.

I took this cool picture on our way home, as we were passing the Pentagon, the clouds look so ominous...

And within just a few minutes, the kids were like this, so we knew it had been a successful day!!! :)

It was a really fun day, and I'm so glad we got the chance to go and explore a little bit of Washington DC!

Thanksgiving day in DC; the museum of Natural History...

After much thought and consideration, we decided to postpone our Thanksgiving meal so that we could spend the day in DC. It's about an hour's drive from their house, and we had read online that Thanksgiving day is a good day to avoid major crowds in the city. And all of the museums are open, so it's not like we'd be missing out on anything.

So, we loaded up bright and early...

And we drove into the city. It was so fun for me, I hadn't been to DC since I was in the 9th grade. We drove past Quantico and the Pentagon, and the Washington monument, and all sorts of great places. First up on our schedule was the National Mall. It's the big area where a lot of the Smithsonian's are, and then the Capitol building is on one end, and the Washington monument is on the other. Our first stop was the Museum of Natural History. Me and Lynlee were in one car with the three littles, and Ben and his mom were in his dad's brand freaking new Honda Accord. Like just a few weeks old. Ben's dad let her drive it up because he thought it would be more reliable than her car. He still has his CRV, and he had driven that to Kentucky for Thanksgiving to spend it with Ben's two sisters that live there. Anyway, Ben was driving the Accord, and when we got into the city, we found two great parking spots right outside the museum of natural history, so Ben flipped a U turn in the middle of the road to get into the one he found, and got a little too close to the curb, and from where we were right across the street we heard a huge pop! He had totally popped the tire! And since it was Thanksgiving day, there weren't a lot of places open to help. He finally found a repair shop that came and towed the car, and said they could fix it in just a few hours. So, poor Ben, missed out on the Museum of Natural History so that he could go with the car to the shop.

You can imagine how his dad felt when Ben texted this picture to him! :) Ooops...

While we waited for Ben to figure everything out with the car, we decided to take some pictures:

It was a cold day, and I was so glad I brought my kids coats! I almost didn't pack them!

Finally, after we were all ready to go, we were off to the museum:

Taylor was really fascinated by the Hope Diamond:

And these three boys are all so much alike, they were just soaking up all the cool things and facts and fun stuff to do:

The museum itself is so cool:

Best buddies:

Jackson learning about the swamp habitat:

Ben got done with the car stuff right as we were leaving, but we were heading over to the air and space museum, so he was excited about that!

Noah and Jonah's house! YAY!

We finally made it to Aunt Lynlee's house!!! The kids were so happy to be there! Ben's mom had also gotten there earlier that day even though they were all sleeping when we got there, they all woke up to see us, and it was fun to reconnect with everyone that night.

Apparently Jackson was super happy to see his Aunt Lynlee and cousin Elijah...

Jackson loved all of Aunt Lynlee's light up things and glow and the dark things. We all know that Aunt Lynlee loves glow in the dark and light up things.

Of course, these big boys just wanted to play together on their kindles the whole week. Which they did plenty of.

Grandma took these two birthday boy's to the store and let them pick out some presents for their birthday's. They had a great time all week playing with their remote control cars...

And they also spent plenty of time on the trampoline and playing outside. They have like 4 acres of land that David loves to hunt on (which he did plenty of while we were there) and their land and home is just gorgeous. 

Lots of lounging with family and chatting and watching football and having a great time, which is what is best when we're all together. Also, lots of shopping done by us women folk, and movie outings by the big boys.

Jonah had a swamp diorama due after Thanksgiving break, so we were able to help him with that (collect moss and sticks for him etc..) It turned out so good, I'm sad I didn't get a good picture of the final product.

Tucker and Jonah even made a fun activity day for us, where we got to do activities and we won fun prizes.

Tucker's actual birthday...

This is how I found Tucker on the morning of his 8th birthday. Flattering, right? I'm not sure how those undies got so far up there, but when I saw it, I knew I had to document it. Sorry, buddy! :)

He still had no clue about the trip to DC, so we went along with things as planned. I came in right BEFORE lunch to bring the treats, which I think isn't the norm, but he didn't question, nor any of the other kids. They were happy to get Krispy Kreme before lunch! :) The class sang to him, and if you know this kid, you know how much he HATES being the center of attention (HA!) :)

And Mrs. Barnes twirls them around while they are being sung to. I love that Mrs. Barnes!

Tucker, Carson and Niko:

He wanted me to walk with him down to the lunch room with the rest of his class so he could pass out the doughnuts to everyone while they ate. He did know that he was coming home with me at lunch time, but just thought that it was because of his birthday.

These three cute siblings walking out of the school that day:

Ben had come home from work while I was at Tucker's class and packed up the car. I had all of our luggage hiding in our closet, which I am still shocked the kids didn't notice. Kirt was there to take us to the airport, and we kept on telling Tucker that we were all going to lunch for his birthday. But then we kept on passing all of the places he wanted to stop (arbys...mcdonalds....taco bell....all really fancy places) :). Finally he realized we were heading to the airport, but didn't really get why yet. When we finally pulled up to the airport and started getting everything out, we told him we were heading to Virginia to see Noah and Jonah. And he started crying!!! It was the strangest reaction I have ever seen. We kept on asking why he was crying, and he didn't really know, I think that he was just in shock! He also at first kept on saying that he didn't want to go, that he just wanted lunch! :) Silly boy. Although, I'm sure he was hungry! But we finally got him settled down, and it hit him what we were doing, and how much fun our week with cousins would be, and he got REALLY excited. It was just so funny to see him react to strangely. He was just in shock and didn't know what to think, I think! :)

I was just happy to have Ben on the trip with us. It is so much easier traveling with another adult. 

Jackson parked himself right in the middle of the airport while Ben was checking us in, and decided to drink his bottle right then and there:

You can see that after the shock wore off, he was VERY excited to see Noah and Jonah. And he was excited to see DC, he had been talking about the President and the White House before we even left, and we kept on telling him that maybe one day we'll get the chance to go to DC! :)

Always hamming it up for the camera:

It was a good, uneventful flight, and I loved looking over and seeing these two reading a magazine together. They're such buds!

Jackson listening to daddy's music. Not sure what to think...

Finally we made it to DC! It was late at night, but we were there! YAY!

Uncle David at the airport to pick us up:

Let the good times begin!!! (And even from day one there were good times, as I had forgotten that David is the SCARIEST driver on the planet!!! And since I get car sick so easy, it's not a great combo!) :)

Tucker's birthday party...

Tucker's birthday was the Monday before Thanksgiving this year, and since there was only half days on Monday and Tuesday and no school after Wednesday, we decided to surprise all the kids and fly to Virginia to visit Ben's sister's family for Thanksgiving. But we still wanted to do something small with him before we left. Nothing big, because trying to pack and plan a trip like that without the kids knowing was a lot of work! But we knew he'd be happy with just a small family party with Owen, his BFF. So, the Sunday before we left, we went up to Kathryn's house for dinner and the festivities. and the Mortensens joined us.

My sweet birthday boy. There is no way that this guy is 8 already, how did that happen???

Blowing out his candles on his most delicious cake:

Opening his presents from us. We had gotten him a Kindle Fire and I wanted to give it to him before our long flight the next day, but I didn't want him to be suspicious, so it was perfect that we had this little party for him the day before we left. This boy is so awesome to give gifts to, he is always so animated and happy and excited and really is such a grateful little kid. He always says thank you to everyone for everything without even being prompted, usually!

Tucker and his fake/real siblings...

All this guy cared about was the cake...

Oh my gosh, Lukie was so funny with this harmonica! The boy's got rhythm!

So fun to celebrate our big boy! He really is such a good boy. Couldn't have asked for a more fun, silly, loving and caring boy. His happy attitude is infectious, and his confidence is awesome! I just love him so much!