Real Family Christmas Party

Every year Dave's work hosts a family Christmas party. We get to see Santa and this year Ms. Claus. They have a professional photographer there to capture the memories. And then all the kids get an early present from Santa. We enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate. The kids love going to Dave's office and of course Santa. This year we braved dinner at Bucca De Beppos with the kids and Dave's marketing department. That probably wont happen next year. Because as usual the kids weren't on their best behavior.

Karla Has Arrived

My sister gets to visit every winter while her husband is deployed. We get to have her over a month this time. And it is extra fun because it is all over the holidays. This year we got to meet cute Sienna for the first time.

My cute mom and dad all ready to go to his work party. 

It is a general consensus that this is the cutest baby ever. She is adorable plus so smiley.

The kids have all taken a liking to her especially Leah. She had a little running nose and was worried about getting Sienna sick so she put on the rubber gloves to hold her. It has made me even more excited for our babies arrival to see how good the kids are with Sienna.

A good shot of Nana with all her grand kids.

Christmas Happenings

We made the annual Gingerbread houses. It made it a few days without being eaten.  

Leah had a performance at Festival of Trees for her theater group. Her skirt got loose and she nearly lost it I was worried sick that it would fall down. And she would be traumatized. But lucky for us it made it through the performance. And was reinforced and pinned for the next one.

Waiting for Leah to come out. I love this one of Dave and Eva. 

And Mr who thought the window would be the perfect place to pose.

Kid Quotes

Some Awesome Quotes

We are driving the other day by the Brigham City Tabernacle and see a full size Nativity set out.  Leah says, "Look mom it is another Jesus convention."

This picture is classic example that Ronan can fall asleep anywhere. But the other day speaking of a certain part of his body I wont mention on the blog. Ronan says, "you would need a x-ray to see mine."

A Happy Thanksgiving

The kids all celebrated with parties and costumes at school.  

We were able to have the Ratchford cousins come stay Wednesday night to Thursday. It is great to have them close by now.  As Thanksgiving tradition we hosted the meal. We had a great crowd with a few extras that we normally don't get. It was really fun to have everyone.  Our guests included all the Garreth Ratchford clan, Grandpa Tom and Grandma Merrily, Grandma Nancy, and Grandma Flo. Unfortunately we were so busy cooking I didn't get any pictures of everyone together.

Saturday Leah had a performance for her theater group at the Kaysville Nativity. It is Nativities set up from all over the world. With performances that go through out the day.

This reminds me that I really would like to collect Nativities from all over the world.  

 This year Leah is taking theater class. They have 3 Christmas performance that they sing at. The end half of the year involves putting on a performance of Annie. I can't wait to see it.

At 8:30 This Morning

The kids were so excited to play in the snow this morning. I had to force them to eat breakfast before they went out.

It was a good chance to take an inventory of the snow clothes. Yes Leah is wearing a red jacket with purple snow pants that are too short. And we wont mention Ronan and Eva are in their rain boots. I kinda thought I might have another month before I needed this stuff.

I am not sure what it is about getting kids in snow clothes that makes me grumpy. But I am going to sit back with my diet coke while they all stay busy outside. Because my excuse was that my snow clothes don't fit over my belly. Listening to them they are having the time of their lives so the few minutes of dressing is totally worth it.

Riding Bikes

This week both Eva and Ronan learned to ride their bikes without training wheels. It was amazing and surprising. Eva was outside waiting for her ride to school and figured it out on her own. Now she is a old pro using her own bigger bike.

Ronan once he saw Eva riding on his bike had to be taught how. He only needs some balance and a push to get started. Then he flies down the street and has a very graceful dismount.

We went on a ride around the block yesterday and he thought it made his legs sooooo tired to ride.

Eva could have gone around the block 3 times in the time it took Ronan and I to make it. She is loving it. The only sad thing is we probably wont get to ride much now that there is snow on the ground.

19 Week Ultrasound Surprise

We had a big surprise when we went to get our ultrasound this last week. Dave and the kids were all able to be there. Our doctor who had been 95% sure we were having a boy at 12 and 16 week ultrasounds had been wrong. This little baby is 100% a girl. We are thinking it was the umbilical cord that was between her legs at our last appointment. She hadn't been very cooperative that time and was turned away from us with her knees tucked. The technician checked the gender like 8 times and told me she would pay for my boys clothes if it wasn't a girl. I probably should have got that in writing. We are all excited for another delightful girl around the house.

Here are the baby legs. I thought this shot was quite darling. Even in creepy 3-d.

Here is a face shot. I didn't get a good print out of the babies face in regular so it looks a bit like an alien. The technician was saying that the ultrasound goes straight through so we are seeing a bit of the brain in this one.

Halllloweeeennnn

We had a great Halloween this year. And I count the rain we got Halloween night as a blessing because the kids ended up with way less candy. They all picked their own costumes.

Ronan was a transformer who refused to wear his mask even for a picture.

Leah who wont be anything unless it is scary was a vampiress.

Eva wanted to be a witch again but not the costume from last year.

Ronan had a fun Halloween party at school. I got to go help.

Here is Eva at the school Halloween carnival.

Ronan doing the candy walk

Here they all are before we went to the carnival. I love this picture.

Pack's Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Eva and I joined Ronan's preschool class on a field trip to a pumpkin patch. It is somewhere I used to take the kids all the time when they were little. I have a lot of my favorite pictures of them here.

This smile is genetic and just the same cute smirk that Dave does.

This pumpkin patch is darling. It even has a cute little maze made out of hay. The only problems was that 10 preschools decided to take there field trip on the same day so it was super crowded.

Ronan's darling little class.