Halloween 2014: Adventure is out there!

For the last few years we have done family costumes...

2013

2012

2011

2010

 And this year was no different.  (I realize the day will come and my kids will decide they don't want to do a group themed costume, but I love it and will do it as long as they love it too!)

We talked about what we wanted to be for a few weeks and one night Ellie took a blanket off her head and her hair was so crazy it reminded me of Ellie from the Disney movie Up and since we had been on our own adventure as a family, moving across the country, we thought it was perfect!  

We had a ward trunk or treat the Saturday before Halloween.  Here is our trunk...

Nick built this house out of cardboard, tape and hot glue: I was very impressed!  

And here we are!  

 Here are pictures of the kids on Halloween day!    

Russell

Ellie

Mr. Fredrickson

The kids had a great time trick or treating!  We went with some neighbors to townhouses in our neighborhood... it was perfect, the kids got plenty of candy and we were done in about an hour. 

 All of the townhouses have lots of stairs so we got a really good workout.  I had to carry Ellie up and down each flight and Jacob needed to rest every now and then.  The weather was perfect, just a light jacket and some gloves.          

 All the candy dumped out when we got back!

Trevor LOVED dying his hair white!

Oh, what will we be next year...

Sharing skittles...

Tonight Jacob shared some of his Skittles with Ellie and she had them in a bowl.  While she was eating them I took one from her bowl and she said "No" and turned the bowl away...she did not want to share.  Then a few minutes later Jacob went and took a skittle from Ellie's bowl and she said "No" and turned her bowl away and went and sat by Nick.  Then a couple minutes went past and Nick took a skittle from Ellie's bowl and she said "No" and grabbed the rest of her Skittles in her bowl and stuffed them all in her mouth.  It was so funny and we all had a good laugh! 

Lights at the Visitor Center...

On Saturday, December 13th we wanted to go to the mall to take pictures with Santa and then eat chicken nuggets to celebrate Ellie's Bday.  Well, we got in line to wait for Santa and the wait was at least 2.5 hours long so we decided to skip that and just go eat.  Chick-fil-a was right next to Panda Express so Trevor, Nick and I got that instead.  

(I did take the kids back the following Wednesday to see Santa and the funny thing is we ended up waiting about 2.5 hours anyways.  The kids were great and they loved seeing Santa and getting a picture with a stuffed Olaf and playing in the snow in the ice castle (they had a Frozen theme this year) so it worked out just fine.  Next year though we will be visiting Santa in November!)

That evening we went to the Washington D.C. Visitor center to see the Christmas lights.  We had a good time seeing all the lights and in the visitor center they had displays of nativities from around the world.  Trevor loved reading the signs to see what country they were from!   

Nick and the kids right outside the visitor center doors.    

They had a big nativity set up outside in the corner of the visitor parking lot.  

We then walked around to get a picture in front of the temple.  This temple is so beautiful all lit up at night and not just at Christmas...the first time we drove west around the 495 at night and I saw the temple all lit up it was stunning! 

A kind person saw us trying to take pictures and offered to take a group photo of us...well, lets just say Jacob wanted nothing to do with it.

The kids.

Jacob loved this tree, he kept saying "Mom look at that huge Christmas tree!"

It was a fun night seeing lights.  I did mention a number of times to Nick that there were so many people there, but I just need to come to terms with the fact that there are just a lot of people here.  

Look Whose 2...

Ellie turned two this month!  Her birthday was on a Sunday this year and I thought the kids looked cute all dressed up for church so I tried to get a picture of them altogether:

This was the first one...

 then Jacob wouldn't sit still

which lead him to step on Ellie's hand

and then the pictures were over.  

Ellie LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and her favorite character is Minnie Mouse. So thanks to Walmart the night before Ellie got a Minnie Mouse party!

 Ellie couldn't decide if she wanted a cake or cookies for her birthday so I put the two together and made a cookie cake (which just means I decorated a cookie).  It was a hit!  All evening she went around saying "cookie cake, cookie cake!"  It was adorable!  

 Here are pictures of Ellie with her "cookie cake!"

Opening presents...she loved this part! (Side story: She was so funny opening the gifts, she had to pick off the white dots I had taped on to the packages before she would open them.  We laughed). 

Mom and Ellie:  Look at all those smarties Grandma Cyndi gave her, she was in heaven!

Ellie is starting to get into the princess phase and for the last couple of weeks she would find my one pair of high heels and wear them around the house, so for her birthday we got Ellie a princess dress up set, with her own pair of high heels.  

 Here is our princess all dressed up!  

I can't believe Ellie is two!  She is so much fun to have around the house.  She is getting such a fun personality.  She loves drinking milk, loves having her binkie for bedtime and naptime, but no longer takes naps(which makes me sad) but goes to bed so much better. She takes after her mom and loves candy and gum.  She is so cute and says "bum" for gum.  She gets a kick out of jumping in her crib and if a room is dark she will get a scared look on her face a say "dark, dark"...it makes me laugh!

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Merry Christmas!!!

 Christmas Lights...

A couple Mondays before Christmas we went to look at lights at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.  It was such a fun night.  The kids loved all the lights, they were running around yelling and pointing!  My favorite lights were a Christmas tree that was set to music.  Nick loved the lit arch way.  Trevor loved the scavenger hunt where he looked for different animals that lit up, fish jumping, frogs hopping, and a hummingbird to name a few.  It was a fun family home evening night.  

(The tree is in the background in the picture below.) 

 The archway.

Hot cocoa in the car for the ride home.  

We brought all the things with us to make it in the van for the ride home.  

This was Jacob's favorite thing!

The Sunday before Christmas...a family photo right before church.

You can't really tell, but I curled Ellie's hair with a curling iron for the first time 

and she looked adorable with it curled!  

 The Monday before Christmas we decorated gingerbread houses for family home evening.

Ellie was so cute...she ate way more candy then made it on the gingerbread house!  

 Christmas Eve this year was a dinner, nativity program and opening 2 presents. And after the kids went to bed: watching Little Women (I think Nick wishes this wasn't a tradition of mine) and wrapping presents. 

The nativity program.  Oh, how I love this puppet show program 

we have done the last 3 Christmases! 

Opening 2 presents: Christmas PJ's and a book to read in bed while they fall asleep.

Here we are in our Christmas PJ's.  (I have gotten pretty good at using the self timer :))

 Nick showed the kids how you can track Santa on the computer.  Trevor and Jacob loved this!  

This is how Ellie tracked Santa, the old fashioned way.

 Christmas Morning!!! 

 Here is Ellie opening her gift from Santa!

Trevor and Jacob opening their gifts from Santa!

The aftermath.  Nick loves that our townhouse has a fire place.  He started a fire this morning before the kids got up! It makes me a little nervous...but it was fun.  

Christmas breakfast.  It was a little sad to not be able to go to Jeana's for our annual Christmas breakfast this year (but come to find our we couldn't have gone over this year anyways...Halle and Jeana have the flu.)

Christmas cinnamon rolls...I have made these the last 7 years or so.  

The rest of the day consisted of playing with the new gifts, going to the park to play on the toys and tag, going to Trevor's elementary school to throw Nick's new frisbees and play knock out (Trevor loves this game!), and watching movies.

It was different being across the country with no family around, but it was fun chatting on the phone and computer with all of our family. 

It was a wonderful Christmas season!  Jacob and Trevor would get up each morning and would find our Elf George and then come running to tell me where it was.  Jacob loved moving the advent calendar to the next day and asking me how much longer until Christmas.  Ellie would go around saying Ho, Ho, Ho and Merry Christmas.  It was such a magical time of year and the kids excitement was so fun!  But the thing I loved the most was seeing my kids starting to understand the  true meaning of Christmas, that we celebrate the birth of our Savior.  I loved the discussion we had about following the light of Christ as we headed to see Christmas lights that Monday for Family home evening.  Ellie loved talking about Baby Jesus and carrying him around from the little people nativity.  Trevor and Jacob are learning that giving gifts is better then getting gifts.  

I am so grateful for this Holiday season.  

 Merry Christmas!   

And Ellie finished the night where she started....in her cozy coupe car! She loved it!