Bouncy balls and silly hats

Remember those big, bouncy balls that have a handle so you can ride and bounce? Well I picke up a Dora bouncy ball sometime last year and it became one of the best toys in our house. Grammy Sharon soon added an orange horse-like one, you hold on to the ears and bounce. Good times, people. Good times! Throw in a couple silly hats and it's over the top.

Happy New Year!

We celebrated New Year's Eve at home this year, and also were able to celebrate Zac & Kristen's 3rd Wedding Anniversary too - since it's the same day! How lucky are we they were willing to just hang out at our house for such a big night for them?! They even put the silly hats we'd bought on....well after a couple drinks anyway. Bret, Kellie & Abby also hung out with us for a bit and brought some yummy food to share in the little potluck we had going on. A fun way to ring in 2013!!

 

 



 Christmas mornings get more fun every year as the kids get older. Santa did pretty well this year, leaving Luke a pirate ship and Ella a castle for her dolls. Cinnamon rolls and time to play, and then we were on our way to Zac & Kristen's for dinner with the family. Why do I not get more pictures when we're all together? I need to work on that!

Luke and his Jake & the Never Land Pirates ship

Ella with her Melissa & Doug Castle

Ella's new ornament

Luke's gingerbread boy ornament

Ella had gifts of her own to share...We took her to Santa Express
downtown this year and she was able to pick out gifts for all of us.
A very cool concept that benefits a great organization, and fun for
everyone that takes part! Seth got a cool "purse" for his things.

Ella giving Luke the frogs she'd got for him. I got a necklace from E - it says "Cutie". :)

Ella's Grani Margaret got her an American Girl
Doll - Caroline. She was beyond excited!

Luke rockin on his new guitar

Ella & Abby waiting for Christmas dinner



Christmas Eve

We woke up to snow on Christmas Eve morning, and even though it's hard to tell from these pics, it was a beautiful, sunny day after the snow fell. We all got out to play in the snow, and built a cool snowdude. It was a great wintery way to spend Christmas Eve. We headed to an early afternoon church service and then headed home for a quiet dinner and prepare for Santa!

 

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home from church - time to snap a family pic while we're still fancy!

Gingerbread House

One of Grammy Sharon's gifts to Ella this year was a gingerbread house. It's the cool kind you can get at Costco that's got the house assembled  and all you have to do is decorate with the icing and candy they include. We've done one of these the past couple years now, and they're so fun!



 

Miss E's 5th!

We celebrated Ella's 5th birthday this year with a party for her and her friends at the Carousel downtown. E's always loved the Carousel, and frankly so do the rest of us. It was a great place to do a party.....they provided the cake (Ben & Jerry's ice cream cake!), decorations and rides on the carousel, and all we had to do was show up. Lots of fun!

 

After the kids' party we headed back to our house for a get together with the family. Zac & Kristen, Kellie & Abby, Tom & Ruth and Grammy & Papa. This round of party included a Barbie cake, which Grammy Sharon had brought for Ella, and she couldn't have been more excited.

 

The day of Ella's actual birthday, we gave her our gift - a new bike! It was a low-key day, but we did head to Red Robin for lunch and an ice cream sundae!

 

Ella Rose is 5!! Unbelievable! Love her more and more with each year.

 

the birthday girl standing in front of the spinning horses

Ella / Grammy / Luke

Time for cake!

Ella / Lilly / Brantly 

Luke - when did he get big enough to ride by himself?

check out this cake! So cool, and delicious too!

E's new bike!

surrounded!

so many gifts!

helping make cupcakes....I can't remember now why we made them?



birthday love

Merida!

THE gift  - just what she wanted!

Preschool Christmas Program

Newsflash: for those of you who are uninformed. You need to arrive at a preschool christmas program at least 1 hour in advance if you'd like to take pictures without having to act like a member of the paparazzi following Justin Bieber. You'll see that we were not clued in to this fact, even though we should have been considering we did attend Ella's program last year. I apologize for the terrible photos. Luckily Ella is easy to pick out of the pack, considering she is the cutest kid on stage..... 

 

Prepping for Christmas

Decking Grammy & Papa's Halls



The kids and I went to Endicott to help trim the tree at Grammy and Papa's. The tree was still standing, even with most of the ornaments being at the bottom, when we left! A great day, and tradition to come.

 

Apple Cup Win

Oh, and this happened. The Cougs won the Apple Cup this past season. A crazy, stressful, great game! Gabe and Seth were there, watching it happen live. I was much happier watching from home, and yelling at the TV.

Thanksgiving

The Storment Family was together for Thanksgiving this year, and we were so lucky to have an invite from Tom & Ruth to all come to dinner at their house. What an amazing family Zac married into! Gabe, Nancy, Jameson and Molly drove over from Bellevue, and Mom & Dad came up from the farm. Lots of fun hanging out, catching up and eating yummy food.



 



 

Luke's always happy to hang out with Uncle "Yak" :)

Gabe and Molly - a little tummy time

Grammy and Baby Molly

Ella and Abby

Molly checking out her Uncle Seth....she's not so sure

Jameson and Luke catching up

nominee for cutest picture ever, right?