He's getting there. . .

Ryan had a birthday. He's 29 years old, and you better believe I made him death by chocolate peanut butter cup cupcakes AND strawberry shortcake cupcakes . . . just because I couldn't decide, and I know he always chooses one or the other when his birthday comes around. We went out to a ridiculously expensive steak house that's brand new and pretty much just across the street from our house. We would never have made it back there even if it blew our socks off, but unfortunately, it didn't. The other thing he wanted for his birthday was to go to the temple. So we asked Katie & Josh to watch the kids, got up early, and drove into Manhattan. When we got there we found out it was closed for cleaning. Hmmm.

Happy Birthday Ryan! We sure do love you.

their many faces

Oh man. These kids are too darn cute. Cam you blame me for taking picture after picture after picture?!

Some of these just crack me up. The sass in her stride. . .

Swimming & Stuff

We all went swimming in Washington, and there were so many fun pictures, they get their very own post. Grandpa Havens with the boys.

Baby Shane, so cute!

In the lazy river.

Grandpa was just singing and kissing and spinning Shane in the water. It was pretty sweet.

One sweet baby, and one smokin' grandma!

My lovely sister in law and her baby Shane.

At the children's museum.

This was at Jump planet. Grandma & Grandpa & Chase showed Crew how its done.Then they all went for a ride.

Christmas Part 2

Christmas Eve - Mom's Birthday - Everyone was together. It was very nice.

Kids opening presents. Cute moment before we started opening presents, Crew and Chase were upstairs playing and we tried to call them to come down to open presents only to hear: "We don't want to come down! We are playing up here!" It was cute to see them play together.
At Grandma's for Christmas.
They liked playing in the box.

A classic Havens dinner.
All the cousins on the Havens side. Chase, Shane, Jane, and Crew.
Jane & Shane. Binkie Buddies.
I just thought this was cute. He must have been telling her something.
Some Highlights: Sleeping in, eating a lot, early morning tennis, swimming, jump planet, a lot of shopping with our Christmas money, and a night out on the town for me and Ryan. And again, our favorite part was spending time with our loved ones!

Christmas Part 1

Ward Christmas party. Everyone danced this year. It was a good time.

The only good thing about our layover in Chicago: being the sole travelers continuing on to the next destination and having the Crew invite us to check out the cockpit. The pilot even offered to take our picture.

Ok, no one is looking in the picture, but I took a quick one to get the idea of what Christmas with the Vellinga's is like. And there's another table behind me, not pictured. And I don't even know where are the little kids were during all this.

The three newest additions. Sophie, Jackson, and Jane.

I tried, but it ain't easy getting a good one of all of them. I had like 4 people singing and dancing behind me while I tried to take their picture.
And play time around the house.
I could pretty much always count on finding Crew in the treehouse. It was his favorite spot!

Highlights from the trip:

Staying up late pretty much every night - just talking and catching up, cafe rio, temple square and chuckarama, boys fishing trip/movie night, girls shopping trip/lunch, family giftcard exchange, ogden treehouse. But most of all, we just enjoyed seeing our family and being together.

Happy Birthday Dad