More December

On to the Ward Christmas party.  I did a terrible job of taking pictures.  I was just too busy, trying to make sure that everything was running smoothly.  We had a Christmas morning theme, jammies were encouraged and Christmas breakfast was served, breakfast casserole, fruit, and cinnamon rolls.  We tried out the family style serving and it was a spectacular success.  No standing in line for an hour to eat your cold food.  We had the YW help serve all the tables at once and it was crazy for a second, but soon all smiles and full faces were abound.  We had Santa arrive an hour before dinner, which was another happy success.  A VERY short program and sing along followed the dinner and suddenly it was over!!!!  I was really happy with how it all turned out.  Now on to the rest of December.  We had our annual Christmas gingerbread decorating.  We had Conor's Christmas concert and piano recital.  We had a cookie exchange and we made cute little gingerbread men to trade out.  The kids loved watching the advent calendar on the computer daily and putting together a puzzle.  The puzzle is actually a small miracle at out house, as we aren't known for our puzzle skills, but it turned out to be a really fun activity.  Kevin and Conor even snuck in a ski day I believe. 

The only picture I took at the ward party

Conor with Santa-asking for a nintendo DS

Josie with Santa-asking for a new princess poster

Lincoln and Daddy with Santa -asking for...some cars!

The finished gingerbread houses

Taj, Conor and Kyler working on their houses

Kevin and Lincoln working on their house. 

Conor playing Deck the halls at the recital

Lincoln entertaining himself with his cars at the recital

Checking out the advent for the day

Decorating our gingerbread men

The finished puzzle-so proud of us for sticking to it. 

Bring on December

December all ready? I am always shocked when December 1st arrives, and I swear year after year that I will be more prepared by the time December arrives, but alas not this year. We started December off with a really fun trip to the Christmas parade and firework show in Cour d'Alene.  The fireworks were pretty amazing and the lights were fun as well.  It was raining, but we enjoyed hanging out with the Wilson's and loved getting into the Christmas spirit.  We put up all the Christmas decorations and we we went out to the temple and a local production of Annie-so so long, but good. I spent a ton of time running around like a crazy woman preparing for the ward party...what an undertaking.  As if Christmas time isn't crazy enough. 

The Kellogg's just after the firework show and the lighting

All the gang watching the Christmas parade

Self portrait with the kids in front of the temple

Josie, Lincoln and Conor

The kids with the few nativity pieces the temple puts out

November Happenings

Time to play catch up! November was full of fun, family, school, life and other activities.  One highlight, is that Kevin finally got released from being Young Men's president.  We are so happy to have him home on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings.  Kevin has been in Young Men's for the last 5 years, well past ime to move on.  We are loving having him home a bit more.  We then spent a lot of November planning the Ward Christmas party together-hopefully never again.  We played in the fall leaves, we played in the first snow and we cooked a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, and poof...November was gone. 

Family Game time-don't you love our new headgear?  -This is one of Josie's favorites.

We made an impromptu stop one afternoon as we were running errands.  We just couldn't resist the piles and piles of leaves.  It was getting dark, but well worth the time. 

We had a little leaf fight...3 against me.  I still think I won.

Conor peeking out

The first snowfall!

Check out the Thanksgiving spread.  Yummmo!

Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Kellogg.  We were lucky to have them spend the day with us.

Family Pictures

We almost missed our opportunity to take some family pictures this year.  We just never seemed to find the time.  This moment was actually between rain drops.  We headed up to Greenbluff to try and get some of the beauty of the orchards.

Halloween

Annual pumpkin carving with the Willards. I noticed the more annual something becomes the less pictures I take. I at least have the finished products! Halloween day this year was typical Halloween fun. I wised up and made some sweet potato oatmeal muffins for "dinner," Basically 3 points for every child I could talk into stuffing one into their mouth before they hit the street. I got 6 points unless I can count the extra Lincoln ate for Josie. I think the weather was the nicest I have ever seen it in Spokane. Really mild and warm, no coats necessary. We trick or treated with the Wilson's in their neighborhood and managed an incredible haul of candy. Lincoln even got into the trick or treating. He couldn't quite spit out the actual words so we just settled with "PEESE!!" He usually got in a thank you as well. Who can resist an adorable 2 year old bee?

Willards on top, Kellogg's on the bottom.  Kevin did the Y, I did the cat (my best pumpkin ever I might add,) Conor did the goulish face. 

We like to pretend these kids did all the work-Someday.

Josie the Witch

Conor Potter

Lincoln Bee

Back view of our bee

All my little goblins 

Happy Halloween!

Josie Kindergarten Concert

Every fall the Midway kindergartners put on this adorable farm themed concert. Josie had so much fun preparing for this and performing for all the parents.  She did a great job!

Josie is on the 2nd row far left

Josie the duck

Josie's scarecrow was a cute backdrop

Farewell to the Wards

Saying good bye to friends is the pits. Our really good friends Julie, Mike, Isabelle, Michael and Luke, up and moved away. So devastating for all of us! We all loved hanging out together, mom's, dad's and kids. They moved to Florida with 2 weeks notice. We wish them the best, but there is a part of me that will always be mad at them. I knew you would leave me one day Julie. In the 2 week notice we had, we were able to spend time helping out with the move and hanging out while the movers moved them, so that was a bonus. We even snuck in a few last rounds of Killer Bunnies.   Here are some of the fun memories we made.

Julie and Julie-She has to be cool if she shares a name!

Josie and Isabelle

Michael and Lincoln-these two were really starting to get along well

Koolaid playdough

Painting toenails-boys included

Kaylynn's birthday party, but it was a good farewell party for Isabelle as well.

Spending time with the Kellogg cousins

We decided to stick around in Moscow for an extra day so we could take advantage of the opportunity to spend time with all the wonderful family that came up for the funeral. The kids had so much fun with their cousins. The hotel that we stayed in had a swimming pool so they were lucky enough to swim in the evening and the next morning. We spent a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa Kellogg's and then we also went down to the levee to walk a bit and let the kids run off some energy and see the ducks.

Riding in the car with Addison

Standing back while Grandpa started up the chainsaw

Josie helping Grandpa cut down a few limbs

Ava and Lincoln-digging in the flower pots

Josie and Ezra

Nicole, Danielle, Kristi, Aunt Deb, Julie and Lincoln

Snack time at the playground

Conor, Ezra, Josie, Addie and Emmie feeding the ducks

Lincoln and Ava

Nicole, Danielle, Grandma Kellogg (Randi) and Kristi-Kevin's sisters and Mom

Ezra, Conor, mini Conor, Addie and Emmie

Aunt Jan, Kevin and Aunt Deb.  "the aunts"

Ryan, Darren and Kevin-I think they were comparing heights here.