Zoo Lights!

Needless to say this Holiday season was a little hectic, maybe a little crazy and just a tiny bit exhausting...but we still managed to squeeze (just barely) in an evening at Zoo lights in Tacoma. Looking back, we maybe should have just stayed home- it was one of those days, a Friday, where everyone was a little bit tired and maybe just a smidgen grouchy. We drove up with our friends the Kovals and upon arriving we went to feed the goats and little Macie got bit by one of them! She cried for a majority of our visit ( I would as well!), it was raining, Taylor was whining ( I want cotton candy, why can't I have a light up toy?) and quite frankly, it would have been a bust if had we not gotten into the car and the four girls said: "Thanks Mom and Krista, that was SO much fun!" Really? All we could do was laugh hysterically and hope that they would soon fall fast asleep!

So our trip started out great! All smiles here!

This picture was minutes away from the goat biting incident.....

The topper? All the kids whined and begged for some cotton candy....look at their faces.....of course none of them liked it!

Gingerbread Houses!

We had a fun pre-Christmas visit with Jerry's family! We had a delicious dinner and then spent the evening watching the kids decorate Gingerbread houses. Taylor and Maddie both loved doing this but Maddie especially got into it. Her house turned out really well and although she did get help with frosting her house she did put on all the decorations by herself. Taylor was not feeling the love of the houses quite as much as her sister and ended up only doing half of her house but she was lucky enough to do another one at school during her last week before break.

Taylor working hard on her Gingerbread house!

Maddie working on her house!

Maddie's finished product! Nice work!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Yes, I do realize it is January 1st, 2010 but I can't not post all of our Winter Vacation adventures. As you read along you will realize why these are getting posted now instead of earlier!

The past few years we have been going to a great U-Cut tree farm right down the road from where we live. We love the prices ($15!) and the trees are amazing! My mom is even in love witht his place- she and Dave went and cut a tree down for her house and even managed to shove it into her little car for the ride home to Everett! The big news this year was that the girls got to have a Christmas tree in each of their rooms! The weather was cold, wet and windy when we went to pick out the trees and so they both picked out their trees very quickly and then headed back to the car while Dave and I looked for our tree! The girls loved decorating their trees and had fun all of December with them.

One of my favorites...carrying her own tree!

Maddie's tree!

"Our tree"~ The girls were already in the car so we didn't get a family photo but I love this one because it is so rare that we have our picture taken with just the two of us!

Taylor's tree all decorated! She spent almost 2 hours hanging her ornaments (she had to put string on some of them first).

Ta-Da! Maddie was so proud of her ornaments! She is standing in front of most of them as she sat on her rocking chair the whole time and put them all in one area! Love it!

Happy Holidays!

Tis the Season! The girls were so excited to find these in one of our Christmas tubs!

It feels good to be writing tonight! It has been way too long. Life has been CrAzY these past few weeks! As most of you know, Maddie girl had her tonsils out the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. She was a trooper throughout the entire process but really had a hard time eating - she ended up losing close to 7 pounds in less then a week. Scary for Dave and I because she was so GRUMPY, short tempered and so not herself. We are happy to report that she is back in full swing and is making up for her lack of eating. We can't keep enough food in front of her right now! Needless to say, we had a very quiet Thanksgiving this year. We enjoyed an early Thanksgiving dinner with Roger and Lynette and the rest of the gang but stayed in Olympia for Thanksgiving Day. I did my annual Black Friday shopping. This year I added Toys R Us at 1 am....I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon! When I arrived, I had to stand outside for over an hour because they were busy arresting two adults who were fighting over a free zoom zoom pet. Need I say more? We spent the rest of our weekend taking down fall decorations and putting up Christmas ones. Both the girls had fun decorating their own rooms and they are waiting anxiously to go get our Christmas tree tomorrow. They are excited because they get to have their own trees this year in their bedrooms. I have never seen their rooms look so clean :) Other then that, we have honestly been at our house tending to Maddie. We are counting down the days until Christmas break!

This is where Maddie spent the majority of her time after her surgery.

The house during decorating...AHHH!

Both the kids had Dave hang this garland around their closets as well as some kind of decoration- so proud!

Maddie decided to get out of bed to hang her window clings!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Dave and I helped Darci celebrate her 30th in Vegas, but the girls really wanted to be with their Nana on her birthday as well so we went to her house for a birthday dinner last weekend! My mom and I made a yummy dinner and enjoyed a very low key evening filled with lots of laughter! Happy Birthday Nana! We love you!

The girls waiting for dessert...don't worry, the beer isn't theirs :)

Everyone blowing out the candles! 30 is a lot you know....

Halloween!

We had a very fun Halloween! It almost reminded me a little of the anticipation of Christmas coming. The girls were up early on Halloween morning and they asked Dave and I every 20 minutes how much longer it was until they could go trick or treating. They had a long wait but I think that in the end it was definately worth it!

Hannah Montana and Cinderella!

I love this picture! They crack me up!

Vegas!

Dave and I went on a quick 3 day weekend trip to Vegas to celebrate Darci and Katie's 30th birthdays with them this past month. We had a blast! It was especially fun for me because I was with my sister and my cousins- something that rarely happens it seems like these days. Oh, did I mention that we had no kids as well? Some of our group hadn't been to Vegas before so it was fun to do the "touristy" stuff again as well- the pirate show, the water show, etc. On Friday night we got to go to the top of Mandalay Bay to this really fun bar thanks to Mike and his cousin. It happened to be where Justin Timberlake was going to be hanging out at that evening because he was going to be performing the next day for a benefit concert....we ended up leaving before he got to the bar but we did see his locker full of alcohol :) On Saturday we went to a show. Let's just say it was interesting. It was one of the Cirque De Soliel (sp?) shows and I have officially decided that I really enjoy shows that have a plot, characters and an ending! The weekend was over too quickly but it was so fun to be in the sun (85 degrees), lounging by the pool and hanging with the family!

These pictures were taken with our cell phone- not good at all but the view was AMAZING from the top of Mandalay Bay!

Another shot from Manadalay Bay!

The Bellagio Water Show!