HAPPY BIRTHDAY AIDAN

Aidan turned 5 on Dec 21st! I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up! When he mentioned wanting a bowling party I jumped on that bandwagon in about 2 seconds. Not having to plan a party just days before Christmas was a great idea! I just made the reservation and showed up! Again Taunie came through with the totally awesome "Super Mario Galaxy" cake. I also opted not to put together treat bags for the guests. I just ordered little Mario stuffed toys off of Amazon.com for each person. It was very easy...except when I only received only 8 of the 12 Mario toys a few days before the party. The additional 4 were sent separately. They came the morning of the party...Whew! No one (meaning my own kids) had to wait until after the party for their favor.

Chloe and Aidan

Aysia, Eleanor (notice the cute new hair cut) and Brayden

"Big" Alec, Aidan, Angel and Aysia

Aysia and Angel

Adison, Rebecca, "big" Alec,
Chloe, Aidan, and Kyle

Chloe should be a pro after watching
mom every Wednesday.

This is a happy mom. Just have to control 12 kids for 2.5 hours. I do that all the time without any help!

Awsome cake!

Adison loved the Mario theme!

We love our cousins!

And of course we were happpy Grandma and Grandpa Williams could make it!


Next year I think I'll try to talk him into a 1/2 year party and have it in the summer!
LOL....He'll get whatever he wants. My kids have me wrapped around their little fingers.

Winter Fun

Run, Run, as fast as you can; you can't catch me, I am the Gingerbread Man.

Aysia asked if we could make gingerbread cookies this year after reading the book and having many fun activities at school about the gingerbread man.

We had a fun Family Home Evening with friends Young and Rebecca Le. Their two daughters Alyssa and Helen came over and decorated gingerbread cookies and a house with our kids. They had a lot of fun eating as much candy as they put on the gingerbread.

Rolling out the cookies

mmm...Aysia likes the dough
Alec wants down
What a face!
Decorating was just as fun as cutting them out.

Very artistic
Now the house.

Alec loved exploring the snow with Aysia and Aidan. The snow was so light and powdery they really couldn't build anything. But they had A LOT of fun anyway.

Snow Angel boy

Snow Angel girl

ElfYourself

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/NKOdC0xPqCkzu83kG59I

Billy put this very funny (short) video together online. That's why he's not in it. It's only available for viewing until I think January 15th. I hope you enjoy.

The count down to Christmas has begun.....

I can't believe how fast November flew by. It CAN'T possibly be December already.

We had a FHE earlier this month on being good examples - "let your light shine". The kids and dad colored candles as an activity. All my little artists love to color.

We had a sleep over with Eleanor the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving. She is so CUTE! We have so much fun when she's around.

All the kids

Everyone piled into the closet to pretend it was a cave.

When Tammis came to pick up Ellie she wasn't ready to go home. We twisted her mom's arm and she got to stay longer. We all went to the park.

The kids all agreed that having cousins was a great thing.

Can you say "BAH HUM BUG"?OH...There's a smile...of course Aidan's taking the picture.

My sister Elizabeth and family came to visit for Thanksgiving. It was fun to have them. I picked Tatum up from AMTRAK on Tuesday night at 11:00 pm. She is 19 and attending Western State College of Colorado. I was holding out to go to the Twilight movie with her. It was good and we had fun.

Aidan fell deeply in love with Tate while she was here. He was her shadow. The day she left (at 3 am) he woke up and realized she was gone, and cried his heart out. Aysia tried to console him, telling him she wasn't gone forever. But he was heart broken.

Dinner at my mom's was YUMMY!

Everyone relaxing afterwards.
Aysia and Koda

Taylor, Takoda and Lil Al

We saw a lot more of Amanda this weekend due to Taylor's visit. They go together like potatoes and gravy; root beer and ice cream; waffles and syrup; cookies and milk...etc.

Amanda is very happy to be holding a pair of DC shoes I bought her on Black Friday for Christmas. Yes, she had to leave them here until Christmas Day.

These are the kinds of pictures you get when dad gives a camera to the kids. Glad it's digital and not film you have to pay to be developed!

Ever wondered what Aidan looked like up close and personal? No need to anymore.

Aysia and Takoda posed for each other (a lot).

My sister and I (crazy "grown-ups") decided to go shopping at the mall on Black Friday. They opened at midnight. We decided to be first in line...we needed to go to Game Stop. They had a Play Station 2 at a great price. Elizabeth wanted to get one for her girls. I also have wanted to get Wii Fitness. So off we went to get in line at 10:20 pm. My friend Katie who is an avid BF shopper sent me a text at 9:00 and said they were already lining up. Silly, silly, silly...we drove over and there were only two guys waiting at the doors we had chosen.

So we waited in the car for a while and eventually got in line. It wasn't too cold, but we were surrounded by teenagers. We kept wondering what the heck we were doing at the MALL, and where all the parents were to these kids.

When they opened the door we would have made for a good laugh (we laughed at ourselves) as we ran down the mall to Game Stop. We were FIRST in the store and FIRST out! :)

We also hit Gymboree and Victoria's secret. We decided to hit a few others later in the day after going home to bed.

We got a lot of shopping done on BF. I went home to bed and was woken up by Billy texting me for a breakfast burrito at 3am. He went out to sell hot chocolate with Taylor and Tate. They didn't have much luck. The lines weren't as big as in the past at the usual places. Even Billy hadn't seen anything he was willing to wait in line for; thus the hot chocolate idea was born and flopped. Alec didn't sleep well that night either.

I went to Toys R Us later and then we all headed back to the mall. Then to Target and Famous Footwear. I've never shopped so much in one day before!

But it was fun to be with Elizabeth and our girls.

She looks dang good for being up half the night!

No pictures of me!

There is so much more to say, but it will have to wait. This has taken me two hours already. I'm tired. Ciao for now.