The holidays are upon us...

Christmas Sunday. at 7:30 am we find an e-mail announcing that church is cancelled due to the snowfall. here we were all decked out in our Christmas best, so we decided to take a family picture. The first since before Anna was born.
our ward Christmas party is a breakfast at 8:30 in the morning. Everyone comes looking disheveled and ready for sausage. I sang as part of the program.
Liam sang with the primary. He was so cute in his jammies.

waiting for Santa......the moment Santa walked in, Liam grabbed Eric's neck with a huge grin and giggled. When he sat down he bolted to get in line to sit on his lap.
Once in line, he was all about business. He had been practicing " I want a Mighty Hauler" for weeks now.
I thought Anna would cry but she just sort of shrank into him.
It was again, all business on Santa's lap. The deed was stated auickly and clearly and He was out of there.
My cute family. How could I love anyone more?

My brush with fame.....

Teh Forgotten Carols was on tour this year and I was able to sing in the seattle area choir for the performance.
There I am, in ink.
Here I am in the very back singing carols around the piano with Micheal. When he walked into the room in his leather button up shirt I'm sure I saw angels and heard singing.
Here I am hanging on to his every word while he preps us for the performance.
here we are. I 'm in the middle on the front row of the stairs. It was fun singing with a more professional group and it made me want to find ways to perform on stage again. The program ended with the entire audience linking arms and singing "we can be together, forever someday". Aaahhh, the things you do when your Mormon.

Snow Days

Ever year Liam's preschool has Snow Days and hauls white snow in huge dump trucks from the mountains down to his preschool for all to enjoy. Last year the hill was huge and white. This year it was not cold enough and the snow was....well brown. Seattle sledding. Anyway, Santa arrives in a fire engine, there's a craft fair and local talent. It's holiday halubaloo.

Liam is patiently waiting...

Liam braves the slope.

Liam braves the slope.

Anna's smile is hilarious.

we did crafts......

and iced cookies.........

and played in the bounce houses. Good times.

Thanksgiving Day

BEFORE.......

AFTER........
This is pretty much how it is with these two. Liam is also incredibly sweet and loving though. This was where Anna spent most of her Thanksgiving break. These are sadly all the pictures I got of the event.

Cruis'n

This is pretty much what Liam does when at his Grandparents' house. He loves to make the bike spin out. He rode the bike most of the Thanksgiving break.

Thanksgiving program

Liam's Preschool Thanksgiving program was adorable. Of course my camera batteries ran out after the first picture. I was able to get a few short films and these shots anyway. so cute.

AArrrgggh! Not only does the batteries die, but it loses focus several times. Technology!

so this one is super short, but I had to give you a taste of Liam's ability to make boring things fun. Also, if you are a fan of the television show "Heroes", you will see Hiro feeding off of Liam's silliness. No kidding, his name is Eugene and he even acts just like him. It's trippy....

My Mom and Dad and my "cozy house". That's what he says that will not be forever saved in digital time.

Anna O.

Anna is so adorable right now. She is a very efficient signer and is starting to speak. She says "Maaam" translation Mom, Boppy-puppy, DaEee-Daddy, and Waaayyeeee-WALLE. The last was taught with great effort on Liam's part. He is a very proud brother. She can also perform a variety of sounds including, sound of a monkey, sound of a monster, sound of an owl. Her favorites list includes, pushing her stroller, monkeys (stuffed or real), running as fast as she can and flopping onto the lovesack and bathtime. Does not like bedtime. Understands the word nap and violently shakes head "no"giving very clear signs of her comprehension and defiance, and drawing. Really into drawing. This activity as you see demonstrated here occurs an average of 2 hours a day on and off. It has been decided through scientific analysis that test subject is a lefty.
We love our lefthanded, monkeyloving girl.

Autumn colors

So, i've always wanted family pictures like these I took of Anna. I wanted to see how they would look and I love the colors against the black. Anna was super difficult to photograph but I got a few cute ones I think.

Liam and his good friend Mackayla. They play together pretty much every day. Mackayla said she was being a princess in this picture. Very demure.

Happy halloween from our galaxy

This year we decided to be Vikings! Liam was so excited. We went to Value Village to get our gear and Liam exclaims " I don't need that. I'm going to be a space robot this year". Unbenounced to us he had obviously decided this long ago and not said anything until that moment. It was decided we would all be a galactic family. Eric vies that we are a B movie galactic family actually.

I made all of Anna's costume this year. I bought a cheap princess costumea and some boots at value village which I sprayed. the tube around the bottom of the dress is added. It's just stuffed with cotton very tightly. Then the star and cape are made of cardboard and her helmet was done wo hours before we left. I didn't have time to make what I wanted so I made a tinfoil hat on her head and cut a pattern out of it and glued the seams. I couldn't quit looking at her. she was so cute.

Anna watched everyone play musical matts for about 10 minutes and then she finally jumped in and tried to play. It was so cute. She spent most of the evening stepping from matt to matt.

Liam and Eric hung out together and went pumpkin bowling, fishing for apples and other such fall festivites. They were a cute little team. Eric made Liams entire costume. Liam designed it out on a piece of paper. He had something very specific in mind. Eric made it look just like Liams design. Liam was totally into the character of a robot. It was soooo cute.