December Sunset

We had this beautiful sunset early in December. This is the view of it from our front yard.

Snow fun

Kate and Sam with all their gear on and excited to go play in the snow.

Joe built a snow hill in the backyard for the kids to go sliding down. It ended up being even better than taking the kids to a park to go sledding because when the decided they were too cold, they could just come right inside.

Kate's run down Daddy's snow hill.

Sam's turn.

Once they had had enough fun in the snow and were too cold for any more, they decided to come inside. Kate asked if they could have some hot chocolate to warm up. I told her that would be a great idea and that I'd make some. She relpied, "Uh, Mom, do you even know how to make hot chocolate?"

Snowball Fight

Here's Kate and Sam's attempt at a snowball fight. It's not too effective and they need to learn a lot more technique but what can you expect from a 3 year old and a 2 year old?

Kate's Girls Club

Kate is at a stage where she thinks girls are great and she could just do without boys at all. So she made up a "Girls Club" which means anyone who is a girl can be in the club. She kept going and going with this idea and with the help of her cousin, Brooklyn, and her Auntie Caitlin it became a reality for her.

Toward the end of November we emailed homemade invitations to all the girls on my side of the family for Girls Club at our house. We decorated the house but unfortunately there are no pictures. Just know it was all appropriately very pink and girly.

our invitations

We had everyone bring fun activities and yummy snacks. Auntie Caitlin helped us stamp mini candy cane cards and Brooklyn taught us how to make a box out of a piece of paper and decorate them. They were all very girly.

We also got to try on my mom's old fashioned hat collection and have a hat parade around the house! What fun!

Great Grandma Gallup, Maggie (Rachael's cousin), Auntie Caitlin - and her crew Jessamy, Arwen, Faith, Melanie and Maecyn,

Grandma Williams, Aunt Emily and Brooklyn

(We missed you, Aunt Melanie and AuntMichelle!)

Thanks to all the girls who came. We had a fun girly time!

Oh, and don't worry Chandler girls...Kate is currently planning the Girls Club party for you too!

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken yesterday. Once again it was quite an experience. Usually Kate and Sam both freak out and scream and cry. But this time Kate was an angel and did a great job following direction. We finally got Sam to calm down and sit for a second by letting him play with Joe's blackberry. He did just as we expected as you can see from the picture with all 3 kids. We thought it was kind of funny so we just kept it. I mean, honestly, we can't expect to have every picture exactly perfect...especially when you have 3 kids all 3 years old and younger.

Yep. Those are my kids....oh how I love 'em!

Caught Blue-Handed

They told me it was an accident. Yeah right. (sigh) Kids will be kids.

Our Fun-Filled Halloween

We had a lot of fun on Halloween. We spent the day over at Grandma and Grandpa Williams' house. Their front yard was covered in leaves so we raked them in a pile for the kids to jump around and play in. Kate loved it....Sammy was a little unsure about it all.

Then we put their costumes on and took them to Downtown Nampa for some trick-or-treating. They really liked seeing all the people and the other kids' costumes.

We followed that up with a quick dinner at home then it was off to Trunk-or-Treating at the church. I made a loop around the parking lot with Kate and Sam while Joe and Alice manned the trunk. Sammy caught on pretty quickly with the idea that when you say, "Trick-or-Treat" you get candy in your bucket. Once we got back to our own trunk Kate and Sam helped Joe pass out candy to the other kids. I think that ended up being their favorite part.

After the church we dropped by CoraLyn's house (Joe's sister). Their kids were having a Halloween party with all their friends over there so we came by to keep Steve and CoraLyn company for a bit. It was nice just to let our kids loose for a few minutes play while we just hung out. Thanks CoraLyn and Steve for letting us come over!

Kate the Ballerina

Our little Punkin Sammy

Cheerleader Alice

Needless to say, the whole day was a lot of fun. Kate loved dressing up in her ballerina costume (which was actually mine when I was little) and Sammy finally warmed up to his pumpkin costume. At first all he would do was pull on it and get frustrated but after a while he gave up and just had to accept it. Alice was a little cheerleader but I put some pjs underneath her little outfit to keep her warm since we were outside quite a bit.