Xmas Party!

December was a big party month for the kids. One of the parties was thrown by Carsyn's friend Abigaile. They were invited to her house for dinner, cookie decorating and to watch a movie. She was so excited. With the idea from our friend Karrie, we decided to bring little gifts for each girl. Carsyn picked out little chapstick or lipglosses for the girls. When I picked Carsyn up she was in her apron and elf ears, a gift from Abigaile and her mom Shelly. What fun!!

Here are the girls looking very cute in their aprons and ears. Shelly had the house really decorated for Christmas, fabulous!

The girls posing by the tree!

Bryn's Bday & Bellevue Botanical Gardens!

We headed into Issaquah to Flying Pie Pizza to celebrate Bryn's 5th Birthday! With Jeni, Cory and Zoe in Italy we had Nina for the night and brought her along for the fun. It is a great little pizza place with a bunch of video games which the kids loved. It is a small enough and relaxed enough place that the kids could kind of roam free checking out all the video games. The pizza was delicious (thank Mel and Tod) and Melissa made some fabulous cupcakes-yum yum!! It had been so long since we had seen them it was nice to be able to catch up a bit.

Here is Nina, Hayden and the Birthday Girl.

Family friend Andy and Carsyn join in.

We were all supposed to meet up at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens after the pizza. Unfortunately, the parking lot was packed and we lost the Whitt's. Melissa didn't have her phone with her and I didn't have Tod's number. So we made the best of it and checked out all of the beautiful lights. It was raining on the way there but once we parked and got out it had stopped. I wish I would of still grabbed my umbrella because it did start back up again. All of us, except Tony, had hoods so we were just fine.

I had never been to the gardens and it was really cool. The kids loved it. They couldn't believe how bright they were. They had the lights shaped like butterflies, alligators, pumpkins, grapes, palm tree, spider in webs, the list goes and on.

Carsyn, Nina and Hayden in front of some lights.

I was too far away for this one but the kids wanted a photo with the toad.

Very cute!

The rain came back and Nina was done with the pictures.

Tony and Carsyn for one last photo op.

The grapes were really cool!

Thanks Tod and Melissa for a great night. Even though we didn't see you at the garden it was a great idea and we truly enjoyed ourselves. Happy 5th Birthday Bryn, we love you!!

The Night before Christmas!!

The last day before Christmas break Carsyn's school had a dress up day "Twas the Night Before Christmas". They could dress up like Santa, Elves, Reindeer or wear their pajamas. Carsyn is always excited at the idea of wearing pajamas to school. She thought that it was something that they were only going to be able to do in Kindergarten.

Here is Carsyn with her PJ's, rob and Santa hat heading out to the bus.

Gingerbread House & Tree!

The kids were so excited to decorate their gingerbread house. I think they were just anxious to get their hands on all of that candy. Once Hayden had reached my designated amount of candy intake he was pretty much done decorating. He pretty much just kept sneaking candy the whole time. He has such a sweet tooth. Carsyn was pretty interested in decorating it and trying to do it like one of the examples off the box, which reminds me a lot of someone I know. :) (me, for those of you who didn't get it)
I did the icing and the kids did most of the candies. But by once it was time to do the tree they were done with the project, so I had to finish that and then I put the coconut down on the ground. This was a really good kit, tons of candy and the icing really worked this year. Unlike past years. The gingerbread was very sturdy-we think it turned out great!!

The kids had so much fun decorating the tree this year. It was so cute to see how excited they were about it. Carsyn was pretending to be the head elf and Hayden was just a worker elf and their job was to decorate the tree-to Santa's specifications of course. Seriously though, they were so much help this year with the ornaments. Carsyn was really good about spreading them out and getting them really high. Hayden wanted the Christmas music playing while we decorated the tree so he could sing and dance.

Here are some pictures of the kids with the tree. I think Carsyn is putting up some garland she made just out of white paper. It is kind of plain but she did a great job measuring them out, cutting them and putting it all together by herself. She is getting so big!! I just love these guys!

Santa Photo!

Santa Photo-2009

The kids love this Santa, they really feel like they know him. They have gone to see him the last few years.

School Photos!

Carsyn 1st Grade-2009, Age 6

Mrs. Favro

Hayden Pre-K-2009, Age 4

Miss Janice

Halloween!

This year we had Halloween at our house again. Carsyn had a Halloween party to go to in the afternoon at her girlfriend Alexis' house. She was so excited! The photos from the party are down toward the bottom of this post.


This year Hayden dressed up as a Gladiator and Carsyn was a Baroque Queen. I dressed up as a fat witch and Tony through on his tattoo guy costume from last year for a bit. The weather wasn't too bad, it rained a bit but not too much. The kids did a ton of trick or treating and came home and played. It is so funny how uninterested in their candy they are after they get it. Tony basically takes most of it to work and the kids don't even notice.


Here is our little gladiator.
Carsyn and Hayden.

Carsyn with her uncle Danny checking out the Carmel apples he made.

Carsyn with Alyvia in the background.

Poppy with Carsyn.

Dr. Rick, me and Danny.

My Mom made some really cool cookies, withes fingers. They tasted good too!!

Here are the pictures from the party Carsyn went to.

Pizza time!

Game time!

Pace Race!

In October our family did a Prostate Cancer Walk in downtown Kirkland. My Mom and Dad walked the 5 K and Jeni and Cory ran the 5 k while I did the 1 mile family walk with the kids. It was definitely a chilly morning but we got lucky with no rain which is always nice. The kids were so excited to get started. The 5 kers started first and then the kids and I left for our 1 mile leisurely walk. Right when we started walking Hayden started complaining, this is boring are we almost done?? It was ridiculous. But a couple minutes later he was fine, once he realized that this was a warm up for the kids dash that they were going to do after the walk.

My pictures are out of order so I am starting with the kids dash. It was so cute Carsyn, Hayden and Nina lined up at the starting line and were so pumped to race. They started off together but then they broke away from each other. With Hayden's temperamental attitude I thought he might freak out the Carsyn wasn't waiting for him but he was totally fine. Jeni and I ran along with them since they did a circle around the block I wanted to keep my eyes on them. Nina was bringing up the rear but she had the biggest smile on her face, yelling Jada I am doing it, I am really doing it. Carsyn bolted out in front and I tried to stay between her and Hayden. They were both running so hard and they never stopped. They were so excited because when they got the the finish line they all got medals saying #1 and winner. They all decided that they all won for their age group. Very fun and totally cute! They had a bouncy bus at the finish line and the kids went in there to hope around for a bit as well.

After the running and fun were over we headed over to the Wilde Rover for some yummy breakfast, Thanks Mom and Dad!!



Here is a picture I found from a blog of the start of the kids dash. You can kind of see me on the far left and Carsyn in all pink in the middle along with Hayden in his blue sweatshirt.



After the race the kids were running around the park and climbing on the brass people.

At the finish line of the kids dash, with there medals. It was really a moving thing to see them all run their hardest and finish the race, they were so proud of themselves too.

During our 1 mile walk we got lapped by Jeni and Cory running the 5k.

Carsyn starting the kids dash.

Carsyn, Hayden and Nina at the starting line-pumped and ready to go.

This is the 1 mile family walk. Sorry about the horrible pictures-I was having troubles with my camera. Carsyn pushed Nina almost the whole time.

This is us before the race.

Obviously, this cause its close to home for us but we were so glad to be a part of it. There isn't a huge turnout but it seemed perfect-very well organized. We hope to make this a yearly tradition!!