Winter and Holiday Catch-Up

I guess I have not blogged for a while. We had a nice Thanksgiving. We spent Thursday with my in-laws and Sunday at my mom's house with extended family for my brother's birthday. Sometime in early December the kids and I met my dad at Point Defiance Zoo for ZooLights. The kids really liked it but were not on their best behavior. Oh, well.
Just before Christmas we spent a day with our friends in Bellingham. These two love birds spent the day together with the giant stuffed caterpillar. The 4 oldest boys played outside all day. It was a nice relaxing day for Kim and I.

On Christmas Eve, we trekked on over to my in-laws for a nice celebration there.

And on Christmas Day we went to my mom's house for a quick round of presents and then drove to my grandparents' house and spent the rest of the day with the whole family. This was our first Christmas without Bob (my step dad). It was hard. We missed him. Below is a picture of the kids playing instruments during our family singing time. I have a sweet video of Bob jingling bells right along with the kids last year. Bob loved Christmas and enjoyed surprising everyone, especially my mom, with a nice gift. This year Stephen bought my mom a small diamond heart necklace. When she opened the box he said, "because Dad would have gotten you something nice." It was so sweet. And Tim got her a nutcracker. He had taken his girlfriend to the ballet and purchased a nutcracker for her there. My little brothers are pretty cool.

This is a picture of our tree this year. Photo courtesy of Joey.

My husband was on-call at 2 hospitals over the New Year's weekend so I packed up the kids and we went on a mini-trip to visit relatives. We spent New Year's Eve in Tacoma with my great-aunt and uncle and some cousins. That was nice. Then we went to the Ranch (family property near Mt. Rainier) and we rode ATVs with my dad and then spent the night with another aunt and uncle at their house in Eatonville. They still had 4-5in of wet snow and so we built the first real snowman ever for my kids. C loved the snowman. She hugged it. After we left, she asked when it was going to walk and talk and come to life. She has only seen the Frosty movie once.

Now we are back into a routine with school and everything. We are busy touring schools trying to figure out where to send J next year.
How's that for an update of the last 6 weeks?