Pre-Christmas Pics

Here are some pictures of a few things we did in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

The kids painted ornaments. Wes had a dog bone that he painted blue and yellow.

Sydney's was a penguin that she painted pink.

The kids helped me with a special present for dad, so I decided to take a picture of them.

We went to my mom and dad's to hang out the week before Christmas. The kids decided to cuddle and watch a show.

My cousin, Ryan, and his wife, Becky came by for a visit and to take my grandma to breakfast.

The kids were admiring the Christmas tree a few days before Christmas.

A different view of, essentially, the same picture.

Preschool Parties

On Friday, December 16th, we got together with Sydney's preschool friends for a little Christmas party. After Sydney's party, we went to Wes' preschool program. After his program, my mom took the kids back to her house for the weekend and Brian and I went to party at The Melting Pot and the Seattle Symphony.

At Sydney's party, the kids painted sticks to make ornaments.

After they were done painting, we had food and decorated sugar cookies.

Wes had a preschool program. I never did figure out why he wasn't dressed up and most of the other kids were.

All the classes sang some songs.

As we headed back to Wes' classroom, Santa was handing out candy canes. Sydney timidly took one (since she's still afraid of Santa).

We then enjoyed reindeer cookies that all the preschool children had helped make.





Here's a picture of us at the Seattle Symphony before we saw Handel's Messiah.

Fun day!

Natalie's 30th Birthday

On December 15th, we celebrated my 30th birthday! Oddly, I feel no different than I did when I was 29. :)

The day started off with me babysitting some kiddos (which works out fine because then my kids are mostly occupied) and a 30-clue scavenger hunt that Brian made for me (to test my aging brain, apparently).

I've come to realize I don't really like cake all that well (or pies, for that matter), so I opted for a hot fudge brownie sundae as my celebratory dessert.

Wes and Sydney with their 30-year-old mamma (and the poster they colored for me in the background).

A brownie topped with ice cream, hot fudge, and whipped cream. Who can resist?

Yum!

The kids helped me pick which cards and presents to open.

I think they were slightly disappointed there were no toys among my presents, but we all still had a good time!