Random Photo Catch Up

This is a long post, but I need to catch up quick.  Some of these are pretty self explanatory.  

Brennan had to send his truck into the shop for three days, which meant we had to wake kids up early and drive dad to the bus stop each morning. I told the kids that when I was little, our family only had one car.  I remember getting up at 4am to drive my dad to work so my mom could have the car for the rest of day and then we would just go home and go back to bed.  The kids thought that it was tough getting up at 6:30 to take dad to work.    

We made the most of it and got our grocery shopping done early.  Hailey hates going to the store with me now.  I always tell her that it's going to be a quick trip in and she always tells me that she doesn't believe me.  Haha, she is growing up so fast.  

Apparently, getting bubbles in your eye is no fun :( 

This little man has learned how to use this stool to get everything he wants that is up high.  I find him all too often up on the counter getting into things he's not supposed to.  So I've started hiding the stool in the pantry and shutting the door.  Unfortunately, James has learned how to open doors.  It is so cute to watch him walk around the house with his stool.  He has totally created a system that works for him.  

I made a quick trip down to Portland to visit with my dad, who's health is not doing so great.  While I was down there, my sister and I went to this hole in the wall restaurant that is really amazing.  It has been rated one of Portland's best Japanese restaurants and it lives up to its reputation.  The only way to get in is if you have a reservation.  We had to make ours days in advance.  People who walk in get turned away.  Here is a picture of one of the dishes I wanted to try out of curiosity...fried beef.  Sound weird?  Apparently it is a popular Japanese bar food.  It was actually pretty good. 

Here is another one of my new favorite things from New Seasons...Hot Fudge Sunday!  It has a layer of cake, topped with a hard layer of chocolate, topped with ice cream flavored whipped cream, topped with bits of brownies, then finally topped with chocolate ganache.  Yum, yum, yummy, yum, yum :)  only in P-Town.

Finally I got to visit with me dad, which happened to be on the day of my parents 40th anniversary.  It was a great visit and I'm so glad I got to visit with him.  I need to make more trips down to see him, I don't know how much longer he's got ;.(

While I was away, Brennan installed our new XBOX ONE.  One of the many perks to working at Microsoft in the XBOX decision, is that you get the new XBOX free.  

Hailey: "Can we get some new video games?"

Brennan and I went on a date to see Catching Fire.  It was really, really good.  

I came to pick the kids up from their art class and found Jacob throwing a pot on the pottery wheel.  So, so cool.  This was such a great experience for him.

Our dishwasher broke and Brennan tried to fix it.  I tell ya, those double drawer dishwashers are the worst appliances to not only wash your dishes, but a pain to fix too.  We called half a dozen repair men and only one of them was willing to fix our dishwasher.  

Here are my favorite photos...Brennan taking selfies of his mustache.  He grew a mustache to help support Movemeber.  I don't know what's funnier, seeing my husband with a mustache or seeing all the selfies he has taken over the month of Novemeber.  

So moving...

Mmmm, looking good babe :) I'm sure you love me posting these.  Haha

He shaved it off on Dec 1st.  I have to admit that I missed it, but I didn't miss the scruffiness of it when we kissed.  

My boys.

Jacob got to go play football with his dad again this Thanksgiving.  Apparently he tackled a guy over 200lbs!  He was so excited when he got home.  He really loves football.  

My sister came up on Thanksgiving to stay with us for the weekend.  Brennan is showing the kids the new video game he brought home from work.  I believe it was Forza.

James loves to watch steam engine videos on the Internet.  He loves it so much, he periodically kisses the screen.  

I'll never understand the fascination that little boys (and grown men) have with trains, but they love them and that's good enough for me.  

All my siblings and their families came up for the Thanksgiving weekend.  As always, we played some games using the connect.  Brennan and Seth got into a jet-skiing game.  I love the connect.  Where else can you control the movements of the game using your entire body?  Not even the Wii is this cool.  

Trying to turn left

Then right

Now jumping. The Connect can be a good workout too.

The kids just love it.  

And it can be so entertaining to watch.  

I'm so glad my family could come up to visit.  It was really great to see them.  

Someone was being a little shy of the camera.  

He refused to take a photo.  James has really taken to his dad.  Maybe it's because he thinks dad's mustache is so cool. 

This is one of James' new favorite things.  He loves to take his stool and sit at the little kids table.  

We had the opportunity to have the Relif Society ladies over at our house this week for the annual Christmas Party, which motivated me to decorate the whole house for Christmas just a few days after Thanksgiving.  It was a lot of work, but was quite rewarding since now I can spend the next month enjoying the splendor :)  Besides, the kids didn't want to wait to get tree.  

The day after the party, the kids and I just relaxed for the day.  I needed the rest after the last week of company, cleaning and decorating.  The kids had the day off of school do to Teacher/Parent conferences.  We enjoyed reading Christmas books infront of the tree and watching Charlie Brown Christmas.  

Coloring, coloring, and more coloring.  What would my kids do without paper and markers?  Not a day goes by where the counter isn't covered with paper.