Eliza's Birthday Party

When our kids turn six and eight, we let them have a birthday party, if they so choose.  They can either have that or have a fun family activity, like bowling or miniature golf.  

Eliza chose to have a party.  She invited a few friends from church and the neighborhood and all of the girls in her kindergarten class.  All but two showed up, so we had a LOT of little girls.

I divided the party into two groups.  The first group made jewelry while the second group decorated sugar cookies.  Then we switched.  After that, we had cake and ice cream and then Eliza opened her presents.  At the end, we had a dance party until all the parents came and picked up their kids.  Eliza's party theme was a "pink party".  Everything was pink--the decorations, the treats, the cake, the ice cream.

 All the girls greeting each other at the beginning

 Corey wasn't there, so I put my minions to work helping out.  These boys were stuffing party favor bags for me.  When they were done, they went upstairs.

 More greeting of friends

 pink heart cake

Dance party with remaining guests

Ward Christmas Breakfast

We had our ward Christmas breakfast on December 7th. The kids got to see Santa and the primary did a Christmas nativity. My three older boys were the three wise men. Eliza was in the angel choir and I didn't get any pictures of it. The boys hid behind the choir though, so I didn't get a very good picture of them either. I never take my kids to see Santa anymore because they can see him at the ward breakfast/dinner (depending on the year).

Westley did not sit on Santa's lap this year.  I suppose he is finally too old.  But Caleb still did.

Caleb with Santa

Jonah

Eliza

Travis

Even Annmarie sat on Santa's lap without crying

Six Years Old!

This little cutie turned six years old.  She is such a happy, spunky little girl.  Sometimes it's difficult because she and I have personalities that clash, but we are working on it.  I love her so much anyway.

The tradition in our house for birthdays is that they get to pick all their meals.  Eliza requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast, so I made the dough on Thursday night and then got up early on Friday, her birthday, to make them.  She had "homemade McDonald's" for lunch--freezer chicken nuggets, oven fries, and chocolate milk.  For dinner, we had her favorite, Italian chicken, which is chicken that is flattened, breaded and fried. 

Happy birthday, Eliza!

Big Holiday Fun

We had a get-together, Fellows style. It included good food, lots of talking, and of course, a white elephant gift exchange.

We had all the Fellows side who lived in Utah there.  Hopefully we can have many more of these in the days to come.

Post-Thanksgiving Fun

The day after Thanksgiving we had a get-together with some extended family. We had a soup, rolls, and leftover Thanksgiving dessert night. Some of our family had come out from California for Thanksgiving with some of their family, and we were able to see them too.

Four kids, each from a different family

Enjoying dinner with cousins

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving this year was a lot of fun.  We had Jenna's youngest brother and his wife come eat with us.  We also had Margrethe here for Thanksgiving.  

Our menu was pretty simple: turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams and apples, cranberry jello salad, and homemade rolls for the main meal, and then there were three pies to choose from for dessert: pumpkin, apple, and cherry.

Preparation was procrastinated until Thanksgiving Day, so all the cooking had to get done that day.  So we divided out the various cooking tasks between the family.  Westley helped with the pumpkin pie, Travis helped with the rolls, Caleb helped with the yams and apples, Eliza helped with the cranberry jello, Jonah helped with the cherry pie, and Margrethe helped with the apple pie.  Corey did the turkey and mashed potatoes.  We watched movies and played Wii games and other games and just had a fun time.

The pies, left to right: pumpkin, apple, cherry

Fun Times and Cute Kids

These are just some random pictures from November.

Jonah dressed for church.  He always wants to wear a tie but then almost always takes it off before we even get to church.  

Annmarie just being super cute.  She does not like to wear anything on her head, but I just love her in this hat.  Eliza was never able to wear this outfit because when she fit into it, it was way too hot in Arizona for her to wear it.

The kids lined up like this and asked me to snap a picture.  This picture is probably number ten.  It was so hard getting Jonah AND Annmarie not crying or looking away.