at the hecht's

Next we went to my parent's house to celebrate with all the cousins! What a huge pile of gifts...granted, there are a LOT of people when we all get together. :)

The sleepy, slightly sick, baby Santa. This costume was made by my mom for Tyler when he was a baby. Many of the cousins have had a chance to wear it on Christmas. :)

Cohen's turn

Finn & Sadie watching Ronan

Power Miner Legos for Tyler

Buzz Lightyear for Griffin!

Littlest Pet Shop for Sadie

G.I. Joes for Ronan

The 6 of us

Kenton drew Gretchen's name for our family drawing this year. We had fun shopping for her together. :)

Aaron drew my name & knitted this scarf all by himself - just kidding! :)

Kenton's huge pile of gifts from Becca - mostly new board games + a new hoody!

Finn's grand finale gift - a pinball machine! So fun. He's been having a good time with this toy.

Boy, were we spoiled this year?! It's been great to have some new toys to entertain the kids, new clothes for me & new games for Kenton memorize. ;) Thanks for the great gifts everyone - we are so blessed to be so close to so much of our family. We thank God for all of you!

at the henry's

We woke up early on Christmas morning to go to Mummi & Pappa Henry's house! It was too hard to get Cedar to look at the blinking light on the camera. :) Cedar actually wasn't feeling very well...he's probably teething a bit & had a slight fever. So sad. :(

There! Much easier to get the kids to look with grandparents behind the lens. :P

Matching jammie boys

One of Finn's gifts: a large, stuffed doggie. He named him Obi Wan. :)

Cedar's getting big brother Finn...with some help from Pappa. Notice their pretty new wall of shelving & cabinets - Outi's birthday/Christmas gift.

Nice new sweater & shirt from Mummi & Pappa.

New Hot Wheels!

Finn has a great collection of Hot Wheel tracks & has been having a great time setting them up throughout the house.

christmas eve

We gathered at the Ruddicks for sushi (made by Erik & Josh), tempura (made by Kenton), orange chicken & yakisoba noodles (made by Gretchen).

Mmmmm...sushi! Kenton was brave & tried some this year. He says he liked it! :) Everything tasted great & we had LOTS left over even though we all got our fill.

New favorite silly/unflattering self protrait. :P

Cedar tried avocado & cucumber!

Hi Mama!

More cucumber, please?

Cedar started army crawling forward & spent some time showing off his new trick! He's taking a little break here. Finn was there too but he spends most of his time playing upstairs when we visit the Ruddicks. :)

Siblings

We each got a little gift from the Hickmans - earrings for the girls & Starbucks gift cards for the guys. Thanks guys! The earrings are so cute! :)

christmas eve morning

Santa came early to our house this year! With all of our family gatherings & celebrations adding up, we decided to celebrate Christmas early so that we could take our time & enjoy our time together. We've rushed our gift opening in the past in order to celebrate with the grandparents...but really, we didn't need much of an excuse - Kenton & I have a very hard time waiting! :P


The excited 3-year old! We didn't put any gifts under the tree before hand, so it looked super exciting to Finn when he woke up. (Notice the new stocking on the right - Cedar's was finished just in time!)

We told Finn the night before that Santa was going to come early. He was excited but a little nervous & told Kenton that he didn't want to hear Santa. The idea of Santa coming into our house made him uneasy. :)

Finn got a dinosaur book!

Cedar got a book too.

The typical, excited expression from Kenton. :)

Cedar liked his new toy!

New boots - a little big, but he'll grow into them. :)

A favorite - Bakugan!

It was so pleasant to take our time & enjoy the morning. We ate homemade pumpkin bread while we opened gifts & had lots of time to put toys together & play with them. It was so fun to remember that it wasn't even Christmas yet! We got to do it all again with the grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins the next day! :)

pappa's birthday

Tuesday, December 22nd was Kevin's birthday. So many birthdays lately! Finn couldn't wait to enjoy Pappa's birthday cake - DQ ice cream cake made by Aunt Becca! :)

A little, unnecessary help. :)

A sasquatch shirt from us.
Happy Birthday, Pappa! Thanks for being such a great Dad & Pappa. We love you!

the millers

Top row: Katrina, Cedar (7 mos.), Kenton, Colin, Stephanie, Nicole, Addie (18 mos.), Sandy
Bottom Row: Jon, Finley (3), Ethan (3), Macey (3), Amy & Emma (14 mos.)

Sandy, Nicole & Addie came to town on their way down to California for Christmas. We had a quick visit with our small group so that we could visit & eat together. We hadn't seen Addie since they moved in June, so it was neat to see how much she has changed in 6 months! All the kids have changed a lot, so we got a kick out of watching them interact with each other. We sure miss the Millers & are so thankful we had a chance to catch up!

carolyn's graduation

On Friday, December 18th, Carolyn graduated from Pacific University with her Masters in Education! Yay!

Kenton's parents babysat so that we could attend the ceremony - it was so nice!

There's Carolyn, with her long, red hair!
Carolyn & I walked together in our graduation from high school. She's been a close friend of mine for 12 years!

Getting her Masters hood

Congratulations, Carolyn! We're so proud of you! You'll make such a great teacher - your middle school students will be so lucky to have you in their lives. :)

The hood!
To protect from the drafty university study areas...or something.

After the ceremony, we went to Davis' Restaurant with Carolyn, Jesse, her mom & step-dad (our first time eating there). It was very tasty & they support local farmers - woohoo! :) We had a lovely time & really enjoyed being a part of Carolyn's graduation.

decorating cookies

We hosted our small group for Christmas cookie decorating...mostly, we just let the kids have at it.

The kids had an incident with dry erase markers in Finn's room - hence, the green marker lines on Ethan's face. :P

Finley, Ethan & Macey waiting so very patiently for the cookies to be done baking.

Each armed with sprinkles! Macey has some red marker on her neck. :)

They each had a small bowl of frosting & a plastic knife. :)

Stephanie helped out. :)

Ethan likes the frosting!

Now for some calming story time with Kenton. We only made a few cookies, but I think everyone left with a bit of a sugar high. Yumm!