The Holiday Season

Here we go.....I'm a bit behind on my updates here.
This holiday season has been a blast. We ran out of time to do some of our usual things (like seeing the lights and feeding the reindeer) but we added a trip to Portland to visit Gram, Barbe, and Rick and a couple other things. We spent the season hiking, playing at the cabin, baking cookies (which, of course, I didn't take any pictures of), playing games, and just overall enjoying each other.
We started the season celebrating the winter break with a fun trip to a playground and Starbucks. Liam had his first cupcake pop; safe to say he enjoyed it. :)

 

I love that he won't take his eyes off it...

We spent a weekend at Aunt Barbe and Uncle Rick's house in Portland. We visited the local children's museum, played trucks and princesses, and snuggled up for the weekend. 

     

The kids had a blast and loved seeing and snuggling up with Gram! So glad she is now so close by!

In December, the kids were free for Northwest Trek. I've never been there before so we ventured out for the very long drive and hit the zoo. We saw a lot of animals (unfortunately we didn't see the bears) and there was not many people there so the kids had a blast just exploring and wandering around. I'm so amazed at how close you can get to the animals. 

   

    

Amy invited all of us to go see Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang at the Children's theater. Unfortunately, Sarah was not able to make it, but all of the kids had an absolute blast! We got there early so that we could take the kids and be Seattle tourists. We took them ice skating, which potentially could have been a giant mess, but all the kids had a blast. More importantly, everyone lasted longer than one minute and no one got hurt :)

So thankful for these awesome walkers. They were perfect for the little girls!

Callie loved the play and keeps asking when we can go back. She and I will have to take a mommy/daughter date to another one!

The gang, fully equipped with ice skates

A quick snack and run before sitting in the theater

Seattle people doing Seattle things!

We also had a super fun game night with a new game called Pie Face. I'll spare you the pictures of Preston and I playing but it was completely hilarious. It's a bit of a roulette type game, with whipped cream. Liam wasn't all about it but Callie had an absolute blast. 

 

The kids had fun decorating the tree and this year I totally gave up control. Where the kids placed the ornaments is where they stayed (unless the cats knocked them off). It turned out beautiful and the kids took so much pride in what they had 'created'; it was worth it. 

Christmas Eve we headed to church and had a bit of a lazy 'just the 4 of us' kind of day. 

Christmas morning turned out to be a bit of a lazy morning for us. We opened gifts, had a yummy breakfast, and had fun watching the snow out the window. After our lazy morning we headed to the Knowles house and had fun with all of our cousins and grandparents. Apparently we fail to take many pics on the actual day, but this is what we have :)

Ha. We didn't even get one with the kids looking at our camera 

The next day we headed down to Vancouver to recelebrate the holidays with the Graham side of the family. Was so nice to bake cookies and enjoy some special cuddle time with the family. 

We then headed to the cabin to celebrate a quiet New Years. It was really, really cold! Preston and Liam headed over early in the morning and took a quick stop at Cabellas to enjoy the 'animals'. Callie and I decided to head to the mountain first and ski in the morning. I was super surprised. She skied until 2 without stopping for lunch or anything. It was a long drive to the cabin afterwards but totally worth it! I had trouble getting these pictures to work in the correct order...I got frustrated....so...use your imagination :) The hike we took consisted of a lot of snowballs and some bribery but everyone made it!

           

I think I have a legitimate ski buddy this year! 

Oh, and we hit the park a bunch over break.