New Record of Flakiness

8 Weeks

That has to be a new record.

It's been 8 weeks since I've updated my blog.

Not that Cooper and Kate aren't adorable, but a few other things have been going on.

Like, Nate turned 10.

We had a fun Laser Party with his friends and I even engineered a root beer soda tasting complete with a spreadsheet and plastic shot glasses.

The boys loved it.  One cute boy  said, "How did you even think of such a good idea?" He is my favorite friend of Nate's.

My mom helped me wrangle the ten boys and my sitter stayed home with Cooper and Lizzie.

It was pretty crazy and I didn't take one picture.

Not one!!

You'll have to believe me that it happened.

Or you could ask Nana, she's a reliable source.

Trust me, Nate had a blast.

Now this picture was taken with my phone at our favorite birthday breakfast dive on the actual November 19, 2011 birthday. 

Nate is attempting to eat chocolate chip pancakes as big as his head.

Oh yeah, there's this other November 19 birthday guy I should probably mention.

Jeff turned slightly more than ten this birthday.

He also attempted to eat of plate of food as big as his head. 

We spent Thanksgiving at the cabin with Jeff's family.   Thursday was just our group of ten, but there was lots of extended family and friends in Shaver Lake that weekend.  At one point on Friday night we were having dinner with 18 adults and 17 children ages 5 weeks old to 12.5 years (Cooper being the oldest).

Someone took pictures during the insanity I'm pretty sure, but it wasn't me.

It was a lot of fun and we even took a couple of ski runs before coming home on Saturday.

In December there was the Day O' Nutcracker!!

Lizzie, Nana and I attended a back stage tour and workshop.  We got to see the dancers warm up, see how the magical tree grows so tall, how snow is made, a lot of set design and props and even try on costumes!  All of this was through the Northern California Girl Scouts. Then we had a much needed Starbucks lunch and came back for the full performance.

11:15 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

That's a lot of Nutcracker for a 6 and half year old.

Here's us at the beginning...

 

And Lizzie at the end...

Once we woke her up to leave we headed down the block to see Christmas in the Park.  Lizzie's Daisy Troop had decorated a tree.

Christmas Cutie

Twice during December Jeff and I went to parties dressed as grown ups...

Quite exciting

Christmas was wonderful this year.  We spent Christmas Eve with Jeff's parents, sister Stacey, our nephews Tanner and Luke, Great Grandpa Rollo (Grandma Kerry's father), Jeff's Uncle Mike, Aunt Marta, cousin Page, her husband Rick, their baby Taylor, cousin Matt, cousin Brooke, and her boyfriend Jacob.  Again, not one picture.  I promise to do better in 2012.

Our Christmas morning started off with a bit of a snafu because Santa put his presents in a different spot this year and Lizzie was devastated in her half awake state thinking Santa hadn't brought any gifts.  

 It was a legitimate worry since we had been threatening this for most of December.

Clearly Santa wasn't really awake when he came to our house this year.

But within five minutes she had rebounded and as she slowly woke up was delighted to discover that Santa had come through with almost all of her Christmas list. 

Merry Christmas! Well, for two out of three...

Perking Up....

Cooper and his favorite candy

New Book!  Big Nate is one of Nate's favorite comics.

Lizzie's Big Request...a Globe of the World

Kate's New Stocking

Santa brought Kate a beef rib bone!  It kept her busy all morning.

Then we traveled to Nana and Granddaddy's.

One of Nana and Granddaddy's presents this year was a ten dollar bill.  This money was presented in a plastic maze.  The only way to get your money was to get the tiny ball through the plastic maze. 

Nate quite befuddled.

Cooper banging his maze against his forehead in an attempt to open it.

Have no fear, the kids prevailed...or found an adult to open their  maze for them.  Now we are saving the mazes for future birthday presents...of children we don't like.

Nana and Kate

New Year's Eve was spent with our neighbors in a low key night.  Again, we find ourselves without any pictures to document the event. 

My 2012 resolution is pictures, pictures, pictures, and more timely postings on our family blog here.  Since, my first resolution was better diet and exercise and that has already crashed and burned, things are not looking good.

But one can always hope!