Live Nativity

My Mom got us all tickets to the Living Nativity in Alpine this year.  We went the very first weekend in December.  It was the perfect way to start off the Christmas season!  I loved it.  This will definitely be a new tradition!

I think this must be the first time in my life I have seen a camel that wasn't in a movie because I was totally taken by surprise at how gigantic they are!  Lola loved this Donkey!

Cooper wanted nothing to do with it. :)

Seriously this place was so impressive!  They had shepherds and a shepherds fire, Roman soldiers walking around who kept trying to take my darling baby Will, and a mock city of Jerusalem.  After you made it through all that you follow the star to stable.  When Chase saw this adorable little baby he said "Mom, you should get your uterus re-installed and have another one of those"  I thought that comment was funny for a number of different reasons...

Once you have seen everything they have complimentary hot chocolate for you to drink around a warm fire.

Afterwards we went back to Grandma's for more hot chocolate and her delicious homemade shortbread to dip in it.

Jordan got Teresa and I matching outfits for Will and Harvey.  We wanted to get a picture of  them while they were twinners but it was kind of bad timing for Will.  He was kind of hungry so he kept trying to eat me.

Hotel With Gardners

We stuck with tradition and went to a hotel the day after Thanksgiving with the Gardners.  It was lots of fun.  Between the three families we had 5 hotel rooms pretty close to each other and the kids all settled into different ones.  I hardly saw some of my older kids the whole time because I was still recovering from my surgery so Will and I snuck off and cuddled most of the time :)  As usual the pool was the biggest hit.  The kids spent hours and hours there and all came home with red eyes and green hair :(

I did walk down to take some pictures but the boys were in the middle of a pretty intense water basketball game, so I didn't get very many smiles.

Stay at home Dad!

I ended up having a hysterectomy on November 5th.  After 7 babies a couple of my organs didn't want to stay inside my body anymore :)  I kind of thought recovering from it would be like recovering from having a baby but it wasn't... It was much worse!  Matt was wonder Dad!  I'll be honest, I thought he might struggle a bit keeping up, but he made it look easy!  He kept our home clean, our kids happy, and me comfy!  This day he decided to watch Cinderella Man during Will's first nap.  They all sat and watched whenever there was fighting, and then when it was the "boring stuff" like talking, they would get up and do some fighting of their own.

Fire Station Field Trip

Lola's preschool class went to the Fire Station.  Cooper and I got to tag along.  They both loved it!!  Cooper was hilarious!  He kept telling the Fireman random things.  One time he said, "These are my Ninja shoes!"  The fireman told him they were cool and asked him if they were going to kick him and Cooper told him they wouldn't but then he got up to show him what they could do and basically did a little Karate dance for everyone.  They both thought the truck was super cool, and came home with cool hats and goodies!

Halloween Day

The kids only have a half day of school on Fridays, and since Halloween was on a Friday this year it worked out that Cooper and I could make the kids a fun lunch.

Getting ready in the morning was super easy!  I'll tell you what, I love Halloween, and I love dressing up but I'm also a big fan of easy! No makeup, no mess, Good Stuff!  I tried to do their hair a little different, just so i didn't look like they were going to school in PJ's

This is probably the last year we'll be able to get away with going up to our parents Halloween night.  Out older kids would love to stay home and trick or treat with their friends.  The younger ones love it though!  Lynn always makes dinner, and the adults hang out and talk while all the kids go trick or treating.  We were trying to convince Cooper that Russ's mask wasn't scary by letting him wear it.  I think it helped.

Merisa is nice enough to drive her kids to our parents neighborhood so our kids can have the best of both worlds, friends and grandparents.

Chase decided to spice his Ninja costume up a bit by adding some Batman undies... 

One of our favorite things about going to Matt's parents is seeing his neighbors pumpkins!  He carves hundreds of pumpkins, and they are all amazing!!

He has a projector set up on these three pumpkins so they look like they are talking and singing!  Lola and Cooper were very impressed!

Cooper ate so much candy!  It was gross!  Notice how he has one in each hand... He was in heaven!

Happy Halloween!