Jamie's 8th birthday

I can't believe Jamie is 8 years old. I really can't believe how tall he is for 8 years old! This year we had a soccer party at the indoor soccer gym the day before his birthday.

For his soccer party I had gotten subway sandwiches for dinner but poor Jamie ran so hard during the soccer play time that he got over-heated and hardly ate anything, but he seemed to be recovered enough by the time it was cake time (who needs more than birthday cake anyway).

You can see how red his cheeks still are! (Reminds me of his uncle Jon)

Not sure if he's triumphed the ball or the cake.

And then on New Year's Eve we had Otto over to spend the night. I let all the kids (minus T) stay up until midnight. We had pizza and some leftover cake from his party the day before.

On the first attempt-

he tries to blow out the candles through his nose (thank goodness these were individual pieces of cake)!

Shocked that it didn't work!

There we go!

Wiggle works

They have this great indoor playground at the Bellevue Crossroads shopping center that we went to last month. It is very reminiscent of the YuKids play areas that they have in Japan. Abby and Tristan had a blast. Jamie was a bit too big, but he had his book to read.

Christmas dinner

It's now our tradition for the last several years to go to Chad's parents house for Christmas dinner and gifts for the kids. We had some wonderful prime rib and plenty of other yummy food and then all the cousins got into their present-opening. We did a small gift exchange between the adults. I think I got an ornament - i can't even remember now! Chad got some licorice and a costco box of playing cards (which we handed out as party favors at Jamie's birthday). All the kids were super cute, especially Olive since she's currently the baby of the family!

Is she eating a post-it note?

Amalia

Kate shows off her Hello Kitty watch

Carmia.

Abby

Olive and her sweet potatoes

Aiden enjoying my homemade rolls.

Tristan dives into the prime rib

Jamie loves the rolls too

Megan and Selves

"where's mine?"

super happy about something

Passing out gifts

time to open

All the girls were excited to get the same thing!

yay!

Olive's thinking face

Kate and Abby model the purse for me.

Christmas morning

Last two Christmas posts - I promise!  It's become pretty clear to me that my blog is more for my own record than to update others on our current events.  If you don't mind reading about what happened two months ago, then by all means, please keep reading!  Once again it was great to have Grandma and Grandpa boat and both uncles with us on Christmas morning.  We all had a fun time and enjoyed a traditional breakfast of bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns.  Thank you all for great memories :)

Christmas morning - we distract the kids with their stocking while I get my shower and mocha!

Here's how everything looked before the kids got up.

Tristan opens his present from Abby - she made him 3 animal mask, too cute!

The hustle and bustle.

The kids give uncle Jon their present.

yay!  Jamie loves this game and so do I!

Abby opens up her trunk of homemade doll clothes from grandma.

Darling!

Tristan is playing with his new emergency vehicles toys.

Thomas books!

Tres Amigos playing tres DS's.

Trsitan plays with his new cars geotrax.

Abby is trying out her new finger paints from Jamie.

Muy bueno :)