Catch up time again!

So I know its been a while. Some have been wondering whether I even catch up on my blog. Ever. I think it has been probably about 4 months? Well anyway- a lot has happened since then, with many fun holidays in between so I thought I would share some memories we have made since August. 

Jesse was a Power Ranger for Halloween. This is currently his favorite show, and it's very obvious by the way he wants to chop and play fight with everything. Awesome. 

Andy grew a beard. Just kidding. I had fun making this crocheted beard for a white elephant gift for someone. For some reason this pictures sends me into fits every time it see it!

Oliver discovered his tongue. Cutest little thing :)

We shopped for a Christmas tree! (told you these pictures were OLD). Found the perfect little one for our little apartment. Andy's first time chopping down his own Christmas tree. The kids loved it. 

Our elf on the shelf visited us for the first time this year. I love this new tradition we have started and I think the kids have too- and really believed he would report back to Santa any bad behavior, so the month of December went by pretty smoothly! 

I ran my first official 5k. It was the Winter Wonderland event, where we were running through several light displays along the route. Pretty awesome if you ask me!

We went to the nutcracker as a family (minus dad and a few others), but it has been a tradition now for several years. We get dressed up, have a nice dinner, and wear painful shoes. all in all a good night.

The hubs and I

Another Christmas tradition: Zoo lights! We went during the week, right when it opened, and the crowds were perfect! This was basically the only picture I got, but it was a pretty (new) awesome display on a wall. 

More Christmas tradition fun...

Watched a Christmas movie on an air mattress in the living room. This will carry on from here on out. We all laughed together while watching Jim Carrey's version of The Grinch. 

We got some family pictures done- and since most of you got one in a Christmas card- here are a few other precious moments from that day:

So I am missing a few pictures from Jesse's birthday, but I will try and find them to put them up. We had an actual birthday party this year and Jesse was in HEAVEN! He loves to be social and we had a good show-up. It was a super hero party and quite fun. 

Here's our traditional Valentine's day breakfast, started when I was little. We had cinnamon rolls. Yum! Need to work on the decor though....

We visited the Portland, Oregon LDS Temple Visitors Center. Small, but well done. And it has several interactive stations for the kids. We enjoyed ourselves!

In February we went to the coast for my cousin, Alex's wedding. We stopped briefly on the beach (we couldn't NOT stop) and got some wiggles out as you will see....

 (LOVE jesse's face in this picture!!!)

 Little sister kate, and mom were with us. 

 And oliver slept in the car through it all. SO much fun!

We have had several busy weeks. Between watching kiddos, sickness, helping people move, meeting up with my mom, and just generally trying to stay busy it has been a good month!

 Caught Jesse being VERY thorough doing his chores one day. He loves to use the small vacuum (not too loud) and apparently under the couch is too dirty. He is five this year, and has started earning a quarter for each day he completes his chore chart. He is working towards buying a version of Angry Birds on Dad's phone. :)

 Caught the kids playing make-believe with Charlotte's dishes today. They don't do that too often and I love to see it- looks like we'll have to get a kitchen set with food pretty soon.

 After two days of the flu, we are happy to have our old selves back and so we celebrated by having a lazy day which concluded with a picnic and disney movie. 

So there ya go. That is us, caught up, with lots left out in between. It has been a good several months! We look forward to going to Utah in April for Andy's brother's wedding, baby arrivals of some dear friends, and hopefully some sunny days ahead!