Aunt Stacey and Uncle Tim

Last Thursday Stacey and Tim came to visit from Hawaii. They stayed through the weekend and left on Monday to go to Ohio to visit Tim's family. The boys had so much fun with them, and can't wait to play with them again in January when they come back for a week before going home.

Aunt Stacey and Uncle Tim

Aunt Stacey and Donovan on the slide at the play area at Valle Verde Elementary School.

Uncle Tim pushing Jack on the swings.

Christmas crafts

Since Isabella has been born it has been an adjustment trying to figure out how to give each kid enough attention. I realized that the boys really needed a project to do with Mom! So on Monday we started with a trip to Michaels for craft supplies. I usually dread going to the store with 3 kids, but they were sooooo good! ( mainly I think because they each got their own pair of kid scissors, which apparently is very exciting when you are 3 and 4!) We got construction paper, glitter, buttons, glittery pipe cleaners, mini flower pots, styrafoam balls, felt, jewelry beads and bells!

So this morning it was time to do the craft! I got out all the supplies and thought to myself, "you are crazy! what were you thinking trying to do this with 2 little boys while you're 4 month old is sleeping!" But I had promised them snowmen, and snowmen we would make! We had tons of fun picking out all the different beads and colors, and getting messy. This ofcourse took all day because there were frequent stops to take care of Bella, but it was worth it our snowmen look great!

Mommy's snowman

Donovan's snowwoman ( he wanted his to be a girl) named Dennis LOL ( sorry Uncle Dennis)

Jacks snowman named Harry

We also made reindeer. The boys cut out the body and head, and I traced their hands and cut them out for ears.

Jackson's is on the left, and Donovan's is on the right

Car Crazy

My kids love cars, like most boys do! They have tons of hot wheels, and trucks that they play with all the time. So what does Jack do when playing with lego's last weekend? Make dragsters, and go-carts ofcourse! (:

And I had to add a picture of the kids! (still cant keep Van in clothes, even in December!)

the ELF on the SHELF

Grammy Bunny got the boys a wonderful new book a few weeks ago. It is called

It comes with your own Elf, and tells a story about how your elf sits in your house and watches you every day, and at night he flys to the north pole and tells Santa all about you.

There is a website ELF ON THE SHELF where you can register your Elf's name. My kids chose Elfie, which is apparently #2 on the list. Here are the rest

Top 20 Most Popular Elf Names
1. Buddy2. Elfie3. Jingle4. Jack5. Fred6. Charlie7. Jingles8. Max9. Clyde10. Elvis
11. Sam12. Jolly13. Twinkle14. Rudy15. Nick16. Eddie17. Frisbee18. Bernard19. Fisbee20. Hermie

There is also a place with fun activites to print out for the kids

So if you love to read to your kids, this is a wonderful holiday book, and site!

Rolling

Bella is getting so big! On Wednesday she rolled over from her back to her belly for the first time. Then on Thursday she rolled from her belly to her back! Now we're in trouble she's mobile!!!! I am so used to toddler boys, it is really fun to have this baby stage again and see her changing so much on a daily basis!

What a pose!

My beautiful angel asleep in her swing. Such a cutie!!!!

Isabella's 4 month checkup

Bella went to the doctor today for her 4 month checkup. She is doing great, and is now 10lbs 12oz, and 24 in long!

Christmas Lights and Santa!

This weekend we took the kids to see the annual lighting at the Hilands house. The Hilands are good friends of my parents, and Julie is a friend I grew up with, that decorate their house with tons of lights every year. Santa was there, and Donovan sat on his lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas, but Jackson decided he didn't want to at the last minute!

Some of the decorations



waiting in line to see Santa

Van telling Santa what a good boy he is!

Exploratorium trip in San Francisco

Last week Aunt Jennie, Uncle Tim and the girls were able to stay for a day when they drove home from Oregon, so we decided to take all the kids to San Francisco to the Exploratorium. It is a really fun place with lots of exhibits to touch and play with different things!

When you picked up this sand and placed it on the pile it stuck up in little spiny formations!

The plate in the center was spinning and you could place the circles on it and see where they would land.

Here you could pick disks that were all weighted differently and guess which one would win the race. Uncle Tim is helping the boys out.

Here was a cool exhibit that you could use different tools to shape the sand as it spun around.


Grammy Bunny and all the kids are pushing on this exhibit and a puff of smoke would go up into the air.

There was a place that showed a dust tornado. This is the kids running around it...

...and what it looks like without five little ones running around.

The had a place where you could make huge bubbles

Here are Kailey and Uncle Tim playing with the bubbles

And all the kids (except Bella) got to choose 4 colors and make their own drawings by swinging the platform around. Here is the start to Jacksons.

Beautiful girls! Megan and Isabella!

More beautiful girls! Aunt Jennie holding Zoey and Isabella!

Happy 30th Birthday Corey!

Halloween

Aren't my kids cute!!!!

Jack as spiderman, Van as a pirate, and Bella as a lamb.

Raiders Game

Corey, Brian and Danny got to go to there first NFL game to see the Raiders play in Oakland. Unfortunately they lost, but the guys had a really good time!

The madness of black and silver going into the stadium

The Cooper brothers

The view from their seats

Touchdown Raiders!

Uncle Brian

Corey's brother Brian and their friend Danny came to visit in October.

The boys had alot of fun playing on Brian's back, they called it "Uncle Rodeo"

Uncle Brian with Isabella


One of the days they were here we took a walk to the park, and the kids had a blast!
Van and Brian on the slides



Playing on the swings

Donovan got a ride on Danny's shoulders on the way back

Pumpkin Patch

In October we took the kids to the Pumpin Patch. Corey's brother Brian, and their friend Danny were here so they got to come with us. Also Grammy Bunny and Papa Bob came too!

There were alot of fun things for the kids to play on

The had little pools filled with beans that the boys liked to play in

And balls they could push down tubes

And scenes that you could take pictures with

There was also a maze through haybales and ofcourse lots of pumpkins! We all had a really good time.