Whitney turns 7!!

 

We had a late night on Wednesday, 9:30PM to be exact!!! However, it was well worth it.

We drove out to the double r area of Reno to a place I'd never heard of.

It was wall to wall trampolines!!!

It had a huge foam pit to jump into, a 15 bean bag area, a dodge ball area.

 

There were about 50 kids at least!! It was pure bouncing crazy fun!!

 

Elijah loved this place!! Mommy got quite the workout making sure he didn't get splattered by all the bouncing beans. I didn't get too many pictures, or even one of the birthday girl!!!

Nonetheless, I sure do love spending quality time with my kiddos.

 

Christina and Maria loved the foam pit. We all were sweaty and tired by the end... but a good dose of cupcakes and take-home candy buffet kept us singing all the way home.

We were so excited the last song to jump to was Gangham Style!!!!!

 

It was great to see family. It'll be nice to spend so much time with our cousins this month!!

Christmas Card Pictures

My parents got the kids these super cute polar bear pajamas from Gymboree. I wanted to have sunglasses, but I also know my patience/sanity level... so off we delved into the abyss.

 

Elijah says, "What?... You really want to take pictures? You really think I'm going to sit still and make this easy? Look into my eyes mommy... the challenge is ON."

Round 1: Elijah wins.

Round 2: Elijah wins.

Round 3: Mommy brings up "treats" and "candy"

We've reached neutral ground.

Round 4: Mommy starts hitting her head with a book, shouting "Treats! TREATS!!! TREATS!!!"

Round 5: (129 pictures later) MOMMY WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winterella

 

Putting up the Christmas tree never fails to be exciting! I love the girl's energy, listening to Christmas music and having to flip the cassette every 10 minutes. This year I was excited to try a new method of stringing lights via pinterest. It was MUCH easier!! Base to top, base to top....

 

I love our little snowmen that dot the tree. I love having the kiddos play with the ornaments around the tree and the magic of it all...

 

I love seeing the girls put all of the siblings snowmen close together so quote "They can play and watch over each other."

 

 

We did have some mild excitement when the day after we put up the tree, it fell over at 6AM. It took about an hour to clean up and then some additional time to put back together. I'm just grateful that it didn't fall on the kiddos!!!!!!!!!

The New Truck

 

Where the HELL is Graeagle? In our driveway. In. Our. Driveway.

Our Theo Speedo did it again!

The kiddos were excited. We were excited. The new truck is awesome.

It's a '93 Isuzu Rodeo. It's got 160,000 miles and only had 1 owner. It is in awesome shape (except for a crack down the windshield) and was a whopping total of $1,400.

Hopefully it's going to get decent gas mileage. And last.

 

Joe and Speedo spent the week looking at cars. We are so blessed.

Plus it fits in the garage!!!! And has 4WD.

And a thing on the front to "ram people" as Joe put it.

I love Christina's face in this picture.

The Doctor

Eli's favorite toy of recent. He wears it all the time.

K&K's Birthday, Eli's First Time At A Bounce House

 

Needless to say, everyone loves a bounce house party!!!

 

I don't think I could get any pictures of normal smiles because we were running around like crazies having a blast. It's just so exciting!!

 

We had a great time!

Percy Jackson!!

So basically, I thought these books were psychotic. I don't know if the movie swayed me to tipping point. But I was just not a fan. It was way too surreal for my taste and I thought the vocabulary was just too hard. I felt like I was pausing every 5 seconds to answer questions about words. We started Many Waters, which I remember was a favorite of mine when little, but again... it was just so wordy and long. Instead I thought why not try......

 

 

FABULOUS!!! Love. Love. Love this book. Just the right length for chapters. We finished it in a week. We're in the process of making a list of book/movie differences and it's pretty big. We liked the movie but feel it didn't do the book justice AT ALL. Maria was sad they didn't do the bathroom scene where Clarisse gets attacked by toilet water. Nina was sad they didn't do the fates and oracle scenes in the movie. I felt the movie had too many innuendos that weren't appropriate and that weren't in the book. Thank you Hollywood. Also, they grossly fell off plot in the movie. But there you go. The movies are never as good  as the books.

Father Christmas & Using the Baby Back Pack

Father Christmas has put up his extravaganza and we LOVE it!!! He is one festive man!

We broke out the back pack and I feel like I killed my back. I must have been wearing it wrong or I'm a wimp, or both. Somehow, the girls managed to play back pack too. It's been so nice over break being able to just walk around. We've had some great conversations!

Random happiness from a long weekend

Black Friday- 50 books for FREE

 

We heart Grassroots Books. They are fabulous!! Today they were offering a special, 10 free books per person!!!!!

IT WAS HEAVEN!!!

 

We got some great books!!!!

Joe got a Nelson Mandela book that was retail $60.

Yeah.

 

We woke up Yaya who was too tired to come. Then she called 30 seconds later and told us she was ready.

After a fun morning of picking out books we headed over to Atlantis for a great breakfast buffet.

Boy. I realize why we haven't eaten there in awhile!

The food was delicious. I had the best omelet of my life!! However, it's just soooooooo much food!!!

We had a couple barfing incidents after.

But that could have been because we rode the super fast glass elevators after, 20 floors.

 FUN TIMES!