December 2013 - Merry

What a Merry Christmas we had this month!

The fun began early in the month, when Katelee was able to get her cast removed - yay!

It continued with lots of Christmas projects!  Blake LOVED 'helping' with anything involving power tools. Or paint.  :)

With the cold weather, we enjoyed hot cocoa with friends!

And of course, we had to do plenty of Christmas baking!  What can be more merry than that, especially when this cutie also loves to 'help' with baking too!

The Many Faces of Blake

The weekend before Christmas we went to Mesquite for a family Christmas party!

We had a great day, full of Christmas crafts for the girls, golfing for the guys, a delicious Christmas dinner, a nativity acted out by the kids, lots of presents, a JustDance competition, and so much more!  It was a really fun day!

Here is my little shepherd!

 

And my angel girl!

New Christmas clothes for Sunday!

Blake doesn't like holding still for pictures, but he sure knows how to ham it up for the camera!  ;)

This girl is getting so grown up and gorgeous!

And Blake learned his first Christmas songs!  Even though he doesn't know how to say all the words yet, he is a great at the "hey!" part!  So stinkin' adorable!!

Christmas Eve, we had some family over at our home for a nice dinner and a Christmas Eve program.  Later, we opened our new Christmas jammies.

Santa's main gift this year was a Wii and a new TV for the family, but he also brought a few other fun things.

This Barbie house was actually a gift from Gerald and I.  We built this together from an old bookcase we had in the garage, and it was so much fun to have a project to work on together every night!  We had a great time creating this, and Katelee loved it.

Opening presents!

The day after Christmas we spent with the Reynolds family!  We had fun visiting and playing games at the Willdens, going out to eat for pizza, and bowling!  That night, we had all the girl cousins over for a fun sleepover.  It was so fun to see everyone!

Finally, the weekend following Christmas we spent at the Anderson/Rowe family reunion!  We had so much fun!  The reunion started off with swimming at Downata Hot Springs.  I've never been swimming outside in the dead of winter before - it was very funny to see the bundled up lifeguards sitting on the side - ha ha!  We all had a wonderful time swimming!

Following swimming, we met at a church for dinner, and a gift exchange game.  The kids had so much fun running around with all the cousins.  We LOVE this family and feel so blessed to be a part of it!

The year ended with a New Year's Eve Party spent at home as a family, playing board games, eating snacks, and watching a movie.

What a very Merry Christmas and holiday season we had!

November 2013 - Celebrations

November felt like a month full of celebrations!

First of all, Katelee's school held a Reflections Reception.  Katelee entered Reflections this year in two categories: 3-D Art and Music.  And she won in both categories!  Here she is with her 3-D Art Project:  "My Butterfly Family."  She also wrote a song on the piano named "Thunder Dreams." Both of them moved on to the district competition.

 Speaking of Reflections, I was co-chair of the Reflections program at the school this year.  It required hours and hours and hours of work, but was very rewarding and we were very happy with how everything turned out in the end.

There was one little incident this month that we did not feel like celebrating. Katelee fell and broke her wrist!  Poor girl. This will be her third cast in her short life.  She was brave and awesome through the whole thing, though!

We spent some time this month listing some of our numerous blessings.  We made our annual 'thankful turkey,' and Katelee made a baby turkey to go with it.  So cute!  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the turkey until after Blake had peeled a dozen or more feather off the wall - ha ha!  I guess better late than never.  :)  

We also celebrated this lovable little cutie this month.  It's hard to believe, but this little man turned TWO!  Here he is 'helping' me bake his birthday cake!

We celebrated his birthday the weekend before Thanksgiving. As is tradition, Blake woke up to a room full of balloons!

What fun!

He went downstairs to find a new car rug and some new cars!

That afternoon, we celebrated his birthday by taking him to the Children's Discovery Museum.  He had SO. MUCH. FUN!

That evening we had Blake's favorite dinner - cheese pizza!

And opened presents - hooray!

Blake's main gifts were a new scooter

 And a Tonka Truck!!

Is this how I use it?

Then we had cousins, aunts and uncles over for cake!  We sent out these invitations:

They said:

 There will be cats to chase and bones to chew...
Help us celebrate that Blake is turning 2!

Wag your tails on over to Blake's Dog House for a paw-fectly fun evening.  A doggie cake will be served.

No gifts necessary, just come for a doggone good time!

 Blake's doggy cake:

People who came were: Uncle Geoff, Aunt Bonnie, cousin Elijah, Aunt LeRita, Uncle Jeremy, Cousins Jacob, Laurinda, and Lindley.

Blake loved the cake!

Oooooooo!  Yummy frosting!

Playing games with cousins!

What a fun birthday!!!!

We had a Thurston Family Reunion in Mesquite for Thanksgiving, and it was a wonderful way to end the month!  We celebrated Thanksgiving with delicious food, a talent show, a rousing game of kick-ball, playing at the park, and lots of talking and playing with extended family.  

We also took the opportunity to celebrate Grandma Thurston's recent birthday as a family!

It was a WONDERFUL weekend, full of great memories.