O, Christmas Tree...

Sweet Hannah was still so sick, but we had a great deal on a Christmas tree that expired on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so we packed our warm coats and headed to the tree farm in North Bend.  The kids had fun wandering around looking for the perfect tree (Hannah was mostly carried)

We were able to get a couple pictures of our whole family!

Found our perfect tree, and everyone had a turn using the saw...

We even got some hot cider and cookies for the drive home!

Monday evening was tree decorating, and while mommy and daddy were busy stringing the lights, Isaiah stayed busy with the carton of eggs on the kitchen floor!

Here is the cute culprit!  He loves wearing Hannah's cowboy boots

  He was cracking us all up with the ornaments.....he grabbed this nutcracker ornament with the crazy hair, ran to the bathroom and got a brush, and came out brushing the ornament's hair!

Then he found Santa in a kayak, sat down on it and tried to scoot across the floor, riding in the kayak with Santa!

He loved hanging ornaments on the tree, but would take FOREVER to find the perfect spot for his ornament.....Here he is saying "Ummmmm"......

Here?.....no......

Here?.....No.......

Way up here!!!!

I forgot how long it takes to decorate the tree (especially when Daddy has to run to Fred Meyer because half the lights didn't turn on!)  The kids were up late decorating...

Lizzy got the honor of placing the angel on top again this year.  She made sure to claim that job right away!

Isaiah loves rearranging the nativity....usually putting everyone up on the roof or having them all climb up the ladder....up, up, up, up :)

This advent scene was hanging just out of his reach last year....wow, he has grown!!

Hannah is six!

Our sweet Hannah got over the flu just in time for her birthday!  Unfortunately, the rest of the family had it, so most of the birthday plans had to wait, but Hannah and Daddy took a special trip to the pet store together and came home with "Bear Bear"....

We call Hannah the "animal whisperer".  She ADORES all animals (including bugs!)  She will curl up on the floor and snuggle Aunt Julie's dog, Te, and worries about animals if she sees them out in the cold or if she sees a sign for a missing animal.  She has desperately wanted a pet for a long time, so she was ecstatic to get to choose a pet on her birthday!  This little hamster has been played with non-stop and has been a really good sport about it!  Hannah gets him out of the cage early in the morning, makes him mazes with her blocks, puts him in little purses, in the toy airplane, in a bucket to attach to a riding toy and pulls him around the house.....I really hope he survives all her love!!!  Hannah still has a strong-willed, stubborn side, but we don't see it come out in a negative way as often.  She is very protective of her siblings and loves to play with both Clara and Eliza.  Being the middle sister has proven to give her two amazing playmates, and she is adored by Isaiah as a second Mommy.  She starts games with him and makes him laugh harder than any of us!  She is so sweet to him and often holds his hand during diaper changes (which calms him down immediately if he is fighting it) and holds his hand in the car to help him go to sleep.  She is an intense little thing, with pretty major reactions when she is excited or mad.  At dinner, she is known to say "I am NOT eating that", then after trying a bite, " This is my favorite food EVER.  Make this for dinner every night!!!"  And doing school work, she will often put up a huge fight to get started on something, then when she decides to start working, she flies through her work at record speed, grasping the concepts so easily and asks to do more.  It seems that she likes things on her terms ;)  She is showing so much growth in this area, though, and often is making the choice to do what she was asked right away.  She loved her soccer camp this summer, but decided not to play on a team this fall and loves practicing gymnastics all over the house...we often find her upside down, and she has perfected a flip in Isaiah's crib!  She has become pretty silly lately, and keeps us laughing.  We adore this strong, sweet, loving little girl!!!

Thanksgiving fun in Bend

We had a fun Thanksgiving at Nonna and Boppa's house, 10 adults and 14 kids made for a busy Thanksgiving dinner with many people to be thankful for!  We found an indoor play area to run off some of the kids' energy one morning.  I was taking these pictures through the glass, while holding a sick Hannah on my lap, so they didn't turn out very clear, but I LOVED watching Isaiah play football with his Daddy and Boppa!!  He is SO obsessed with anything "ball" and had such a fun time playing keep-away and throwing and catching the ball!

 The girls stayed busy climbing around in this huge structure!

 The annual gingerbread house with cousins...

 Isaiah LOVES his DD :)  It's a bonus that she shares her phone with him!

 Sweet Hannah was so sick, but was able to hang out for a while to help with the gingerbread house.  The kids each worked on a different side and Chloe made the tree....I think Eliza and Isaiah mostly just ate candy and frosting!

 Nonna and Hannah celebrated their end of November birthdays together!

We had a great time relaxing with family, and unfortunately left them all with our virus :(  We got two rounds of the flu and basically had sick kids and sleepless nights for 14 days straight....not a great start to December, but we are hoping for good health the rest of the month!
A couple of pics of our sickies :(

 

Great Wolf Lodge with cousins and friends!

For the second year in a row, we broke up the drive to Bend for Thanksgiving with a stop at Great Wolf Lodge!  This was Hannah's request for her birthday, and we were able to have our Portland cousins meet us for some fun at the water park!

The girls...

giving their best Hooowwwwlll! 

 Pajamas on and ready for some Magic Quest in the hotel...

 Trying to get a good picture of all 7 is nearly impossible!

 

 Shaking their wolf tails...

 Isaiah had SO much fun with his boy cousins, chasing them, rolling on the floor, and holding their hands wherever they went!

 Hannah received an enormous gift from her cousins!!!

 Aunt Heathyr has a reputation for finding the coolest gifts, and this one was memorable for sure!!

 Hannah LOVES her giraffe!!

 We were lucky to have friends staying at Great Wolf the same night, and Isaiah had fun getting to play in the water with his friend, Jackson!  Alycia took these awesome pictures for me of our boys...

 

 Isaiah just loved the water, and the little kids area was great because he could walk around and go down the slides mostly by himself.  Although he needed caught at the end of the slide, so he didn't slip right under!

 What a fun weekend stop with our family and friends!!

The kids don't know it, but after we dropped them off in Portland with Nana and Boppa, Joe and I headed back to Great Wolf to do some more water sliding and hot tubbing before driving back up to Seattle!  We made the most of those water park passes :)