On the fly

Okay, I really just need to get caught up fast so that I can blog as I go. I keep not blogging because I have way too much to catch up on. It would be like 12 posts to get it all done. So instead of procrastinating indefinitely, I'll just fly through the last few months and give you my favorite pictures and the stories that go with them. Then maybe I can do a better job of staying relatively current (yeah, right).

So here goes in no particular order:

Landon thinks Alaina is hilarious (she is) and Alaina loves making him laugh.

Landon is the happiest little guy. He is full of smiles (Raelin calls him Mr. Smiles) and such a content and mellow kid. So grateful for that!

Raelin's been taking more and more of an interest in sports as time goes by. She is a natural athlete and she's super fast! For her birthday this year, Brice and I made her soccer goals. We even made the nets! You can learn anything on youtube!

Alaina is a total ham and she has the best smile and a contagious laugh. She is a joy to be around.

Handsome boy ready for church. Love this suit!! (and the comb over)Halloween. From left to right, Landon (a bone), Alaina (a dog), Ryker (a pirate), Raelin (a witch), Liam (a polar bear), and Russell (a monkey).

I usually like to make the kids' costumes, but this year I was content to just make one thing for each of them. Bet you can't guess what I made!

I made Ryker's dread locks! They turned out so COOL! Wool yarn, braided, thrown in the washer and then sewn to a red strip of cloth. Easy and awesome!

And I made Raelin's hat! I had some silky black fabric on hand leftover from my sister's wedding (they were table cloths or something) a few years back and I got some interfacing and there you have it! Tease out the hair and put on a witchy dress and she's ready to go!

Picking pumpkins. I love pictures of pumpkin picking because the colors are always so great. Wish my camera batteries hadn't started to die... I'd have taken more.

On top of the world! I'm standing at my full height to take this picture. The hay bales were stacked super high! Alaina loved it!

And here's my amazingly gorgeous husband. I just love his manly swagger. Mmmhm! I could watch that all day. Oh sorry. TMI? I digress.

Okay, but really though, he is quite amazing. Look at this playhouse he built this fall! He's just the greatest and I'm so proud of him and all his hard work. He can do the most amazing things!

More of Mr. Smiles! Love that happy face! He has the greatest laugh too. Ooh! I think I might have a video of it! I'll have to check.

Most of the time, for Christmas, I make things for extended family and we buy things for the kids. This year, I decided to make things for the kids and mostly buy things for family. So I made the kids a bunch of stuff. My favorite by far are these monsters. They are SO cute! I love them. I want one.

I also made the kids these cute frogs (among other things that I don't have pictures of yet).

Ryker has wanted a remote control helicopter for a year and a half now. We... Er, SANTA got it for him this year! He loves it! I think Brice and I like it just as much as he does. It's a cool toy!

Alaina got a dolly and a crib and a stroller. She loves dollies and set about right away to take Dolly for a walk and put her to bed. Such a good little momma! She loves her present!

Raelin got a really cool doll house (one that I even like because all the furniture is fixed--less mess!) but I don't have a good picture of it. She's got her thumb in her mouth in each one. Blah. I'll have to get some of her playing with it when she gets back from California--we let her go out for a week with her aunt and uncle to visit family.

My brother Jesse and his fiancé Carmen came out from California for Christmas and it was GREAT to hang out with them! They came over a lot and we got to play play play! The kids love them--Carmen, besides being beautiful, reads stories and listens to stories (she has the patience of a saint!) and Uncle Jesse is the coolest because he plays blocks with the kids and helped them build this awesome snowman. I've never seen such a cool snowman!

True to a little brother's nature, Jesse convinced Raelin to throw snowballs at me when I was trying to take their pictures.

Ryker's wrestling stance. Brice loves to teach the kids wrestling moves and they are getting pretty good! Now they just have to learn that jumping on Daddy, knees first is against the rules. Ouch!

Christmas tree shopping. The colors were great this day and I love these pictures!

Alaina, however, wouldn't let me get a good picture of her. She kept running away and hiding every time she saw me. Every picture is either blurry or she's exited the frame.

The kids got to see Santa at our church party (which was an amazing party! EVERYONE was there!)

Alaina was terrified! She didn't want to go but then Brice asked her if she wanted candy--always a sure-fire way to get her to do anything. So she consented to sit on his lap, but as soon as she was there, she freaked! But then she saw the candy canes. She stopped crying, reached over and grabbed a candy cane, and then resumed crying. So cute, funny, and sad all at the same time!

I gave Landon a bath, left to dress him, came back to drain the water, and found this:

Okay, well that about sums it up! There are lots more pictures and I'm sure tons of stories I'm missing, but so goes life. These are my favorites and if I think of anything else worth sharing, I'll be sure to post it! (uh huh. Because clearly, I have SO much extra time on my hands!)