The Moore Family

Makena's Last Day of School & Dance Recital

2013-07-05T18:52:00.000-07:00

Makena flew right through 1st grade! She still loves school and liked all of her teachers. She rode the bus to and from school regularly, as well. Makena is growing up so fast. She is definitely not a little girl any more!

Makena holding her picture from the first day of school.

Makena decided to take a hip hop dance class this year. I think she liked saying she was taking hip hop more than anything.

I get a lot of fake smiles from Makena. So I love it when I get pictures like this when I get the real thing.

She did a great job! The dance moms put lipstick on her. Luckily she didn't like it and was trying to wipe it off. I have a feeling Megan wouldn't feel the same!

Finley Turns One!

2013-07-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

Sweet Finley turned one on June 11th! The 11th was also Makena's last day of school and her dance recital so I planned a party for her the weekend before. It was just a small family party with grandparents and Uncle Larry.

Finley was excited to sneak a peek at her new toys!

Finley is such a happy baby! She smiles all the time. She is a big people person. She loves it when people talk to her when we're running errands. She is also a Mama's girl. She clings to me and always likes to see where I am. She often gets mad when someone other than me tries to hold her. I eat this up of course but there are times I wish it was easier to hand her off.

Finley now has 4 teeth. She had no teeth until she was 10 1/2 or 11 months old and then they all came in at once. She was a cranky baby!

Yummy cake and cupcakes by Mrs. Lindsay

Here she is talking with Nana and Popaw while having a snack. Finley loves to eat and likes most everything we have given her. Sometimes she gets mad when she sees me making food for one of the other kids, even if she has just eaten. You would think she would be bigger since she likes to eat so much. But she was only 17 lbs. at her one year check up.

She liked the cake but it took her a couple of minutes to dive in. She mostly picked at it with one hand.

Then it was time to open gifts. All of the kids loved this part!

Finley loves to stand up and cruise around holding on to things. But she will not take a step. We keep saying any day now...

Fin has a pretty mean squat, too. Here she is checking out the buttons on her new ride on toy.

She figured it out quickly!

Hugging one of her new toys...

Little Finley's first year went by so fast! She is such a sweet, happy girl. We're so thankful she's apart of our wild and crazy crew!

Strawberry Picking, Carwash & Piano Recital

2013-07-04T12:00:00.001-07:00

My parents came to visit one weekend and we decided to go pick strawberries. We went to a new place in Pfafftown we had heard about.

My dad sat in the car with Finley who slept while we picked.

When we got home the kids were all going nuts in the house so I told them to put on their bathing suits and head outside. They love washing cars.

Popaw was trying to teach them the right way to clean the car.

Makena's missing a lot of teeth these days!

Makena had her piano recital at the beginning of June. She played Colors of the Wind, Hakuna Matata and a song called the Grand Finale.

Makena's friend, Erin, started playing piano this year.

Makena went to a classmate's birthday party where they did some impressive face painting. Love the tiger face!

Finley loves fruit and went nuts one day when I started putting pieces on plates for the big kids. She wanted a piece, too! I think she actually ate three pieces! We were dripping watermelon juice so I held her over the sink.

Opening Weekend at the Pool

2013-07-04T07:04:00.005-07:00

Our pool opened Memorial Day weekend. Phil was on call but I decided to try it alone. The pool water was still pretty cold so we didn't stay very long. When the kids were all wrapped up in towels I told them we should go. Finley has finally warmed up to playing in the water. This sweet girl would cry every time she took a bath until she was at least 10 months old.

Cold!

Enjoying yogurt melts poolside.

Last Day of Preschool

2013-07-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

As luck would have it, Megan had a bad stomach bug on her very last day of preschool. I felt so bad for her. Poor girl missed her end of year party...which I had signed up to help with, of course. I had also hoped to get a few pictures of her with her friends since we didn't do that at graduation. But that's just the way it goes sometimes. It was also Everett's last day of preschool. Granddad was nice enough to come over and hang out with Megan long enough for me to take him to school. I also needed to drop off all of the party supplies I got for Megan's class. You can tell Megan feels awful in these picture. She walked out while we were taking pictures.

Everett is getting so big. He is looking really tall these days. Where did my little baby go?

Everett's class had an end of year picnic that the parents were invited to.

Everett with Savannah and Lele.

Everett with Mrs. Dorothy. Megan had Dorothy and absolutely loved her. We're definitely hoping Finley gets her at some point, too!

Everett with Mrs. Leslie

Megan's Preschool Graduation

2013-07-03T19:06:00.002-07:00

Our Megan will be heading off to kindergarten in the fall. I can't believe we'll have another one in Elementary school. She is clearly ready. I'm just not sure that I am. This random picture is of Megan and Everett on the morning of her preschool graduation.

I decided to pick Makena up from school so she could come to Megan's graduation. I used to be against taking kids out for things like this. And I'm sure I wouldn't have done it had she been doing something important or super fun. But life is short and I think that it's important that we enjoy some of these big events as a family. We need to support each other. I took Makena back to school right after a quick lunch so she didn't miss much. I let Finley crawl around before the program started. Here she is with our neighbor, Abram, who is a few months older than her.

Here comes our Megan! She was so excited. We were at soccer a few days earlier and she was overheard telling someone in the middle of the soccer game, "I'm graduating on Wednesday!" She couldn't wait.

The kids sang a few songs and they had a slide show of pictures at the end. The teachers do a great job taking pictures throughout the year. The kids would all shout out their names or names of friends as they saw them in the slide show. They did the same thing at Makena's preschool graduation.

Here she is getting her diploma from Mrs. Jones.

Mrs. Pat helped her down.

Such a silly girl...always having fun.

Megan's class

At the end of the ceremony the kids did the Harlem Shake. If you haven't heard of it check it out on YouTube. It's a new song and dance craze.

Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Taylor were such great teachers. Megan loved her class and her teachers.

Me and the graduate.

Megan requested hot dogs for dinner. She got the red plate, of course!

We also made these little treats that we had made for Makena's preschool graduation.

American Girl Fashion Show

2013-06-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

Our local children's museum organized an American Girl fashion show at the Embassy Suites downtown. I got tickets to take the girls and they were thrilled. Makena and Megan took their dolls and we had breakfast while we were there. Everett had to hop in the picture. He couldn't be left out. :)

Our seats were at the end of the runway. They had girls modeling American Girl clothing walk down the runway. They modeled the fashions of the historical girls as well as clothing of girls today.

Makena and Megan wanted their girl's hair done while we were there.

Cash Lovell stables brought a pony to the event. I was surprised to see a pony inside the hotel!

Makena's friend, Dree was there, too!

And our love for American Girls continues!

Camp Cheerio & Mother's Day

2013-06-13T21:16:00.002-07:00

Phil and Makena's Adventure Guide's group went to Camp Cheerio for their spring outing. They left Saturday morning and were going to spend the night in the cabins but ended up driving home late that night. It was cold and rainy and Makena asked to come home. Phil isn't really an outdoors man so he was happy to oblige. I got a shot of them before they left for their trip.

During the spring outing last year they were able to play on the slip and slide and play in the water. It was too cold for any water fun. Phil said he and Makena got in a canoe and it was so windy they were having a hard time getting pushed off from the dock. They lost an oar immediately upon getting in the canoe and with all the wind Makena lost all interest in the canoe.

Makena's favorite activity at the camp was the rock climbing walls. She climbed them at least a half a dozen times.

It was cold up on that mountain!

Here I am with my 4 favorite little people on Mother's Day. We went to brunch at Graylyn with some friends and then spent the day together at home.

Patty gave Megan a chocolate making kit for her graduation. She also gave Makena a gum making kit. The kids were excited to try them out. The chocolate turned out great! The gum was terrible but Makena had fun making it. Everett had to wear the apron Judy and Peter gave him for Christmas.

Our sweet little nugget.

Spring Soccer

2013-06-13T20:06:00.001-07:00

Makena and Megan enjoyed another season of spring soccer. I managed to get them on teams that met for one hour, once a week at the same time. You can't beat that convenience! Megan's team was called the Demon Deacons and Makena's team was the Bumblebees.

I brought Everett and Finley along to most of the games. There were a couple of games at the beginning of the season that it was still so cold I hated to bring them out and decided to get a sitter.

Soccer started at 5:45 and Everett would often pass out on the way there. I could usually transfer him to the stroller without him waking up.

Megan always wanted to climb the trees during her break time.

Phil was able to meet us at the field most of the time. He would hang out with one of the girls while I watched the other and then we would try to switch.

As you can see, we came to expect Everett to sleep through soccer.

Megan's coach said something nice about each of the girls as he was passing out trophies. He talked about how you could always count on Megan to come to soccer wearing pretty jewelry and accessories.

Megan's team picture with Joel, the sports director.

And with the coaches

Silly faces!

Easter 2013

2013-06-10T11:02:00.001-07:00

Dying Easter eggs

Phil was on call this Easter so I took the kids to the neighborhood egg hunt by myself. They did pretty well. But whenever I take all four of them somewhere by myself and there are a ton of kids I get a little nervous. We also went to the egg hunt at preschool and Everett fell apart because he got tired.

It was hard to keep Everett away from the dessert table.

I wanted a picture of Finley at the egg hunt so I had Makena take a picture for me.

Maisie and Megan

Here are the kids with Erin and Dottie going through their loot. I didn't get any pictures of them hunting eggs because Dottie's mom and I were busy frantically searching for Dottie and Megan. They had ran off and were hiding behind a tree. We were searching buildings and looking everywhere. They ended up only getting one or two Easter eggs because the egg hunt was pretty much over when we found them.

The kids have so much fun hiding eggs at home. I only let them hide our dyed eggs outside in case we don't happen to find all of them. Someone takes a turn sitting in a chair that we've turned around while the other one hides the eggs.

Everett took this part very seriously. See those eyes squeezed tight? :)

Then he was off to find the eggs!

Erin and Lauren came over to play, too.

Here are their baskets on Easter morning.

Makena got a new Monster High doll and Megan got Barbie and the Pink Shoes.

Everett got some cool new Cars crocs.

Sweet Finley loved her basket.

Random Spring Pictures

2013-06-10T09:59:00.004-07:00

Makena did the weather for the her school's news station a couple of times this spring. She had so much fun doing it! I had to see it, too, so we took her to school that day so we could watch her. Here she is in the newsroom. It looks like she was ready for me to go. :)

Since Makena and Phil went to the father-daughter dance at her school we thought Megan would enjoy a little date with Phil, too. They went to Chick-fil-a's father-daughter date night.

Phil sent these pictures to me. He said they made their own ice cream sundaes and then got to ride around in limo. I think it just took them around the block.

Makena was definitely a little jealous of the limo ride! Megan had so much fun!

This is our traditional St. Patrick's day picture. We usually take our pictures in the rocking chair but I think with 4 kids it would be a little tight.

This was Megan's last Donuts with Dad's at Preschool.

During spring break I set up a painting playdate at Masterpiece Makers. I had been to one of their adult classes and had a lot of fun and the girls wanted to try it out, too. Here is the crowd getting directions from Mrs. Leigh Ann.

Even though they were painting the same thing, the girls' paintings turned out very different.

It looks like Megan created some kind of face with her peace sign.

We went to Greensboro one day during spring break. We went to the Greensboro Children's Museum first.

After we ate lunch we headed over the the Natural Science Center. The kids liked seeing the peacock.

And Everett really liked the meerkats.

Finley slept through most of the science center.

This is Megan in front of the school on her way to Kindergarten screening. She was excited but also a little nervous. She did great! She already has her backpack and lunchbox picked out and can't wait to ride the bus with Makena.

Everett's 3rd Birthday

2013-05-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

Everett turned 3 on March 2nd. He wanted a Cars party, of course! We kept the party small, just inviting a few friends and grandparents. As energetic as Everett is we thought when making the guest list: less is more. We didn't want it to be too overwhelming.

We got a yummy, chocolate, Costco cake and I added a racing themed cake topper and Lightning McQueen that we already had.

We had Chick-fil-a nuggets and fruit, as well. Here is Everett checking out the party table.

Nana enjoyed playing with Finley.

The birthday boy

We blew up the bounce house for the party. We also took the rug from Everett's room and a ton of his cars for everyone to play with. I wanted to set up some kind of ramp for the kids to use. We ended up getting some pvc pipes and elbows and strapped them to some saw horses. They were perfect ramps for matchbox cars!

I think I look sleepy here

Everett saying hello to Alex and Emma

Charlie

Analiese

Bennett

Analiese, Mason, Bear and Charlie

Sweet Emma

Singing happy birthday to himself...

The kids helped squish the air out of the bounce house.

Alex

Ella and Makena

Sweet Everett with a fake smile.

Megan taking Breiner for a spin in the tub.

Breiner, Megan, Makena and Ella

Megan, Makena and Ella

Alex and Emma

Charlie and Bear

I tried to get Everett to pose for a picture with Breiner. This is what I got...

Phil and I with our birthday boy.

Everett opened a few more presents when he got home. He loved his "bumblebee car" from Aunt Carol.

He opened lots of gifts from Nana and Popaw and Aunt Carol.

He loves his new parrot from Aunt Carol!

We gave Everett a Lightning McQueen bicycle for his birthday. He needs quite a bit of practice but he loves it, of course!

I can't believe Everett is 3! Everett is all boy! He loves puzzles, legos and cars. He likes to do art and play in the sandbox. His feet are huge and he has pretty bad eczema. The poor guy gets oatmeal baths and a rub down with lotion or a prescription cream fairly regularly. He is a stubborn little guy but is also a big cuddler. He is an energetic little guy who either goes wild or crashes hard fairly regularly in the afternoons. When we decided to have a 3rd baby, part of the reason we wanted to was because we had this feeling that someone was missing. Well, we found him! I can't imagine how dull and quiet our lives would be without Everett. Happy Birthday big boy!

Ohana

2013-05-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

We had a character breakfast at Ohana's at the Polynesian before our long drive back home.

Sweet Finley

The girls with Lilo

Finley checking out Lilo

Getting Stitch's autograph

Finley loves Stitch!

She loved Mickey, too!

Such a sweet girl! She loved the characters!

Finley had a wardrobe change during breakfast. Breakfast is not the ideal time for a leaky diaper.

Pluto

Hollywood Studios

2013-05-24T15:36:00.000-07:00

Our first stop was for breakfast at Hollywood and Vine with characters from Disney Jr. We ate here last year and it was a big hit so we were excited to do it again.

Handy Manny

Jake the Neverland Pirate

Everett was in a mood (no surprise) and refused to pose with the characters.

Special Agent Oso

June from The Little Einsteins

Everett decided to cooperate for a few pictures before we left the restaurant.

We caught part of the Disney Channel Rocks parade. Makena was really into it.

We took Everett to see his favorite characters in the whole world and he wasn't into taking pictures because he thought it was too loud. Nothing ever goes as planned.

Lightning McQueen and Mater

Megan was the only one who wanted to go see Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc. I was busy getting Everett to take a much needed nap in the stroller. :)

Sweet girl

We ran into the Green Army Man from Toy Story.

Megan was the only one who wanted to get their face painted. She was definitely making the most of this trip.

Makena and Megan were both excited to meet Wreck it Ralph and Vanellope Von Schweetz.

Look who's awake!

Beauty and the Beast Live was a fun show!

We all loved Toy Story Mania! There is always a super long wait for this ride and we have always miss out because the kids fall apart before it's time for our fast pass. But we made it this time and it was a huge hit.

Watching another Disney Channel Rocks Parade

A couple of pics from the photo pass...

Cheesy thumbs up the photographer made me do...

Megan was totally wiped out. She passed out on the long walk back to the car.

We took a few more pictures of Everett with some of his friends since it was our last night at the hotel.

More Magic Kingdom Fun

2013-05-20T19:18:00.002-07:00

Everett had a bird's eye view of one of the parades.

The girls and I rode The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and then headed over to the Mad Tea Party, one of their favorite rides.

The White Rabbit was there to meet us after the ride.

Makena and Megan enjoyed the new Dumbo waiting/play area. Everett and Finley were hanging out with Daddy.

Time for a root beer float! Megan got a new Tigger and Everett got a new Lightening McQueen.

The ladies in front of the castle from Beauty and the Beast.

Megan in front of Ariel's grotto.

While Makena, Megan and Phil went racing at Tomorrowland Speedway, Everett caught a cat nap and Finley enjoyed a snack.

We had to take advantage of what Phil calls "the best deal at Disney World." I made an appointment for Megan and Everett to get haircuts.

Everett woke up in a bad mood and decided he was not going to have his hair cut.

So Phil used his appointment time instead. He needed a haircut anyway. :)

Sweet Megan needed her bangs shaped up.

Finishing her off with a little pixie dust...

We saw the blimp when we left the barber shop.

A quick ride on the monorail...

We had a little more fun at the hotel before dinner and bed.

The Cozy Cone Hotel.

Mouse & Princess Time

2013-05-20T14:22:00.001-07:00

We got fastpasses to see Mickey and Minnie and the Princess at the Magic Kingdom. The girls were really excited! Megan probably got the most out of the entire trip...no shyness and didn't act like she was too grown up for anything. She loved every second. We went to Disney not too long after Valentine's Day and Mickey, Minnie and the princesses were giving out Valentines instead of giving autographs.

Here they are walking up to see Mickey and Minnie.

Our man, on the other hand, had a hard time.

Meeting Cinderella and Prince Charming. Looks like Megan and Cinderella are giving each other some kind of look in this picture.

We had only met one of the princes before. I guess they were there to keep the princesses company around Valentine's Day.

Prince Phillip tried to give Everett a Valentine.

With Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

I liked Megan's nervous pose in the background...

Prince Phillip stopped to talk to Finley. Those princes sure were charming! ;)

Finley playing with my lens cap

Finley grabbed Aurora's finger and wouldn't let go.

Prince Phillip gave Finley a Valentine. I'm sure he said something like, "Here you are my little princess."

And lastly, they saw Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.

Flynn Rider liked the key chain on my backpack. He said it looked like Rapunzel's friend, Pasquale!

Then Finley tried to eat the Valentine they gave her.

The Crystal Palace

2013-05-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

Our first stop at the Magic Kingdom was for breakfast at the Crystal Palace. It was pretty cold while we were in Orlando so we were wearing coats and keeping Finley bundled up while we were there.

We went to Magic Kingdom on a Sunday and they were getting ready to film Kelly and Michael there that week. I'm glad we missed them! Someone told us that whenever they film TV shows there they're even more crowded.

Eeyore was the first character to stop by our table.

Finley liked grabbing the characters' noses.

Here is Everett hiding from Piglet under the table.

Not too big to give Pooh Bear a hug.

Everett warmed up when he saw Tigger.

Big hug!

After a yummy breakfast buffet with Pooh and his friends we were off to explore the Magic Kingdom!

Art of Animation

2013-05-04T19:48:00.001-07:00

The Art of Animation resort was less than a year old when we stayed there. We were in the Cars section of the hotel and I think Everett would have stayed there all day long. We could look out the window in our room and see Lightening McQueen....which we did very frequently. We made quite a few trips to see Lightening and his friends while we were there. :)

Lightening Mcqueen

Sally

Filmore

Sarge

Mater

Flo

Ramone

Guido

Luigi

Sheriff

Sea World

2013-05-04T19:31:00.000-07:00

I have gotten seriously behind on the blog. Life has gotten so busy lately there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day. But better late than never I guess! We went to Orlando back at the end of February. The kids had a great time as usual! I let them decide if they wanted to go to Disney's Animal Kingdom or to Sea World. They have been to both and decided to go back to Sea World. There was a Beach Boys concert going on while we were there so we got to enjoy listening to them while we were walking around.

The girls checking out beluga whales

Polar bears!

Time to see Shamu and his friends! Everett thought the music was too loud!

We love seeing the killer whales!

The killer whales, walrus and sharks were our favorites! After Sea World we went and got settled in at our hotel, Disney's new Art of Animation resort. We stayed in one of the Cars suites. This choice was obviously to make Everett happy but the girls really liked it, too. I liked that it was a brand new resort....less than a year old!

Valentine's Day & More February Happenings

2013-03-20T18:30:00.002-07:00

The first graders at Makena's school were assigned a project which required them to make a snowman using 3 dimensional shapes. Each snowman had to represent a different month and Makena was assigned August. She decided that she wanted her snowman to look like a teacher since you go back to school in August. We gave her snowman glasses and created a desk out of cylinders and a cube. They had a snowman parade where each class got to carry them through the hall and take them to the library to be displayed for a couple of weeks. I took the other three munchkins to watch the parade. Makena had a very nervous look on her face. :)

Makena's school had a father-daughter dance close to Valentine's Dayy. She was so excited to go! I let her pick out a new dressy outfit at Target for the occasion.

Megan was our photographer and took most of these pictures. Everett thought he was going to get to go, too.

He went and put his shoes on....ready to go!

Flowers from Daddy!

Makena in the hot pink with some of her first grade friends.

Makena with Ella and Dree

Makena and Megan's basketball season finished up in early February, as well. They had a fun team and they both enjoyed playing. They were given trophies on the last day and one of the moms brought Dunkin Donuts as an end of season treat.

Here are our little loves on Valentine's Day.

Makena's 7th Birthday

2013-02-24T10:49:00.003-08:00

Makena turned 7 on January 19th! Her birthday was on a Saturday so we were able to have her party on her birthday. Makena opened her gift from Aunt Carol before the party.

You would have thought it was her birthday! :) The kids love it when gifts come into the house even if they're not for them.

Makena wanted a party based on the Disney dance show Shake it Up. We invited some girls from her class and some neighborhood girls. Makena said she wanted a "Shake it Up cake." I tried multiple bakeries but had a hard time pulling off what she originally wanted because of copyrighted images. So we got a basic round cake with zebra print and jazzed it up ourselves.

I printed out some images of the characters and hot glued them to skewers.

Makena was thrilled with the end result which was what really mattered! She decided to wear her Shake it Up costume from Halloween.

Nana and Popaw did a good job keeping little Finley entertained.

We had a couple ladies from Updo's come and help us with the party. One of the ladies was a Zumba instructor who taught the girls a couple of dances. She did a great job breaking it down on their level. They also brought a big tub full of boas, hats and other accessories for the girls to put on.

Christine and Dree

Haley

Christine is one of Makena's BFF's in first grade.

They played limbo using a boa. The girls loved it but it was a mess! There were feathers everywhere!

Megan and Nancy

Erin and Dree

Boston, Ella, Dree, Makena and Christine

Haley

The girls loved the 'pin the rainbow on the pony' game we played at Megan's party. And Makena wanted to play a similar game at her party so we created a game of our own. We found a Shake it Up poster at Five Below and I printed pictures of microphones I found online. The girls tried to pin the microphone to Rocky's hand.

Cake time!

I love this picture of Makena. It seems like she is growing up so fast and even her expressions can seem grown up. I think this captured that little girl that she sometimes tries to hide.

Christine

Boston

Haley

Chinemere and Ella

The boys table...Breiner and Everett

Our attempt at a family picture...

Makena was excited to get the American Girl doll, McKenna, from G-Dada and Patty.

Professional Christmas Pictures

2013-02-24T10:49:00.002-08:00

Finley's newborn session last summer included a mini-session in November. I was thrilled because I didn't have to worry about getting a picture for our Christmas cards which can be a challenge (to say the least.) Julie at Uppercase Photography did an amazing job. We loved all of the pictures and ended up buying the disc. These pictures were taken before Megan's big haircut...thank goodness! :)

The Letter Can & Snow

2013-02-23T11:02:00.004-08:00

The kids in Megan's class take turns bringing in what they call a letter can. Each week a kid gets a turn taking a bucket home and filling it with things that start with a certain letter. Megan had the letter W. She took her whale from Sea World, Winnie the Pooh, a walrus, a watch, a whistle and a couple of other things. Megan also took in Wheat Thins and watermelon as a special snack. She was so excited it was finally her turn I had to take her picture.

We also got a little snow in early January. Here is baby Fin wearing her cozy snow suit before heading out for some fun.

We went out pretty early (you may be able to tell from the shadows). There wasn't much snow and we wanted to play before it melted!

Christmas Day

2013-02-09T20:48:00.002-08:00

We had a fun Christmas Day! Everett was the first one awake. Phil nudged me and whispered, "I think Everett is in there playing with his toys." And sure enough, he was! He was very happily playing with all of the new things Santa had brought. It wasn't too long until Makena and Megan woke up, as well.

Makena and Megan each got new bikes and Razors from Santa. They had outgrown their old bikes and were excited to get new ones. The Razor scooters are very popular with the neighborhood kids and they were glad they finally had them, too. :) Everett got a Cars scooter that has buttons that make sounds that he really likes. It even has a compartment for him to store his cars in while he plays.

Everett also got a new Spiderman costume. He had outgrown his old costume.

Makena got the new camera she had been wanting! She was super excited!

The girls also got some new gear for their American Girls.

Megan loved her new Winnie the Pooh hat from Peter and Judy!

Nana and Popaw arrived with even more goodies! Everett got a new Cars racetrack which is very similar to one they have at preschool that he loves.

Finley got a portable exersaucer from Santa. It will come in handy at the soccer games in the spring.

Makena was excited about her new clothes from Phil and I.

Nana and Popaw brought new fishing poles for the kids. They're looking forward to using them when it warms up.

The kids loved the movie Wreck it Ralph so they were excited to get Ralph and Venelope from movie.

Nana and Popaw gave Everett a box full of cars and trains. He couldn't have been happier!

Everett and his Mater teeth lollipop.

Finley liked Ralph, too!

The kids went outside to try out their new bikes and scooters...

Christmas Eve

2013-01-27T11:34:00.005-08:00

Makena, Megan and Everett each got to open a gift from us on Christmas Eve. They each opened Legos which was perfect since it was a yucky rainy day. They also got new Christmas books.

We put out our reindeer food and lit luminaries to support the Ronald McDonald House.

The girls and I made chocolate chip cookies for Santa.

We looked up Santa's whereabouts on Norad. Makena wanted to see his exact location on the globe.