New Year's Eve!

On New Year's Eve we decided to keep it low-key and have a little party at our house (kids and all). Becca and I made three different soups and other people brought salad, bread, and snacky foods to share. It all came together really well (without much planning!). Kenton brought some video games, and the cousins played upstairs and watched movies most of the night.

This picture reminds me so much of our high school days when we would do our hair and makeup in my Mom's hair salon. (: It's fun to get made up every once in awhile. (:
Ready to Party!

Katrina and Carolyn

Mom and Jaimi

Amy, Ethan, Jon, and Emma

Jaimi and I left the party for a bit and went to check out Uva, a wine bar at Oakway Mall owned by our friends Todd & Molly. It's such a neat little place!

We made it back home to play some games and ring in the New Year with everyone!

Aaron, Josh, and Papa

Kenton, Jon, and Jesse

Tyler, Ronan, and Macey taking a turn. Such a cute band! (:

Happy New Year, my Love!!

Here's to a Fabulous 2009!

Jaimi's Visit

Jaimi flew in late on the 30th of December and stayed with us until January 2nd. We had SO much fun together! We don't get to see each other very often because we live in different states, but when we do it's like no time has passed. We tried to fit in as much girl time as we could in those few days, but I had some competition from my boys! Ronan and Griffin loved all the extra attention they got from "Auntie Jaimers". She brought presents for them and spent a lot of time running around & being silly with them. (:
Books from Jaimi
Griffin wearing Jaimi's boots. (: He really wanted to wear them when we left the house, and ended up throwing a little fit when he had to take them off. (:
During the day on New Year's Eve we went to lunch at BJ's, and Jaimi got to see how much "fun" that can be with two busy boys! They did pretty well, but we definitely had our hands full and had to eat fast. (:

New Cousins!

December 30, 2008
While we were in Portland to pick up my friend (Jaimi) from the airport we made plans to get together with my cousin Dan and his wife Brooke. They recently had twin girls, and this was our first time meeting them! It was great to hang out and talk about life with kids. (: Summer and Kara were both so happy and pleasant, even as it got closer to bedtime. We were so glad it worked out to stop by that night!
Me holding Kara and Brooke holding Summer~Such sweet babies!!
Dan feeding Kara

Me with Summer

Ronan and Griffin had fun getting to know their newest second cousins. Ronan especially likes being around babies. (:

Final Christmas Celebration

The Saturday after Christmas the Neal family came down from Portland for lunch and a gift exchange. Every year we draw names with the Stoerman side of the family (my mom's sisters and their kids) and this year we had the gathering of all the Oregonians at our house. I cooked a ham and everyone brought side dishes and appetizers. We all had a really fun time hanging out and playing games. (; Lots of joking around and laughing!

Becca, Uncle Truls, Papa, Aaron, Hannah, and Eleanor
Katrina, Mom, Josh, Aunt Robin, and Kenton

The Big Kids: Ronan, Cohen, Tyler, and Sadie

The Little Guys: Griffin and Finn

Opening Gifts

Rockin' Batman

Uncle Batman

Ruddick Family Christmas

When we got to Josh's parent's house all of the kids were given teddy bears sent from Great Grandma Ruddick. We got a quick group picture before it was time to eat and open gifts.
(Dylan, Griffin, Lydia, Ronan, Audrey, Emma, Macey, and Ethan)
Macey and Griffin eating together

Lydia and Audrey
Griffin snuggling up to Grandpa (:

Dylan opening his gift from us: a tool kit!

Audrey was so excited about her new Harry Potter books!

Griffin trying out Dylan's new tools (:

Dylan and Ronan eating dessert and watching a movie.

New jammies for all the kids made by Great Grandma Ruddick!

The Green Family

Our Family~ Ronan was not happy about being in another picture!

Erin and kiddos~ definitely ready for bed...it was a long day! (:

Hecht Family Christmas

After finishing with our family Christmas at home we headed over to my parent's house to celebrate with my side of the family. This year we drew names with all of the adults in the family, and then everyone gave gifts to each of the kids. It seemed to work out really well. (: All of the kids handled the excitement well, and even let their cousins have turns with their new toys. (: It was a really fun Christmas, and so nice to have the whole family together!

We always open gifts in order of youngest to oldest. This year we started with baby boy Henry! Here's Katrina and Kenton holding up t-shirts from the Chases and us for baby #2!

Griffin (2 yrs old)

Finley (2 yrs old)

Cohen (3 yrs old)~ wearing the Hulk mask we gave him.

Ronan (4 1/2)

Sadie (5 1/2)

Tyler (8 3/4 yrs old)

Josh trying out his new box drum from Papa

Aaron & Mom

We ate brunch together and hung out for a little while, then we headed to Josh's parent's house to spend the rest of the day with his family. Our parents live just a mile or two apart, so instead of going straight there we decided to take a longer drive so the kids could get a little nap. I'm glad we did otherwise our kiddos would not have lasted very long at the next gathering!