Winter Fun

Here is Katie singing with the kids at our ward's (church) Christmas party.

Waiting in line to see santa. Here's Katie and Katie.

Here's Katie sitting on santa's lap. Later she actually asked him if he was the real santa and pulled down his beard.

Here is Katie with her dance class for their parent recital. They danced to songs from the Nutcracker Ballet.


Katie with her dance teacher Miss Kelsey. The week before Christmas she brought her nutcracker and mouse king figurines to show her teacher.

MMMM! Gingerbread house. Thanks Aunt Michelle for letting me join the party with the kids and the Cubscouts.

Grandpas and Grandmas come over Christmas Eve to hand out presents.

Katie received a wonderful surprise from her birth mom, Whitney. Her doll house from when she was a child. Here are Nikki and Katie in front of it.

Nikki, Katie and Daddy playing.

Katie also received a pair of pajamas and a colored poster with a picture on it where you get to hunt for hidden letters. Even though the pajamas are too big, Katie loves to wear them. Her cousin Nikki has the exact same pajamas and since they are smaller we tried to see if she would trade Nikki. But she wouldn't have it because she didn't want to let go of the pajamas that her birth mother gave her.

Here are Katie and Nikki playing with a Play-doh machine Katie got for Christmas.
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We traveled to the Seattle area for Chris' sister's wedding. Here are our pics from our trip. The first day was travel. On our second day we traveled an additional 1 and half hour to Ocean Shores to see the coast. It was so cold, rainy, and windy, we only stayed outside for about 5 minutes and then headed back to the car. But it was so fun to see the coast.

We stopped at a gift shop where Katie got a little turtle figurine.

And I got a glass dolphin.

The next day we spent the day in Bellevue and Seattle. First we met Chris' sister Rachael and her fiance Daniel, and Chris' mom at the Seattle Temple (which is in Bellevue). We walked around the grounds and got some pictures.

I can't believe how green it is there, even in January.

It's a beautiful temple.

Then we drove into Seattle to go to the aquarium. Here we are crossing the bridge into Seattle.

And here's a pic as we are entering downtown Seattle.

Here we are at the Seattle Aquarium. Cold and windy!

The aquarium is right off the pier. Here's a picture of some of the boats in the harbor.

Petting the starfish.

Katie and I standing under floating jellyfish.

Tamara, Katie, and Grandma Mary.

Chris standing under actual fish from the harbor.

Rachael and Daniel in the underwater dome.

The harbor in the background.

Then we headed across the street to check out Pike Place Market.
Running up the stairs.

We tried to get in on some of the fish throwing action. We saw a few fish being thrown from a distance but they must have been having a slow day because as we got closer we didn't get to see them throw anymore fish.

We weren't interested in buying any fish but we did get some really huge and delicious donuts.

Rachael and Daniel with a huge cinnamon twist.

The next day was the wedding. Here we are getting a few pictures outside the temple after the sealing.

The bride's family

Chris' sister and mother

Chris and his sister

The groom's family

After the sealing we headed into Seattle again to check out the famous space needle.

That evening we went to the reception. We met up with Chris' uncle and aunt.

The wedding couple's first dance as husband and wife.

We had fun dancing and talking.

On our last day we went for a swim at the hotel before it was time to take off.

Katie absolutely loved the 3-legged kitty that Daniel's parents own. She had to say goodbye to it before we left.

Grandma Mary rode back home with us. Katie and Grandma having fun playing with Katie's McDonald play food set she got for Christmas.

Fall Fun

We did a lot of fun things in October and November. See some of our Fall Fun below:

Here are Katie and her two friends Kinsey and Kendra painting pumpkins:

The finished products, pumpkin masks:

Chris grew a great garden this year. He had tomatoes, peppers, onions, and squash

and carrots:

and only one pumpkin grew this year but it was a big one:

Here are Chris and Katie with our huge pumpkin:

We had Deedra, Nikki, Garrett, and Jack over and we all decorated pumpkins:

Katie wanted to dress as a fairy princess because her friend Brooklyn was going to be one. The only color of wings they had left at the store was orange. She was disappointed because her favorite colors are pink or purple. But then she had the idea of dressing as a BSU fairy princess. So we bought orange wings, and orange and blue necklaces. Then we made a blue and orange crown at home and she wore a BSU shirt and blue skirt:

Here's Katie at our church Halloween party with some of her friends. We have 2 fairy princesses, Rapunzel, and a mermaid:

On the Saturday before Halloween we went out to the national wildlife refuge. They had live animals for families to see while they hiked on a short trail. There were spiders, bugs, alligators, owls, and other creatures. Katie also got to do a craft project where she made a homemade trick or treat bag.

Chris and Katie on the trail:

Me on the trail. It's a beautiful area. We've hiked this trail several times with the Cub Scouts.

Chris and Katie checking out an owl:

Chris dressed as Sherlock Holmes for work:

Katie and I made cookies on Halloween day for her kindergarten class (their party was the next day). She wanted shape cookies but not sugar cookies. So we made chocolate chip cookies and cut out shapes for about 6 of them.

We went to my brother Stillman's house to go trick or treating on Halloween night. My brother, Colby and sister, Deedra and their families joined us as well. I didn't get any good pictures but the kids had a blast trick or treating!

Katie started taking a dance ballet class. She absolutely loves it! Here she is in her new dance outfit:

And here she is practicing. She has 2 other girls in her class. Her teacher says she is a natural and can't believe she never took dance classes before.

Chris' cousin Kyle was married in November. We traveled to Utah for the reception.
Here we are with Kyle and his new wife Lark and with Kyle's brother Brandon:

They had dancing at the reception. Here are Chris and Katie having a father daughter dance:

Katie really wanted to make pies this year. So Katie and I made 2 pumpkins pies for Thanksgiving dinner:

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandpa and Grandma's house the next day. Here are the finished pies:

Katie cutting rolls with Grandma Lynn:

Katie and her cousin Livvie with olive fingers:

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner and had fun watching movies and chatting.

Check back in a week or two for December pictures.