Happy 4th Birthday Mason!

Mason had his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's. His best friend Griffin's birthday is on the third and Mason's is on the fourth so they had a combined party. They had a blast, even though it was a total zoo. It was complete chaos but totally worth it because I didn't have to clean up the mess. I can't believe Mason it already four years old. It seems like only yesterday that he was my tiny baby, barfing all over me. I can't believe I actually miss those barfing days.
Here's what Peyton thought about Chuck E Cheese's. She slept through most of the party.

Other cute Christmas pics

In their new Christmas church outfits.
We went to the Nutcracker at the Colorado Ballet Co. It was really good. It was a fun girls night out.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

Making cookies for Santa

Finding that Santa ate the cookies we left him.

Santa heard Mason's request for a mote trol Lightning McQueen. The kids actually slept in until seven. Peyton was really cranky, I think because she was hungry and she had two ear infections. Here is a picture of her throwing a tantrum while opening a present.

Its Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

We let the kids decorate a gingerbread house for family home evening and it was really difficult for me not to take over and do it myself. I tend to be a perfectionist with these sort of things and it was hard for me just to let go and let the kids have fun with it. It was worth it though because Mason said "this is my favorite night ever!" after we were done. It was probably because he got to eat so much candy.


Santa happened to be at the Park Meadows Mall last weekend so we took the kids to see him. I predicted that Peyton would freak out and refuse to even look at Santa and Mason would talk his ear off about all the toys he wants. It was the exact opposite. Peyton sat and smiled for pictures. We had to force Mason onto Santa's lap and he refused to look at the camera. As we were leaving he yells back at Santa "I want a mote trol (remote control) Lightning McQueen, and my sister wants a baby doll." This from the kid who gave Santa hugs the first time he met him.

Attempt at Family Portraits

Here are a few of the failed attempts. We were at a park with a duck pond and Peyton was obsessed. We finally had to position ourselves where the ducks were in front of us so it would at least appear as though she was looking at the camera. Seriously, getting both kids to look at the camera at the same time and not have their eyes closed is like making the stars align. We knew this would happen though so we decided not to pay a professional and feel like we wasted our money so we just had Jeanne take them with our camera. Keep an eye out for the Christmas card to see if we got a decent one.

Halloween

We had a lot of fun for Halloween this year. The kids went to two trunk or treats, then a field trip to a pumpkin patch, then a playgroup Halloween party, then trick or treating. Peyton was a trooper, she kept up with the big boys and got a ton of candy that I just handed back out to trick or treaters when we got home.

Mason's First "Camping" Trip

Enjoying some delicious hot schmoes
Inside the tent

And I use the word camping loosely because really Zach and Mason just pitched a tent in his parents backyard and made smores over the fire pit. It was really just a test to see how he would do sleeping in a tent for the first time. We didn't want to risk driving into the mountains, paying for a campsite then having Mason freak out and refuse to sleep in the tent. He did fine though, next summer we'll have to take advantage of living in CO and do some real camping. The last picture is really funny because not only did hot ashes fly out of the fire making it look like its snowing but Mason is burping (what a polite little boy) And yes they are wearing matching shirts because Mason insisted that Daddy and him be "samies."