Christmas Junior

Before we left to go to Washington we opened all of our presents from each other. Kirsten called this Christmas Junior. The kids woke up early just like on Christmas and we took turns opening presents. Of course the most exciting presents came at the end...Colton's Polar Express Train that was set up under a blanket (max heard us setting it up the night before and came downstairs so excited about the train). Colton was absolutely thrilled! And Kirsten got the Barbie house she has been dreaming about. Actually she saw it on the front porch a few weeks before Christmas so it wasn't much of a surprise, but she was still super excited! Max was really excited about his trucks and ambulance.
We had a huge mess to clean up since we were leaving the next day to go out of town. Colton was absolutely devastated when we took the tree down. When we got back home from being out of town, Colton would ask almost everyday if Daddy was getting a new tree or if Santa was at our house. He finally got in the car and said "Christmas will come again." Since then he's been okay with the fact that Christmas is over.

Some of Max and Colton's cute Christmas projects.

Airport

We were all so happy the Seattle airport had a play area for the kids while we waited for our flight. Kirsten and Colton played firefighters. It was really cute to watch Kirsten help Colton find the fires. Colton kept up so well. He's doing so great!

We went to the little children's museum while we were in Washington. Max spent most of the time playing with the same trains he has at home. We decided that Colton has a bright future as a Crane operator. He would run back and forth from operating the crane to putting stuff on the crane for most of the time. Then he started serving these strangers in the restaurant area. They were really sweet to him.
Kirsten put on a fashion show and a puppet show. She painted a beautiful picture. She served Jonathan and I a meal. Her favorite was working as a cashier at the store. She loved that!
These phone pictures are pretty terrible. I couldn't fix the kid's freaky eyes:(

New Year's Eve

I think we had our best New Year's since having kids, thanks to pinterest! We found all of these fun ideas and put them in bags for the kids to open every hour until midnight. We put the little kids to bed at their regular time, but at almost midnight Colton came running upstairs and said, "mom, you're awake!". So he got to ring in the new year too. He kept saying "happy new year!". Bryce and Kirsten had a great time playing games, making shakers and hats, watching a movie... We had a great time!

Skiing

I skied for the first time today!! Emily skied for the first time with me. We decided we better take a class, but while we waited for the class to start Jonathan thought we should just wing it. So after Emily skies all the way down the hill on her butt...while screaming (which was hilarious!!) we got on the ski lift. The ski lift was terrifying. We barely made it off the ski lift and then Emily fell down the mountain and her skis fell off. I skied down the hill completely out of control, but I made it. We were really grateful we were taking a class after that. The class was great! By the time it was over we both decided we loved skiing!
Jonathan loved skiing all over the place and Eric had a great time snowboarding!!
Some of the funniest moments were when we'd get off the ski lift!! By the end we no longer screamed and/or fell every time!!
I think we're hooked! Now I know why Jonathan is always wanting to ski!

Us girls went and got our nails done. Kirsten and I had our first manicures and Miranda and Alaina got pedicures. Emily was busy paint balling with the boys all day and mom was sick.
A couple weeks ago while the boys were both at school Kirsten and I got pedicures. It was so fun and Kirsten loved being able to go to school late:)