Where is Duncan?

In his new favorite spot, underneath the Christmas Tree. Don't worry, he won't bite Santa's hand.

Gingerbread House

One of our traditions has been to make a gingerbread house every year. I love to make them the kids like to eat them. Win win. Except this year I made some mighty strong icing! So, haha, jokes on them :)

Disneyland

While we were in California we went to Disneyland. I love that place. It is still a magical place.

I didn't really take any great pictures, so I guess I'm over compensating by stuffing this post with just about all of the pictures I took. I need to take a photography class or something, and maybe get a little patience :)

This is one of the few rides that Bridger loved. We made the huge mistake of just taking Bridger on Space Mountain with us on our very first ride at Disneyland. He didn't cry, but he left the ride wide eyed and stunned. I forgot how fast that ride is. After that, Bridger was afraid to go on almost any ride. :( He still wants to go back to Disneyland though, so no permanent damage done.

We watched the Disney Christmas parade, it was really fun, I don't think I've ever sat through a Disneyland parade before, but it was fun and the kids loved seeing all of the Characters and Santa.

Disneyland has the 1980's Captain E O playing rite now in 3D. It was fun and nostalgic for me. The kids really liked it too, both we're dancing when we left the theater :)

While I was looking online for a Disneyland picture, I saw some older pictures, that reminded me a little of when we used to go as a kid. Remember the Skyway?

Thanks to Bryan we got to ride on everything, we barely noticed that it was a super busy day (the day after Thanksgiving). I don't think we stood in line for more than 15 minutes for anything. It was such a perfect day at Disneyland.

Thanksgiving

I loved Thanksgiving this year!!! My favorite place to be on Thanksgiving is at my Grandma's house. It is just perfect! I love my Grandma and I always really miss her on Thanksgiving day, but this year was awesome, because we all got together at her house just like we used to do when we were little.

We ate the best Thanksgiving foods, we spent time all together (something that hasn't happened in years!), and listened to Grandpa Bob's history :). Tons of fun! We love Grandpa Bob, but man we had a good laugh when he whipped out a jumbo, double sided board (like 4' x 5') covered in pictures that spanned his entire life. He just had his 90th birthday, so I guess he deserves a break, but Grandma really let him have it when he took it out, he just ignored her and went right on telling us about everything that ever happened.

Mom, Kristen, & Todd

Another great thing about this day, was that we got to meet Todd's girlfriend, Kristen. She is way rad and it was great to finally meet her.

Alexis & Tess

Mom & Bridger

Bored kids in the Den :)

Bryan & Mom

Mulligans Family Fun

Brandon, Bridger, Jasmine, Jeremiah, & Paige

While we were in California spending time with my Dad, we went and spent almost an entire day at Mulligans Family Fun Center. The kids had a great time, despite the unusually cold day. Grandpa can't resist spoiling the grandkids :)

California Trip

For the Thanksgiving break the kids and I flew to warm and sunny California. Ahhh..... I love the Sun. Ben came for a few days right around Thanksgiving Day. It was a lot of fun. I especially LOVED seeing (part of) my family. I love them so much and it's been a l o n g time since we've seen each other, so it was awesome.

Tess and Grandpa

Abuela (with a scary face) and Tess

Grandma and a suspicious Bridger

Mom with her Grandkids

Me with sweet Tess (a.k.a. The Beast) and Brandon

Brandon happy with Abuela and a maté

Halloween Time

Halloween was really fun this year! Brandon and Bridger were probably on a constant sugar high for about 3 days straight! Bridger's favorite candy were the suckers and Brandon loves almost all candy.

Don't worry, that's not really Frankenstein and a witch, it just friendly Brandon and Bridger.

We had fun decorating our porch with a scary web and spiders. Ben's Mom used to do this at there old house and we thought it would be fun to do the same thing.

I just realized our Jack-o-lanterns all had really big mouths.

Ben with 2 crazy kids.

I had to put this picture in because the kids made me laugh so hard when they did this. I asked them to lay down by the pumpkins (like to pose for a cute picture) and this is what they did. I guess I should've been more specific. I've decided our family does not pose for pictures, at least not very well.

Creepy teeth!

Ben and I went to Halloween party this year. We haven't dressed for Halloween in like 8 years, so it was really fun! Ben isn't really a costume guy though, so this is what he wore. Ben is just tooooo cool :)

And I was a Japanese someone. Ben didn't want me to say Geisha, but I did because Geisha actually means artist, which I fancy myself to be, but the Geisha's art is the art of seduction, so whatever, I just liked that it was an artist of some kind. Ben's Mom let me borrow this robe, it made for an easy and comfortable costume :) Thanks Emily! And may I just say that the robe is rather thick, I'm not loving the fact that I look like I'm chubbing out this picture.

I had fun doing some funky makeup.

Brandon was Ironman! He loved posing for me when I was taking these pictures. I had to take like 20 different snaps of his creative poses, but I'll spare you with just 3 :)

I love that he has his foot curled under. He was really into his poses!

And poor Bridger was Pooh again! I'm too frugal. Bridger likes wearing the costume, so he wore it again, 2 years in a row.

So, there you have it. Our Halloween in a nutshell.