Family Christmas Party

This year for Christmas we were able to drive down to CA to be with my whole family.  My brother and his wife were able to come down from Trinidad as well, so we were ALL together! Unfortunately John ended up having to work a majority of the vacation and Morgan had some really rough days and never slept while we were there.  It was still so nice to be with everyone and Jackson and Baron had a blast playing with cousins and being spoiled by Grammie and Papa. 

We really lucked out with the drive- hit the passes while it was clear for a day and the roads had just been swept! There was lots of snow piled up on the sides.

 Miss Mo was happy to be out of the car

Aunt Bertny to the rescue! We all got hair cuts and were pampered by her styling talent

 The kids doing the nativity.  Jackson was Joseph and Baron was a Shephard.

 My Grandpa, leading the evening program. Love him!

Uncle Colby reading a Christmas Story...

 The boys singing their traditional song, "Do you hear what I hear?"

 Notice Uncle Eric and his ever present smile :)

All the younger kiddos watching a move while the adults and older kids do the traditional White Elephant Gift Exchange!

It was a crazy party having everyone all in one place, but it was so so much fun.  I have always loved the Billings Family Christmas party and have really missed not being able to go every year since I've been married and moved to Oregon.  It was so fun to see everyone and catch up.  John and I sat by my Uncle Eric during most of the night and I am so grateful to have been able to spend that time with him, not knowing it would be the last time I would see him on this Earth.

Half these pictures are just camera phone pictures, so they are a little blurry.  I will start out with this post and do a few on the different events from the trip!

Baron Turns 4!

December 9, 2012, Mr. Bear turned 4.  He had a great birthday!  Since it was on a Sunday, we did a majority of the celebrating on Saturday.  We took him and his best buddy, Asher to Safari Sams (Jungle themed indoor playground and bounce houses).  He had a blast! That night we also did the traditional Red Robin birthday dinner! Sunday he opened presents, went to church, watched his favorite movies, ate batman cupcakes and played games together.  His favorite present was his new Ducks jersey that he still wears ALL the time. 

Don't laugh.... he really wanted batman cupcakes and at this point I was extremely sleep deprived and overwhelmed with a colicky baby, a busy job and the holidays.

Just a few notes about our Bear:

John and I are baffled this kid is only four.  He talks so well and always has for his age.  He is smart smart smart and such a joy to be around.

He writes his name so well and has caught the ABC fever.  He looks for letters and points them out all over the place.  He can write the entire alphabet, no problem and loves drawing pictures of submarines, storm troopers, and our family.

His favorite sport is soccer, but he is a natural at them all.

He tells the best stories full of animation that usually involve some type of star wars characters.

His favorite color is still yellow.

He loves and looks up to his older brother and wants to do everything he does.  He also loves his sister and can't get enough of her.  Every morning he climbs into her crib and plays with her.  I love waking up to the two of them giggling together.

He is funny, has the best giggle and is just loved by so many.

In September we found out he is allergic to all dairy, eggs, soy, wheat, whey, and a little to gluten.  He had been having tummy aches and bathroom issues for a while.  Long story short though, he has been such a trooper with it all.  He has never complained about all the foods he can't eat and continues to constantly have a smile on his face.  He is such a resilient little guy and we are so blessed and inspired everyday by his positive attitude.  Love this guy so much!!

Chopping down the Christmas Tree

One of my favorite traditions we've had since we moved to Portland is going to get our Christmas tree! We went to the same little tree farm up the mountain as last year.  It is the cutest little place.  The family that lives there/owns the tree farm are always super nice and fun, they have the coolest handmade swing set out front for the kids, the trees are great, and they always have hot chocolate and candy canes for us at the end! Plus it is $20 total.... where else can you find that kind of experience for that price??  We are more than happy to support them! 

 Found the tree!

 The boys were all about helping Dad this year

Thanksgiving 2012

We had a few different invites this Thanksgiving from both friends and family to join them in the festivities.  With all of our recent food allergies coming into play, however, we decided we would have a quiet Thanksgiving at home with just the 5 of us.  That way we were better able to control what we ate and how it was cooked, making sure we didn't spend the weekend with tummy troubles.  It was a lot of work to do all on our own, but we went all out.  It turned out great! I even made sure we had name tags, a table cloth, used our nice china and glasses from our wedding, had appetizers earlier in the day, and sparkling apple juice with our feast. We got all dressed up and took some family pictures before we ate too! We really wanted it to still be a memorable holiday together.  It all turned out wonderfully and it was a very fun day and weekend together! Here's the end result, as well as the family pictures :

Name tags!

Not sure why all of these are so blurry.... they were done in a hurry and with a self timer :(

 The ham we made in addition to a turkey... we had leftovers for a week!

 The spread minus the meat and desserts

GF Pumpkin Cake Roll.  Turned out amazing!!

After dinner we played games and Aunt Heather and Grandma Sue even stopped by to visit that evening on their way up here to pick up donuts for a fundraiser.  It was a great day! 

Jackson turns 6!!!

Way back on November 19 (I am playing catch up) Jackson turned 6!  I can't believe our Action Jackson is 6!!  That kid grows like crazy though, so he definitely looks it!  He is the tallest one in his class (both school and primary) and is smart as a whip.  Love this kid so so much.  He is an amazing big brother and a stickler on following the rules.  His only struggle is his tendency to talk back every now and then because sometimes he thinks he's 16 instead of 6.  Classic oldest child.

In October we finally had some free time and free space while in Glide to teach him to ride his bike without training wheels (we unfortunately don't have a lot of places to ride his back right outside our home right now).  I've been dying to teach him for a while, but it has been SO SO crazy with Morgan and everything else going on.  So, while in Glide we took off the training wheels and within a few trys he was riding no problem.  He picked it up so fast, it was amazing! By the end of the weekend we were able to go on a big bike ride with him around Glide.  I am so proud of him!

For his birthday, I took him and some of his best buddies to Pump It Up that day after school and then we went with The Jensens to Red Robin to celebrate together!  He had a very fun day and was smiling from ear to ear.

The wind tunnel

He requested Spider man cupcakes.... this is what I came up with on limited time and limited free hands.  He loved them, and thought they were so cool, so I lucked out on that one! Good thing kids are easy to please!!

The weekend before we took him to Chuck-e-Cheese, as requested.  He's been wanting to go for a long time.  It was our first time.  John and I are not a fan of that place, but a las, we caved for his special day and it was actually pretty fun and not too crowded when we went.

Birthday masks from Grandma

Just a few thoughts on Jackson at 6 years old:


He is one of the sweetest kids you'll ever meet.  When he gets in trouble, he almost always writes me an "I'm sorry mom" note and draws a picture and leaves it on my pillow.  He also cleans my room for me as a surprise all the time and leaves hearts all over.  He is just always so kind.

He is an amazingly patient friend.  He has always had this gift of accepted others, differences and all.  He will make friends with the kid that is a bully or the kid with special needs or whatever.  Nothing bothers him about other kids.  He honestly just wants to play and be friends with everyone.  It is a true gift and makes a mama proud.  He gets notes sent home all the time for play dates and birthday invitations.

He is on fire with reading right now.  It took him a while to get into reading, but now that it's caught on with him he cannot stop.  He wants to read everything.  Every sign, book, symbol, movie title, etc.  We got him the BOB books a while ago and he has already read them all and moved on past them to reading Dr. Seuss style books.  He also loves being able to read his own versus (with a little help, obviously) when we read scriptures as a family instead of just repeating after us.  It has been fun!

He LOVES learning spanish in his twin immersion program.  He can count to 59 in Spanish, knows a few songs in spanish, tons of words and even speaks with a spanish accent! He corrects us when we say a word without the right accent.  It is awesome!

He is a total math/numbers guy, just like his daddy.  He does 1st and 2nd grade math books that his teacher sent home for him and does them well!

He love, love, loves sports.  Just this past week he got to go to his first professional basketball game to watch the Blazers play with John and his best buddy, Jack and Jack's dad, Tom.  He thought it was the coolest thing he's ever done.  His dream is to play a sport in the Olympics, except he can't decide between basketball, running, swimming and biking, so he said he's going to do them all :).

Love watching this kid learn and grow more and more everyday!!