She's EIGHT!

I guess Caitlin's been 8 for nearly a month now...but better late than never.

 She celebrated her birthday at school a day before her actual birthday.  So she got all dressed up and I even curled her hair. That's pretty fancy for us!

 The morning of her birthday:

That evening Caitlin requested "steak and sourdough bread" for her birthday dinner.  With birthday cake for dessert, of course.

 And her BFF, Jackson, came over too

  She didn't want a "friends" birthday party this year. Instead she asked if she could come along with me to a girls shopping weekend to Seattle that was planned for my sisters' birthday (which is a week after Caitlin's).  I was thrilled that she asked for this, it was SO much easier than a birthday party! My girl loves to shop.
 

Here are a couple of pictures from the hotel that we stayed at.

 

Caitlin is such a fun-loving, sweet, caring girl.  She has so many friends and is one of those kids who can get along with anyone. She is very responsible and trustworthy.  She is such a huge helper for me.  She does really well in school and her favorite subject is Math, and she is good! She knows her times table better than I do.  She is determined and never gives up (which for the most part is a good thing, but sometimes I wish she would be a little easier on herself!).  She always wants to know what is going on and who is doing what, and why someone called, and who just texted me, and what was that email about, and what's in that UPS package, and what's for dinner, and what's in the...well, you get the point.  She's a nosy little girl:) But she's the BEST!

 



Christmas

Let's start at the very beginning of December...picking out our tree

It was cold.  See Noah's pink hat in the next picture? At first I put a Canucks hat on him, but he yanked it off, threw it to the ground and declared loudly "I don't want to wear Uncle Brent's hat!!!!" I guess he associates anything with a Canucks logo on it to his Uncle Brent.  So instead he reached into the hat bin and pulled out one of Caitlin's hats and I could not persuade him otherwise.  Sometimes you just need to pick your battles. 

Anyway, it kind of worked out for the best because all he did the entire time at the tree farm was run away from me, so the bright pink hat made him very easy to spot.

The tree farm we go to makes it pretty easy these days.  Once we (Jon) cut down the tree, the workers pick it up, throw it on their little tractor, drive it to our truck and load it all up for us.  They even offered to cut it down for us, but that's where I draw the line.

Decorating the tree

Everyday the tree looked worse because Noah was continually rearranging the ornaments

And it's not Christmas without the fire department Christmas party

Playing games

Making crafts

Waiting for Santa

Noah lasted .76 seconds on Santa's lap

Owen wouldn't even go on his lap

Caitlin took her sweet time

Taking a ride on the fire truck

The 6th annual Decorating of the Gingerbread House.

This gingerbread house was one of those pre-assembled ones where all you have to do is squeeze on some frosting and put on the decorations.  Once upon a time I swore I would never get one of those, I mean, how lazy could a person be?! But after last years disaster trying to get the walls and roof to stick together, and all of the kids whining that it was taking so long...I turned into one of those lazy people that buy a pre-assembled house.

**I interrupt this Christmas post to show you Radiator Springs, as made by Caitlin and Owen**

Last week the kids were busy playing in Owen's room and they were so excited to show me their creation:

In the center is Sarge raising the flag

Luigi's Tire shop

Fillmore's tent (complete with straws for drinking his organic fuel)

Cozy Cone Motel and Mater's Junkyard:

**Back to Christmas**

Christmas Eve at home

(I was videotaping most of it, so I only have a couple pictures!)

Christmas Eve at the VK's

This is half of the kids that were there:

Noah's gift was this set of 8 puzzles

He immediately got to work, the boy loves puzzles!

 



Christmas chaos

 

Christmas morning at home



My kids get pretty excited about candy.

Christmas Day at the VD's

Moose Ears!

If I had to guess, Noah was most likely saying "to infinity and beyond!" when I took this picture

Let's all take a moment to gaze upon these beautiful stockings made by my mom.  

Caitlin's is more like a Christmas tube sock.  Every year when I see these I could die laughing.  It just never gets old.  (Sorry Mom, you know I love them!! It wouldn't be Christmas without all of us laughing at the stockings:)

After opening all of the gifts, we had a couple of hours to relax and play.  Here is Grandpa and the boys playing Hungry, Hungry Hippos:

Caitlin and Brent putting a Lego set together

 

Christmas Night

We all headed over to my Uncle and Aunts for Christmas Dinner

 

Grandpa and Noah. Noah is eating yet another cookie. I'd say 95% of what he ate that day consisted of cookies and chocolate.  And the other 5% was turkey.



Caitlin kept busy with her new fashion design sketch book:

There were 3 dogs there.  Noah was obsessed with them, Owen was scared to death of them.

Besides eating dinner, we also played some Christmasy games.  Note to self: If I ever want to win a game of Christmas Trivia, I need to know more about Santa's reindeer.

 

It was a fun and memorable Christmas.  And since I never did get around to sending out Christmas cards this year, Merry Belated Christmas...and Happy New Year from the VK's