december

tess loves her brothers! she was starting to get fussy while i was taking this shot but then tagg started talking to her and she calmed down. so dang sweet.

i took the tagg, sully and tess to the bellevue light garden last week. we brought hot chocolate and the rest of my family. very fun.

tess had her two month check up. she weighed nine and a half pounds. i looooove this girl.

and i might be a stage mom already. she was asked to be baby Jesus in the live nativity our church puts on for the community. my cousin, eli, was jophes (as sully says it) and was one proud papa. it was incredibly sweet.

not going to lie, when they were playing o holy night and everyone was surrounding "baby Jesus" i got a little tear in my eye. :) 

a few days ago tess smiled for the camera for the first time! 

last weekend, we went downtown to ride the duck. we boarded the duck and were driven thru the streets signing carols and waving (like lunatics) at everyone. it was very fun.

about to get on the holiday duck!

it wasnt raining that night but it did get quite windy when we started going fast. good thing we were bundled up.

my favorite little dancer.

we loved every single second of it.

after the duck, we had dinner and then walked over to the sheraton to see the gingerbread houses. i love doing festive activities with my family and having tucker in town!

yesterday, i caught this happy girl smiling and took a quick video. 

baby tess is really starting to smile, coo and just being an all around lovely little nugget. we LOVE her.

ornament exchange

i hosted the ornament exchange this year and had fun decorating the table in preparation for all the treats!

and tagg had fun getting all up in tess' face.

my friends really know how to do treats.

i was only a little proud of the hot chocolate urn i had set up. and kaitlin makes it look even better.

all of us with our treasures. we really missed you, hanna!

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

last week megan made gingerbread houses for us to decorate. she provides the houses and i provide the candy. we have a good thing going. please dont ask me what eli is doing in this picture.

apparently tagg couldnt stop licking his fingers long enough to smile for the picture.

i went back and found the pictures from previous gingerbread house decorating parties. i freaking love my family and their traditions (but not my hair in pictures 3 and 4. ew).

a shower for tess!

my friends threw a beautiful shower for tess. i loved the metallic banner amy and kaitlin had made and seeing tess' name all spelled out. reminded me how much i love her name! :)

tess, with her party dress (and shoes) on. 

amy (foreground) and kaitlin (background) put together the morning and i couldnt have loved it more. tess and i are very lucky.

such a special party with family and friends. we love you tess!

snowflake lane x 2

one of our favorite things to do during december is visit snowflake lane in bellevue. its very festive and so fun for the boys.

music, lights, dancers, free peppermint lollipops and snow... who wouldnt love it?

SNOW.FLAKE.LANE! HO.HO.HO!

sully's three loves: ga, suckers, and fake mice.

my love: tess.

two nights after we went to snowflake lane with my family, the smiths came into town and we did it all over again. i could get used to this set up.... the men and kids at one table....

jocelyn and me at our own. :)

we love the smiths so much and are very excited to have them live close enough to enjoy holiday traditions together.

our christmas tree

it was fun picking out our tree this year because there was a bit of snow on the ground. felt a little more legit.

we found it!

and my mountain man cut that huge tree right down.

which was a good thing because i wanted to get this nugget out of the cold.

our christmas tree. all ready for santa!

it snowed!

a few days ago we woke up to a surprise snowfall. there is honestly nothing better.

sully was loving life even though his "globes" were about 1000 times too large.

brothers in love. with the snow. :)

the girls? i dont think they were loving it as much.

such a gorgeous day. just wish there had been christmas lights on my house instead of pumpkins on my porch!

my crazy little snow angel.

mini snowball fight (i didnt have gloves so it couldnt last long).

tess was bummed she didnt get to play out in the snow so i put her snowball hair pretty on her and she felt better.

thanksgiving 2014

we had a wonderful thanksgiving holiday with plenty of blessings to be thankful for aaaaaand delicious food.

my mom sure does love tess. she shoveled down her meal so she could hold her favorite granddaughter. :)

blurry, but i love how happy they all look. i am very grateful we live near the gees. they are always up for a good time.

the seahawks played on thanksgiving which kind of bummed me out because it interrupted our family day (we usually play games and go out to a movie). so i made sure tagg and sully had little projects to do during the game. this was tagg's turkey. kind of derpy but super cute.

megan made turkey sugar cookies so the boys could decorate them. sully was so proud.

i came upstairs to start cleaning and found these two hooligans wheezing the redi-whip.

the reason for this season? left overs.