We are thankful and full of blessings!

We started Thanksgiving weekend with a National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation viewing on Wednesday night. It is a yearly tradition to open the holiday season with our favorite Christmas movie. We ate an early Thanksgiving dinner at Jeff's Mom's house...what an amazing cook, we definitely got our fill. She gave Maddie a beautiful pearl bracelet for her baptism, we love that she works at Jewelry Design Center :) Then we headed to Grammy's house for round 2. It was so fun to spend time with all the fam, including all the baby cousins. We got several rounds of Settlers of Catan in, and my embargo with Brad is still in place. Friday night was a family photo shoot and game night. We have a special picture that includes all my brothers and sisters and all our kids. We can't wait to post on the blog but we have to wait until Christmas...it's a SURPRISE! Saturday was the 3rd annual bonfire at Jeff's Dad's house, the flames reached 40 feet! Sunday was Madison's special day. She was baptized and became a child of God! We are so blessed to raise her knowing the Lord. She has an amazing set of Godparents who will always guide her and keep her accountable. It was so fun to celebrate her day with friends and family!

Our Family

Brandon, Jayme, and Claire

Ben, Maile, and Sergio
We loved having you guys and Barlett stay with us.

Brad, Lisa, James, and Elsa

Adam, Hillory, and Parker

The girls

The girls again :)

Cousins

Maddie and Elsa at the bonfire

FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

Our Love Bug

Maddie's first try in the Bumbo...she loved it!

Playdate for the kids, walking date for the Mom's :)

Nicholas has too many girls to choose from, what a ladies man!

Jeff and Maddie taking a little nap.  Maddie loves to snuggle with her Dad.

What a wonderful weekend!

We were so blessed to have family in town this weekend! Nikki and Rachel drove over from Seattle to celebrate Angeliki's 28th birthday and Gramdma Debbie's 49th birthday. Maddie loves her aunts...she had so much fun with them. We also were so lucky to be able to go with Nikki to get her wedding dress, we are so excited for Nikki and Dan and can not wait for their special day! Nikki was so beautiful trying on her wedding dress, little did she know it even made her little brother cry :) We feel so blessed to have amazing family! We also did a little shopping this weekend...it is necessary to stop at Nordstrom when they are having their half yearly sale. Maddie is finally big enough to face frontwards in her carrier, she loves to look at everything. Her new found love is her hands, if she could stick both fists in her mouth at one time she would be thrilled :) Jeff and I are starting to work out again. We are posting it on the blog so we can be held accountable by all. We are having a little competition...(obviously) to lose 25 lbs by April. I am pretty sure I will win (a new pair of 7 jeans are always a good reward)!

Nils is a little jealous

Maddie in the jogging stroller

Shopping with Mom

Maddie and Aunt Rachel

Nikki looked stunning in her dress

Big smiles for her aunts

Maddie working out at the gym with Mom and Dad

Friends finally meet

We had so much fun having Cassie and Hallie here to visit. We hope the next six years will fly by while Mitch is in med school. We can't wait until they are able to move back to the northwest :) The girls had fun playing together and we had fun shopping together. Hallie was such a trooper adjusting from the time zone difference! It will be so fun to watch these two girls grow, it is amazing how much they have changed already. Thanks for your friendship Cass, we loved seeing you.