Birthdays, Parties and Holidays, Oh My!

November was yet another crazy month filled with more birthdays, parties and some pretty chilly weather.  First up, Happy Birthday Colbie Elaine!!  I can’t believe our little girl is already FIVE!  Colbie, you are a fierce and fiery little diva and can drive us all crazy at times, but you have the kindest and most thoughtful little heart and still give the biggest and best hugs in the family!  We love you to the moon and back LuLu and are so proud of the little girl you are.

Early in the month, the boys took the trailer out for a weekend to do a little camping.  The girls and Jed stayed behind and kept busy at Sara’s Bridal shower and Malia’s birthday party.  Colbie even got to have her first slumber party here with Maggie and Molly.

The next week we were off to Phoenix for Jed’s follow up.  Unfortunately things haven’t improved on their own and Dr. Stock re-iterated the fact that Jed is at a point that another ballooning is necessary.  The good news was that he was okay with us waiting till after his spring appointment to schedule this, rather than having to do it right before the holidays.  Here is our little trooper! 

Not sure if this was another weekend or right after Friday’s appointment…. the days all blur together.  We spent a morning with the McIntier’s at their school’s annual barn bash. 

Always a project going on….. dirt plus a bobcat equals lots of fun for the kids!  Blaine might feel slightly different about this equation!

This military piggy/ Davey Crockett ninja is also the bird whisperer of the family.  I can’t even count how many dove this kid has caught, but his recent hummingbird catch shocked us all!  After holding him for a few minutes and showing his catch to all of us, he gently let him go. 

We had a great Thanksgiving, first stopping by Buddy and Susan’s and then Ryan and Kim’s later that night!  Our bellies were happy and full!

The day after Thanksgiving we had a birthday party for our little princess with family and a few close friends. 

She even made out with an ice cream cake on her real birthday!

While Colbie and her friends enjoyed decorating cakes and doing nails, I’m pretty sure playing on the sewer pipe was the hit of the party!

That same weekend, we joined a few other ballet friends and their moms at the Sugar Plum Tea event for a fun little date with our girls and preview of the Nutcracker.  Colbie wore her new Rapunzel dress that she got from Aunt Stacy!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  Tall even made his way back from the North Pole shortly after Thanksgiving and has been surprising us with bathroom decorations, green milk and dates with Barbie!  Mama thought it would be funny to stick him in Stuart’s cage one night.  Well that was all fun and games until I went to move him the next night to learn that our sweet little hamster beat the heck out of poor Tall!  His arms were dangling and almost completely severed and he smelled like pee! I quickly had to come up with plan B, as the kids notice every little detail.  Luckily I remembered a little sweater ornament that I had bought that fit him perfectly and covered his scars.  Hopefully they won’t get to close to smell him!  G has commented a few times that Tall is always wearing the sweater now, but we just tell him that he probably gets really cold going back and forth to and from the North Pole!

Another December tradition…. making fresh squeezed orange juice!

Grayson had his first orchestra concert and a piano recital last weekend.  He did an awesome job!