December 2015

We started our December with our annual friends Christmas party.  This one took place on a party bus out to Kuna.  Festive attire was optional:

Best part of the night was watching these two tear up the dance floor:

Ryan went on a guy's ski weekend so the kids and I made cookies:

And I gained 10 pounds.  We visited the botanical gardens where Drew watched the trains like this for a good hour:

And got to visit with Santa:

Love that he is wearing his sister's gloves. I don't know about you, but nothing says Christmas like a Snoop Dogg concert:

My fellow concert goers (love these two!):

Drew had his Christmas program and we somehow convinced him to wear a button up shirt and a bow tie (major win!):

My little angel:

My little devil:

Papa and GiGi had fun watching him perform:

And they got to see Santa, again:

Behold, the only two photos I took on Christmas:

Such a bad Mommy.  On Christmas day we headed up to Sun Valley for some skiing and relaxation:

Don't look really relaxed in that picture, but whatevs.  New Year's Eve we hosted an engagement party for Krista and Chase:

And ended the year shutting down Whiskey's:

And then began 2016 in style at Grumpy's:

So long 2015.  Not sad to see you go, it was a bit of a rough one.  So excited to see 2016!

2015 Christmas Card Outtakes

The last half of the year blew by me and I forgot to schedule family pictures for our Christmas card, so we had to do it the old fashioned way.  This proved to be harder that it sounded as we were battling the frigid cold outside and the fact that my son rarely has a normal smile in his pictures.  Our Drew man is quite the class clown, which I find endearing, until you have to take family photos.  We must have taken over 100 and maybe 2 turned out okay.  Here are some outtakes:

November 2015

November had us up in Sun Valley two times - one for Thanksgiving and another time to visit Aunt Anna and help her prepare for Baby Girl Parker.

Before our trips we had some fun getting treats at the Co-op:

That boy loves his chocolate!  The first trip up to SV was just me and the kids as Ryan was "working" at a conference down in San Diego.  We got to stay at Anna's new house.  I think the kids enjoyed it:

We took the kids and dogs out for some fun in the snow:

And then it was on to Starbucks where these two played like angel's and let Anna and I visit for awhile:

We successfully wore both kids and dogs out that day:

 We headed up two weeks later for Thanksgiving and got to enjoy all the snow they got since we had last been up there:

The only picture I got on Thanksgiving was this family selfie:

Oh and a picture of Drew with "Windie" the Pooh eating his 100th apple of the day - this kid eats more apples than anyone I know:

After we headed home we got a visit from cousin Drew and his new puppy Grady.  We got to babysit him while cousin Drew went out to dinner.  Little Drew took his task very seriously:

Mack and Grady got along swimmingly:

Riley and Grady, not so much:

By the end of November all of us pretty much felt like this:

Bring on December!

Baby Shower for Baby Parker

Prior to Halloween, my cousin Krista and I hosted a baby shower for Anna and Baby Girl Parker.  Thankfully for my, Krista is unbelievably talented when it comes to decorations and all that stuff.  In hindsight I don't really feel like I added much to this shower, but it was fun to be a part of it.  Krista got a bunch of great pictures which you can find on her awesome blog the brass blossom.

So the only pictures I got were of the desserts, and more importantly the burnt carmel cake from Cristina's, which was tdf . . .

This little girl was a big help and had a permanent spot next to the desserts:

As this was Baby Girl Parker's only baby shower there were a ton of presents to get through:

You can already tell that this little lady is so loved . . .