Santa Pics!

This years Santa Pictures went WAY better then last years. When I find the pictures from the previous years, I will post them. Both girls were super excited to see Santa, though Stella would only sit with him once I gave her a sucker. I don't know if that is good that I am giving her candy to go sit with a stranger - mixed signals much? Haha.

I bought a Groupon for Santa pics - I got half off the normal price which I was very happy about. Loni had the girls today, so he brought them up to Redmond Town Center which is where the Groupon was good for (worked out well). It is so cute here - Santa has a HUGE tree and house which he sits in to get pics done.

Why does Santa's head look incredibly flat??

Holiday Fun!

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought I would join in the fun as well:

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Egg nog at the Holidays. I can have hot chocolate any time of year!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He wraps them in special Santa-only wrapping paper. BUT if he is too tired from delivering presents to all the other kids, he will just sit them under the tree. 

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I like white lights for our tree and colored lights for the girls tree (whenever we get that put up - we are banking on next year).

4. Do you hang mistletoe? We had a mistletoe ornament which we left up in our apartment all year, but of course we couldn't find it for Christmas time. 

5. When do you put your decorations up?  As soon as I can in november. One year it was right after my birthday (Nov 2) but Loni pooh-poohed that and said never again. I like to do it at least before Thanksgiving.  

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Bacon-wrapped water chestnuts and pumpkin pie. YUM!!!

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Anxiously trying to catch Santa Clause on Christmas Eve. One year my parents  had some neighbors come tap on our windows and act as elves and I remember we were SO excited about that. 

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I think I was 8 or 9 and I remember I was SO devastated. I remember thinking...so there's no Easter Bunny either? What a blow to my sense of reality. But then again, I did think that cartoon characters were real people as well. Ha-Ha. 

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes. We let the girls open one of their gifts on Christmas eve. But we also celebrate Christmas at my parent's house on Christmas eve and open all the gifts from my family then, so the girls actually get two Christmases. 

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Simple - lights, glass balls and our random ornaments we have accumulated over the years.  

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? LOVE it as long as it doesn't last more than 2 days. 

12. Can you ice skate? Slowly. Don't expect The Cutting Edge from me, but I will venture out from the wall if I do go. 

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Ummmm......I remember I got a Huffy Bike one year for Christmas. I played with it all day Christmas and then left it on the front lawn that night....where it was promptly stolen. So that was my most favorite and most memorable gift. 

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Spending time with family, baking and all of those moments to sit and just enjoy life and how wonderful it is. 

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Pumpkin pie, caramel, chocolate, fudge, brownies, cookies....EVERYTHING!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I really like watching all of our holiday Christmas movies, going downtown, going to Bellevue Square to do our annual name draw and gift exchange, Christmas eve at my parents, breakfast dinner at my house. Basically any holiday activity we do I look forward to. 

17. What tops your tree? Nothing. We keep talking about getting a star, but I don't want to pay $25 for a star. 

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving - I really like trying to find the best gifts for everyone. I always want to give gifts to everyone, but financially we can't do it. So I apologize if anyone is left out. We really need to start focusing on Christmas earlier in the year. 

19. Candy canes: yuck or yum? Love Candy Canes. We usually get the cherry ones, but i had an original peppermint one the other day and really enjoyed it. 

20. Favorite Christmas show? National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, Family Man and Love Actually. 

21. Saddest Christmas song? The Christmas Shoes which is always on the radio!

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? My favorite Christmas CD is the Amy Grant Christmas one. My favorite song from that is Breath of Heaven. L.O.V.E. it! 

Everyone should do this - it is fun! 

Merry Christmas!

October Recap

Oh my goodness - I am SO behind in posting. We have had so much going on since October that I just feel like there are not enough hours in the day! Here is a recap of everything we did in October: 

Anniversary: Loni and I celebrated our 7th Anniversary. Can't believe it's been 7 years married, but also can't believe it has ONLY been 7 years. haha. I was talking with a friend yesterday and I realized that when I am 40, Loni and I will be celebrating our 20-year anniversary - how is that even possible??!! haha. We will have our 50-year anniversary when we are 70 (if we make it that long - hahahhahah!). There are a lot of trials with getting married young, but when you find the right person, you find the right person. Luckily Loni is everything I am not, so we end up making a pretty good team. I don't know what I would do without him.

Alright, enough gushy stuff. Pumpkin Patch: in early October, we had our annual pumpkin patch with my family. I really look forward to this activity throughout the year because it kicks off the holidays for us. We went to Maris Farms, which is always fun, but it seems like they are getting more and more expensive. We had to pay $10(!) just to get in! I think that is ridiculous so we will see how many more years we go. Luckily my mom pays, so I guess it is really how long she wants to pay that. haha. Anyways, the girls had a blast, I had a blast and Loni was ready to go by the end. My parents were actually kind enough to take the girls for us overnight so we could go celebrate our anniversary (see paragraph above). Love you Mom and Dad!

The Opfar clan sans the Weavers. Reggie - what is up with your hairline? :)

The girls at a Spider Web Thingy at the PP.

Ellis looks thoroughly enthralled, right?

The epitome of a Carnivore. In his element.

Bonus points if you can spot Ellis.

Pumpkin Painting: We were lucky enough to meet up with an old High School friend of mine, Keri and her husband Sean. To cement our new found friendship, we bonded over pumpkins and painting. It was a lot of fun though Stella and their daughter Tatum enjoyed eating the paintbrushes more than painting. Oh, well.

Keri and Tatum

Sean being artistic. Seriously, his was the best out of everyone's!

Bonus - Ellis is actually wearing clothes. 

 Pumpkin Carving: We had an FHE one Monday night where the Weavers (Gary, Lanae, Pasha and Donni) all came over and we carved pumpkins. It (again) was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed lighting them up. Too bad some stupid kid came and punched our pumpkin in about 2 days after we put it out. I hope someone punches that kids face in. (KIDDING - ok, maybe not).

Gary and Pasha getting dirty with it!

Of course, this is what Lanae did the whole time - CLEANED!

Can you tell? It is a Jack-o-latern and a Halloween Night!

Ellis' First Fieldtrip: Both Loni and I were lucky enough to be able to attend Ellis' first Field Trip in School. We went to a Pumpkin Patch up in Snohomish. It was REALLY cold, but a lot of fun. At least the sun was shining. She had a blast and the group that Loni and I had was just Ellis and her friend Azure. But there was a group of girls which all sat together. They were able to eat lunch there, pick out a pumpkin, ride in a tractor, go to a petting zoo and have popsicles - what kid wouldn't have enjoyed that day.

from L to R: Stella, Azure, Lee-Ann, Ellis (the crew!)

Ward Halloween Party - we actually bit the bullet and decided to attend our ward Halloween party. Luckily we were able to have some friends accompany us which made it even more fun. This year our ward combined with three other wards to do a trunk or treat outside so we - uh, I mean, the girls - were able to get a TON of candy. I was Donald Trump (no one knew this - they thought I was Ellen or just a lesbian), Loni was 'Cooter Pervis Weaver' a white trash guy, Ellis was Strawberry Shortcake and Stella was a knock off Tinkerbell. Our friends that came were Tim (Dog the Bounty Hunter), Megan and Olivia along with Sean (Luigi), Keri (Pirate) and Tatum (Fairy Princess) Rooth. Highlights of the night: Walking around yelling YOU'RE FIRED while no one knew what I was talking about, watching Keri have a run in with a Kate Gosselin look-a-like, who was NOT attempting to be Kate Gosselin, inside professional pictures of everyone and just enjoying our friends. I love Halloween.

The Rooth's

The Bount-ay Hunter!

This is a Hot Mess of a Family

The crew

Halloween Dinner: the Sunday before Halloween, we all got together and had a halloween dinner. I am drawing a blank as to what we actually ate, but I am pretty sure it was Halloween Themed. haha. All I know is it was fun! Marie or Pasha will have to jog my memory.

Halloween Trick or Treating: this year we stopped by my parents house before we went out. My mom gave the girls popcorn for Halloween - talk about disappointment. Haha - just kidding, they loved it. We ended up went trick or treating in a neighborhood past Petrovitsky park. It is a really cute development and easy to trick or treat, so we will prob go back. Both Ellis and Stella really enjoyed it. Of course they would. Haha.

Well that sums up October. I am sure we did a lot more in between all of that, but I can't remember any of it. Having kids has totally made me lose my memory more often then not. My kids will prob like that as they get older. Haha.

The Girls: A Comparison

I just wanted to do a little comparison of Ellis to Stella to see how similar they look. Here we go! 

Birth-day

Ellis 

Stella 

3-4 Month-ish

Ellis

Stella

9 Month-ish

Ellis

Stella

Happy First Birthday!

Ellis

Stella 

18 Mos and Counting! 

Ellis 

Stella 

Around 2-ish

Ellis

Stella

 AND! I just found these two pics of them both wearing the same hoodie! They really look like sisters, though definitely have their own looks. Stella has WAY more hair then Ellis ever did! 

Stella

Ellis