Aunt Aleta comes to visit...

Long time with no updates! January was kind of a cold, boring month here. The highlight of the whole month was when my sister Aleta (Ali) came for a few days to visit! The kids were so excited! We had a great time--we walked downtown around the Memorials--it was very cold but
Ali is from Michigan so she's used to that kind of cold. We also went to the American History Museum (my favorite) and went to the top of the Washington Monument which everyone liked. Thank you Ali for coming--we love you! Come back soon with whole family.


Ali and girls at the WWII Memorial and Cameron at the Washington

One of my favorite picture spots in DC--the tidal basin with the Jefferson in the back.

Our family enjoying our DC year downtown (even though it is soo cold in these pictures!)

Kelsey at the Jefferson Memorial.

These are just a few of the thousands of porta potties downtown left over from Barack's inauguration which happened a few days before this. It was called the "largest porta potty event" on record. Pretty funny to see them all lined up everywhere!
Many of you have asked if we went to the inauguration and the answer is NO! They shut down most major roads into downtown, and there were over 2 million people in a pretty small area--it sounded like a nightmare to make it downtown and I can't imagine taking 3 kids. If Blaine and I could have just gone without kids and not worried about being gone for a really long time I think we would have tried. But it was also about 20 degrees that day, so we just stayed at home and watched it on TV--until Blaine had to turn off the tv because he couldn't listen to Barack any longer.

Christmas morning fun...

Santa came! He ate the cookies and drank the milk we left for him! It was amazing! He really spoiled the kids too. We had a really fun Christmas day. We are Capt'n Crunch for breakfast ( a real treat!) played with new presents all day and went to the Moore's in the afternoon for a yummy Christmas dinner and fun. Christmas is so fun--especially with these sweet kids!

Ellie got a Kitty from Santa that she named "Fluffy"

Cam and Dad in their new BYU Hats

Ellie was so happy with her new Diamond Castle barbie.

Santa brought Cam this new Star Wars tank that he really wanted.

Kelsey loves her new doll house!

Christmas Eve

We went to our friends house for a Christmas Eve dinner and Nativity play. We had a really nice time.

Ellie twirled and danced around being an "angel".

Kelsey was thrilled to be Mary. She really played up the part and at the end said, "I am so proud of myself for being such a good Mary."

Cameron made a wonderful shepherd AND a wise men (we were short on kids so he played both.)

My Christmas Present...

My kids (and my husband) agreed to wear their Christmas outfits and let me take pictures with no fuss for me as a "gift" to me for Christmas. They looked great. Its fun to dress them up. Thanks Gma and Gpa for the cute outfits!!

Santa Claus came to our Ward Christmas Party. The kids were pretty excited to sit on his lap. I wasn't sure if Ellie would do it but she climbed right up there and asked him for a kitty. We (Blaine and I) love when Santa is coming because if the kids are being bad, all we have to do is say, "Okay, I'll go call (or email) Santa and tell him your not being very good and he might put you on the bad list." They are good pretty fast after that!  We are all getting very excited for Christmas!!

Bring on the Gingerbread!

We had our 6th Annual Blood Family Gingerbread House party this last weekend. As always--it was lots of fun with lots of candy, and we were able to get to know some people from church a little better which is good. Our kids love this party, because its basically a free for all with the candy. 

Blaine was creative enough to "personalize" our house this year with our name. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent 4 1/2 days in Pittsburgh (or "Picksburgh as our kids call it) with our brother and sister-in-law for Thanksgiving! We had a great time! We had a delicious Thanksgiving feast, and instead of shopping the day after Thanksgiving--we went to the Dino Museum which was really cool. Thanks to Phil and Lisa for a really great time. It's a Thanksgiving we'll always remember together.