Family in town...

We had a fun weekend with our Uncle Matt coming to visit from Utah, and our Pittsburgh family driving down to see Matt and us for a little President Day weekend party. It was a lot of fun. The kids love their Uncle Matt. He taught them some sweet new dance moves. Blaine and Matt mostly went to see the sights together because Ellie was sick and its just nice for brothers to go without kids sometimes to see stuff. We are excited for Matt because he was just accepted into George Mason University Law School which is really close to us, so if he ends up going there, and we end up staying here--we'll be together here in DC for awhile. Thanks to Phil and Lisa for making the drive so we could all be together this weekend. We are so lucky to have such a fun family!

Matt in front of the Lincoln

Our cute little Matty.

Matt and Blaine at the Lincoln (above) and Jefferson (below).


Uncle Matt proves his strength by doing push ups with the girls on his back!

Ellie loves her Uncle Matt--she didn't even call him a "dunko".

Having a fun "picnic"on the floor with cousins!!

Dog Pile!!

Here's the kids new favorite activity--"Dog Pile" on Dad!!

I would like to mention that Blaine got a 4.0 last semester in his LLM Program which is a HUGE deal for the program he's in! Way to go Blaine--you are awesome. Thanks for working so hard.

Snow!

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We got a little snow here in Virginia! The kids were excited to go and tromp around in it for a little bit. Of course, school was canceled for the day!!

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!!