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.

Playing in the snow!

Our kids rarely have seen snow so they we're thrilled to have a little bit of snow to play in with their cousins in Pittsburgh. They built one great snowman all on their own and had a great time! Kelsey's snow pants made her slide down the hill which she loved!

Cameron was in his 1st grade Thanksgiving play last week. He is dressed like a Pilgrim of course and did a great job delivering his line about "Q" which stands for a "quiver" that the Native Americans used to hold their arrows to hunt food for the big feast. Way to go Cam!

All I want for Christmas....

I took all three kids to the dentist yesterday (yes, all three--I wanted to just get it over with!) 

Cameron was so brave! His two front teeth were pretty loose, so the dentist  pulled them both out. He looks so cute. The toothfairy visited him of course, and we know what he wants for Christmas now--his two front teeth. 

Kelsey on the other hand, hates the dentist.  We finally convinced her to get in the chair, and I warned the girl that she throws up REALLY easily, and they started cleaning her teeth and Kelsey promptly threw up all over her, the chair, and the girl cleaning her teeth. Then we had to coax her into at least letting the dentist count her teeth and clean her teeth with some gauze instead of "spinny toothbrush" that she hates. She's thrown up every other time she's been to the dentist--so its just not a good thing for her. 

Ellie has been crying the last week and waking up in the night crying that her mouth was hurting and I couldn't see anything in her mouth or a new tooth or anything, so I took her also to see if the dentist would look at her. She did NOT want to open her mouth either, and she looked right at the dentist and said very slowly and clearly, "LEAVE ME ALONE".  We finally got a peek in her mouth and he saw a sore on her tongue where she had bit it and that's what was hurting her. She doesn't have a high opinion of the dentist either now. What a  fun afternoon that was!

Welcome Christian!

My dear friend Natalie Moore had her baby today.  He was born about month early! He is perfect! He was 6 pounds 12 oz.  I've been around now to see all 4 of her boys when they were born. I feel so happy to be here in Virginia to see Christian today too. Sure love the Moore's!