The Stacey Side

On Christmas Eve we headed down to Orting for the Stacey side of the family (my mom's side....and yes, that is where I got my name) :) It was a great time and a fabulous dinner! Unfortunately we were rather remiss about taking photos so I have very few to share.


After dinner entertainment


Santa's helpers


The four generations


Our only family photo from the holidays....I swear we are the worst at remembering to take family photos! By the time we remember the kids are exhausted and don't want to cooperate. Maybe my new years resolution should be to take more family pics!

Christmas with Nana and Papa

Since Nana and Papa were at our house for Christmas, we had an early Christmas with them. The girls LOVED their presents - the tools were by far the biggest hit. I just hope they don't try to use any real tools in the same way they use the toys (can you say drilled out teeth?)




Opening new Hello Kitty jammies which were immediately put on for the rest of presents

Arnold Family Christmas

The girls really got into Christmas this year which made it so much fun! We only got the girls a couple things each because they had a great big together gift - a bouncy house!! Oh boy was that the hit of the year! Josie learned the word "bounce" very quickly!






New Christmas jammies - this is the closest I got to the two of them together (and in front of the tree)...maybe next year! ;)


The bouncy house!!!!!

Holiday Festivities

We did some fun holiday festivities this year and I decided to just combine them all into one post since I'm so far behind and I'm feeling a little lazy ;)

Christmas Tree
This year was fun as both girls were helpers with the tree. Kelsey loved decorating and finding all of the ornaments with her name on them. Josie thought it was fun for a while but got discouraged since Mommy kept taking away the "balls" which she wanted to play with :) I thought Josie would be the problem child with the tree but it was actually Kelsey who just wanted to play with all the ornaments and tote them around in her purse :)






Alas, I could not get both girls to sit in front of the tree to save my life - so here is our finished product sans helpers :)


Annual Holiday Gathering
Every year around Christmas we get together with the Doehnes, Worsleys and most years we have the Hoveys as well. Sadly they weren't able to come into town this holiday season. You were greatly missed Hoveys! In past years we've gone on the Santa Train but we didn't get tickets in time so we just did our annual dinner which was fun as always!


This is the only picture the boys sat still for - the rest of the time they were ALL OVER! :)


The "big kids"


Movie time!




Preschool Party
Kelsey's preschool party was a hit as usual and she even got brave enough to go near Santa - with the help of her friend Tehya :)



Josie LOVED the cookie room....she kept trying to go back in and frost more!




Woodinville Wonderland
We checked out the Woodinville Wonderland light show this year since it was so much closer now! It was so pretty! The girls thought it was pretty neat to watch all of the lights dance to the music - and of course the free candy canes were a huge hit as well :)





Gingerbread Houses
We did our annual gingerbread house making at the Worsley's again this year. Sadly my frosting abilities have not improved over the past three years but hey - its the effort that counts right?





Christmas Cookies
What Christmas wouldn't be complete without cookies for Santa (and visiting relatives) :)

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we headed down to Nana and Papa's house for their first time hosting since they moved to Oregon. We decided to head out a day early due to predicted snow and ice and boy are we glad we did! Seattle was a traffic nightmare the next day and we were safe and warm! Oregon did get a bit of snow but not nearly as much as the Seattle area did.

Nana and Papa made sure we had LOTS to eat for the holiday week and kept us all entertained with tax free shopping, a great bouncy house and park playdates. Thanks Nana and Papa for such a wonderful holiday! We're very thankful for having such wonderful parents/grandparents!!


Waving "Hi' to Nana in the window


Someone was so excited about the snow she went out in her jammies!




Kelsey in jumping heaven


Josie LOVED the ball pit! We couldn't get her out of it!


Enjoying some football game time treats






Josie kept taking her cracker and putting more cheese spread on it to lick off. She was a MESS!


Fun at the park


Burning off some of the yummy food!

Happy Halloween!

The girls had a GRAND time this year at Halloween! Kelsey in past years has been rather hesitant about trick or treating but this year she was ALL over it! She had no qualms about going up to people's doors and shouting trick or treat ;) At least she remembered to say Thank You each time! Josie also had a lot of fun going up with the big kids and grabbing the candy. Both crashed out when we got home!


Enjoying a mini-pizza party with the neighborhood kids before heading out


Our little bucket head


The gang - Josie, Alivia, Tehya, Kelsey and Matt


First house of the night






Matt was so sweet with Josie. He took her hand at one point and said "do you want to hold my hand sweetheart?" She stuck with him most of the night and refused to hold anyone else's hand. So adorable!

Overachiever

Josie has really become quite the chatterbox lately. Every day she seems to have something new to say. Here are a few samplings from snacktime today



She has also started using the potty occassionally. Yesterday she peed at least five times in a two hour span (she found it so exciting she kept going in to try) plus pooped once. Hopefully she transitions a little more easily than a certain 3 year old did :)

She's Crafty

We've been having a blast doing different Halloween crafts here at home and at school. Here are some samplings of Kelsey's work. The ghosts are her and Josie's cute little feet. My favorite is Kelsey's witch - complete with broom.