Dazed and Confused

Tonight we did Ethan's birthday party.  It went great and everyone had fun.  I find myself feeling both lost and content at the same time because I have no holiday, party, or performance for 30+ children to plan for, as far as I can tell, at least six months.  Maybe I'll actually play with my kids...But before doing that, here are the fun birthday things from the party.  I'd like to thank all the various lego enthusiasts out there who provided me with a plethora of ideas for the party, and pinterest for cataloging them so nicely in one location.

I cannot believe that I have a seven year old!  We went to a baptism for a girl from our ward today who just turned 8, and that is going to be us in a year.  I got all teary-eyed just thinking about it!!  I'm gonna be a mess, but a happy mess.  So, I'm inviting all you out of town family members (oh, wait, that's all of you) now for New Years at my house next year.  

Pictures of Christmas

The Christmas tree is down, the presents are put away, but here a few pictures from our christmas for you.

The super fun Brights' Ugly Sweater Party.  There was also a contest for the mustaches to go along with the ugly sweaters.  I was happy when Dylan shaved his off the next day, so I was no longer married to a creepy looking guy!!  The last picture is a horrible picture of us, all washed out, but it shows my horrendous sweater the best, complete with gold and "diamond" heart with girl bowling necklace.  I got runner-up for the girls.  That Alissa, she can throw a party.  Lots of laughs! 

Also, here are some pictures from Christmas eve and Christmas morning:

Our Little King Herod

Wiseman offering gifts to our Tanner, now converted to baby Jesus

Joseph and Mary

My Christmas present!  I'm soooo excited.  Thanks Santa.

Tanner using some innovation to remove his christmas presents from wrapping

Some chewbacca love

Carter holding the awesome Ironman comic artwork from Cami

Ethan setting up the Angry Bird's game that Soren made

We had a great Christmas Eve day playing at the beach.  I missed being with family, but having a warm Christmas was pretty wonderful too. 

Making Christmas

This has got to be a record year for completion of made christmas presents, so here is a tribute to the made christmas presents that I can remember being made. Siblings and Mom, since your combined memories will serve us better, add comments with any additional gifts I have missed.

Not pictured:  Ethan's Angry Birds from Katie

Soren's Puzzle Blocks from Amy

Mom's Candle from Carter

Checkerboard with footprints from baby Ethan

Amy's nutcracker from Cami

Cami's knit hat from Amy

Logan's playing cards from one of my little ones

Ammon's "trapdoor"

Isaac's superman stool from a Hawkes

Logan and Soren's shirts with Eat more Veggies from Amy

Mom's greeting cards from Katie

Soren's tent playhouse from Amy

Isaac's castle from Dad

Ammon's mocassins from Dylan

Dylan's firestarter leather case from Dad

Amy's wand and cape from extended family

Carter's Nacho Libre cape and hat from Ammon

Cami's Magic Kit from Ken and Jen

Dad's apron from Carter

Amy's Treatise on Cooking from Dad

Baby Carter's cloth balls from Cami

Amy's treasure box from Isaac

Back from Projectland and Berkeley

Sorry to my loyal blog fans for my hiatus from posting.  Since our last episode, here are some of our going-ons.

1.  The first two weeks of December, I basically spent every spare moment (and some not-so-spare moments) working on made christmas presents and reading books.  I am so proud for having all four of my made presents sent off with a week to spare.  Certainly a record for me.  And I'm excited to show off several of the gifts we made, and plan on soon doing a blog post of all the made gifts I can remember making or being made, so you siblings and mom will have to add to my list with your memories.  Like this little apron that was from when I was my boy's size:

2.  Did various christmasy things, all of which I have no good photo documentation of, like the Lighted Boat Parade on the bay, seeing santa a few times, organizing the primary kids to do the nativity program at the church christmas party.  "Organizing" is certainly the wrong word for it.  The 3-5 year olds held little cardboard animals, and the highlight of the program was certainly our little buddy Maverick using his sheep as a machine gun to shoot the audience during the scripture reading.  His dad nicely coined the phrase "ma-sheep-gun."  Also, I made a lego star topper for our tree this year.  It's about the only ornament that is left, with Tanner and all. 

3.  Went up to San Francisco to visit Cami who was visiting Dan.  I had a great little trip.  AND I am now able to answer Dylan's tough question he's been asking me this month of "Where do you want to move when I quit my job?"  I LOVED Berkeley. Dylan immediately shot me down due almost entirely to liberal politics.  But I'm ready.  It has interesting people, interesting buildings, and beautiful weather.  What else is there to want?  Here is the view from the lawn of the hotel we stayed in while we were there:

The energy of San Francisco is always so refreshing (besides the driving) and I always wonder why I don't spend more time there.  We went across the golden gate bridge to the children's discovery museum (and added Sausalito to that aforementioned list...).  Cami has the pictures on her camera of actual people, but here's one of the museum without kiddos in view:

Here are a few pictures of the fun chaos that Cami captured:

 

4.  Ethan has a new look, just in time for Christmas

Watch for pictures from the Ugly Sweater Party we are attending tomorrow evening.  They are sure to be a hit!  Have a merry christmas!

Ay, Mateys!

Here is the reveal of Carter's bed.  It turned out so awesome.  Dylan was responsible for almost all of this including the design, but I did the sail and the painting on it, and we're all excited about it.  So, here are the pictures for those who I haven't shown it off to yet.

The front of the bed with storage. There is also a storage area underneath the mattress.

The cannons are attached to the bed well enough that the boys can climb up onto the bed using them.

The mast and sail have a pully system, so you can raise the sail up and down.

P.S.   I know all these pictures are with the wrong child, but Carter really loves the bed just as much.

This momma gig.

And here is the reason it is all worth it.

Snow!

Yeah, that's right.  We Californians can do snow occasionally.  We had an awesome weekend trip up near Yosemite with our friends who have a cabin up there and hit the weather just right because we had such a pleasant snowy time!  We didn't end up making it up to actual Yosemite because of all the snow, but I will go back, and eventually make it there.  It's only been like 9 years that I've lived in California and never gone!  Anyway, we had so much fun sledding down the stair ramp that the dads made, throwing snowballs, drinking hot chocolate by the fire, and playing games.  I must admit I am happy to be warm again, but it was so fun!  Here are the highlights in photos (Yay Amy for taking pictures of an adventure for once!!)

Happy Halloween

Here are this year's costumes. I feel bad bragging, but they were so awesome this year. And we won 1st place 6-11yrs, 1st place and 2nd place adults, and best in show for the whole family at the ward halloween party. I had sooo much fun this year, and managed my time a lot better, so I got everything done and my house and family didn't suffer too much. Because of how many small random components there are to each costume, I have done a flikr picture (click here) to walk through them all. I really love Halloween and now sadly must return to normal life.