"Home" for Christmas

We flew to Washington state to visit our families for Christmas this year. The first week we were there, it snowed in Puyallup! We were unprepared, but we put plastic bags over shoes over double socks and let them play. They loved it. For 20 minutes.

Mr. B's sister, Carly, came down from Seattle to visit us. We also went down to Longview and spent time with Mr. B's family, but we were all sick at that time and didn't manage to take any pictures.

Christmas morning. Ian was sick that morning, but still enjoyed seeing what Santa brought. The only picture that really turned out from our camera that morning was this one of Audrey's sweet smile. 

Christmas break

Some pictures from our trip to Washington for Christmas break (all taken by the amazing Laura Baker):

Ian has great faces.  

Audrey and Lindsey

Declan and Elizabeth

Sleepover!

I made my dad this tee shirt for the grandkids to drive cars on his back while he lies on his stomach. He though it was fabulous!

My parents with all their grandkids.

My beautiful mom and grandma. 

Ladies lunch out--I LOVE my sister/mom time. 

 I can't wait to come back and have some more FUN this time!! Ew sickness and bad weather and busy schedules, but it was definitely worth coming out. 

Family picture attempt

Welp, the Rood family may be cursed when it comes to extended family photos. We attempted a photo shoot during our Puyallup visit. The small group shots were good, but the large group was a fail. I included the best one here anyway. I'm not going to frame it though. Redo in July!

Declan's one year pictures

Declan turned one last April, and my sister took his one year pictures in June. You finally get to see them now. Ah, the plight of the third child.

Happy birthday Audrey: 6!

Audrey turned six years old on December sixth, and requested a "six" themed birthday party. So I usually make the kids' cakes, but I ordered this one from a one-woman business I recently met.

Then I made a six out of balloons, a balloon centerpiece, and the kids had a six themed coloring sheet and played a scavenger hunt game where they had to find six Easter eggs (each) hidden in the house, which contained their party favors. 

 Audrey invited a few friends from church and a few friends from school and had a good turnout and a very fun party. During the day we gave her six presents, starting in the morning with a tee-shirt my friend Amber helped me make (you can kind of see it on Audrey in the corner of this picture) and a wrapped box of Chocolate Cheerios. Then we gave her other random presents during the day, and her big present was a hula hoop--girl has skills! Her last/sixth gift of the day was a new bedtime story. I thought I did pretty well with the six theme, and she said she had a perfect day. 

 We have a video of the singing happy birthday, but forgot to take any pictures past that point, or even one of Audrey herself. I need to work on photography. I'm just usually too distracted by the actual event!

Cowgirl Audrey

Audrey had a Wild West themed day at school, and I was surprised that I could rustle up enough stuff to make it work (that's Ian's shirt). I think she's a pretty cute cowgirl! She's pretending to hold a lasso.