Catching up....

SOOOOOOO.... long story short (ish). During our summer vacation at Prineville Reservoir I broke my camera. You know the one that just out lived it's warranty... So I have NO pictures for many events so let me "sum it up" We went boating, imagine pictures of all my kids doing fun things behind the boat, even Ruth on the tube! Both my older brothers and their families moved closer to us. One only 3 blocks away with his wife Mechelle and their 6 kids, and the other moved to West Linn with their 3 kids. It is like heaven for us! My parents also moved to Brooks! It is so much fun and amazing for us to have our family mostly close! Just waiting for my little sister Emily to make the move. But during all this moving we had lots of cousins staying with us off and on while the parents were making the big move so it was a summer with LOTS of kids in the house! Many days there were 11 or more kids!!! You can also imagine I went to Las Vegas for 4 days to be with my sister and we got to fulfill a life long desire and see NKOTB Although I think I did post that! So imagine again if you want! Then later in the summer with no camera still I took my niece Johnnie to a One direction concert in Seattle. Since it was there I took Amelia and her friend Jocie and we stayed with my cousin over night and then went to the American Girl Doll store the next day! It was Awesome. I wish I had pictures of the banana split we shared!!! You can imagine it was HUGE and went across the entire table but the 4 of us ate that bad boy! Imagine the first day of school when Ethan went to 8th grade, Brock 6th, Amelia 4th, Hayden 1st. First year of just me and my baby Ruth home all day on our own. LOVING IT! Imagine Brock playing his first year of tackle football and loving it, Ethan running his first year in X-country loving that, Amelia doing a second season of volleyball Loved it, and Hayden doing her first year ever of soccer, and of course loved it! In the middle of that mom taught dance lessons, Brock and Amelia did piano lessons and Brock also did guitar lessons. It was a CRAZY fall and throw in the Holiday Bazaar and two birthdays. Ruth turned 4 on October 9th, and Hayden turned 7 November 10th. We took Ruth to the carousel for her big day and it was lots of fun! Hayden got to go the Chuck E. Cheese with all her cousins and she got her ears pierced. Also imagine that Hayden went from having hair half way down her back to having a super cute bob cut. It was bitter sweet but it looks so great on her and she cries a lot less when it is time to do hair! Simple enough right.... I need a nap just remembering it. After the bazaar all the sports were over and things quieted down a bit, down to just dance and music lessons. AHHHHH almost quiet (ish).
Then imagine I had a camera on Halloween and Ethan dressed as a Ranger (some book character), Brock was Percy Jackson, Amelia was an Egyptian princess, Hayden was Ariel, Ruth was "Po- Punzel" (Rapunzel). They looked great and got LOTS of candy.
I did get a camera a few weeks ago and I will share a few of the things that have happened since

We went to the carousel with all the cousins to see Santa arrive on the train! This was so much fun but super crowded! We didn't stay long enough to visit with Santa the line was super long! We got lunch and then went to get a Christmas tree

We decorated our tree

Ruth loved to catch the dog and read her Christmas books

I sewed new stockings for our family. I have wanted to do this for years! Thanks to my AMAZING sister in law I finally did it!!! (I am loving having her here I am getting to do all kinds of fun projects!!!)

I also added our 5 new hands to our tree skirt for the year! We started the second row!!!

Amelia sang at the capital with the school choir

We also had a dance recital but I have no pictures because someone hid my camera and I didn't have time to look for it. But the girls did a very good job and had rainbow colored tutus and danced to all music from Madagascar movies.

Uncle Sunny was a wise man at the stake nativity, Ethan and Brigham was a Shepard, and Johnnie was and angel. 

Ruth was in awe of the baby "Jesus" He (she) was a real baby and it was so beautiful.

After the live nativity we drove to see the Christmas lights in Keizer. We loved that! 

To top things off a truck backed into my van while it was parked, then 3 days latter it was snowy and I slid through a stop sign and was hit by and Expedition.... Our van was not "totalled" but to us we took it as a sign that we should be done. We got our insurance money out of it, and sold it after it had been listed on Craigslist for less then and hour!! (NOT JOKING!) So we just bought a newer van but I don't have pictures because we just brought it home and it is dark. So maybe I will post again soon. Not that anyone reads this anyway but for my future reading, or remembering... 

I am sure there were many other big things that happened but since there are no pictures I can't remember them now. Maybe I will remember them later and post.