Christmas Morning

What better way to show you how fun our Christmas morning was than a little video?  Love my new camera and that it is so easy to put these things together!  Enjoy!

1000!

For the past four years, Gordon has set a goal to run 1000 miles during the year.  This has been the first year that he accomplished this goal!  We are so proud of him and say yay Daddy!  We're so glad you didn't have any injuries to disrupt your running this year.  After he finished his last miles, we had a little celebration breakfast for him.  Way to go!

Now I am left wondering what the new goal will be for next year!

Christmas Eve

This Christmas has been a "Wilde Family Christmas!"  We were lucky enough to have Gordon's entire immediate family come to town.  Each of the siblings (Gordon and his two sisters) that live here in Portland hosted another family.  On Christmas Eve, we all got together at our home for a Christmas Eve feast and fun.  I only snapped a few pictures, but I wanted to post. . .

Here is our little Cousin Kaylee (Joseph's).  We loved watching Kaylee eat.  She loves her food!  As a person with NO children who love to eat like this, it is really fun to watch.

 Here are most of the cousins. . .  That's Carolyn (Keren's) back by the bookshelf and Austin (Joseph's) closest to the camera.

 Dad Wilde

 There were 25 people here so eating happened all over the house.  It was fun!

 Here is Angelina, on bedrest with her first baby, enjoying dinner.  We were so glad she got permission to come!  Just a few more weeks and we'll have a dozen cousins.  Can't wait!

Here we are serving up dessert.  Chocolate Custard Pie!  Everybody's favorite!

And here is the whole group together, minus Grandma Tolman and Karen her daughter who were here for a visit.  Oh, and Calvin who was sleeping (for the first time in 3 days).   Merry Christmas! .

Aidan's Holiday Concert

This morning was Aidan's little holiday performance.  Gordon got to go and brought me home this fabulous video!  Great Job Aidan!  We are proud of your progress!  Enjoy!

our Christmas Angel

Today I got to go to Emilee's Christmas Nativity at preschool.  This is always such a fun day!  She played the part of the angel that went to the shepherds.  She loved it, especially when she got to be the "dancing" angel.  Watch for her sweet "robot" moves!  I didn't know the angels did the robot.  Our church doesn't do much of this hip hop gospel stuff, so it's new for us.  Great Job Emilee!

Here is a fun video:  (filmed incidentally on the brand new video camera Gordon surprised me with last night for our anniversary.  That boy gets extra points today!  Thanks hunny!)

the kids bathroom

Well, I've been at it again.  The past month I have been working on this upstairs bathroom of the kids.  This is a picture we took before we moved in, with the old owner's stuff still in there.  But, as you can see, it is pretty bleak.  More of that beautiful honey oak cabinetry, and more "dirty white" walls.  And one MAJOR thing missing.  See anywhere to hang a towel?  There is that one tiny towel bar by the shower, but that's it.  No where for the 5 kids to hang their towels.  So, we've been planning, and FINALLY got it done!

Here's one more before.

And here is the after!  I am SO happy with how this turned out!

As you can see, I installed board and batten along the long wall, and hooks to put their towels on.  A different color for every kid, and a towel to match.  Now if there is a towel on the floor I will be able to identify the offender, stat!  :)  (sneaky mom tricks!)  I painted all the cabinetry white, removed the rubber base boards and put in real base. . .

Put in an easier to use toilet paper holder, added hardware on the cabinets, added a medicine cabinet, new toilet seat, new light switches. . .

 I painted the walls "Cinderella blue" as Emilee calls it.  It's kind of hard to identify the shade in the pictures, but it's more of a blue than shows up here.  Matches the counter top pretty well.

 One of the big experiments about this whole affair is that I SPRAY pained the cupboards and board and batten with the new spray painter that Santa delivered early this year.  I was pretty nervous about the process, and it was a lot of work taping everything off, but the end result was SO worth it.  A smooth finish that looks just gorgeous.

Many thanks to my hubby for supporting me in this little project (and putting the toilet back together), Amy for advising me to go lighter on the wall color (so happy I did!), Caleb for his tool know how and loaning of the nail gun, and patience of my children as this took me a month.  It took longer than it should have because it's right next to Heidi's room, making it hard to work through nap time.

So come on over and we'll hang out in my next favorite room in the house!  What's up next you ask?  I don't know.  Maybe a non bathroom.  I need a break from the cabinet painting.  SO MUCH WORK!  Maybe the living room, we'll see!

Happy Anniversary #14

Happy Anniversary Babe.

the Christmas Recital

Last night was Emilee's Christmas recital.  Her little ballet class did a great job!

 She loved the flowers afterwards. . .

 Great job little lady!  We love to watch you do your thing!

Here is a cute little video of the fun.  Emilee is on the far left with a bun in her hair.

Jimmer!

Last Saturday, we had the opportunity to go to the Portland Trailblazers game and see Jimmer play.  So, we took the oldest two boys and had a great time!  We had several friends come along and it was a great evening.  Jimmer came out at the end to meet quite a crowd of BYU alumni, but didn't have time to do autographs and such.  That was a bit of a bummer for Aidan, he was ready!

 But Aidan did get to go out on the floor and shoot a free throw!  Lots of  fun!  Ethan was in line to try too, but they shut it down before he got to the front of the line.  Bummer!

 It was a great time had by all!

With December has come . . .

Tinkerbell's by the Tree

 Happy Children!

 What the what?  A beard on Gordon . . .

Rachel doing her best Gordon imitation.

 Gingerbread houses!

 Happy December!

Heidi's Tree

 Thanks to Pinterest and a friend who showed this to me, Heidi has her own little tree to decorate this year!  Fashioned out of craft felt, and stuck to the bricks, she has enjoyed decorating and un-decorating this little gem over and over again.  So much fun!

Thanksgiving

I know I'm a little late with a Thanksgiving post but we had a little blip where we thought out Google drive was full and had to fix it!  But, now I'm back!

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  Just our little family.  Just a double turkey breast instead of a whole bird.  The best rolls I've ever made, and a delicious feast all around!  Ethan helped with the bird, Gordon and Aidan did the whipped potatoes, Emilee the rolls, adn Chandler the pie.  It was great!

 And I was even talked into doing the jiffy pop that's been in our cupboard for 6 months.  I must love those kids!

a preschool Thanksgiving

Here we are for the annual Thanksgiving feast at Pre-school.  In the older class this year, Emilee got to go as an Indian.  She enjoyed the feast and even requested to wear that special "emilee" necklace.  She is such a dolly.

And here is the cute prayer that they do before they're snack each day.  

Duets

Ethan has been kind enough to let me practice a Christmas Duet with him.  He is so funny when I tried to record it.  Trying so hard to make me laugh and miss my fingering.  Of course he had no problem at all even with his antics. . .

And here is Ethan and Aidan's first ever Violin/Piano duet.  Hopefully the first of many.  Good job to you both, guys!

AAAAAAaaaaaaaa. . . it's 50's Day!

Today was the 50th day of school.  To celebrate, there was a sock hop and a celebration of all things 50's!  Chandler would not believe me about what would be "50's style."  So, we called Gram and Gramp (the experts about 50's childrens wear) this morning and they gave him the run down (which was EXACTLY what I told him!).  I think he was most excited about the "jelly roll" hair.  He had a great day!

the "informance"

Thursday we had Ethan's first band "informance."  They call it that because they're still in the very beginning stages of learning their instruments.  It was great!  Sorry no videos.  :(  

 I tried to get a cute picture of Ethan, but only managed to get a picture of this cute boy who looks like he's in middle school.  Is that my son?

Great job Ethan!  We are really enjoying your music!

the Elementary Orchestra

This past Wednesday, Aidan had his first violin performance.  He has been taking violin with the beginning strings program through the school.  He doesn't hate it, but he doesn't exactly love it either.  But, I am pleased to say that he seemed to be having a pretty good time playing with the group.  He showed all the tell tale signs of  secretly enjoying himself.  So, I'm glad we get him up and out the door.

It was SO crowded.  Here are the best pictures we got.

 Can you see his little eyes peeking out there?

Here is a video.  We still can't load video's from our regular camera so this will have to do for now. . .  We were REALLY impressed with how wonderful they all sounded playing together.

Well done Aidan!  Looking forward to more performances this Spring!

Cousins Day

This past Monday we had a cousins day.  We ate pizza, played in the basement, and had a good time.  Emilee and Blake decided they are best buddies, and Chandler and Carolyn had a great time too.  Thanks for the visit cuzzies!

Emilee 2

Look who Emilee brought home from pre-school!  Why who is that little girl?

She has blonde curly hair, and looped up piggy tails!  Ribbons in her hair and a cute little dress!

 Well it's Emilee 2!  She was made at preschool!  I thought it was so cute how her teachers figured out how to curl the hair and braid it up.  So fun!  Welcome home Emilee 2!

Remembering Grandpa Tolman

Gordon's Grandpa (maternal) Tolman passed away this month.  Yesterday we had the opportunity to head up to Olympia for his memorial service and remember what a wonderful man he was.  It was so nice to see much of the family together and let the kids meet their second cousins (again!).  We get together so infrequently that it's always like meeting new friends.  But always fun!  Ethan played the piano for an hour straight for the mingling time afterwards and played like a pro.  I was so impressed with his performance yesterday and I know that Grandma Tolman really appreciated the service.  We love you Grandpa!

October Wrap Up

Halloween happened!  Heidi helped pass out candy in her bug costume.

 Alice charmed many on her way to Wonderland.

 Heidi made a few messes. . .

 Chandler donated a big bag of candy to servicemen.  Thank you hungry soldiers!

 And Ethan took this picture the other morning from his bedroom.  On a clear morning, he has the best view in the house.  Isn't that cloud over the lake beautiful?

Welcome November!  We're ready for all of your adventures. . .