Guess I will start at Halloween and work my way through. Guess what? I am not a fan of Halloween. I dont really think orange and black spooky decorations are cute, and if it were up to me I would skip it all together. But...I do have four goblins who happen to like dressing up and getting ALL THAT candy, so of course, we find ourselves knockin' on doors along with the rest of our neighborhood friends each year.
This year, Katie was on the fence as to whether she was too old for dressing up. She decided she could be an '80's girl...you know, the really wierd girls from WAAAAAYYYYY back in the 80's? I mean, like...ohmigod.
Ryan, no surprise, was a Superhero again..this time Captain America. Cute as ever.
Ethan chose Thor. I am not sure why, because he hadnt even seen the movie, but I guess it was an impulse decision while staring at Costco's selection. ( I have no clue where he gets that trait from by the way) Again, cutie patootie.
Owen was the most adorable gap tooth toddler lion ever.
So we costumed. We tricked, we treated, we tossed a good 75% of their candy when they all went to bed. Shhhhh... Here is a photo of the group all gussied up ready to take on the hood.
On to the next fun event. This year marked the start of a new tradition on my side, the Beehlers. Because dad lives up in Washington and all of us kids live here in Cali., he is unable to be with us on Christmas every year. Dads favorite holiday, however, is Thanksgiving, so we thought it was a splendid idea to celebrate "Chris-Giving", and combine the two holidays in the middle of November and have all of us together. So Dad,Cathy, Keleigh, Mikie, and our clan all had a great time together. The best part for me was seeing how happy dad was having all of his kids together. We had a great time...all of us. Memories to cherish for sure.
Lots going on here...a little music, a little Legos...and of course a little iPhone "stuff" between Kel and Dave.
Ryan saw this as an opportunity to strike up a band, and brought everyone out an instrument and had them play along. I am pretty sure we all looked quite spectacluar, but the look on Ryans face when everyone played along with his game was priceless.
she married into but we are glad to have her!
dance...and like a great Ampy..he does.
Aunt Kel is quite popular with all four kids. They actually each argue over who's turn it is to have "special time" with her. Ethans turn~
a few years ago...)
I am just going to say right here that I really love my daddy. Its always interesting how once we become adults ourselves our love and respect for our parents is different. We accept their imperfections because we realize that we are also far from perfect, and we are just plain glad to have them around when they can be. I guess I have an even stronger bond with dad because for so many years....all my growing up years, really, it was just he and I. He stepped up to the plate as a young 22 year old and became a single father...when so many other options were out there for him he traded them in for a little toe head he called Pokey. (he said I used to take forever getting anywhere or getting ready...hence the nickname).
OK, back to now. Our little Katie Rose has become quite the pianist. She is taking lessons once a week but has a natural ear for music, and can usually re-create a song after just hearing it a couple times. Amazing. She had her very first piano recital, a casual one, in November and we were just so proud of her. She played Fur Elise without any sheet music, along with Taylor Swift's song, "The Best Day", which we always said was "our song" (just try listening to it without crying), and she was flawless. I have a video of her playing, but no picture...boo.
As a semi professional photographer, Fall is usually my busy time of the year, taking family photos for the upcoming holidays. Of course, its always MY OWN family who I am trying to cram in last minute to get some type of decent photo to send out for Christmas. We went out to a friends ranch who has the coolest old rusted trucks, and here are a few shots from that day. Let me just say two things here, Owen is TWO. He needs to be bribed by lollipops to even sit still for five seconds while you try posing everyone for a family photo. And, never expect a group of young boys to arrive on a big ranch and then just "sit still". Didn't happen, but it did happen for JUST long enough to snap a good one of all four. Whew!
You can see that Owen was about to get up again...but he wasn't faster than my cameras shutter :-)
Ugh! My heart almost explodes when I look at these four kids. Love 'em to pieces.
So now we were ready for the Christmas holiday. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas. Love it! To the point of over-decorating the house way too early, bringing out the Burl Ives and Elvis Christmas CD's on the night of Thanksgiving, and all that....really. Love Love Love. And with four magical little ones to help light up the season, who wouldn't be intoxicated by it all? Things like bundling them all up in their jammies to drive around and look at the lights at night, watching them put on their holiday music performance in the living room...complete with antlers, Santa hats, and blinking Rudolph noses. THIS is what its all about. Every year when its time to decorate the Christmas tree I bring out the video camera and just let the kids all do the decorating themselves. Katie, of course, is the orchestrator and hands each little brother an ornament. Then they sing, chat, and decorate while I sit back and watch. Oh yes, the little Type A elf comes out later once they are all asleep to help "move" some of the ornaments up a little bit.
Katie is looking like she is a girl with a plan over here...
Baby it's cold outside....we love those nights by the fire
We made this handprint Christmas tree (I know, its more of a bush) this year and I am
so happy with how it turned out. All the hands helped make this gem.
Smooch!
And so the tree got decorated, and now it was time to do some baking. Katie and I thought it would be fun to do a little holiday baking with some good friends of ours, Daniela (Katies friend since first grade) and her mom, Gail (who just happens to be my buddy). Super fun...
Katie and Daniela
One of the best moments of this seasons was when we got to go caroling to homes of the elderly in our town. It was a COLD and WINDY night, but with hats, gloves, coats, and our best voices we headed out along with several other families from our 4-H club and had a great time. Ryan LOVED this, of course, because it involved music and being outside. The looks on the men and womens faces when they opened their doors to the sound of "Silent Night", "Rudolph", and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" was awesome.
Check out Ryans face below...
Another highlight to our holiday break was being able to visit my sister April and her family. April and Tim welcomed their first baby, Olivia, in July, and because of kids schedules, Daves work schedule, and geographical distance I had not been able to meet this sweet babe yet. So we were all thrilled to be able to be together and celebrate our own little Christmas...a couple weeks early. And OMG..Livy is sooooooo adorable...and CHUNKY! We hope we can keep this tradition going...I love my sis and seeing her just makes me wish we lived closer.
Cousins!
Auntie and Livy
Quick photo with Santa while we were visiting...Owen isnt too sure about this and Katie was no longer willing to be part of the "mall Santa" picture deal.
Christmas was full of family, friends, and good times. Here are a few photos from this year...
Uncle Louie surprised the kids when he drove up from Los Angeles and spent the holidays with us. We were all so happy to see him!
A pretty typical "post gift opening" scene...things being put together, batteries being installed, Owen stealing the pretzels-again.
in the theater room...Ryans favorite room of the house.
he finds one in his stocking. Score!
Checking out what Santa brought them...
our little bedheads on Christmas morning
Showing Aunt Kel some love
Ethan reads the letter Santa left....
After cleaning up from Christmas Eve, we headed down to Santa Rosa to celebrate Christmas Day with Nana and Papa and extended family. Always fun to see everyone, and with 14 grandkids running around there is no shortage of fun for the kids.
What I love about this photo is that Owen has NO IDEA what is in the box and yet he is already THIS excited. LOVE two year olds. They are just magical.
blog. This is about it as far as a family shot of us that day, but as you can see...there was too
much going on to focus on the camera in front of us. Kids looking in every other direction.....
In this photo, Papa is reading Santas letter to all the kids (and us adults).
With so many kiddos, Santa must have had writers cramp after that one...
Ryan trying out a new game on his DS
To be sure nobody ever suffers from the "post Christmas blues" over here, the L.A Hurtados come to visit and the festivities continue with a little "after Christmas" celebration with the cousins, lots of good food at Tita and Abuelo's house, and---on this particular trip, some mean match-ups of "Family Fued"--Wii style. Oh ya, we know how to party over here y'all!
So as I look at the now clean and empty looking dining room where the tree was just standing a week ago, one feeling strikes me....the need to clean MORE. Organize. I want one of those label makers...BAD! Can you imagine? I would go nuts with one of those things. We would have clarification everywhere we looked...And bins. I need more bins. I almost need a bin to put my bins into. And shelves....you can never have enough of those.....I feel this way every January.
OK, so its getting late. Almost midnight and I need to be up early to get all four kids up and out the door (Owen has no choice) to get them to school by 7:45. So for now, this is it.
But not before I put just a couple more random cute photos up.
With all the cleaning and organizing going on over here, the kids needed to get outside and since its California and still in the 60's (ha!) we headed to the park at the end of our street....here is a shot of the kiddos and their rides....
My sweet Katie. We had a girls shopping day recently and I LOVED every minute.
look...no little brothers at lunch...whew!
She turned 12 in December. Ugh! Where did THIS baby go?...
two monkeys in the tub...
Life is full right now, lively and full of noise, love, and movement in all directions. I have to remind myself every time I want to say "when will this slow down???!", that someday it WILL slow down. That day will come suddenly, I am sure...and I will probably be caught wondering where time went.
It will be quiet, and I will miss this. Even the noise...
For God's great gifts I give thanks.
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