December and Christmas 2012

 Jamisen and his cousin Cole chilling in their leisure suits in the backyard.  I love this picture.

So Jamisen's cousin Kaitlyn came over for a sleepover at our house, and we put them both to bed, but we could tell that Kaitlyn was tired and Jamisen is always a party animal and never wants to go to bed.  So, of course when we closed the door we heard Jamisen tell Kaitlyn that he wanted to stay up and have fun, and we heard Kaitlyn say she was tired and wanted to go to bed.  Well, about half an hour passed and we heard a noise upstairs and knew Jamisen was still awake.  So Jeff goes upstairs and tells me to come up stairs and he has something to show me.  Jamisen, as he was bored and his cousin was alseep, had taken Kaitlyn's toothpaste out of her backpack and was putting the toothpaste on her legs, arms, and on her cheeks like a little prankster frat boy while she slept through the entire thing!   We could not believe it.  All he said when Jeff came through the door was, "Look Daddy...that's funny!"  Oh boy, we have a little prankster on our hands!

 Jamisen and his signature rain boot/pajama combo to help Daddy put up Christmas lights

   Little Clark Griswolds

Christmas was so magical this year with this little guy...he loved every minute of Christmas

 Christmas Sweater party at a friends house

 Christmas Eve at my grandparents

 He loved Christmas morning...put out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer...and opening presents in pajamas...

 He is obsessed with stuffed animals

 Jeff and his beloved new guitar

 We went up to the cabin in the afternoon on Christmas day to play in the snow...so nice to be able to just drive up and have a snowy Christmas.  Jeff and the boys on shovel duty.

                 Little guys loving their snowball fights

 Yummy crepe place up in Shaver Lake

Jamisen loving his superhero costume for Christmas

Rest of October and November 2012

"Mitt Romney" and "The Speed Bump"

We went to a fun Halloween Party hosted by our friends Ashley and Jake Tracy at their wedding business venue, "The Clovis Castle".  Jeff went as Mitt Romney and I went as a "speed bump" with a "Bump Ahead" sign attached to me, as I was 7 months pregnant.                                      

Jamisen had a Halloween dress up day at preschool with all his class and they all looked adorable

                                  Family home evening pumpkin carving...Jamisen's hand pumpkin

                                As you can tell, this little pirate was excited to go trick or treating

Stopping by Nana and Papa's house for some candy!                       

 Jamisen and his ward friends trick or treating

We welcomed a new addition to our family in October...for Jamisen's birthday we git him a fish (we thought it would be a nice preparatory pet since he really wants a dog)...and Jamisen named him "Popcorn".  So welcome Popcorn the fish.  Makes it really weird when we want to watch a movie and someone says, "Hey let's eat popcorn!"  We are still trying to figure out how he come up with that name.

My cousin Brad got married in October to an amazing and beautiful girl named Morgan...the wedding was beautiful...see the amazing photos of their outdoor wedding reception that my cousins decorated themselves.

                                                           Jamisen and Kaitlyn dancing

Jamisen was a party animal at the reception...maybe it was because it was way past his bedtime and he was just loopy, but he and his daddy danced the night away to every song.

Our garden got taken over by our string bean plants...we definitely had more string beans than we knew what to do with, and as you can see Jamisen LOVED to pick them.

It was so neat to finally see our blood orange and clementine mandarin orange trees sprouting fruit!!

In November we got to see a Fresno State football game.  My cousin Cameron plays for the team, so he hooked us up with tickets.  Thanks Cameron!  Go Bulldogs.

                                                                  Thanksgiving hutch

Ahoy Matey! Happy 3rd Birthday to our Pirate Jamisen!

Jamisen turned 3 on October 16! It's hard to believe our little guy is getting so grown up.  Ever since we went to Disneyland in the spring Jamisen has been obsessed with Pirates.  We took him on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride not knowing that is was probably a little too scary for his age.  He was terrified of the whole ride and hid on my shoulder but then somehow ever since he can't stop talking about it.  He will take blank pieces of paper and pretend they are maps for his "treasure hunts" and at night he likes us to make up pirate bedtime stories.  So it only seemed fitting that we would celebrate with a pirate party!

I got a little carried away with the theme and had fun coming up with a spread of pirate food. 

We had pirate sails (pizza), catch of the day (goldfish crackers), pirate booty popcorn, pirate jewels (grapes), cannon balls (olives), ships and dip, polly's crackers, sea water (bottled water) and pirate's brew (homemade root beer). 

I learned an important lesson about  throwing a birthday party for 3 year olds....you don't need centerpieces! These seriously lasted on the tables for the first 10 seconds of the party and then the kids were running around with them and burying their treasure chests around the yard!

When the kids arrived at the party they got to dress up like a pirate.  Jeff did face painting and then they could put on eye patches, pirate hats and handkerchiefs. 

Cousin Cole and Jonathon and Caleb Tracy 

 Cousin Carson, Brecken Pierson, cousin Kaitlyn and Addi Pierson

The kids had fun "walking the plank"

Present Time!

Caleb Tracy, Cousin Carson, Jamisen, Jonathon Tracy, Addi Pierson, Cousin Kaitlyn, Dean Smith, Cousin Cole, Nate Pedersen, Ava Cannon (not pictured: Lyla Cannon and Leah Dendesian)

Jeff did not disappoint with this year's cake! He made such a fun treasure chest full of edible jewels.  Can you tell Jamisen is one happy boy ready to dive in?