Trees Are Up!

I finally got James to haul out the big tree. The boys watched Christmas movies all day, I made almond roca and the last tree is up. Christmas is in full swing at the Dodge house!

Civil War 2013

The entire game was a nail biter but in the end the Ducks won by one point in the last 30 seconds...aghhhhhh!

Cinnamon Hearts 2013

The boys and I made cinnamon hearts for the first time and oh baby did house smell delicious while they were baking!

Spirit Week 2013

The boys are lucky to have such a fun daddy during spirit week at school. He made them special hard hats with their names on them for "dress like dad day" and he colored their hair purple & red for "crazy hair day". They also had pajama day, hat day and beaver/duck day.

Return of Jingles the Elf 2013

The boys woke up to a big surprise...Santa left them a special breakfast to kick off the return of Jingles the elf! He left them donuts, green milk, Christmas activity books & headbands and even a letter. It told them that Jingles requested to be assigned to their house again this year and how proud he was of them for working so hard in kindergarten and at wrestling. It also gave them a list of examples of "nice" things and "naughty" things so they could try to do all the "nice" things and none of the "naughty" things. The boys were super stoked that Jingles was back!

Thanksgiving 2013

We are so thankful that both of our families live so close that we are able to see everyone on the holidays. We went to both the Raymond and Dodge houses and definitely ate our fill. After explaining what events the day would entail to the boys Brock said "WOW it's like a big turkey party!"

Halloween 2013

School, cousins, friends...Oh My! Halloween was a fun filled day and by the end we were all ready for bed. I was lucky enough to get the afternoon off from work so that I could help out with the boys' party at school. They all got to dress up in their costumes and parade across the stage in front of the whole school during a special assembly. The teachers all dressed up like hippies and the 5th graders did a dance to "What did the fox say". During their party they got to decorate cookies, make foam pumpkins and wrap each other up like mummies in toilet paper which was a BIG hit! They left on a sugar high from all the snacks and with goody bags. After school we hung out a nana and papa's house for a bit before making our rounds out to grandma & grandpa Dodge's house, Aunt Tia's and Aunt Calli's. Our icing on the cake was the most insane trick-or-treating I've ever experienced. Alden, Calli and I get trick-or-treating rock star awards just for making through the crowd, smoke machine, flying bats and light show without losing one child. Parent of the year award right hear for coming home with the same number of kids that we left with. That might not seem like a big deal to you if you've never trick-or-treated the neighborhood that the Forrester family is currently living in. Carmen handed out 800 pieces of candy that night!

Downtown Trick-or-Treating 2013

This was Murray's first experience with trick-or-treating so what better way to show him what it's all about than to take him downtown and throw him in a crowd of hundreds of costumed children right? With only a little bit of drizzle it turned out to be a fine morning for a bit of Halloween fun!

Soccer Team Pic 2013-14

The boys had their last soccer game last weekend and Mason got 3 goals! We celebrated afterwards with a team pizza party. The boys had so much fun this season that they weren't ready for it to end! They are bummed that they have to wait until spring to start up again.

Fall Photo Preview 2013

We had Tamara Hamiliton take some fall photos of us this year and love love love how they turned out! This is something I've been wanting to do for the last few years and have just never got around to it. Here is a preview of some of the pics....

Fall Sugar Cookies

The boys had fun decorating fall cookies with their Aunt Calli and cousins Javon & Olivia. Their favorite part however was eating them :)

...And The Tooth Fairy Returns

Well it's only been two weeks and Brock has lost yet another tooth! This is his 3rd tooth that he's lost already! It did help that daddy accidentally hit him in the face with his bike helmet yesterday :)

Bauman's Farm 2013

What an amazing autumn day! It was the perfect day to spend at Bauman farm as a family. The boys had a blast with all the fall activities and of course it wouldn't be Bauman's without some apple cider donuts and some fresh apple cider to drink.