Happy 30-Something to Me!

OK not so much happy about being 30-something, but I was happy to be with my family. Thank you everyone for celebrating with me!

Grandma's House

Ashtyn in her pretty Christmas dress.

I bribed them with licorice, I wanted a picture of them in their Christmas outfits. What is Ryder doing?



I think that she finally has gotten the hang of the unwrapping. When she finally got it open, she yelled, "baby!" Then she did not want to open anymore presents until we took the baby out of the box.

Out like a light after the excitement of the day, thanks to cousin Torger for helping out!

Christmas Morning at the Hurley's

Yes, Santa had been at our house and he left a note in response to ours, "Merry Christmas, Chase, Ryder and Ashtyn!" Chase and Ryder came running to our room about 7:15 this morning. They had already walked down the stairs and they reported to us that Santa had been there and there was a tent! Ashtyn did not want to get up, when Chase and Ryder went in her room to wake her up and asked her if she wanted to get up and open presents she said, "no!". I completely understand how she felt.

"This is what I wanted!"




Ashtyn very carefully opened her gift, piece by piece she would hand them one by one to Brian to throw away. Am I creating a monster?

Thank you, everyone for all of the wonderful gifts, we are so blessed!

Getting ready for Santa

Chase lost his tooth with his dad this morning, so we were excited that we would be visited by not only Santa but also by the Tooth Fairy tonight, but Chase didn't come home with the tooth, of course. So just Santa will be coming. After the kids got their jammies on we started preparing for St. Nick...

Chase wrote Santa a quick note and here is Ryder signing his name.

I asked Ashtyn if she'd let me take a picture of her in front of the tree and she was nice enough to pose for me, with her baby in tow.

With a little help we got the milk, cookies and note for Santa ready for his late night arrival. We also sprinkled, "magical reindeer food" on the front lawn for Santa's team.

Can you feel the excitement?

Christmas Eve with Papa

After returning home from Nana's, Papa came over to celebrate with us! Ashtyn was not feeling up to taking pictures at this point, oh well. We all enjoyed our gifts, me especially as I am typing this post on my brand-new laptop! Thanks, Dad!

Christmas Eve at Nana's

The kids always play us some beautiful music at least once. Cousin Ava looked so sweet in her Christmas dress. Ashtyn and Ava were completely uninterested in opening their presents. Lucky for them their older brother's had no problem taking care of that for them.


Adam and Ryder on their best behavior and so handsome! Chase was with his dad this Christmas Eve. We picked him up on our way home from Nana's.

'Twas the Ferry Before Christmas...

Brian had an inspection today on Widbey Island so we tagged along to ride on the Ferry! Here we are waiting to get on the Ferry. We let the kids out of their seats while we waited and Ashtyn got right into Ryder's seat and started "playing" his video game.


It was very cold, but we braved the chill and went out on deck . What a beautiful view! The ferry to Widbey Island is only 20 minutes but I think that it was just perfect for the kids.

When we got back to Mukilteo, we had an early dinner at the Ivar's, to complete our Northwest Ferry day. On the way back to the car the kids, unprompted by us, started walking hand in hand. A mother's photo dream. It is so cute!

Ryder's Kindergarten Christmas Party

Chase's classroom celebration

I helped out today with Chase's Christmas party at school. I was in charge of bringing the hot chocolate and thanks to my Grandma for letting me borrow her huge coffee urn it turned out wonderful! The best part of hot cocoa is the marshmallows on top and the marshmallows were a big hit with all of the kids. A lot of fun overall, Ryder's party is tomorrow, then they are off for the winter break. It will be nice not to have to get up and ready to take the kids to the bus and school, but what are we going to do all day? I've gotten so used to them being at school during the week for most of the day.

Chase's Winter Program

Today was Chase's "Winter Program". They have to be politically correct for public school and even though they made sure to call it the Winter Program all of the songs were Christmas songs. So here is a brief video of him singing. All of the photos that my dad and I took turned out bad. He did a good job, but his nose was obviously itchy or sore because the entire time he was either touching it or crunching his nose, pretty funny.

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

We have a microphone for the Nintendo Wii, and tonight as the boys were playing video games, Ashtyn had some fun with the microphone. She picked it up and started pretending to sing all by herself. Thinking that she remembered the song from the Santa Train we started singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. It brings back memories of dressing up and singing to my favorite songs in front of the fireplace when I was little. I ran to get the camera! I guess we could have turned on some lights, it is a little dark.

Santa, trains and snow, oh my!

Today we were off to the Santa Train in North Bend. Before we left home it began to snow at our house so we hoped for snow in North Bend as well, making for an authentic Christmas train. The boys were very excited to board the train as you can see. Here they are at the North Bend Depot, no snow yet...



On the train ride to Snoqualmie, still no snow but still very fun! A cute little old man, (he told us he was 81!), came down the train aisle with a little microphone singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and Jingle Bells, we all sang along.

Brian and Kevin had better things to do...

When we arrived in Snoqualmie we waited in line to see Santa! We got a very cute picture of all of us. Santa asked the boys what did they need to explain? Were they naughty this year?

After the photo-op, Chase told Santa what he wanted for Christmas...

...then Ryder. After seeing Santa the kids got a special gift, a wooden train. Ashtyn wasn't too sure about the big guy. Santa said that he knew just the thing to bring her.

Thanks to Nana for treating the boys with tickets to the Santa train!

While still in Snoqualmie we boarded a kitchen car that served hot cocoa and cookies, yum! After our tasty treat it was time to get back on the train back to North Bend, still no snow...

Upon our arrival in North Bend the snow started to come down and hard!

Gingerbread House

It has been several years since we last decorated a Gingerbread house and I forgot how much work it is! Lena was nice enough to buy the houses for us and then her and Annie (3) and Ellie (2) came over so we could decorate them all together! All the kids wanted to do was to eat the candy rather than decorate the houses, but in the end it was a lot of fun and we all did a pretty good job. It was nice to see Lena and the girls before Christmas!

A Star is Born

Ryder did an amazing job at his Christmas Program. He sang the first verse of, "Go tell it on the Mountain". Many of the parents and teachers were telling Brian and I how good he was! Great-Grandma, Papa Kent and Papa Jeff were there also to witness the greatness. I had to zoom in with my camera and unfortunately the camera would not focus, but you can still hear him sing.