Testing out my new "signature"

So I have seen that other people have this cute signature piece on their blogs but could not figure out how they did it. Well, my lovely, talented and creative sister-in-law showed me how. Thanks Ashley! So what do you think?

Visiting Santa
So last year due to all the snow and cold weather we never made it up to Seattle to follow our tradition of seeing Santa. However, we are so glad because we discovered Santa at the South Hill Mall. All I have to say is "I BELIEVE!!!"

The Nutcracker...

The Living Nativity
We visited a living nativity at a local church for the first time this year. Wow! It was so neat! They had it set up so you walked through the streets of Bethlehem and walked through the story of Jesus' birth and you end up at the stable with Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. It was such a neat experience and the kids loved it. We will definitely do it again next year.

'Tis the Season
This year we have officially decided to be more intentional with what we do during the Christmas season. We want to make lasting memories and traditions with our family, so we have done a number of "Christmasy" things during December to make our days "merry and bright." Some of the things we have done are: reading Christmas stories, watching Christmas movies, a birthday party for Jesus, Christmas crafts, Christmas music, looking at Christmas lights, the Living Nativity, the 12 days of Christmas, going to the Nutcracker Ballet... etc. etc. Here are some photos capturing our time together with friends and family.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Hand print wreaths and finger print snowman gift tags. Very Cute!

At the end ALL the kids were so tired and ALL had their footie pjs on but I just couldn't get them all to cooperate for a picture. SO, thanks Kenna!

Joey

Caleb

Sarah made this delicious peanut butter and chocolate cake! Yum!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We had a fun time decorating the tree this year. This was Wyatt's first tree decorating experience because he was asleep for the whole thing last year. It was a little interesting though, for every 1 ornament you put on the tree, Wyatt took off 2!!! (At least it seemed.)

Family photo
Wyatt decorating and wearing Sister's hat

Quite the little decorator

Check out this blog!

So a friend of mine suggested I check out her friends blog, and I love it! This gal has great ideas and is very witty. She is actually doing a give-a-way right now. Go on over and check it out.

www.barnesfamilylove.blogspot.com

The 10th Annual Casey Family Christmas Tree Hunt

Getting ready

Mommy and Wyatt bored waiting for Daniel and Emily

Emily watching and critiquing Daddy as he chops

Exploring

An airplane! Very exciting!

Getting a little dirty-- brushing it off

Yum!!!

Wyatt's 1st Birthday!!!

Can you believe that Wyatt is now 1 year old?!?! Time has gone by so fast! It is hard to remember though what our lives were like without this wonderful little man. Wyatt, you have brought our family so much joy. You are a happy, sweet, busy, curious little guy and we love every moment we get to spend with you. You are a blessing and gift from the Lord.

Of course with every 1st birthday there has to be a party, right??? We decided to do a baseball themed party since we did a baseball themed room. We had a lot of fun. It was so nice to have our friends and family with us to celebrate. Uncle Ben and Auntie Dawnel were even able to join us all the way from CA! It was really special.

Uncle Ben & Auntie Dawnel

Some of Wyatt's little friends--Hailey & Elisse

We used Daniel's old penents for decorations

Dinner was "ball park" food

New Toys

Emily's Thanksgiving Feast Grandma & Grandpa came to see the festivities

Emily's school did a Thanksgiving feast for the kids in the K-2 grades. Each class prepared a song or poem to perform for the other classes. They also did a cooking project to contribute something to the feast. I went in the classroom the day before the feast to help make applesauce. We made it from scratch! The kids chopped tons of apples and then we cooked the apples and ground them in a food mill. It was a lot of fun and it smelled really good!

The Pumpkin Patch

We told Emily to get in with the pumpkins so we could get her picture and this is what she did. Huh?!?!

Then we tried to get Wyatt with the pumpkins and this is what he did...

Thinking about it....

And he is off...

Blazing a trail!

Mr. Serious

We could not get him to smile.

The sling shot

We won two gigantic pumpkins this year at the sling shot!

Look What Wyatt Can Do!!!

So it is official... Wyatt is a walker! At 11 months almost to the day. He started walking more than just a few steps over the Halloween weekend. It was really fun too because Nonie was visiting! It was so neat to see the difference in his strength and confidence from Thursday to Sunday. Now he is just motoring around all over the house. (Sigh!)