The Griner Christmas Village

One of our favorite family traditions is decorating "gingerbread" houses.  The boys (and I mean ALL my boys) really get into it.

 Such precision

 Waiting for Jax to eat his mandatory ONE bite of dinner so he could participate.

 Woot Woot!!! 45 mins later I ate it mom!!!

 Decorating?  Who said anything about decorating.  This is an all you can get your hands on candy buffet.

 Jamis refueling along the way

 It never takes long before the boys move on from decorating their projects to decorating themselves.

 Jax, always the fan of our family ways.

 Anything you can do I can do better!!!

Our Masterpieces

 Picking off candy when he thought no one was looking

So excited for Christmas

Jamis is 4!!!

I can't believe my Jamis is 4 years old already.  We had quite the week long celebration and Jamis was not shy about how is birthday should go.  Everyday he told me about his "Birthday Plan."  We went with practically everything just cause it was so cute how much thought he put into it.  We started the month off with our countdown to the 26th chain.  So when the big day came he totally knew what day it was.  The big day began with a trip to the Children's Museum (his favorite place to go).  There we enjoyed the exhibits and an art class.  Afterwards we met Daddy downtown for lunch at Five Guys.

When Daddy came home from work we had a fun family party. 

Everyone enjoyed their ice cream.

 Presents are always a highlight no matter how old you are.

 Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Trotter for the new LEGOs

 Jamis also scored his very first remote control car and the return of his long lost Buddy from Utah.

 So much concentration learning to drive.  I loved that he talked to the car the whole time like a little dog.  "come he boy"  "oh good boy"  "turn around boy"  Totally cracked us up.

That next Saturday we had his very first friend birthday party, car themed of course.  Now he didn't want it race car themed or Lightning McQueen themed.  Nope.  Just "regular car" themed. 

 The goodie bags and box cars for the races.

 The kids love having the box car races. 

Eli and Ike

 No party is complete without Daddies balloon magic.

More Presents!!!

Matching hats with Dad

 Happy Birthday little man

Jamis's 4 year old Favorites

Favorite color is Red

Favorite Food is Pizza and Cinnamon Sugar toast

Favorite song is "I am a Child of God"

Best friend is Eli McGuire

Favorite movie is the "Mighty Machines" series

Favorite thing to do is play cars and trains

Favorite toy is Lightning McQueen

Favorite Drink is milk

Favorite place to go is the Children's Museum

When he grows up he wants to be a Daddy.

Novemeber round up

The boys cannot leave my side for a second.  This is about as far away as they can tolerate while I get ready for church.

 Jamis and his beloved Buddy

 Grandpa Griner sent Dad this really cool remote control helicopter that the boys just can't get enough of.

 Check out this amazing rainbow.  I could see the full arch, but unfortunately the camera couldn't catch it.

Thanksgiving

We were really lucky to this year to have our Arne family join us for Thanksgiving.  We sure love and miss being able to see them more often.  In fact we had so much fun during their stay that we were terrible at taking pictures.  Luckily we got a few.

The boys spent a day out Rock Climbing while the girls hit the Black Friday sales.

 Jamis was so excited to actually be included in 'The Boys'

 Bruce, Cabot, and Jamis belaying

 Of course one has to take a texting break

 Cameron the Dare Devil

 Jaxon sure loved Gab.  Those boys miss the Arne clan

Kenan relaxing.

We had a great meal, lots of laughs, and more food.  Wish we lived closer to them still.