I thought these first two pics had been posted with my initial post, but they hadn't. This was part of my bday date to Portland.

Merry Christmas! Once again, I'm sharing a ton of pics from the last few days.
Christmas morning mayhem.
Cole ran in the room this morning (not too early, 8:30 in fact) and shouted, "It's Christmas!", to which we sluggishly climbed out of bed and followed him up the stairs. He started going through his stocking right away and couldn't get over the fact that Santa had brought gum!! June, Dayne, cousin Kaia (pictured) and his two other cousins, Sierra and Tristan felt the same way. It was their favorite stocking stuffer. Good job, Santa! Dayne made her way up shortly after, but took a while to wake up. She got clothes galore and was all too eager to try them on.


On Monday night (my birthday) we had a fondue party with the whole fam...except for Geof.'s little brother Brind and his wife Julia. Possibly working? Brooke and Mike came up from California with their 3 girls (oldest being the cute red hed Jane, pictured) and much welcomed last child, a boy, Sawyer (pictured with June-bug).
Fortunately for us, Meagan offered to watch our kids while we went on my bday date to Portland. We thought the weather might be a little better down there and we wouldn't be up to our knees in snow. We were wrong. The weather was WORSE down there. Well, at least the streets were. It was crazy seeing Portland like that. We got stuck trying to leave our parking place and had to dig ourselves out with my 2 sizes too big snow boots. Geof. got me an Ipod (my first) and I was lucky enough to get a thoughtful poem out of him. Very sweet. We went to pizza after walking around in the snow on a funky downtown Portland street, locked our keys in the car, talked some guy working in the pizza place into helping us break IN to our subaru, and then went and saw some lights in an cute, old neighborhood. I didn't get any pics of the light show, but I did get a pic of OUR light show inside the car. (;


Lastly, since we've had such a heap of snow up here, we've had quite a few days inside. To try and keep the kids from killing eachother and in turn, us killings THEM, we've managed to think up a few winter crafts to keep them busy. The boys don't mind the snow as much, especially when there's a Sea Hawks game on. Don't mind Geof.'s hand down his pants.
Look at this winter wonderland! I feel like I'm in Alaska all over again!

Cole thought his snowflake was the most creative. What do you think?

big D on the big day

Here's hoping that you have a happy 30th birthday. You still look the same as the day I met you. Thank you for being such a great wife, mother, and best friend. We love you. Geof., Cole, Dayne, and June.

I've never seen snow like this in the NW

Can't believe this snow! I've only seen this craziness up in the mountains. It's been beautiful, though. This morning we went out to play in it (since church was cancelled..., no snow plows here), and the car, the snow, everything was covered in a layer of ice.

Building snowmen.
My cousin Nolan trying to jump with his boogie board. It actually worked quite well in the snow.
Little Junie cozy by the fire. Ellery (geof.'s dad) made a yummy mountain man breakfast and we headed down to Lewisville park where a fire was under started in the pavillion. So fun.
Sledding
Ice chunk throwing
Telephone calls...is that winter related?
More mountain man breakfast fun
Our beautiful christmas tree. i need to take a pic of the end result.

Nothing new to report. Today was freeeezing! So weird for up here. I couldn't believe it. We tried to go out tonight to deliver cookies with Geof.'s sister and her fam and his parents, and walked back to our car after a minute or so of being outside. And to think I actually lived in Alaska and didn't bother to wear a coat half the time. Brr...Geof. said he talked to a fellow pilot who lives in Richmond today who told him it was 72 degrees. Wouldn't that be nice? I've always had a hard time with winter. I'm not a huge Christmas fanatic (although I do appreciate the spirit that comes this time of year), and I don't really enjoy playing in the snow. Just to get our kids out tonight took a good 20 minutes, and it never lasts very long..the whole "being outside" thing. It's times like this that I think how much I'll miss those flight benefits if Geof. really does choose to end his aviation career. Mexico sounds soo nice right now. (:
Anyway, last night I was fortunate to sing in a production of the Messiah that our stake put on. It was wonderful. Very moving. We've been practicing every Sat. since Oct., I believe, but actually presenting it was a different experience. It was so nice to share His story through music. My mother in law sang a beautiful solo as well, and I can't imagine how that would feel to sing with a full orchestra. Lovely.
...what else? Cole's been fighting like crazy with all his cousins (namely his other 6 yr. old cousin Sierra) and we're about up to HERE with him....if you know what I mean. My kids are so high strung and needy, I have to constantly find ways to serve them one on one. Tiring, but worth it when it pays off.
I'm too tired to write more but I will mention how nice it's been to have Geof. home for a little bit. We've had 2 very good evenings together and I've felt so much closer to him. What a blessing to feel connected to your spouse. Love it.

December

June Bethanie Bennett.
Age: 17 months
Favorite pastime: opening video boxes and cleaning out grandma's cabinets

Dayne Dorothy Bennett

Age: 31/2

Favorite pastime: Reading, reading, and getting into bandaids. We find her often amongst a pile of books, making up stories and narrating to herself.


Monday night we had family night at my aunt and uncle's home, Bryan and Renee. Uncle Bryan wanted to do Christmas cookies. The kids were in heaven..

So was Geof.

And here's little Leah, Bryan and Renee's youngest.

Darla Erickson Bennett

Age: 29 (almost 30 in a few weeks).

Favorite.., better stated, Current pastime: trying to figure out the best way to be a happy mom and wife.

Geof.'s brother Adam and his wife and their 3 kids are staying with us for the month of December. we have a FULL house! Uncle Adam's made Mickey Mouse pancakes three mornings all ready. Once again, heaven.

Sister Cox and Sister Kelley. They live upstairs. They're part of the family. They teach the gospel to people everyday.

Geof.'s little sister Ellynn had her first baby yesterday. They named him Finn. He's adorable.

We went to a nearby park for Cole's bday. It was a little drizzly, nothing new for WA. Cole couldn't even eat his cookie and icecream, he was WAY too excited to open gifts.

Last night during family night, Geof. asked Cole a question and Cole just sat there with his finger in his mouth, and then replied, "I have a loose tooth!!". The day before his 6th bday he gets his first loose tooth. Can't wait to see that grin when it comes out. After we put the kids to bed, a good 30 minutes after we put them to bed, I could hear Cole talking to himself in the room. He was 'so excited about his birthday, about being six'. Normally, I would of charged in there and told him to quiet down.., maybe I should pretend it's his bday more often.

I slept underneath him last night (thanks to June's all night screaming), and in the wee hours of the morn (not really, it was 9 AM when we all rolled out of bed), the first words out of his mouth were, "it's my birthday! I'm 6 today! Today's my 6th birthday! Yea for me!". Quite adorable.

We love our little Cole man. He's incredibly talented and fun and loves the world. I believe that's why it's so hard for him when we take him away from things he loves. Last night as we started dinner he was playing with playdough and was asked 3 times to get down from the counter and eat with us. Gma finally pulled him down from the counter and you would of thought we'd killed his favorite pet. He ran around the house screaming and throwing a fit for the next 20 minutes (thankfully, we had him downstairs so we didn't have to hear it all).

Cole has a passion for life and we're s l o w l y learning how to help him with that.

Have a good day Coley!