voting, dance party, birthday

election day.

so much American pride.

no matter which candidate ends up being president for the next 4 years, I'm pretty proud just to live in this country and have the right to vote.

seriously, awesome.

 

can you say Gangnam style?

if you can't tell by this series of photos, Camden also loves the PSY hit.

a must-have contribution to all of our dance parties.

 

 Lucy's birthday bash.

I offered to whip up some cake balls using this super deceptively easy pan.

and they turned out like this...

fail.

good thing that wasn't a sign of things to come!

the rest of our party planning day when fairly smooth...only a few child meltdowns.

Love putting events together with this one.

even if they are semi-chaotic and crazy.

would we really have it any other way?

a DOG party!

Camden's favorite book...

So much favorite, that I have it completely memorized.
He brings it to me at least 10 times a day, and says "go, dog. go!" Begging that we read it.So...when his book dream became a reality, he was so excited!
We were invited to a dog party!

Stacy and Steve's Dog, Cabo, turned 1 and they had a little celebration.

Camden loved watching all the dogs play.

When the Great Dane showed up, he even started "naying"... Don't worry Camden, it could easily be confused with a horse!

Memo may have been slightly more excited to be there than Camden.

He got to spend the afternoon running around in a place where no one will judge you on manners, slobber, or stink.

Blowing ping pong balls. Trapping marshmallows. Building sleighs. and other fun things.

During the holiday season of 2005,

a few short months after Ryan and I began dating,

He invited me to an anuual Christmas Couples Party.

He said his family did one every year.

It was a blast!

Well, I have been in this family 4 Christmases since then, and there hasn't been another one

So, I asked my husband about it...

Whatever happened to this annual party?

Turns out, it was a hoax.

Ryan needed an excuse to keep me in town one night longer before I headed to Idaho for my 2 week Christmas break, and he didn't feel that just asking me on a date would suffice.

So he made up a couples party in hopes of me sticking around for it.

It worked. I came. Had so much fun.

So...since the first one was a lie, this year we decided to hold the

first annual Couples Christmas Soire!

We played awesome games.

Had awesome food.

It will happen again next year :)

We like to Party

Gotta love Christmas Parties!

Who doesn't?

Every year we get together with some friends and do yummy dinner, white elephant gifts, and games... every year something crazy happens.

It is legen...wait for it...dary.

The kiddos loved their BIG stuffed Bears from the Summerhays'...

almost as much as they loved holding each others' hands.

The boys loved the ping-pong-ball-into-the-cup game.

The girls loved beating the boys at catch phrase.