Christmas 2008

Xmas morning. The kids let us sleep in until 8:15! We had to wake up Caden and Makenna though.

I wish I had videoed Caden's reaction to Santa's gift! He squealed and danced when he saw the train table.

As you can see, Makenna was excited for her gift from Santa too!

Opening presents...

Kody showing his new gun and new clothes...

More trains for Train Boy...

Makenna got some "fancies."

Trying out the new bike. It rained off and on most of the day so we had to watch and then QUICKLY go out to ride it. I even rode it (no pictures of that, thank goodness!).

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas. Now comes the worst part: the cleanup! Our house looks like a war zone!

No snow here... heehee....

It was supposed to rain later today, so we decided to take advantage of the weather. It was almost cold (probably 60-65??), but still a nice winter day in AZ. We took a lunch to the park...

Caden was super excited to see some giant fish in the lake!Kody was cold (and did he bring his jacket like I suggested? NO!)...

My cute boy feeding the ducks...

Makenna wasn't sure if she really wanted to give HER food to the ducks. When they would get closer, she would scream at them "AHHHHH!!!" They would quack and swim away. Then, she would be sad and would pout that they were leaving...

Teeter totter fun... we met one of my MOMS Club friends here. Her 2 boys are on the other side giving Kody and Ashley a good ride!

Makenna and Caden had to have a turn too! By this time, Kody and his buddies were off wrestling like puppies in the soccer fields and running back and forth. Sooooo much energy! I really enjoyed my day (thanks Kelly for coming!!) and just being outside... no work... no cleaning... and no stress... for just a few hours... ahhhhhhhhhh......

"The Best Xmas Ever!" :) LOL!

Thank you all for a really fun day!! I love how after all these years we still save time for each other to make it a great day! I love how the emphasis has shifted over the years from presents to family fun instead! Here we are playing Xmas pictionary...

Ashley spent lots of time chatting with Grandma. Ashley wanted to sit with the grown ups so she could chat!

Ashley drawing "Polar Express." It was a tricky one but Carrie guessed it from Ashley's drawing! Thank goodness Carrie understands kid drawing!

More pictionary...

I think it was fun for all. The kids even participated. Kody guessed this one!

Makenna wasn't very into guessing but she did have fun hanging out.

Can you tell what Ryan drew? Don't worry! We couldn't either! It is "jolly." :) I made the list of words we would draw and needed one more word to add. Kody came up with "jolly." I knew it would be a hard one to draw but added it anyway.

"egg nog" by kody...

Hunter drawing poinsettia!

Jacob drawing tinsel... he later said "No. I was drawing a tree." I told him to draw a tree and then add little lines on it for the tinsel. He had no idea what "tinsel" was.

"jingle bells" I wish I would've taken a picture of his finished picture. It really was pretty good. Yes, I know he isn't holding the marker correctly. UGH! I need to talk to his preschool teacher about that...

Present time. Look how cute they all are sitting so patiently!

A little historical background info for non-family members reading this: my aunt, who used to be a dental hygienist, used to give us toothbrushes every year. Well, after she retired, we didn't get our toothbrushes. :( We all made jokes about it the last couple of years and teased my aunt about letting us down. This year, my cousins, Eric and Brandon, (above) bought toothbrushes for us all! It was a good laugh and a great idea! They continued the tradition!! YEA! Another thing I loved about tonight: continuing a tradition that has meaning only to our family. Other families might not understand the significance of the toothbrushes, but to us, the grandkid generation, it means a lot! Love you guys for thinking of that and keeping it alive!

Makenna carried around her present saying, "OOHHH!"

She was even more excited when we opened it and it was a new baby stroller! She ran into the toy room and grabbed a doll to put in it!!

Family pic... ok, this was like the 10 picture I took trying to get us all in it. Lighting is not great. Sorry.

This picture is called: "The Best Xmas Ever" Silly Picture. .. the kids asked if we could do a silly one. What a great time!

A Dance Party

We were invited to a friend's party yesterday. She had it at a dance studio. The girls worked on learning a dance and at the end they showed all the moms. CUTE IDEA! My little tomboy was soooo not interested in dancing at first, but I forced (I mean encouraged) her to put on her cute dance outfit and just give it a try.

She ended up having a great time and smiled the whole time!

What a week!

Whew... that is me taking a big breath... what a week!! I had my Santa Day, hosted my MOMS Club party, taught preschool, put on the Polar Express "trip" twice in school, had our preschool Holiday Program, did Polar Express again at school... Now, I have a couple more parties (actually 1-2 each day this weekend) then... I get to hurry and try to edit some pictures I took last week, take a trip to the Food Bank to take in the food donations from my preschool kids, and try to do some Xmas shopping for my family... and somehow find time to clean the house, do laundry and actually pay attention to MY kids! What a week! Oh, wait. I think I already said that! "The Holidays" sure are a busy time of year!

I'm dreaming of... the massage I got as gifts from some of my preschool parents... Seriously though, I hate to brag but I really do have the BEST preschool kids and parents! I feel so lucky!!! I had my holiday program this Wednesday night and I felt so proud! I was on a super emotional high afterwards. "My kids" did so awesome!.. Is that correct grammar? "awesome"?? or is it "awesomely"?? Is that even a word?!

On top of all that... I am missing my mother... she will never read this though because her computer crashed many months ago and she has chosen to not fix it. She is not visiting us this year either. :(

Well, I am off to unload the dishwasher... or maybe I will sneak off to read the book we are reading for our book club (The Art of Racing in the Rain)...

Random thoughts

These pictures just make me smile... We are doing a canned food drive in preschool. Makenna loves having all the "blocks" to stack.

And this one I call "Fashionista". She totally dressed herself and said, "Don't I look beautiful?!" yes, you do, baby...

Decorating our tree...

We have had our tree up for almost a week but had not decorated it. The kids have been begging and begging to do it. We finally did it tonight. The camera does not do it justice. I love how excited they get to look at each ornament! I love how they have special names for so many of them! I love how they seriously think about where they will put the ornaments! And it cracks me up that the middle of the tree gets completely covered with ornaments (sometimes 3-4 on the same branch!) because that is as tall as they can reach. Just a nice evening... this year has been extremely stressful for so many reasons. I have not been in the Christmas mood really, but seeing them so excited made my heart smile. I needed that....

This is the famous "pixie Santa" ornament. The Family Rules say it must go at the top of the tree just below the angel. It is an old ornament that deserves respect (no matter how funny looking it is!)

BTW: Makenna was not into the tree thing. She played with a couple of ornaments and then was distracted by a toy. Maybe she won't be into destroying the tree (wishful thinking or did I just jinx myself?!)

This was a total mess up, but occasionally the mistakes turn out with an interesting look...

My Little Deer(s)...

I know... I know... the plural of deer is still deer, but for some reason "deers" makes more sense with this one ("dears" get it?)...

We took pics today at preschool for a project next week. Don't they look cute?!

Photoshop!

Ok, so I totally should be in bed right now... instead, I am messing around with Photoshop! I took pics Wed of some serious cuties. I am editing their pics right now... anyway, I found a part I had never used. It seems like there are so many fun mysteries waiting to be discovered in Photoshop. I liked this feature a lot! Matt, do you do a lot with Photoshop? ?? I will have more pics of the girls on my Photo blog later this weekend.