Christmas Eve Dinner...

Fancy Christmas Eve Dinner...

...not-so-fancy Christmas Eve Dinner clothes.

Santa should have brought her more swimsuits.

Flashback Friday: Christmas Morning 2000

Where were you on Christmas morning 2000? Did you see the eclipse? We did. After opening presents, we paraded outside in our Christmas jammies to watch the exciting event. And here's how we watched it:

I'm Darth Vader, in case you weren't there to know which of the two plaid-clad pajama girls I am.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Clothes

When I was a little girl, my Grandma Donna made me and all my cousins beautiful red velvet Christmas dresses. Now, Annie is just the right size for it. She looked lovely wearing my dress to church this past Sunday.

Her brother looked quite handsome in his Christmas clothes as well. Look closely at the picture below - it is one of very few where they are both looking and smiling at the camera.

Recipe for a Good Christmas Party...

Ice Skating + A Visit from Santa + The Nativity + Lots of Good Food=

A Whole Lot of Fun

Karlee and Christie lace up their skates.

Grandma Donna and her girls. Yep, she really had on ice skates. She's always up for a good time.

Cole gets in on some of the hockey action

There weren't skates small enough for Annie, but she still had a great time...

...especially once she convinced Uncle Jake to pull her around and play hockey with her.

Annie sat on his lap, but didn't answer any questions.

Cole's first words to Santa - "I know you're not the real Santa." He is not easy to fool.

Nativity time - including an authentic Ecuadorean Mary dress and a veiled Joseph. And an angel who made an early appearance in the story because she just couldn't keep away from "Little Lord Jesus," as she calls him.

We're missing a few characters in this cast, they were prone to wandering.

I just love getting together with my cousins. We had a great time, especially during a rousing gave of Christmas Family Feud. I am proud to say I was on the winning team.

We could have picked a better day for a party...

...on the other hand, it was pretty fun to have the Dinosaur Park all to ourselves.



The cake, ice cream, and presents were pretty fun too. Cole was one happy kiddo on Saturday.


We finished the day by heading to Salt Lake to swim, stay at a hotel, and let mom and dad go on a quick anniversary date. Thanks to everyone who braved the scary, snowy roads to celebrate with us.

Eight!

It was a cold day, but it's been a great eight years...here's to eighty more. I'm sure we could make it 110.

It's embarrassing...

...really embarrassing, to look at this picture. I've always known that me and drawing aren't best of friends. This is constantly reinforced to me by a husband who can free-hand anything at will. He's quite good. I don't think I realized quite how bad of an artist I am, however, until just this week. The kids and I were playing school. Cole wanted to have a lesson about animals who hibernate. Our first activity - Cole sounded out the word "hibernate" with no help from me. You can see in this picture that he did a pretty great job.


What you will also notice in this picture are sketches of four animals who hibernate. We played a little game where we took turns drawing animals who hibernate while the others guessed what animal it was. Keep in mind that I just wrote "took turns drawing" and go back and look at the picture. Yes, it's true, two of those four animals were drawn by me, the other two by Cole. I am willing to bet you are having a hard time deciding which two were drawn by me. I am not going to divulge the secret.

Later that night when I looked at the easel, I was fairly embarrassed for myself. Also grateful that my children have a chance based on the genes coming from their father. Thank goodness they aren't my clones.

Identity Confusion

Our dog thinks she is part sled-dog. She is not, but still managed to pull Cole across the lawn with Cole calling, "mush, mush," in an exact imitation of Yukon Cornelius from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" the entire time.

Evidence she would like to still be in Hawaii...

...her swimsuits are in near-constant rotation. And when I put her to bed, she had pajamas on over her swimsuit. She likes to strip.

On a side note, I wish I looked so cute while I was sleeping.

No Snow for Thanksgiving?

No problem. My family likes to go sledding over Thanksgiving. Sometimes the weather cooperates, but usually it doesn't. This rarely stops us. Not with my dad involved. So if there is no snow and you want to go sledding, you can either A) Pretend the grass is snow and sled the day away...


It's debatable who enjoyed this event the most - the kids or Gramps. Everyone was all smiles.


...or B) Go to where the snow is. In our case, we chose Idaho. There wasn't as much snow as there usually is this time of year, but it worked.


While you're there, you might as well find a tree...




...ambush Grandpa with snowballs...


...and eat a donut...

...or two.

Yummy! What a fun Thanksgiving weekend we had.

Just to prove I was in Hawaii too...

...and because who wouldn't want pictures of themself at a beach 5-months pregnant floating around the internet? I don't have much to say about these pictures except this: we went to Hawaii, it was beautiful, the weather (mostly) was awesome, we had a great time, and we can't wait to go back. Annie wore her swimsuit underneath her snowsuit when we played in the snow today because she just can't get used to the idea that we aren't going to the beach every day.

After church outside the Marriott Ko Olina - great place to stay.

Hanalei Bay - you know, Puff the Magic Dragon and the land called Hanalei... And yes, we do feed Cole - he's just a bit lanky.

Sunset dinner cruise along the NaPali Coast. Holo Holo Travel Rule of travel number one - no expectant mothers. Oops - didn't see that rule until it was too late. My stomach held out fine anyway. If anyone noticed, they were kind enough not to call me on it.

A waterfall - I forgot the name. I think it had a lot of "a's" and "k's" and "m's" in it.

These last four pictures are all at Ke'e Beach - the end of the road in Kauai. It was gorgeous, especially at sunset.



The End.