Christmas Morning

In all our 7 Christmases together, this is the first one that we haven't been at someone else's house. It was so much fun to watch our boys wake up Christmas morning at our own house! I love my children and my husband, and this season especially I am so grateful for them!

Here is the scene Christmas morning before the boys woke up.

I only put one picture of Jackson opening his presents here, but believe me, he insisted that I take a picture of him with every single present! I love his excitement, and it is so fun for him to finally be old enough to actually get excited!

This is Thorin's Piston Cup racetrack. It stole the show Christmas morning, and the boys had an absolute blast playing with it and putting it together with Daddy while I made breakfast.

Jackson and Thorin bot got big wheels from Grandpa and Sandy. They can't wait til the weather clears up so they can go for a ride!

I was surprised at how much Thorin loved playing with his slinky when there were so many other toys to choose from. The simple toys always seem to be big hits.

Here is the infamous racetrack!

A fine Christmas morning breakfast of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, toast, and of course, chocolate milk.

Thorin and his Diego rescue pack.

The boys watching Horton Hears a Who at Grandma's house.

Christmas Eve

We had an extended family Christmas Eve party at my Aunt Julie's house. There was a program, dinner, presents, singing, and a lot of fun!

Thorin the reindeer.

Jared the reindeer.

Here my mom and her sisters sing a song during the program.

Emma got to be an angel.

Ian got to be a wiseman.

Here Alex is helping Emma play dolls. Isn't that so cute?

Jackson wearing his new Christmas jammies in his super hero pose.

Jared and Thorin in their Christmas jammies.

It was fun to see Thorin and Alex playing since we don't get to see him that often.

Part of our tradition is singing carols and dancing to the Merry Christmas Polka. The dancing continued as other songs were sung. Here Thorin shows us his version of dancing.

This clip shows both Jared and Jackson having a ball dancing with the older girls.

Zoo Lights

On Tuesday, we went to see the zoo lights at the Hogle Zoo. We first saw zoo lights at the zoo in Arizona with Jeremy's family, and we loved it, so when we heard they did the lights here, we just had to go. It was cold, but we took hot chocolate and blankets and we even got to see some of the animals!

Jeremy and me in front of a train. If you can see it, Jeremy's arm is in a sling. He hurt his shoulder at work when he slipped on some ice, so he got to take a couple days off work. It was fun having him all to ourselves for a couple days!


Linette and Jackson in the reptile house. It was a good place to warm up!

Thorin found his favorite animal...a cat!

Here are my boys by the toy soldiers that stood guard at the entrance.

Christmas Craft Fun

Jackson and Emma got to make santa hats. Thorin and Jared weren't so interested, but the two older kids sure had a great time!

The finished products!

Fun in the snow

We have had quite a bit of snow fall over the last two days with more to come! After continually telling the boys, "No, it's too cold to play outside," I finally broke down and dressed them up in their winter gear. They had a great time!

Apparently, eating snow is the cool thing to do!

Aunt Linette decided to get all dressed up to join the boys. Actually, Linette and Jackson are still outside playing right now! They've been out there for two hours!

Hogi Yogi/Teriyaki Stix Party!

So, we had a Christmas party for my old group of friends that all worked together at the Hogi Yogi/Teriyaki Stix in high school. We hadn't seen eachother in about 9 years! It was so much fun!!

All of us together 9 years ago!

In the food line

Jeff and Jamie

Becca, Shelley, Laura

Some of our kids

The girls. This picture and all the following picture are from 9 years ago in high school.

Shelley and Laura

Becca and Laura

Jamie

Jeff and Jamie

Mike

Christmas Progam

These are some clips for Jackson's Christmas Program tonight. We sat in the back, and this is as far in as my camera would zoom, so I tried to keep Jackson in the middle most of the time so you can tell who he is! Enjoy! If you want to hear the songs being sung, you'll need to pause the playlist player.

Happy birthday Uncle Will!

William is now and old man! He turned 22 on the 13th, and we celebrated yesterday by going out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. The lucky birthday boy got to saddle up while the restaurant gave him a hearty "yee-haw!"

The Fam.

Nice beanie daddy!

I snuck this shot of Leslie because she thought she could hide in the previous family picture. No one hides from the camera! Haha!