Christmas Day - 2011

We had a really good Christmas - lots of gifts - I think everyone was pretty happy with the day.

Spencer got this table for his cars and he spent all Christmas morning playing on it.

Benson really got into opening gifts this year. I even let him open a couple of mine.

Charity just wanted $ to buy new clothes but I had to give her something. I knew she needed laundry detergent so I surprised her with that and a few other things.

Paisley with two of her gifts - a Barbie doll house above and a baking set below.

Ashley was a little behind on opening her gifts because she had been busy in the kitchen making us breakfast.

Another picture of Benson with the gifts....

The kids loved their new tire swing. It was really fun that they could swing together.

Ashley reading some new Christmas books.

Paisley was so cute with her dressing up. She had on some lip gloss that she got for Christmas and looked so grown up for just 3 years old!

Like every year, my kids were very generous and got me lots of gifts - books, exercise DVD, small blender, baster, channel lock pliers, stocking full of goodies (thanks Jenna), "mother" necklace, work-out shirt, free root canal/crown, healthy food delivery, etc. I am a fortunate and blessed mother. It was a fantastic Christmas and so hard to come home after being in California for 6 days. The weather was great and I enjoyed the sunshine!

Christmas Train and the Nutcracker

I was so excited to take the family on this Christmas train and it turned out to be a big disappointment and significantly over-priced for what you got. It sounded so cute and the reviews were good - cookies, hot chocolate, Christmas songs, Santa, elves reading a story, etc. It definitely made memories and I'll never do that train ride again. (It was the Sacramento River Train ride out of Woodland.)

I got the kids new pajamas to wear for the train ride........... They all looked so cute.

Waiting for some entertainment..... Cookies weren't even good......

Santa stopped by for a few minutes....

Weston "borrowed" the hat from someone at the table beside us. He looked so cute that I had to take his picture.

The day before the Christmas train, Paisley was a fairy in her ballet recital, The Nutcracker. I wasn't able to take pictures during the performance and didn't see her before she turned in her costume but this is a picture I took of her before we left to the ballet. She was just adorable and it was so nice to see her perform.

Christmas Food & Gingerbread Houses

Casey and Jenna's decorated mantle. I thought it looked so nice. Jenna also decorated the table very nicely but my picture of it didn't turn out so good.

I loved Jenna's appetizer tray in the shape of a tree - so creative! We had an evening of appetizers that was great - to name a few - meatballs, spinach/artichoke dip, jalapeno jam/cream cheese with crackers, meat/cheese platter, etc.

Jenna also got everything and cut the graham crackers so we could all make gingerbread houses. It was a lot of fun - especially eating the candy. Charity helped Spencer and you can tell he was having fun.

Ashley helped Paisley....

Jenna helped Weston...

Then we had dessert - Jenna made these reindeer cupcakes & the little cheese cakes. They tasted as great as they look.

This is a picture of our Christmas morning breakfast - Ashley made some awesome monkey bread, orange bread, and delicious egg sandwiches. We enjoyed it very much. She also set the table to look so nice.

We had great food over Christmas and I loved every bite!

Ashley's Birthday Celebration

Charity bought a Cold Stone ice cream cake for Ashley. It was delicious. Spencer was so cute trying to blow out candles. It was so fun to be there for Ashley's birthday celebration.

My traditional picture of Charity.....

Some grandma time with Weston, Spencer and Paisley!

The Happy Family

First thing Elijah does when he wakes up is slide the kitchen chair over to the counter and look for food to eat. He seems to be hungry when he wakes up and has fun helping Nate/Misty make breakfast.

It was really nice to see Nate relaxing and reading the newspaper.

Misty was busy in the kitchen a lot - She made my favorite Japanese pancakes which made me very happy and I enjoyed the other meals too.

A picture of the happy family. They were just sitting together after Brielle opened her birthday presents and I couldn't resist taking a picture.

One final shot of the birthday girl - she is 4 years old now!

Funny Faces and Almost Christmas

Brielle wearing Nate's glasses.....

For no reason Brielle just started making funny faces while I was taking pictures. I thought it was pretty cute and it reminded me of Randy/Susan's family doing the same.

Little Elijah caught on and did his own funny face. It was a great time.

I won't get to see Nate and family for Christmas so taking a picture of the girls in the sleigh is as close as I'll get this year to having a Christmas picture with them.

Adalei took this picture of me and Brielle in the sleigh....

Brielle's birthday

This is a picture of Brielle when she woke up on her birthday.
She was so excited for her special day!

Here's a few shots from Brielle's birthday party with some of her gifts above and below.

Adalei is now writing letters all by herself. This is a picture of the birthday card below that she made for Brielle. Adalei can now read some too. It was so cute to watch Adalei read her letter to Brielle. (It was so exciting to see her read an entire verse in the Book of Mormon while I was there too.)

A picture of the happy grandma with the birthday girl....

Brielle requested chocolate M&M cupcakes and they were very good. She also had ice cream with chocolate chips and M&Ms.

Elijah loved the cupcakes and didn't hesitate in getting as close as he could to them! It was a great weekend and I'm grateful that I could be there for Brielle's birthday.

The Best Dentist

www.drtanner.com

I just had a great dental appointment at Nate's office. Check-out his website. He's a dentist in Grants Pass, Oregon.

Hungry Girl

I met Lisa Lillien, known as "Hungry Girl" this week. It was so exciting! She has cooking shows on the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. I record and watch every show. I have many of her cookbooks and love her recipes which are low in fat and calories. She is just so cute! It was the highlight of my week!