From Christmas to New Years.....

My sister came on Christmas day....it was fun to have her here for a week. We ate at lots of yummy places, visited IKEA, had a wedding (our dad's), saw two movies (The Princess and the Frog & Alvin and the Chipmunk..the Squeakuel!), and celebrated New Year's....It was a fun time. The girls love their Auntie Angie!!!! Here are some pics of our fun times.

Chile's





One of many visits with Taryn (Angie's BFF)



My Dad's Wedding

The Cake - yes, I made it! :)






Double Dave's






New Year's Eve
(we stayed home...ate a little, played a little "Apples to Apples" and actually stayed up until midnight..ALL of us! whew!(oh, not baby! :)






All was fun, and we ended the year with a bang! Bring on the New Year!

Christmas Day!

The girls were up early and excited to see if Santa came...of course he did!!!!!


(And by the way....rudolph did drink his water...it was red in the morning....video taped it, but miss taking a pic!)

Without too many pictures...here are a few of the things they got and loved....
towels with hoodies and their names engraved, cabbage patch kids, webkinz, homemade pillows and quilts from nana, games, a keyboard, books w/ animals from the story, and a tricyle (for sienna..but they all ride it around the house and LOVE it!:)









Ryder got some fun stuff too...It was his FIRST Christmas!
He got a truck he adores, a webkinz, a blanket, a toy thingy with balls you move around and a little walking toy.







He had a lot of fun and even tried to unwrap a few things! :) What a cutie!

After presents, I made some breakfast casseroles, which is a tradition for us, then we left to get my sister at the airport!

She of course came bearing gifts...the girls got fun things.....Jayda: Fairy Shrinky Dinks, Halle: Lite Bright, Mia: Paint/ pictures, Sienna: Dora Doll, Ryder: clothes)

And we ALL got Peace, Love, World stuff...woohoo!!!!!! (PLW is my cousin's fabulous clothing line...www.peaceloveworld.com)







We had a fabulous lunch full of all the yummy normal Christmas foods (thanksgiving also)....ham, turkey, potato casserole, green bean casserole, veggie tray, sweet potato casserole, rolls, my mom's amazing dressing...all the goodies! I love this food...and it was fabulous...but I must say...we ate this kind of food at turkey day, then twice at church functions, then again at Christmas...next year...I am changing my tradition..we will be eating steak, baked potato, and salad on Christmas day from now on!!! Yum.....

But we had a fun day visiting with everyone here and then we topped it off with our Christmas Tradition of seeing a movie...(along with the rest of the world apparently)...we went and saw "The Princess and the Frog!"

It was as super fun day! Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas Eve Festivities

New Year's Eve we were excited for our list of things to do. We had a big day planned. Nana & Bill, and Grandma and Grandpa Cluff were coming to play with us and spend the night! Everyone was so excited.

On our agenda:

Make gingerbread cookies with Nana
Decorate a gingerbread house
Make and Eat Pizzas!
Open Christmas Eve presents
Play Christmas Bingo
Play a game and read "The Night Before Christmas!"
Sing Christmas Carols
Watch Video about Jesus Birth (another present)
Leave Cookies/Milk for Santa & water for Rudolph
TO BED FRED!!!

Nana and Bill arrived around 3pm. The girls were so excited...Ryder too. :) We were hoping Grandma and Grandpa could be here by then too, but it didnt work out as we all planned :(. So first the girls and Nana made gingerbread cookies....as you can see...it was a hit!







Next, we moved on to Gingerbread House Decorating....


Then Pizza Making!!!
Viola!


Then Christmas Eve Gifts...Pjs! What else?




Next....Christmas BINGO...loads of fun...with m&ms. :)




"Twas the Night Before Christmas" Game (whenever you read the story and you say the word "the" you pass a present to the right...you get the one you end up with at the end of story!) :)





After our fun games, we sang Christmas songs while Jayda and I played the piano...that was fun.



(Our two Choristers!!!)


Next we watched a video about Jesus Birth..and then all that was left was to leave treats for Santa... (and a bowl of water for Rudolph outside...we hear that when he drinks it...his nose touches the water and leaves the water red....)


In the end it was a super fun day and we had so much fun with Nana and Bill and Grandma and Grandpa. Everyone stayed the night (sort of) and we were excited for Christmas Day!