Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas celebration this year! We were able to spend almost all of our Holidays with family and friends and not leave home. We were able to go to MJ's Aunt and Uncles for Christmas Eve. This is a family tradition. We go and eat a wonderful dinner of home make tamales, enchiladas, rice and beans then Santa comes. We open gift and the kids have a blast. It is such a wonderful time of year to enjoy each other's company and visit and remember all our blessings.

Special visitor

Monday night we had a special visitor at our house. Jessi and Tanner got to see Santa again!

Jessi was so excited to show Santa all her favorite ornaments. She also showed him the bracelet that she made that was like Santa's bells on his bag.

Then she got to sit on his lap and talk to him before he gave her a new bear.

Tanner wasn't quite sure about this strange man with the beard and stayed as far away as possible. Until Gaga let him sit on her lap. Then Santa got out a toy car for Tanner and drove it on his leg. He set the car on his knee thinking Tanner might come over and play with it there. No such luck. Tanner took it on a run over to me behind the camera. Maybe next year. I think we are done with Santa for this year.

Our weekend

We were a bit insane this weekend and decided last minute to drive to Washington to go to Chris and Melissa's wedding reception. MJ called me on his way home from work and said, "Let's go." So we packed and left about 5pm Friday night for Washington. We didn't really check the weather, which wasn't the smartest thing we have ever done. The 13-14 hour drive ended up being more like 18 hours but luckily most of it was while the kids were sleeping. The roads weren't too bad, there was a lot of snow though and visibility was a problem most of the way. We arrived safe and exhausted at about 10:30am Saturday.

The reception was that night and we had a ton of fun visiting with friends and family. Jessi and Tanner especially loved playing with their cousins. The only one missing from the family was one spouse and had he known we were coming he would have been there too. I had my camera this time but the battery died so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have like but a few more than in MO and everyone else has lots of opportunity also to take some.


I finally got a good picture of Melissa and Chris. This is also their cake(the picture doesn't do it justice, it was beautiful) and them feeding it to each other.


Melissa and the nieces. She had a beautiful dress that was amazing on her!


Jessi wanted to hold the flowers in the previous pictures but Mikenna didn't want to let them go. This is Jessi trying to get them and pouting and then her smile when she did get a chance to hold them.


All of Jessi's cousins. She doesn't have any yet on MJ's side.


All the sisters on my side of the family.


The best picture that we got of our family. I hope the photographer got a better on so this one doesn't go up on my mom's wall.

Then Sunday about 8am we took off again for home and the roads weren't that much better. The difference as the day light. We shaved off a few hours and made it home a little before 12am. Next time we do a spur of the moment trip, we will definitely check the weather first. Thanks to a lot of prayers we made it home safe and the kids were excellent both ways. A miracle in itself!
So now we are home and catching up on sleep and getting ready for Christmas again.
What did you do this weekend?

More Santa

We went to the ward party and had a great time. Jessi has been coming into Primary for singing time so she was able to sing with the primary for our Nativity program. She loved it. I forgot my camera so I didn't get a picture but a good friend lent me hers to get some pictures of the kids with Santa. Jessi was the first to sit on his lap and never strayed far from his knee after that. She was so excited that day that she even brought Santa a picture. Near the end of the night I get Tanner to sit with Jessi just for a minute. He wasn't really sure about this big guy in the red suit.

Home Depot

We went to Home Depot today for the kids thing that they have every 1st Saturday. The kids got to make art easels. And as a bonus, Santa was there. This is the first encounter for Tanner and the first time that Jessi would sit on his lap. We will have more pictures from our ward party later. These are the photos that they took for us as home dept.
 

Something so little

How can something so little make such a big mess? It took me about 20 minutes to clean this room up and as soon as it was done he dumped out another backpack of toys. Good thing he is cute!

Our Fish

So we have had a fish for a long time. Maybe 6 months, I can't remember. I mentioned him before but never got around to getting a picture of him. Well, I have finally cleaned his tank again and he is presentable so here he is.

It looks like two fish but really the one that you can see him in is his reflection off the tank. He is a Red or scarlett swordtail. About the size of a small goldfish. But he hasn't grown at all since we bought him.