Enjoying New Toys

Here is Rayna enjoying one of her's and Taylin's new toys. She was so cute I had to show you.

The girls also still have favorite toys that will never loose its newness!

It's Christmas!

Christmas morning came very early this year! 6:30am was our wake up call by three little girls, Kaylee, Taylin, and Rayna. It may not sound so early to you, but when our bed time was 1:00am, it was early to the rest of us!

Rayna with her new baby and set from Santa

Taylin with her new Princess Vanity set from Santa

Kyler and Kolton playing the Wii that came from Santa

Rayna opening her stocking

Taylin opening her stocking

We spent the morning opening presents and eating a yummy breakfast, then clean and shoveled more snow (yes, we have a white Christmas!). We had a great big feast for Christmas dinner, with friends and family to enjoy it! We ended the night with the movies, "the Christmas Story, and the Nativity". (If you have never seen the Nativity, its a great Christmas movie!)

Kolton played Santa ClausRayna opening her present

Kaylee and Taylin snugglin

Kyler opening his present

The boys with their new hats from Grandma

The girls enjoying their new chairs.

Grandma opening her present.

Rayna loves her new talking baby.

Jena playing the Wii

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we all dressed up and went to the Christmas Eve service at church and then came home for my families traditional dinner of Fondue. We have added to this dinner since Daniel has been in the family, crab! So, now it technically is a fondue and crab dinner. It ends up being a longer dinner than most because of waiting for the meat to cook in the fondue and the work of cracking the crab! It makes for good conversations and quality family time. After clean up, we had an Advent time of singing Christmas carols and reading the Luke 2 scripture from the Bible. The kids then all got to open one present before it was off to bed so Santa could come! The girls left cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer! This was Taylin's first year of understanding the idea of Santa! It made it kind of fun.

Sledding!!

My family is here for Christmas and the kids just can't get enough of the snow! We've played in the yard and gone to a place to go sledding. It sure is nice to have older cousins to help out with the little ones! No, tracking up and down the hill for mom and dad! Rayna had a blast sledding and couldn't get enough. Taylin called it quits early, because she was too cold. Everyone took a turn on the sled, even Grandma!

Isaac's 3rd Birthday!

I always feel so bad for December Babies. It seems like their birthday always gets shorted because of Christmas. Isaac, however, had a great birthday filled with lots of cousins and friends. Thanks for letting us be a part of it!

Playing one of Isaac's new games.

Snow Day

We have had a ton of snow lately! Last week, we got a really good storm in that left the school kids with 3 snow days and 1 late start. So, our girls took advantage of the neighbor girls free time! Playing in the first big snow fall is always so much fun!

Rayna, Julia, Olivia, and Taylin

A Little Update to What We've Been Up To!

Sorry, its been a while since I've been on the blog, but here's a little update of what's been going on!

Christmas Fun and Cousins!

This past weekend we went down to my parent's house in Prescott Valley to enjoy some annual Christmas fun. We were met by my sister with two of her kids and my brother's kids. So, needless to say, there was a lot of energy! Our first stop was to one of the Resorts in town that hold an annual gingerbread contest. You walk through and check out all of the communities entries that are magnificent, and then afterwards the kids all get to decorate their own gingerbread man. The next stop was "Walk Through Bethlehem". A local church in town puts on basically a walk through play were they take you on a tour of Bethlehem on the night of Jesus birth. They use live animals, real babies, tons of decorations and costumes. The kids really get a kick out of it, and get to experience the first Christmas. While waiting for our turn at the walk through Bethlehem, there was an older man who was entertaining everyone. He was letting people get up and sing Christmas carols in the microphone to those who volunteered. So, all of the younger cousins decided to volunteer and sing Jingle Bells together. They really did a pretty good job. Our next stop was the Town Square Lighting. The kids had fun watching all the lights flip on and eating their gingerbread men from earlier in the day.

Christmas Decorations!

I love to decorate at Christmas time! My husband hates to drag out all the boxes from the attic and is always wanting me to cut back, but after it's all said and done, I know he really loves it too! So, here is a few pics of what I've been doing (and the family, too!).

What Can I Find?

This is a typical adventure that we often find Rayna on!

Our Trip to California

I'm so sorry I have been horrible at keeping up, but I'm back to play a little catch up. We went to visit Daniel's family in Monterrey for Thanksgiving and had a great time. It was a full vacation with things to do everyday, but it was quite the blessing. The girls got a lot of good girl cousin time, and lots of aunties, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas to spoil them. We also got to meet our new little nephew, Jude, who was precious and sweet! We had trips to the beach and to the "Denis the Menace" Park that were some of the girls highlights. The park brought back a lot of old memories for Daniel. All and all it was a great trip, and thanks to everybody who hosted us!