Christmas Afternoon

We went to Mimi and Pops' house for Christmas afternoon and the kids napped there. We then opened presents and ate Christmas dinner.

We had snow flurries all day, just enough to be pretty. They didn't stick by any means, but the kids loved watching them.

Some parents would cringe at the sight of this gift, but I love hand bells, as does Chase. He loves playing them at Bible Study, so Mimi and Pops got him a set. This is a great family gift as well.

JuJu and Chase each got a board game. I think they got 3 games total this year, which is great because we only had Memory before this. They have loved playing games with us!


Some old school toys made an appearance too- tinker toys for Chase and the Fisher Price wind up clock for Parker.



Chase and JuJu both also got sleeping bags,which were a huge hit! They've been sleeping in the on top of their beds at night.


JuJu got "make-up", which she is applying to her checks in this picture. They must play with 'make-up" at school, because she's been talking about it for a while and I've never really told her about it. She loves to find things that look like compacts and pretend to put make-up on. Here we go........

And look at that smile when she opened up her new baby doll! This one bounces and coos and is really cute. She named her baby Parker. :) She also got some diapers and a feeding set.

Chase gave Mimi some green kitchen towels, because green is his favorite color.

Santa, aka Uncle Korey. He has played Santa (handed out the gifts under the tree while wearing the Santa hat) for as long as I can remember. We both did it as kids, but he kept the title.

There's our little model.

Parker is confused and thinks that shoes belong on your hands instead of your feet. He is constantly crawling around the house with a shoe on each hand. It is so funny!

Mimi and Pops and the kids.

Our family

The whole gang, including my Uncle Terry (at the top), Mimi and Pops, Uncle Korey, and our family.

Christmas Morning

Santa came and left some loot, as always. The kids were thrilled! Parker was pretty oblivious to the whole thing. The only thing that he got excited about was the container of puffs that Santa left in his stocking. He also got some teething toys in his stocking.

Santa filled those stocking full this year, and with very useful stuff! Let's see what I can remember....


Chase- gloves, hat, Sunday School Songs CD, pencil sharpener, Nerf bullets and balls for his Nerf guns, big boy boxers, candy canes, a plastic candy cane full of red and green m & m's, a book mark and fun straws!

JuJu got a princess bowl, two sets of pink gloves, three hair bows, fun straws, candy canes, plastic candy cane filled with red and green m & m's, a princess wallet and a kids' worship music CD.


Sadler got some much needed attention on Christmas and some goodies as well. His stocking was stuffed full of Busy Bones and other things of the such. He also had a big box of bones wrapped up under the tree.


Santa brought JuJu some dress up clothes and lots of furniture for her doll house (even though it's not in this picture).


Santa brought Chase a Leapster Explorer, remote control truck and a pirate legos set.


Chase driving his truck. It cracks Parker up to watch that truck. Even if Chase runs him over with it!


He really loved all of his toys and pretty much got exactly what he asked for.

JuJu likes the Leapster too and Chase is sweet enough to share.

Parker was having a serious bed head day, wouldn't ya say?!

This was Parkie's first Christmas! Santa brought him this gears toy that you might be able to see him playing with in this picture. He really likes it. He also got a new BLUE bunny lovee. This will hopefully replace the PINK bunny lovee that he has grown attached to. He also got two other little toys from Santa.

Chase got these gifts from MomMom and PopPop.

And JuJu got these gifts from MomMom and PopPop.

A cute apron and oven mitten set, along with a Cinderella princess set.

Checking out Aunt Rachel and Uncle Marte's gifts. We can't wait for spring so we can get outside and catch us some bugs! I've got a feeling JuJu will catch more than Chase. :)



We also got this great Veggie Tales movie from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Bill. It is so cute and they have watched it about 4 times already. I got to watch it today for the first time. I love the creativity behind these movies! We got a game, which we actually played tonight for our annual New Year's Eve family game night, along with a Advent book and a book for Parkie- which he needed. That was one thing that he actually needed this year.

Thanks so you all for thinking of us and sending gifts! The kids have enjoyed each and every one!

Phil had a necklace made for me this year, for our kids. Not sure how well you can see it in the picture......

...so here's a better picture. The top stone is Amethyst, for JuJu (February). The middle stone is a white Sapphire, for Chase (April). The bottom stone is Garnet, for Parker (January). They are not in birth order to break up the colors a bit.

The earring on the right are JuJu's birthday, to match the necklace. The earrings on the left are my birthstone, blue topaz. I already have a necklace to match those.

Wow! What did I do to deserve all of this? I don't know, but I like it!

Phil got a printer/ scanner, along with a bunch of clothes, since all of his winter clothes are swimming on him due to his 35 lb weight loss this year!

We had a great Christmas with our little family this year. We actually had money to buy gifts this year, which was nice. Not necessary, but just nice to not have to worry about the money and to be able to buy some things that we needed.

Stay tuned, Christmas afternoon coming up!

Some Last Minute Christmas Celebration Pics

I'm still trying to catch up to Christmas. :)

The kids had their preschool program and last day of school on my birthday. Phil was on a trip, but my mom had already planned to take off work and go to their program with me. I'm so glad she did because I don't know how I would have done all of that, with Parker too.

I wish I would have thought to get a picture of her with the kids! Or me!



They sang on stage and then had cookies and punch in the gym.

I'm not sure why he has that look on his face. I was way up in the balcony. I'm surprised he found me.

Each class had a Christmas tree with hand-made ornaments from the kids in that class.

The night before the program we made Christmas, and then I made some other Christmas goodies after they went to bed, to give to their teachers that day.

These are Chase's cookies.

And these are JuJu's. Boy did they have fun with the sprinkles!

So of course they got to eat them for dessert for a few nights. Just one or two each night.