It's Beginning to Feel a Little More Like Christmas.....

Aaaaahhhh......Christmas sugar cookies........one of my many weaknesses.
It just wouldn't be Christmas without thousands of calories of these babies!

You can't even tell from this picture........

......but this big green ball has a huge chunk of it broken off in the back.

One of the MANY ornament tragedies this year.

Instead of everyone making their own gingerbread houses, we decided to combine a few kits to make a gingerbread mansion!!

It was an architectural wonder!!! (not really)

It was pretty cool, though......... with a dog house in the back even!

.......but then we ended up putting it out in the garage because it was so big & took up most of our kitchen table.

Mmmmm.....YUMMMM!

We absolutely adore Christmas lights.

Brian went all out this year, as usual. We'll stand out in front of the house & admire the lights until our toes are frozen.


A rare, quiet moment........I love these moments........

Breakfast of Champions

Sad, but true.

Gotta head to the mall today.

I might need a few of these!

Grandma's Christmas jammies!!

Grandma made all the grandkids Christmas jammies..........

Each pair was different.........

And sooooooo cute!

We wish everyone could have been at the Christmas party.........

.......cuz it was crazy fun!

We had a BUMLOAD of Mexican food,

Jolie found the almond in the cake (we think) & won the mystery gift,

We played Bingo with prizes for the winner of each game,

After not winning the first several games, Zane threw his Bingo board & declared, "I'm done with this!",

We opened Grandma & Grandpa's gifts & took pictures.

All the while, Jen & Cory were still stuck in LA traffic when they should have been HERE!!

Sheesh!!!
We had some seriously fun family parties this year, back-to-back, and I must say....... rather glad they're over! check mark!!!

Oh What Fun.......

.......it is to play.........a Christmas family kickball game!!!!!

After a little soup in bread bowls, we all ran over to this softball field for a little kickball & hot cocoa. We even set up a sound system to play Christmas music that made it even better!

Team Red claims that the game was rigged (poor sports) , since Team Green, made up of all the little kids, won the game.

But, the truth is, those elementary school kids know their kickball! ....... And the teenagers were a little rusty on their kickball skills!

Maybe next year, girls!!

It was a great time!!

Then, we went back to our house to open gifts..........

Poor Jenni broke her femur 2 weeks ago & made the drive down from Flagg, through snow, to be here!

We're SO glad they made it.

Mars is so lucky to have all these cute cousins right around her age.

We love, love, love our cousins!!!

Where did my Christmas mojo go?

.......maybe it's hiding in Gus's bellybutton?


.......and speaking of hiding, it's Gus's favorite thing right now.
This is how he hides.
Like an ostrich with its' head in the sand.
Love it!


It may look like Christmas around our house, Clark Griswold (Brian) put tons of lights up in our yard & everything, but I've had a hard time this year really feeling it.
Maybe it's the horrible economy, or the fact that I've taken on too much AGAIN this year & feeling way too stressed, and really wishing we could pack up & hole up in a cabin right now, just our little family............ no concerts, school parties, office parties, huge family parties, neighbor gifts, kindergarten programs, church functions, gingerbread-house-making(that has over-taken my kitchen for 3 days....post on that later), etc., etc.............
And then I feel guilty, because I should be enjoying this stuff, right???
My kids are!
But me.......not so much.
I find myself happily putting a big check-mark next to every holiday thing we've done, saying, "Good! that's over!........Yay! that's done!"
Maybe I just need a Diet Coke.
Maybe after I finish this post I'll feel better & stop whining & focus on how incredibly blessed we all are!
After all, in the words of Sheryl Crow, "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got!"
Maybe I need to just enjoy the journey!

.........OK.... right after my shopping's done, everything wrapped, Christmas cards out, & gingerbread mess cleaned up.........





It does make me happy just looking at Gus in his Christmas jammies!!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

My cute Grandpa turned 90 years old yesterday!

And he's still walking & climbing stairs! Still sharp as a tack! He's so amazing!

When we were getting him positioned for these pictures, I'm asking him, "Grandpa, can you sit like this.... or put your arms like that...?" and he goes, "Well, I can do just about anything!"

And he's right!

Although............I believe the thing he wants to do most at this point, is to join Grandma, his sweetheart, who passed away several years ago.

I miss her.

We love these hands.

Every one of my Grandma & Grandpa's children were there............all 9 of them!

What a legacy!

Love you Grandpa.

You are such an incredible example to all of us......of perseverence.....of humility.......of hard work.......of obedience.........of love.........of how to live our lives to the fullest.

Thank you.

only as high as i reach can i grow
only as far as i seek can i go
only as deep as i look can i see
only as much as i dream can i be.
- karen ravn

I love watching my babies sleeping.

Especially toddlers for some reason.............maybe because the peaceful stillness is so OPPOSITE of the wakefulness.
I've always wanted to take pictures of this boy sleeping, but there's never enough available light when it's sleeping time.

Well, today I got my chance....... due to his recent discovery that he is capable of climbing out of his crib.

That was a sad day.

No more naps.

No more extra me-time in the morning while he's playing in his crib.

Now we have some random middle-of-the-night refrigerator foraging, every light turned on, waking us up at 4 AM with a "Mom......Diego on."

Like this morning.......I think it was 3:30.......and he wasn't about to go back to bed.........so Brian slept a little on the couch while putting on about 6 Diegos in a row.

Soooooo......guess who passed out around 10:00 this morning?????

In my room, with some great window light coming through.......

Brian might not agree, but it was SO worth it!

I finally got a little studio set up in our extra garage.
It's my little happy place.
Now if I can just find some extra time to spend in there!
That's what I want for Christmas! (Are you reading this Santa???)

Of puzzles, parades, & garden pots

We love puzzles!!!
Well, everyone but Brian. He thinks they're a collossal waste of time........maybe he's right.........but it's a really fun waste of time!
We only have them out during the holidays & we love staying up late, hanging out around the puzzle, eating snacks, listening to Christmas music, Christmas tree lights glowing.......it's a big part of Christmas for me.

The annual City of Queen Creek Parade.
Our office has had a float in it for a few years now (Thanks Del T.)
The kids think it's pretty fun. They wear these little tooth costumes & hand out promotional bags of stuff to people along the way.
It went really well this year. Last time Max almost got run over by the float!



Garden pots!

Max & Mars are growing a bunch of flowers & vegetables for YW & Scout projects.

These are beet sprouts.

It was really exciting to watch everything sprout. We can't keep the pots in the back or the bunny will eat them!!

I think I found our Tooth Fairy!

Hee hee!!!

My little photo assistant

Gus loves getting his pictures taken, and after each one he wants to "see it" on the LCD screen. He mimics everything I do these days, so if I leave my camera unattended, he's right there looking through it & pushing buttons.......NOT GOOD!

We had a little down time during a shoot, so he was modeling for me.

My little buddy.

We attempted some potty-training the other day...............didn't go so well.

My favorite thing right now is how he says Christmas......"Himmiss".......love it!

I had to include this one of my favorite little model.

Does the camera love her or what??!!

Work it Sadie!