Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year (as we do every year) and consider ourselves so very blessed by everything in our lives.  I have way too many pictures as usual!

First off- here is Chris’ present.  In reality, it was his present to himself since he paid for it with his side job money and I didn’t pay a penny!  The only bad thing for him is that it’s no longer his truck.  Once Landry laid eyes on it, he officially declared his!

Meet Big Daddy’s newest baby.  A 1946 International pick up truck.  It needs some windows, some carburetor work and of course some body work, but it runs and has wheels!

Banna and Kinslee came over on Friday to exchange presents

Landry got a dinosaur! Anybody watch Dinosaur Train?  It’s too cute.

Ansley got a entire nursery set for all her babies!  She LOVED it!  Although, she usually tries to use the set instead of her babies.

Chris had to work on Christmas Eve, so it was just me and the kids.  We headed to mom and dad’s for dinner and presents!

I had to include this pic because their Zia looks a little crazy! hehe.

My stud.  Please excuse the chocolate milk on his shirt.  What can I say? I’m in the running for mother of the year…

Harli got to go as well, which was very exciting for her!  Haegan and Addison were not quite as thrilled.

The kids got tons of awesome presents

Notice Keevan’s face?  The drums were a big hit!  Both the kids love to play them!

Ansley getting her 2011 Christmas Barbie.  It’s customary! :)

Another big hit was Ansley’s new kitchen! 

Santa came to our house sometime after we got home!  He must have been pretty tired after getting all those presents out and in order!

Please excuse the fact that my son still has on the stained shirt from the previous nite and only one sock.  Once again, Mother of the Year….

Then we opened presents from each other

Some of the aftermath.

I meant to take a picture but of course forgot.  Chris got me a beautiful wedding band to go with my ring!  He had it wrapped in a huge box with tons of paper and bricks, only to get down to a tiny ring box!  I took it in today to be sized and have them both polished, so I’ll have to remember to share it later.  I LOVE it!

I finally got the kids rooms and the living room cleaned up yesterday.  It looked like the North Pole had blew up in my house!  Although, by now, the kids have completely destroyed it all again and you can no longer see my living room floor!

We are SO thankful for all that we received.  As much as I enjoy sending thank you notes, I feel as though they sound so insincere.  I can never thank everyone for all they give us with the meaning that it all deserves.  I know that we are extremely lucky to have the ability to give and receive and want everyone to know how much everything means to me and my family.  THANK you so much.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and got to enjoy spending time with family and friends!

Mountain Getaway

We got back from a nice 4 day getaway to the mountains on Sunday.  We had gorgeous weather and an overall great time! Now prepare yourself for a major picture overload.

Friday morning as we were getting out and about, there was a fine snow blowing around and all around the sun was an incredible rainbow.  I had to adjust it a lot to show up in the picture, but it was amazing.

We decided to rent Landry some ski’s and let him play around the cabin and try to get the hang of it a little.  We honestly never thought he’d even put them on, more or less love them, but he proved us wrong and absolutely loved it!

This might be my new favorite pic.

I know they’re hard to see, but the field was full of elk on our way home from dinner

And a few deer

Saturday morning the community center was having a Breakfast with Santa that we took the kids to.  It didn’t turn out to be much, but Landry got to do a few crafts and see Santa, so that’s all that mattered.

When we got there, there was only 2 other kids, so they had fun dancing with this guy.

Eating a few goodies before the guy in red showed up

Saying hi to Ansley.  Landry didn’t really want anything to do with him, except to wave and the Santa didn’t really pay attention to the kids much so we left soon after.

The rest of the day was spent playing outside again

More elk

We kept seeing this guy around the cabin all weekend.  I wish I would’ve got a picture of him out of the trees so you could see his rack, it was huge!  I think Chris said he had 11 points, but the height and width on them was pretty impressive.

I had to get a picture of these gorgeous trees covered in ice on the way home.  Aren’t they pretty?

Then we had to come back to reality! 

Ansley had tubes put in on Wednesday and did great! Hopefully that’ll clear up all her ear infections finally.

Christmas is in 10 days! Can you believe it?  Always remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.