Goodbye January!

It's been almost a month since I blogged anything. I guess January is kind of a boring month for everyone, I for one am glad that January is all but over. Last year at this time we were getting ready to go to Disneyland, wish we were doing the same thing this year. The kids and Danny have been enjoying playing in the snow that never seems to end. We have also been working on remodeling our kitchen and entry/mud room, although it sometimes seems impossible to get anything done with kids around. I have managed to get everything painted in the kitchen and we bought tile last weekend for behind the sink, now we just need to find the time to put it up. Hopefully by the end of February we will have everything finished, the impatient person that I am might go crazy by then, but it will be nice when it's done.

New Year's Day

On New Year's Day we went bowling and then to lunch with everyone in my family. I guess it's our New Year's tradition, I think we have done it for the past 3 years. We all had lots of fun.

Natalie had lots of fun and beat Mom by 4 points.

Austin and Brock had fun bowling, but started losing interest towards

the end and wandered over to the video games.

Makenna enjoyed all of the sights and sounds.

After bowling we all went to lunch and used the gift certificates we got from G&G Warner for Christmas. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma, it was yummy! Here is one end of the table...

and here's the other end. Hope everyone had a Happy New Year!

Our 2008 Christmas

Christmas was so fun for us this year. On Christmas Eve we went to my parents for dinner and then exchanged gifts with my brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, we draw names every year. Then we came home and gave the kids their Christmas Eve present, new pj's, and an ornament. This year I also made each of them a photo album and a slide show with pictures of fun things from 2008. I am going to add that to our Christmas Eve traditon each year. Christmas morning we actually had to wake the kids up, I had been up all night listening to a dog whine, more on that later. We got all of our presents opened up and had some fun playing and then had a yummy breakfast. My parents came around 11:00 and brought us our presents, they spoiled us as usual. They got the kids cute overnight bags, blankets, and pjs for sleepovers, and some fun toys. After that we headed to Grandma-Greats and then to Danny's moms house, his cousin was here from California where he trains horses so Danny was excited to see him. It was an exciting, busy, fun day, the best part was being together!

Here are the kids in their new pj's on Christmas Eve.
Natalie got a cd player, clothes, art supplies and other "tweenish" stuff. She decided it's fun to ask santa for surprises.

Makenna got lots of cute toys and some baby einstein dvd's. Of course her favorite part was playing with all of the bags and paper.

Austin got everything he wanted, a fire truck, a big gun and a rock-star guitar, plus a few surprises. He was so happy and kept saying "Thanks Santa, we love you" after he opened a present.
The biggesbest surprise of all was the new puppy that Danny and I (mostly Danny) got for the kids. Natalie was the most surprised because she secretly wanted a puppy for Christmas but didn't dare ask for one because she knew I would say no like I always do. The kids call him Ranger and I have to admit he is pretty cute.

Family Christmas Party

Our family Christmas party for my Mom's side was Saturday night. We had lots of fun and got to visit with Santa Claus. This year the party ended up on my Grandpa's birthday, he passed away 6 years ago so Doug and Nikki had a cake made with his picture on it and made a slide show of some pictures of Grandpa for us all to watch. It was really special and I think Grandma thought it was really nice. It's so fun to get together with family during the holidays!!

Party On!

Natalie asked for a surprise, she's making it easy on Santa.

Austin asked Santa for a "big gun, a chain saw, and a rock-star guitar"

Makenna's first visit with Santa.

Pop, Makenna and Grandma-Great

Reflections Contest

Natalie composed a song on the piano and entered it into the Reflections contest at school. She has been taking piano lessons since May and really loves it. Her song won at her school and now she will move on to the district level. Way to go Natalie!!

Trick-or-Treat

Cute trick-or-treaters: Marshal Marshall, Natalie the Nice Witch,

and Our Little Pumpkin. Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Lots of Leaves...

Austin and I have a daily ritual of raking all the leaves that have fallen and picking up all of the apples that have dropped. We usually do this while Natalie is at school and Danny is at work so they miss out on all the fun. This is the maple tree in our front yard, it is such a pretty tree.

"Helper Man" Austin, he is such a hard little worker!

Makenna loves laying out on the blanket and

watching the leaves fall out of the trees.

Austin lined up these leaves and said they were

"Nat, Me and Kenna".