Christmas Day 2009

Friday, 12-25-09

A few snapshots of the day.

In Elissa's letter to Santa she said that she wanted a princess jacket, so here it is. :-)

So excited by the little fun stuff in her stocking from Santa.

Darin and I some how decided to get the very same things for each other. That's just how connected we are. hee, hee :-)

My little "rockin" girl is so excited to get a Moxie Girl.

Daddy loves his new coat!

Nana gets a fancy new floor light to help her with her puzzles.

Zach learned fast how to rip the presents open.

Zach got the Rocky Rollie he has been asking for nonstop - from Nana. He is excited!

We are playing Elissa's new game - Flippin' Frogs - it is pretty fun.

The kids are having a ball with the helicopters that Daddy got them.

The aftermath.....

Later in the afternoon Grandma & Papa came over for dinner.

The kids are ready for another round of presents.

And our little love bug showing his appreciation. :-)

Daddy and Lissy couldn't keep their eyes open any longer.

It was a long full day of family fun.

I'm sad to say that celebrating Jesus' birth wasn't really a part of the day. I'm going to figure out a way to change that next year. Maybe I just need to work on making Him even more a part of our every day. Thank you Jesus for loving us right where we are.

Cookie's for Santa

Thursday Evening, 12-24-09

We had to decorate cookies for Santa before the kids could go to bed.

This is some serious business.

We hope you like them Santa!

Christmas Eve at Grandma & Papa's

Thursday, 12-24-09

We love celebrating Christmas Eve at Grandma and Papa's with Uncle Chad, Aunt Holly, Cole, Chase and Caden. So many fun memories!

This year, to try to calm the mayhem of present opening, Mom made a special Christmas present opening chair. :-)

Everybody wanted to play with Chase's race trackI'm going to take you all down!

I can't even believe I got a rockin' guitar!Oooo, a computer of my own.....

A remote control car!

Tickle me Cookie Monster....so cute (cookie monster is cute too)! :-)

Gigi got into the fun too.....

Auntie Holly is excited for her gifts!
(We all really loved getting in the special chair. hee, hee)

We couldn't get Grandma out of it. LOL!

The kids loved the punching bags Grandma and Papa got them. They all really got into it.

Fun was had by all!
(Even Chad with his LED hat and Darin with his child sized running shirt)

Breakfast in "Bed"

Tuesday, 12-22-09

Amalea had the best idea - invite her friends, which happen that our kids are all friends, over for breakfast in our PJs. Isn't that such a fun idea?!

So we all came over in our PJs and there was an air mattress in the living room for the kids to eat their breakfast in bed and lots of good food. Even better was the great time with friends.

The Moms
Me, Kari, Jenny, Heather, Amalea and Julie
I can't believe I didn't get a picture of us.....well maybe I can - no shower or makeup....

The Girls
Elissa, Eva, Grace, Kelsey, Emily and Morgan

The Boys
Hamilton, Henry, Payton and Adam

The Little Ones
Zachary and Clara

I hope we do this again next year! (hint, hint) :-)

8th Annual Seattle Weekend

Friday - Sunday, 12/18-20/09

Our highly anticipated weekend finally arrived! This has been the best gift that Kirstin and I have given to each other for the past 8 years. We have so much fun and we try to make it last longer and longer each year. :-)

This year I left my house at 10am to go get Kirstin and hang out while the guys decided to work (what are they thinkin'??). We ended up having lunch at a new place, South Lake Grill. It was SO yummy! Then we checked in to our room at the Sheraton. We love this hotel because it's location to all the shopping. It is much easier to drop off all our packages since it is right there in the middle of everything.

That night we had our usual meal at Benihana's. Yum, yum!

Saturday is all about shopping! Kirstin and I shop till we literally drop that evening. The guys do a little shopping and a lot of hanging out. :-)

That evening we had dinner reservations at Daniel's Broiler at 8:30pm. Since Darin works downtown now, he was going to show us how to use the transit system to get there. He also wanted to show us the new Amazon buildings going up near Lake Union. We had to raz him a bit about this. He loves where he works now and likes to talk about what they are doing. It is great, but fun to tease him too. :-)

Here we are waiting as Darin gets tickets for the trolley.

It is very nice inside.It was a fun evening and really good food!Sunday the guys went to the Seahawks game and Kirstin and I did some more shopping and then went and watched "New Moon". Love, love, love that movie! (I finally finished the Twilight series on Friday the 26th at 1am - so good!)

It was another great year downtown!

Making Gingerbread Houses

Wednesday, 12-16-09

Elissa's Kindergarten class made gingerbread houses today, so I went to help out. The kids loved having all that candy in front of them. LOL!

Mrs. Stober does such a great job with all her little craft projects she organizes for the kids. It was a fun, messy time!

Lissy's friend Morgan

Christmas Program

Sunday, 12-13-09

The Christmas Program at Lake Tapps Community Church has been a long time coming. The kids started practicing back in October. It is amazing how fast they learn and what a difference an audience makes! :0)

They did such a terrific job! Enjoy a few moments of their hard work. :-)

Angels:
Morgan, Emily, Karli, Kelsey and Elissa

This was Elissa and my favorite song.

Dear Santa

Elissa made this letter at school with her big buddy. She dictated the letter to him, though she did write the word CAT and ELISSA. Then Mrs. Stober sent us the letter along with a letter from Santa. So cute!

Our visit with Santa

Tuesday, 11-8-09

I thought it would be fun, since Darin is working downtown, to take the kids downtown to see the Nordstrom Santa. Also, Elissa has made the comment once or twice....when are you going to take us to Seattle? So today was the day!

I picked up Grandma at 9:30am and we headed to Seattle!

We walked around and got fresh mini donuts and hot chocolate (it was really cold). YUM!

Then we met Daddy at Nordstrom's just after 11am. It was a great experience. Barely a line. Fresh complimentary cookies and cider. Warm! Undivided time with Santa.

Elissa went right up to meet Santa.

Zach, not so much.Zach would have NOTHING to with Santa.So they had Santa walk away and then sneak back behind him. He was not the wiser until sister said, "Hey Zach, look behind you." Thank you Lissy.....Then Lissy came back to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas.
(I love this pic!)BTW, both Lissy and Zach say that Santa is not real. Well, Elissa asks if he is and at this point I do say yes.

Then when we were walking to lunch, there were all these "famous" people outside Nordstrom's collecting for the Salvation Army. As well as the Salvation Army band.

Here are two of the Rockettes!
Blake Lewis from American Idol
And the Mariner Moose dressed up for Christmas. Zach stayed F-A-R away from him. I think it was a pretty traumatic day for Zach. :-) Why do we do this to our kids?? hee, heeThen to top off the morning, we rode the carousel.It was a fun, fun day!