Christmas!

Christmas morning

breakfast

My dad bought me a very neat Belgian waffle maker than flips to cook evenly.

Matching jammies

Jared and the reel he asked for

PSP!

Ari loves chairs

Lexi asked Santa for a camera. This one is waterproof.

Santa came!

Christmas eve.

Thanks to everyone who sent cards and/or gifts, texts and/or phone calls. It means a lot.

Hope everyone had a beautiful holiday, we sure did.

Happy New Year (aka Kyler's birthday)! We are ringing in 2012 with a visitor--grandma Carol!

all things leading up to Christmas

My family's tradition of 1 gift on Christmas eve:

Ari was dancing to Christmas music here.

Kyler love Halo Lego

Lexi got a huge Barbie set with a Barbie and furniture

Ari got a doll stroller

My dad spent Christmas eve with us

The kids giving grandpa the birdhouse they made him

Grey socks! (another family tradition)

Ari with her babies from grandpa

Throwing knives and a book

For some reason the photos didn't rotate when I edited them.

My dad and I

We took a drive to the Calapooia River in Brownsville.

Ari the climber in her toy basket

She unzips her jammies to get to her belly button

The log cabin birdhouse the kids painted Grandpa Bob

Mistletoe!

Kyler looks so thrilled

Merry Christmas!

Christmas concert, lights & storybook land

The day after my mom left, Jared headed to Washington for work.

Unfortunately, he missed the kids winter concert. But I caught plenty of pictures and video.
Here they are before we left...
Lexi and her friend, Rylee.

Heading to the stage.

She's in the back row.

With her friends Sophie and Rylee.

Ari loved the attention from these cute girls.

After Lexi performed, we had to wait quite a while for Kyler to perform. Arilyn didn't like sitting and waiting. Luckily the girls and my friend Melissa were a huge help. Phew--toddlers can be such hand fulls. Especially when going at it solo, while at the same time trying to take video and photos. Yikes. But such a fun night.

Kyler's up...

Since Kyler is in the 4th/5th grade blend, he sang with the 5th graders.

Brother love

To get out of the house, I took the kids for hot chocolate and a walk through the park.

Ari is a blur!

When Jared returned, we went to Christmas Storybook Land. It's amazing to watch Ari take in the beauty and magic of Christmas.

She kept trying to snag the bears. Ha ha, silly girl.

Don't mind my weird face here.

Classic Santa pic, ha ha.

We've been in need of new stockings, so I decided I would attempt to make some while Jared was gone. Here is the finished result. It only took me a few hours for all 5.

Christmas lights in the park.

Jared has been traveling quite a bit recently, which is great for his job. I hope to have him sticking around for a few weeks, though.

Lexi and I are finally on the mend with our illnesses (a stomach bug for both and strep throat for me).

Tomorrow is the kids last day of school until the holiday break. Hard to believe Christmas is that near! Next time they walk into school, Kyler will be 10!!

Here's to a beautiful and magical holiday season for us all.