More Christmas Day pictures

Christmas Day

Christmas day was a blast! We opened gifts at my mom's house in the morning then drove to Santa Barbara for brunch and more and more and more presents. We open them one at a time and there are 21 of us or so.....so it took about 4 hours. Then we ate a ham dinner. And I forgot to mention that on Christmas Eve our car broke down - a bad battery so we took great grandma's truck to SB. It was a great time! This year advent was big for us- and we really felt like we honored Christ as we taught our girls about Jesus coming to earth every night. So one of my gifts from Tom was the Willow Tree people's nativity set! I was so excited! He gave it to me after we did our last advent time Christmas morning with the girls. We had them tell us what they remembered from the last month. When we asked what the angel said to Mary, Abby said, "Do not be afraid". We are always so amazed at what our children pick up and pray we are planting the beginning seeds of a life of faith in Christ Jesus as Lord. Tonight when Fiona was kissing me goodnight she asked where our calendar went. It took me a few minutes to realize that she meant the Advent Calendar. I explained that the Christmas season was over but that next year we would do it again. But I told here that we would begin family devotions each night instead. She said she would like that! God is so good.

Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas. Here are some pictures of all the fun. We spent Christmas Eve with my mom and 92 year old great grandma! It was a blast. When we told Fiona that we were going to open a few presents she climbed on one to reach another gift. We told her not to do it again but it was so cute we took a picture!

At the Zoo

Here are pictures of our most recent trip to the Zoo. Yes, we got the car working after it over-heated!

Meeting Sean "Sam Wise " Astin

So the other day on the way to the zoo with the cousins my car over-heated. I pulled into a random parking lot and my sister-in-law saw Sean Astin sitting there drinking hot chocolate. After driving the car across the street to Chevron we realized he is the one actor we would really want to meet. So while Aaron worked on my car we drove back across the street and he was still in the parking lot! He was the nicest man and very kind. Here are the boys with him! We love Lord of the Rings and Sam has always been my favorite character. I also love the movie Rudy! I cry every time I see it!

Advent Singing

Here is a cute video of the girls singing!

We have been elfed

Thank you Melissa for this fun idea!

Check out our cute family!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1183392610

Advent Calender

Here is the calender I made this year for Advent. We are planning to use it to tell the girls the Christmas story and about our great savior coming to earth to save us!

More Christmas pictures

Here are some more Christmas Decorating Pictures...

Christmas Time

I love decorating for the holidays. We always try to get our tree on Thanksgiving weekend. This year we planned for Saturday and invited the Swaney family to join us for the decorating. But Fiona was not feeling well and so we stayed home most of the day because she wanted to sleep and we cleaned and decorated. Then she woke up and said she felt better and wanted to go get our tree. So we said OK, and traveled to Home Depot around 4 pm. We shopped around for a bit before coming home to the Swaney's waiting at the door and we all piled in our elevator up to the 3rd floor with tree and all. Then we began to put the lights on the tree and all the fun ornaments. I passed them out and Tom helped the kids put the ornaments on. When it was all done we were very delighted. And put the kids to bed about 11:45!!! Wow- Sunday morning came too quick after that late night. But it was well worth it to us and our girls. We reminded Abby that her prayers had been answered- Jay and Eli were sleeping over! Yippee!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. First we went to my mom's house and cooked up a turkey and stuffing. I have not had my mom's stuffing since '97 and wow it was soooo good. Then we headed up to Lompoc to the Graham house for their first thanksgiving, well anything in their remodeled home. They have been out of their house for 4 months while it was being remodeled due to a water leak! Crazy- a family of 10 and one on the way with out their home. We were all so thankful that they could be home for Thanksgiving that we celebrated there. And actually it worked out quiet well since they have 3 industrial ovens now and a huge kitchen! It was a blast. I decorated for the event. Here are some pictures from the day.

Awana Fall Festival

A couple saturdays ago Tom had a day with our girls while I helped plan a wedding shower. Here are some cute pictures of the girls that Tom took. We love our cute little love bugs.

Reformation Day 2007

Here are our cute girls dressed up as ladybugs.

Fall is my favorite time of year

Here are a few pictures of some of our fall adventures. I love this time of year and I am always excited to decorate the house and go to the pumpkin patch. Our kids get so excited every time they see a pumpkin!