Christmas (and Sam's Birthday) in Pictures

Many blog posts have been created and then lost in my head over the last few weeks. I want to write more often on here, but I never want to go out of order. So, I need to post pictures from Christmas so that I can move on with life in 2011! So here is the week of Christmas that we spent in California told mostly in pictures (with captions, because we all know I can't not talk).

I love the gentle way my dad plays with the kids. Few words, but always at their level. And I love seeing my kids use the table my sister and I used as kids in the same kitchen we grew up in (I think my dad made the table and chairs for us).

Sam's birthday morning at Chuck E. Cheese:

Laughed watching Aunt Kendra the pilot fly a silly yellow hovercraft or something...

...so she returned the favor by laughing at me as I tried to make this jerky horse jump over obstacles while Annie ate her goldfish in disinterest.

Who is more excited about winning tickets?

1) Sam, the birthday boy:

2) Evan, the pesky little brother:

3) Aunt Kendra and Crampaw, who found a secret thrill in figuring out which game was easiest to win and standing there while small children tugged on their pant legs (just kidding):

Birthday cake and pizza at Grandma and Grandpa's house:

Then the afternoon spent at Scooter's Jungle...an indoor play area with inflatable toys. Annie was obsessed with this slide but had to be helped up the stairs every time. It was so hard to carry her up inflatable stairs with a long line of impatient children bumping into your rear...it was so steep! My mom got a little stuck on the stairs the first time up and instead of going to help, I called Kendra over to laugh with me. I don't think we could have gotten away with that as teenagers:

Decorating a gingerbread house only to then be hounded incessantly for permission to eat "treats off the house" (but they loved it):

Oh, the love! All those hands belonging to people I love so much! Love.

Walks to the park when it wasn't raining:

Another love picture. My 3 independent bike riders going off on an adventure. More love.

And then there are the hours of interesting fun in Grandpa's workshop. I suggested they make a traditional wooden ball and cup with a string game, but of course, they made a gun.

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day:

"Oh how pretty!"

"Look, pr-e-tty!"

"I don't want to wear this hat because you want me to. I just want to be pretty!"

"Yeah, I'm done with all that. Just gonna chill right here. In the most un-ladylike pose possible."

Oh the presents, the presents. So many presents.

So many presents, I'll use them as a footstool.

Slightly fake, "Wow, Evan, cool. Can I open mine now???" (imagine frantic panting and pawing like a puppy)

I get the after-Christmas-let-down, too, Evan. It's okay.

So there it is...Christmas 2010. Wish we could do it again!

The One-and-Only Post Between Thanksgiving and Christmas Post

Nothing fancy or insightful here today...just the latest happenings and pictures. Time just keeps moving along--every night, I seem to think, "We're going to bed again? We just did this!"

Here's some pictures from our time in Tucson for Thanksgiving with Jeremy's parents.

Building paper airplanes with Pa J...he's such a good sport and probably had to go buy more printer paper after we left. Oh, and Go-gurts--yuck, in my opinion, but the kids love eating them at Gamma's!

Pa J was even prepared with a how-to book...I love that!

Annie's favorite pasttime? Sitting on chairs.


Watching football with Daddy

Reading books with Gamma

Thanksgiving dinner, which Jeremy's mom and I enjoyed shopping for and preparing together. We sure have come a long way! It reminded me of my mom and my dad's mom cooking together every Christmas.

Speaking of coming a long way, Jeremy's mom let me go through stuff stored in their garage and have a garage sale! And, I think we had fun doing it, which is pretty cool! We found some important items she had been looking for and got rid of some junk...though I couldn't convince her to get rid of her grown children's belly button stubs. Isn't there a saying about one person's scab being a mother's treasure? No, I just made that up. But really, it was fun seeing some of Jeremy's old stuff--like clothes from his "preppy" phase and a teddy bear that he sewed in home ec.

A group picture--Gamma, me, Sam, Annie, and Annie's new friend.

Gamma let Sam set up a little table and earn the profits from his sales. He wants the money to go to a boy in Africa whose parents died. I'm just bragging sayin'.

This picture gives a little more context to "Annie's new friend." It might help to know that Jeremy's sister went to beauty school while she lived in Tucson.

These kids sure love their Gamma! They asked if we can always go to her house when we were home in Flagstaff.

Group picture in front of the house that Jeremy built. Gamma, Pa J, Uncle Jack, us, and Tanner, who provided some dog therapy for my kids who were still a little scarred from the bad dog experience at the creek with the youth group.

Sam's birthday present from Gamma and Pa J. He held it the entire 4-hour trip home in the car.

Going out in the snow looking like an alien. Even though Evan is older now, he still doesn't last nearly as long outside as Sam does.

Annie's other favorite pasttime: homemade scarves from my underwear drawer. I think there are at least 8 pairs on her in this picture. Maybe the look will catch on in the fashion world.

Christmas play at church...Evan was too young to perform, but he sang along loudly from the audience. Here he is, candy cane sword fighting with his friend, August.

Sam, the homely cute sheep.

Samuel's big line--"Baa, baa". He did it with gusto--what's that saying...there are no small parts, just small actors.

Samuel lost his first tooth naturally (he had one pulled last year)...his teacher pulled it out at school!
(I can't believe she was willing to put her hand in my son's mouth)

So many little girls at church love Annie and chase her around trying to mother her and pick her up.

This was taken on December 13th at 4 pm. 2 days later, it was snowing!

Speaking of time passing...Aunt Riah is pregnant with a long-awaited gift from God! Yeah!


For Sam's birthday, I took cupcakes to his school and did a little activity with the kids for their teacher who had just had a baby. Each kid put their thumbprint in fabric paint on a onesie in the shape of a long caterpillar and I added antennas (spelling?) and legs. I took a cute video of the kids talking to their teacher, too. I didn't have my camera, so no pictures of that, nor did I get any pictures at his school Christmas concert because a large man in snow clothes stood in front of us the whole time and Annie wouldn't budge from the chair she had climbed on to (see, she loves chairs) without screaming and Jeremy wasn't there to help (youth group party).

On Friday, Sam got to have some boys over after school for a Lego party. Here he is with Zach, a sweet little guy who kept saying, "Am I invited to this party? Is anyone playing with me? Am I invited? Is anyone playing with me?"

Here's Sam waiting for his favorite little friend who never showed up.

I had fun preparing a Lego-themed party on a budget...I think people should hire me to plan their kids' parties on a budget, but then if they had the money to hire a budget party-planner, their party wouldn't be very cheap, so I guess there's no market for that. Oh, and the boys just wanted to play...they didn't even do half of the games I had planned.

Samuel's cake with sprinkles covering up the part that Evan got into when no one was looking. Sam forgave him.

Tower building contest, which Evan, the 3-year-old won, hands down.

LEGOS!!!!

Lego cars getting ready for the race...Evan getting fueled up on boogers in the background.

Sam won this one and Evan came in 2nd! (I promise I was a fair judge!)

The party was fun and only had 2 poop incidents ("Sam's mom, can you wash my underwear? I had an accident and I tried to clean it up, but it was just too sticky!"). Now I am hurrying to get ready to go to California!