Christmas, A New Year, and everything in between...

I know it has been forever since I last posted...I apologize. It has been a little crazy around here and we have not been home much. It started with going to Gam's house and de orating a Christmas tree with her. It has been a tradition I love doing for quite a few years. She loves seeing all the kids and loves getting a bit of Christmas cheer brought home since she cannot leave much anymore. It was fun and worth the almost two hour drive.

Joshua loved seeing and playing with his cousins. We drove home and a few days latter on the 23rd drove back the two hours for Braddock's 4th birthday. Which was at a jump house and Joshua loved it and completely exhausted himself.

Then we had Christmas eve. Caleb had to go into work at 5pm so we had an early Christmas eve dinner/ lunch, read from the scriptures Twas' the night Before Christmas, and opened our one present each, which is always pajamas. Abigail was intrigued and excited by the fact that we were not taking the present away and telling her no this time. For the few weeks before Christmas she managed to open quite a few presents without anyone noticing. Luckily they were all for Caleb and he was hardly home!

Joshua was so excited about his pajamas that he put them on all by himself over his blue jeans. His legs are not normally that big and muscular.

Caleb worked until a little after 3am then came home and filled ,y stocking and stuff so got to bed around five. Joshua woke up at six jumping and ready to go. We had to be up in Santa Barbara (3 1/2 hrs away) by 3pm. So I tried to keep Joshua busy upstairs but he ended up waking Caleb up by 7:30! Poor Caleb. I was able to snap one quick picture of Joshua and Abigail waiting on the stairs before he took off running to look at all the neat things.

Their big present this year was a playhouse for the backyard. They were so excited and have played in it pretty much everyday that we have been home since Christmas. We got both the playhouse and wagon off Craigslist and amazingly were able to keep them hidden in our garage for a month under blankets! On Christmas eve while Caleb was at work I was out in the "freezing" cold scrubbing and washing the playhouse and wagon. Luckily we were able to distract the kids before he left for work and hide it in the yard.

The kids love riding and playing in the wagon. The seats fold up or down.

Abigail's favorite toy was her slinky. It was in her stocking and basically kept her busy the entire time.

Joshua got a playmobil castle and dragon and loves it.

But he doesn't like mean guys, so he only has nice guys.

After opening presents we had our big Christmas breakfast, cleaned up a little and assembled the kids toys. Then around 12 we took off to go up to Santa Barbara to meet up with my family for our traditional Christmas dinner. Poor Caleb slept a little in the car while I drove. You can see in this picture we are all looking a little tired. Although it was really fun to be with everyone, I loved being able to be home on Christmas morning and have our own time and then still be able to spend time with the whole family. It was wonderful.

Caleb spent the night and next day then drove home for four days and then came back to get us on the 28th. He actually had three days off for New years. So we hung out together and went to a family wedding on Sunday. Then headed home to our left over Christmas mess for five days. All of which I spent taking down Christmas, cleaning up the house, and packing to leave for Utah! Then Friday we left for Utah for five days to see Caleb's brother Chris off on his mission to El Salvador. He had a wonderful busy fairwell. It was really fun to be there and be apart of it and we are so excited for him and honestly I was a little jealous. I can't wait until we get to go again! Anyway in the mist of the festivities Caleb, Joshua and Grandpa got a bad case of the stomach flu... it was a very fun five days despite that. After the whole months worth of activities I got home and was exhausted. Then the next day I got the stomach flu...it was not pretty. Anyway we have all recovered and our house is back in order. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.