Christmas Morning

So Christmas morning went kinda like this....Zach woke up at 7:00, ran out to the tree, then I think must have gotten a little freaked out at the notion that Santa really did come and eat the cookies, drink the milk, and leave lots of presents, because he stared at everything for about 30 seconds, then ran back to his room and into his bed! He's the type that really has to think about things before he decides how he feels about them. Then when Andy and I got up and asked Zach if Santa came, he got a big grin on his face and said, "yes!" Then he was gung-ho about everything! It was a fun morning. I got Andy a new razor and a new Oregon Ducks coat. I made him strike this pose with his new stuff. Andy got me the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook all about how to sneak veggies into your kids food. I'm pretty excited to try it. He got me other good stuff too, but I don't have pictures. Z and A sitting in front of the tree and Zach tearing into his much requested car wash! Yeah, Santa's so smart he got just what Zach asked him for. Just looking happy! Abby learing how to drum with her Bee Bop Band.
Zach was the accompanist on his new piano. It's pretty cool how it just rolls up for easy storage. Easy storage in a small living space is ALWAYS appreciated. :)
She's just so darn cute!
Zach rocking out on his Sit and Spin. Those things are pretty funny. Abby and her new barn and animals. I think Zach liked this better than she did though!

Giving her new friends some love.

Dec. 22nd with my mom's family

We had an early Christmas celebration with my mom's side of the family up in Portland. It's just getting to be too hard to get everyone together on Christmas day anymore, what with grandkids getting married and needing to spend time with their in-laws too, so we do it early and it's been working out well. Now that I look back at the pictures I have, I see that I'm pretty limited in my shots to those of just my own kids and not much of other people! Is that normal? Oh well....here they are, having fun. Such a ham!
A happy girl!
Having fun with daddy.
My mom with her grandkids that we could get rounded up for a picture.
I just think he looks so handsome in the picture. He is such a little man!And, eating her shoe. Of course!

Gingerbread House Fun

Ok, so everyone knows I don't update very often, but now I feel totally overwhelmed with all of the pictures and Christmas happenings that I need to talk about here. I just uploaded the pictures to our computer from the last week and a half or so, and there were 155 pictures on there! Whoa! So, this is going to be gradual....I'll start with Andy and Zach making our Gingerbread house. Enjoy and check back in a couple days for another update. Seriously, my goal is to have all of the Christmas stuff on here before New Years! Ha....would only make sense, right? :)

Getting all organized and ready to start....
Glue, glue, glue...
Start adding some color...
Almost there....
Ta-da!! So cute!

What's new with us?

Not much. I figured you were all getting pretty sick of my Thanksgiving post though, so I thought it would be a good idea to give you something new to look at. So these are just some pictures of the kids and our Christmas decorations. Yes, they're finally up! We're usually much more prompt about decorating, but it just wasn't happening this year for some reason. We found a great sale on a kitchen nook, so we treated ourselves to one! Andy had to assemble it, and Abby was his little helper. She mostly just wanted to dig through his tool bag though...
I forget how long her arms are, but she reminded me when she was able to reach over to the table and get her applesauce cup. She was so excited and having so much fun making a mess I just decided to go with it!
Abby, who is definitely into EVERYTHING, found one of Zach's art projects from school and proceeded to tear off the reindeers bow and nose. Poor Zach...nothing is safe anymore!

In front of our tree. Zach, trying to hang an ornament. Christmas is so much more fun with him this year because he really gets it now. It's so fun to see the excitement and wonder in his eyes! (and yes, his shirt is on backwards!) Our tree! I love it, and it smells so good!
Our Christmas stockings. Zach doesn't quite understand why there's a train on his. He says, "So I'm going to be a train for Christmas?" (like we're going to dress up like we did for Halloween or something) It's funny. Although I wouldn't mind seeing Andy try to dress up like a Christmas tree! ha! :)
And, my new pride and joy. My Willow Tree Nativity. Isn't it pretty? I have to admit that I didn't even know it existed until I saw Brenley's on her blog. Hope you don't mind that I copied you Brenley! You have such good taste, and I just love my new Nativity! Aahhhh......