Christmas 2011

My cute little kiddos...all dressed up for Christmas!

My little Christmas Princess!

With their mom...love these kids!

Christmas Morning....all ready to open their presents!

Olivia's Dollhouse!  Aaron actually made her this beautiful

dollhouse.  He did such an amazing job.  He put so much

time and energy into making sure it was perfect!  Thank

you honey for making this for her...she LOVES it and is

so special because you made it for her! 

The dollhouse....and the PROUD new owner!

Owen and his Lego's!  He got so many Lego's this

Christmas and loves them all.  He is really into

putting them together and him and his dad

spent many nights and hours putting them

together and creating many new creations!

Olivia and her new sleeping bag that is about the size or her!

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Hess!  We missed you!

Kealan, Owen, CoCo and Olivia

We were so blessed to have Travis, Jessica and the kids

home for Christmas this year.  We spent Christmas

day over at Aaron's aunt and uncle's house along

with all the kids. They had so much fun playing

together and was great having them part of this
Christmas since the are currently living in the Netherlands's

and we miss them so much!

Opening more presents!

The kids in their pj's Christmas Eve.

We all went to our church for our Christmas Eve

Service and then everyone came back to our house

for dinner.  My husband made an incredible spread! 
It was so amazing.  The bad part was that he slaved away

all week preparing this meal.  At around noon he was cooking

and thought he got something in his eye....we spent many hours

trying to get something out as his eye became more irritated, red,

oozing and hurting very badly.  He could hardly open his eye. 

So I finally convince him at 7 pm he needed to go to the ER.

I know...it is Christmas Eve, but he as miserable and after 2 trips

to Walgreen's and as many products as they had were not

working we were out of options. His nurse wife told him he

needed to go...so Travis was so kind and took him in...

and it was PINK EYE!  Really?!?  Well he got drops and

over the next several days it improved.  Poor guy!  Thanks

honey though for all the GREAT food and sorry about your eye!

John's Birthday Present!

Aaron's parents were here with us for this Christmas

and it was so fun for the kids to have them here.

Well John's birthday is the 23rd and he always

feels forgotten and left out due to Christmas

so we made sure to do something special for him!

He is having heart surgery something in January for a

valve that isn't working well.  So the girls and Aaron put

together everything he might just need for his RECOVERY

period.  They were pretty creative and did a good job!

 

Grandma and the kiddos!  They had so much fun spending

time with their grandparents.  I don't think they let them

rest much!  Thank you for making the trip and spending

Christmas with our family!  Owen got a Leapster and

spends many hours playing with it and Grandpa would

sit and hold him and watch!  Good memories!

Our Christmas with the Ineck's!  They came over Thursday

morning before Christmas and we did present and had

such a fun day!  We are truly blessed to have them as

our friends and in our lives!

Olivia got an "OLIVIA THE PIG" and loved her!

Owen and all his Lego's he got for Christmas!

More pictures of the dollhouse and the inside of it!

Just a few more pictures of the kids.  It is rare

I get them all dressed up and able to get good

pictures of them so took advantage of it. 

Christmas...hard to believe it is over!  All

that time and energy you put into making

everything perfect.  I love this time of the

year!  It is all so well worth it to me! 

Christmas morning we read the Christmas

story out of Owen's Bible and sang Happy

Birthday to Jesus!  It is important that

these kids remember the TRUE meaning

of what Christmas is all about...not

just presents and yummy food!

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

Owen's Preschool Christmas Musical

Owen's Preschool Class

His little buddies!

The kids did a very good job.  They sang several
cute Christmas songs!  What a fun morning! 
GREAT job Owen!  So proud of you!



Gingerbread House 2011

 I did my annual Gingerbread House party again this year

and we had so much fun.  I think the kids really do

enjoy creating their house and well....the candy is a plus!

 Owen and Olivia's House

No....I did not help them and make it my house as you can

clearly see how beautiful a job they did all by themselves!

 The start of the houses

(I bought a pre-built house this year and it

made it so much easier!  FYI for all

of you next year that were cusing this year!)

 The kids working so hard....one piece on the

house and one piece in their mouth.

 Kim and Allie's House...very cute girls!

 Laurel, Paige and Carson's House

I must say that they probably had the

best one.  Loved the colors and all their

details.  Good job guys!  So glad you came!

The best for last....The Johnson's Train
It turned out so cute, though Melissa were
tell you otherwise!  Thanks for coming!

What a fun day....What a fun party!

Santa

Owen was pretty excited to sit on Santa's lap

and tell him what he wanted for Christmas!

This was at Aaron's work party and they

bring Santa in for the kids.  They enjoyed it!

Olivia was very excited too and told me over and over

again that she wanted to sit on Santa's lap.  So up she

jumped right onto his lab and told him her name and

what she wanted! 

Santa........this person who gets so much of the credit at Christmas
and brings the kids so much happiness!  I hope though we
don't loose the sight of the TRUE meaning of Christmas!
Happy Birthday Jesus, we LOVE YOU!

My Kiddos

Thanks Bridgette for taking their pictures!

 Thanksgiving 2011

This Thanksgiving my sister, her husband and the kids made the

trip to Boise to celebrate!  We were so grateful to have them

here and had a wonderful time! 

We did the Thanksgiving meal at our house with just

our two families.  My sister and I did all the cooking!

We had a lot of fun preparing the meal and I must

say it was a pretty good spread!

"Cheers" to our wonderful Thanksgiving, family,

food, fun and our health!  We truly have so

much to be thankful for!

Pumpkin Pie....of course the BEST part!

Our Annual Christmas Tree Cutting!

We went up to Idaho City on Friday and too my sister

and Chris to experience cutting down our own tree. 

Madison and Ashton had gone up with us 2 years ago

when they were out her for Thanksgiving with my parents

and they were very excited to go up into the mountains

and snow and cut down a tree again! 

Our Families

Maddie finding us a good tree.

And then of course when we go home we had to

put the trees up and decorate them.  We got two

trees again this year and put one upstairs for the

kids.  They got to decorate their tree and put their

own ornaments on them.  The loved the lights and

thought having their own tree was pretty special!

The kiddos! 

They had so much fun playing together.  We actually did

our Christmas early while they were out here so they could

open their gifts together.  It was so fun! 

Happy Thanksgiving and early Merry Christmas!
Thank you so much for coming out here to spent Thanksgiving
with us.  We love you and miss you! 

 Some other highlights from the week included going ice skating, my
sister and I going out Black Friday shopping, opening presents together,
cooking our meal together and having my sister here to listen to Christmas
music with, drink a glass of wine and decorate my house!  Loved it!