Sunday, December 28, 2008

Santa Claus definitely came to town...

WARNING: This is going to be a lengthy post. If you have the determination to keep reading, hopefully you won't be disappointed. Also, most of Julia's pictures are quite scary....just a warning. :)

This year was out of control. Of course we all know the true meaning of Christmas, and we were sure not to forget that. The kids actually slept in on Christmas morning. Ron and I finally woke them up at 9:00 only because the rest of my family was going to be showing up around 10:00. We woke Matt up first so he could call his mom and open his gifts from her. Once he was done we woke up the little ones and told them that Santa had come. I have never seen them move so fast! They could hardly contain themselves and started digging into their Santa gifts. Of course they were spoiled rotten!! There is nothing I love more than watching the kids get excited about opening gifts. It just cracks me up when they rip open a package and it's followed by joyful squeals.






Once the Santa gifts were opened, we all took turns opening our gifts from Grammy-too-far-away (Ron's mom). Once again she spoiled us all ROTTEN! She is such an amazing Grammy and mother-in-law. I know that she truly spends a lot of time and puts a lot of thought into the gifts she chooses for us. Everyone loved their gifts from her. (Ron took a pic of me with my gift from her, but I looked so horrific I opted not to put it on here...ha ha ha)






It was about the time we finished opening Grammy-too-far-away's gifts when my family started showing up. Our house felt so small at that moment as we crammed everyone into our living room. The guest list included: Grandpa and Grandma Winters, Yippaw(my dad), Grammy Chunk(my mom), my brothers Gary and Layton, my sister Apryl and some significant others...Mandy(Gary's girlfriend) and John(Apryl's boyfriend). The more the merrier! We all enjoyed opening gifts and laughing. Yippaw and Grammy Chunk went overboard and spoiled us all rotten also. Our kids are so lucky to have such great grandparents!!

I must have forgotten to say "smile" for this picture! ha ha ha



Grandma Winters gave me, Mandy, my Mom and Apryl some Turbie Twists. They are a turban-like towel that you put on your head after you wash your hair. She was so excited for us girls to FINALLY have one of these precious towels. We all had a hysterical laugh over the future cab drivers of Spokane...


It has been a tradition in my family that once all the gifts are open, the girls head into the kitchen to make a big Christmas morning breakfast. My mom and I were cooking the food when my dad walked into the kitchen. I had to grab something out of the dining room and made my way out of the cooking zone. Apparently I wasn't gone long enough because when I turned around I totally caught my dad groping my mom!! Nothing will spoil a Christmas morning quicker than catching your dad going in for a feel! SICK! He tried to play it off like he was just "giving her a hug"....give me a break. Nice try dad...and lets try and keep our hands to ourselves next year. :) Regardless of the touchy-feely incident, we had a great breakfast.

The next comical incident happened when John and Apryl were sitting on the floor building blocks with Julia and Tanner. John was talking about nuts (hopefully in reference to the cashews he was eating) and was making a joke to Apryl that his were bigger than hers. Julia all of the sudden piped up and said "no way John! My Yippaw has the biggest nuts!!" We all about died we were laughing so hard. We have no idea what sparked her to say that and she had no idea why everyone was about to wet their pants.

Julia must have been the queen of comedy that day because my mom told me later about an incident that happened with Julia when no one else was around. My parents were getting ready to head back to their place and my mom and Julia were sitting on the stairs waiting for my dad to put his shoes on. Julia noticed that Yippaw had a wedgie and was pointing and giggling at it. My mom told her to "go pull it out". Julia looked at her wondering if she really meant it. My mom was laughing and shook her head for Julia to proceed with de-wedging Yippaw. Apparently the look on my dad's face was priceless as he felt Julia's tiny fingers reach up to pull out the stuck undies and pants. LOL! My Dad turned around and politely said "Oh, thank you Julia!" We will be teaching her very soon never to go that close to Yippaws rear end....it can be hazardous!!! :) Love you Dad! ha ha ha

All-in-all we had a WONDERFUL Christmas. We are very fortunate to have such wonderful family to spend it with. Now we just need to work on getting Grammy-too-far-away here to join in the chaos!! :)

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!

It is currently 8:23 a.m. on Christmas morning. Ron and I are the only ones awake....what's wrong with this picture?? LOL! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Fun with Dad!

Ron is such a great dad and really loves to play with the kids. The other day Julia was begging Ron to pick her up and toss her up into the air. The looks on her face were PRICELESS!! She looked terrifed, but was having a great time. I hurried and grabbed the camera and had Ron give each kid a turn so I could snap their picture. Even Matt got in on the action (although he didn't fly quite as high as the little ones). I still laugh every time I see Julia's face...



Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Rub-a-dub-dub...

Olivia's in the tub....WITH her clothes on! Tanner was in taking a bath when Olivia snuck in and climbed in with him. I should have known better than to run downstairs to get Tanner's jammies. Olivia LOVES bath time and apparently wanted another one that night! She was having a blast...even in her soaked shirt and soggy diaper!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Holiday Lights Cruise

Time to catch up on some blogging! On December 8th we got together with our good friends Nanci, Heather and Shane and took the kids to Coeur d' Alene for the Holiday Lights Cruise. It was freezing, but so much fun!! As we boarded the boat, we could write down the kids names on a list for Santa to use later. We then started on our 15-20 minute cruise across the lake. It was pitch black but the kids were loving every minute of it. Once we were across the lake there was a lit up sign that said "welcome to the north pole". Then Santa's workshop lit up and Santa talked with everyone on the boat. He read off the kids' names...it was so fun to see them get excited about hearing their name. They were so pleased that Santa knew them!

After the cruise the whole gang ventured off to the CDA Resort to have killer desserts at Dockside Restaurant. The kids could not believe how big the desserts were. Everyone had a great time!! We couldn't ask for better friends to hang out with. We enjoy their company so much and look forward to many more fun times with them!!

Tanner and Julia with their "make your own cookies"...



Matt with his monster reese's peanut butter cup sundae...


The whole gang...

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Family Pictures...

Last night we had our family pictures done so we can get our Christmas cards out in the mail on time. I love this time of year but dread taking pictures. In years past we have just taken pictures of the kids and sent those out with our cards. This year I decided to be brave and take a picture with the entire family. I turned into one of those mothers who gets frustrated with her kids who won't smile. How hard could it be....JUST SMILE! So, although not everyone has their biggest smile on, at least they look pleasant and that is good enough. :)

The whole fam...


This one just cracks me up. My chins are totally out of control while busting out the peace sign, Matt looks like he is pooping, Julia is showing quite a bit of shoulder, Tanner is looking at the ceiling and Olivia looks like she's going to swallow the camera! So congrats to Ron for being the only one that looks good in this picture...."whoopidy-do"! LOL!


And finally, some individual shots of the kids.