Christmas Eve

I hope you all had a nice Christmas, we had a great Christmas this year. Robbie and I had several days off of work so the three of us were able to hang out a lot. We had a lot of fun. McKinley discovered the art of sleeping in and on Christmas morning didn't wake up until 8:00 am...Merry Christmas Mom!

On Christmas Eve we had dinner at my parents house and had a delicious spread of mexican food. We laughed all threw dinner and the little girls sat at their own little table that was fun, but proved to be a little too much freedom for McKinley...I'm not sure she ever ate anything! Here we are right after dinner, we don't often take pictures where all 3 of us are in it, so it's fun to take a few at a family gathering with a willing photographer (thanks Dad!):

Then we packed into the living room around my Mom's Nativity tree and read the story of Christ's birth from Luke in the Bible and opened just one present. Here we are in our pajamas (the customary Christmas Eve present):

Cali, McKinley and Abi modelws their pajamas for me while they sang and danced to Once There Was a Snowman.

Then the girls made Rice Crispy treat presents to leave out for Santa and had a great time. McKinley even decorated as she ate all the decorations this time:

We were very tired when we got home. McKinley fell asleep on the way home and Robbie and I finished wrapping presents. It's fun and different to be the parent on Christmas Eve...making sure everything is just right. We put together a table and chairs for McKinley and set out some more gifts. It was a fun evening. I'll post about Christmas day soon!

5 Things I Learned From André

1. Traffic School can be fun.
2. André (the teacher) wanted out early just as bad as we did.
3. One hour is totally worth the speeding ticket not hitting my car insurance.
4. André's time is worth more than mine; there must have been 25 people in class tonight all paying a $30 admission fee for one hour under his tutelage.
5. If you happen to be the driver of a hearse with a corpse in the back it is debatable whether or not that qualifies you for the carpool lane, so André suggests not trying it because you may get a ticket.

***ps, I'll post something about Christmas soon!

Baby Love

Oh how my baby loves HER baby! We bought her a baby doll a while back because she was totally loving on the dolls at daycare. I had no idea how much she could love a doll. She is so cute with it. She hugs her and kisses her. She carries her around the house and most of the time she takes her to bed. On the way home from daycare she'll say "where's Dad?" followed by "Where's baby?". It is really very sweet.

Well, the other morning she took it to a new level. She just HAD to have her baby with her and breakfast. And this is what baby got:

I guess baby was hungry too! And here was my favorite picture of the morning:

Thanksgiving with the Loomi!

This year we had Thanksgiving with Robbie's family. It was a lot of fun. His brothers and sister all came to town with their families. McKinley had a great time seeing her cousins again...it's been a long time.

The grandkids ran all over in Nana and Papa's basement and had a blast with sidewalk chalk. Nana also bought them gingerbread cookie kits to decorate. McKinley, having the sweet tooth she does, mostly ate the decorations instead of putting them on the cookie.

After discussing it, Robbie and I decided we would stay at his parent's house over the Thanksgiving weekend. The drive is only about an hour, but that two hours each day and that just isn't fun. John and Marla were gracious enough to let us invade their house and I have to say it was more than worth it. We stayed up late playing games and talking with all the siblings there, it was a lot of fun! The night before Mike, Monica and Rennick left town we met in Salt Lake and saw the lights. It wasn't too cold or too crowded, it was great and the lights looked beautiful as usual.