Winter Break

The week after Christmas, we went to the beach for a few days.  It was great to have a change of scene, and especially great because it was sunny the whole time!  It was absolutely freezing, but so beautiful!   

Annie and I hung out here for about 5 minutes before we had to keep moving! 

Pat and I out for a New Year's Day walk.  Again, freezing, but so pretty! 

The house we stayed at is amazing!

For some reason, they were cracking up during dinner! 

the views were so pretty!! 

Watching the sunset with Aunt Kelly.  It was SO cold!! 

Jessica and Tom came for the day with baby Bridget.  

From this. . . .

to this the next day. . . .

Will's snowman, Lucky. 

Time for hot chocolate! 

SNOW DAY!

They had one more day of vacation thanks to the snow, so we went to Bill and Maureen's and they went sledding! 

And more hot chocolate after sledding at Grandma Rene's! 

Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas Eve at Pat's parents' house.  The kids had fun hanging out with their cousins, and of course, opening presents:). 

Back at home. . .

Watching a Christmas show before they try to wind down before the big night! 

Ready for Santa! Will looks a little overwhelmed by the whole thing:). 

All ready:). 

Blazers tickets! 

Annie got a ball from Santa! 

One of their most exciting gift was their gift to each other. . lollipops! 

GRACE IS 6!!

We had a really fun day celebrating Grace! It was the first time we had a birthday party at a destination party place.  We went to  Out of This World Pizza, and it was great! We really appreciated just showing up with our cupcakes! And the kids loved it!

She chose Fruit Loops with a prize for her breakfast:). 

I'm 6!

A fun group of friends and cousins! 

Will surprised her with lollipops! 

Fun blocks from Grandma! 

The most popular gift, in that it entertained the kids for a couple hours, were ornaments you could color! 

Ice cream! 

Luggage from Grandma Rene! 

December activities. . . .

December was busy with lots of fun activities! It started with Annie and Jane's baptism. We had a quick ceremony on the Thursday afternoon after Thanksgiving. It was great! Short and sweet!

Then it was on to making cookies, Zoo Lights, holiday parties, etc.  All this was amidst us taking turns being sick for the first three weeks of December!  We made the best of it, though, and no matter how the kids were feeling, they were well enough to pull an activity/treat out of their advent calendar!

My little helpers! 

Eating the batter is the best part! 

Drinking hot chocolate in their new mugs! 

Getting ready for the Kessi Construction holiday party at Ixtapa. . .

Annie loved listening to the recorded book of the Christmas story! 

Teddy's birthday party. . .

Opening the package from Grandma!

I went to Grace's Christmas party at her school, and stayed to have lunch with her since her birthday was the next day! It was so fun! 

The kids had so much fun participating in the church pageant, and especially loved the visit from Santa after!

b  

When we went to Zoo Lights last year, it was SO crowded that it made it stressful that we might lose a kid! I wasn't as excited to go this year, but we have the pass, so it was pretty much free to get it, therefore we headed out one night.  It turned out to be so fun!! It was clear, not too crowded, and the kids had a great time! The extra bonus was that the electricity was out at our house when we left to go, but back on when we got back!!

You can see our toppled over basketball hoop in the background! The windstorm was so strong that at first it moved the basketball hoop forward, then it fell down! It was all very exciting for the kids, especially when soon after, the power went out!