Christmas Day

Christmas was fun... there's nothing like a few classic blurry Christmas morning pictures to round everything out:

Malachi with his chocolate santa, he ripped that thing out of his stocking so fast! and immediately stripped it of the foil and took a big bite of the head--absolute heaven!

i honestly think afton couldn't have cared less what was actually in her stocking, it was all about ripping it open! she got some bubbles, a jumprope and a puzzle at least...

Chi was also excited to see what else was in his stocking, after the chocolate santa disappeared... this is his new spiderman book

rayna was a little slower to wake up and get moving, but she was still fast enough opening her stocking!

this was the most anticipated gift of Rayna's Christmas, unfortunately it didn't make it more than a few weeks,
RIP snowglobe

afton also eagerly anticipated a snowglobe, and her's is still alive a full month later ;)

opening presents is always fun, of course, and playing with cousins was too, but the most special part of Christmas this year may just have been the snow! we don't get a lot of snow here at all, and rarely if ever (not in my memory) as early as Christmas (usually closer to feb), but we had a beautiful wet morning that turned to an even more beautiful glittering snowfall by afternoon! perfect for when we were playing at Grandma's house after opening presents!

thanks uncle Cleave for taking the girls out where the ground wasn't too muddy to play in the snow!

and just to show how much and how lovely, here's the view from grandma's front door (i'd guess there were 3-4 inches on the car, and nearly that much on the ground!)

and just for proof it snowed at our house too, here's the view from our front door that night! note that the sidewalks were too warm/wet for the snow to stick, it's always a couple degrees warmer at our house than grandmas, so we were afraid we wouldn't get any snow to stick for us, but it did!

Christmas Eve Show

one of our favorite Christmas traditions is acting out the Baby Jesus story as Grandpa (or Dad, depending on where we are) reads it aloud. this is actually a year-round game for my girls... so without further ado, the pictures:

the group shot back row: angel (clella), mary (rayna),

front row: shepherd (malachi), angel (afton), angel (geneva), wise man (maryn)

Mary riding in to Bethlehem on the donkey (dad) with Joseph (uncle daniel) to help her balance

--i should maybe point out (since it has been mentioned that that's weird) that the point of having uncle dan be joseph was so we could use baby eliza as baby jesus, but she was hungry so she declined to participate... dan was stuck in his role by then ;)

the angels visiting the shepherds (who happened to be VERY close to the stable)

i just had to include this shot of my favorite little shepherd! he was being so sweet!

and the wise men coming to bring real gold, frankinsense, and myrrh --go grandma! so prepared :)

Mele Kalikimaka!

Rayna's school had a Christmas performance day, so each class got to do a little song from around the world... it's pretty imaginative in how the songs relate to the various places in the world, but her class was one of the better ones! They celebrated Hawaii, and sang 'Mele Kalikimaka' and it was pretty cute.

here she is by our tree getting all ready for school.



Rayna was the flag-holder for the introduction,
i don't know why it's black instead of blue, it must have been the printer...



dancing like a palm tree in the breeze



and i thought i'd better add one whole class shot--they're pretty cute!


And while i'm on school things, I've got some pictures from afton's school Thanksgiving feast/party. I love her school!!!


the girls were careful to match that day!
here they are with Mrs King, the best kindergarten teacher ever!



it was a pretty impressive feast, they had all this food for everyone!



and one of afton's class, or at least part of them...

there were a couple songs and stories from/by the kids, and then the feast, and then we circled around the cafeteria and Mrs King led us in the turkey-pokey (as in hokey-pokey), it was rather silly, and i think all the kids loved the party!

we went to their Christmas party too, and Rayna and Malachi were included again, but i forgot my camera then. They got to frost ice cream cones green and add mini M&M's and marshmallows to make cute little edible Christmas trees, and they had a story and game, complete with a little gift. it was rather adorable.



Becca and Cleave

as i mentioned briefly before, i forgot my camera during becca and cleave's wedding, however, i did remember to bring it to the reception, so i got a few pictures there, though i was far too busy dancing and playing around and eating cake to take too many ;).

the wedding was lovely, i love becca and i think she and cleave are going to have a wonderful life together, i was so glad and excited to be a part of their special day!

here's a little glimpse i had that was a bit unique :)



hair and make-up... and an open toilet stall behind me... maybe i should have closed that door... oh well!



my beautiful family! one day i'm going to have to remember to pose! (and suck in my tummy) note, rayna did NOT want any pictures that night. she had managed to stand a bit too close to a bush at the temple and she ripped her dress, so this is her back-up, still adorable, just a bit more navy than requested by the bride... oh well. i still thought she was adorable, just not in the mood for pics!

also note, malachi's wearing cookie monster socks :)

these cousins had a blast! eating fruit and cake, dancing their hearts out, and enjoying an all around party!

even malachi had fun... despite wearing a suit. and scowling for most of the pictures...

this may very well be my favorite of my pics for the evening. these two cousins were best buds that evening, livi followed afton around the whole night, afton basked in the attention, and i think livi felt a little more grown up with such a big kid to play with --win-win!

and i think they both have a little fluckiger in them too, same face-shape and big brown eyes, right?

i was overall impressed with my kids too, they all had naps that afternoon so we stayed til the end of the party and they even helped take presents out to the car and clean up a bit after. way to go!

downtown tree lighting ceremony

one busy night, while paul was out-of-town, some friends invited us to the downtown garland tree-lighting ceremony. we'd never gone before (or really knew about it), but it sounded like fun, and was something else to do when daddy wasn't home... if you know what i mean...

anyways, we headed downtown, managed to find a parking place (miracle!!!), and ran into our friends almost immediately (another miracle!).

i did bring my camera, though my pictures weren't all that exciting, but i figure i'm so far behind on blogging, the fact that i'm throwing anything up at all should be great! (you're welcome to my fans).

so, without further ado, the pictures:

this was far and away the most exciting event of the night, they had a little snow/ice hill and innertubes to ride down it. the kids all had a blast riding, the girls each went twice, malachi was getting pretty tired by the second time we got through the line, so he stayed in the stroller then. i got some pics of all the kids, but the speed and lighting were hard for my limited skills, so this is the only one where it really turned out. malachi was the funniest, he sat up straight, i think cross-legged in the center, and stared straight ahead, but he still claimed to love it when he was done!

random picture of the kids excited about something... ps, i thought it was supposed to be cold that night, but it was actually really pleasant, go figure.

we thought we found a pretty good spot to watch the lighting, the tree was in the square just below this retaining wall, and it was perfect until about 3 minutes to 7 when tons of adults suddenly decided to stand right where the kids were playing and essentially blocked our view completely. :P

we found our other friends too, amelia is actually about afton's age, but one of rayna's best friends, i love it that the kids still mostly all play together!

see, once people left, our vantage-point was great!

and i'm pretty sure we all had a great time, the kids didn't even complain when we went straight home afterwards and right to bed!