Christmas at Nana and Papa's

Before we took off to AZ we had Christmas, Nana and Papa style. They sure do know how to spoil us!

The boys got brand new scooters. Hooray!


Ashlyn loved the pretty packages...

...and what was inside of them, too.

Fun! Fun!

Even Daddy gets excited!

Uncle Mickey came through, making sure Ashlyn got her first Teddy Bear, and what a bear it was!

What a great day!

Just Pictures

Uncle Cody's a Hero!

Isaac's school put up a "hero" wall of all the student's family members who are serving in the military, are police officers, or firefighters. Here is Detective James Cody Mullenaux of the Phoenix S.W.A.T. Team - famous at Raye Allen Elementary School!

Christmas Card Trials

So who knows if I'll get my Christmas cards out. I attempted to take a picture of the kids for it yesterday, but only got two taken before we were done. I saw it was going nowhere fast, and decided not to torture us any more. I don't know why I try to get a perfect picture, when this is reality at its best!

Quick Note

We're still alive and well. Eric survived his surgery rotation, hooray! He delivered his first baby last night. He said it was really neat.

Isaac said something funny yesterday. I went and picked him up at the bus and was asking him about his day and what he did as we were walking home. He told me about how animal homes are called habitats and that they made a book about it. Now his words...

"I could have read it on the bus, but 1) I couldn't read."

And that was it! No number 2 and nothing more than he just can't read yet! That does seem to be a problem when wanting to read a book. He actually is doing really well with his reading. He can recognize several words and can sound out several more. Eric and I never realized how difficult the English language is until trying to teach Isaac to read. Almost every night the poor kid hears "Well this time it says this".

Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season!

Fishing at Lion's Park

Besides a couple of cold fronts, the weather has been beautiful! It's hard to pass up, so we grabbed some donuts and chocolate milk and headed to Lions Park for a little fishing.

There may or may not be a baby in there...

....oh look! There she is. Ashlyn made a great pack mule for all of our gear!

We didn't make her work the whole time...we let her in on a little fishing fun.

Isaac caught a prize catfish. It was the only catch of the day and the biggest any of us have ever caught.

It's always a little hectic - fishing pole lines get tangled right and left, someone's bait got eaten, someone needs another cast, etc., but being together as a family is great. I hope these are the times the kids remember when they get older.

Christmas Party

I love Christmas parties! This year, we decided that we all needed to get together to enjoy good food and some Christmas fun, so we reserved the clubhouse and partied it up! Everyone brought so many yummy appetizers that we almost forgot that we had a main dish and were so full we could barely eat it. Dessert was equally delicious.

I love these people! These are some of our dearest friends in Med School.

(Starting left) Kassie, Paige, Glen, Jeremy, Puya, Santino, Eric, Ty, David (holding Hagen), Amanda, Aubrey (holding Ashlyn) and Nagis

Hotties in the kitchen - Kassie, Amanda, and Paige

Kids had a great time with pizza.

Hagen and Ashlyn found their own entertainment.

We played Christmas pictionary for one of our games. The girls were cheating very badly and very obviously, yet the guys were clueless. Amanda was trying to hide her face she was laughing so hard. We're not very sneaky!

The guys needed a little extra help themselves!

We also had an ornament exchange. I love having ornaments hang on my tree that really mean something and bring back floods of memories. We got ours from the Jordans. Thanks and Merry Christmas!

Christmas Parade

We decided to meet up with friends to watch the City of Temple Christmas parade. It was freezing! The kids were troopers. There was nothing spectacular about the parade, but I think we all loved it because we enjoyed being together so much.

Carter, Grant, Cohen, Isaac, Gracie, Taylin


Ashlyn and Ryan
"He's touching me! If I pretend he doesn't exist will he go away?"

Jeremy, Eric, and David

Tanner, Janene, and Carson

David and Amanda

Jeremy and Kassie

Picture with Santa

Here's our first picture with Santa for the season. Isaac was second in line, but Carter wouldn't have anything to do with him and Ashlyn was tired, so we didn't even try with her. We still have the mall!

Thanksgiving and more...

I figured it was finally time to report on Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time as always. My mother-in-law sure knows how to please her family! Eric's sister, Jennifer, and her husband Anton came down from Denver, and Uncle Mickey, Meemaw, and Aunt Trish joined in on the fun. Jennifer and Anton were a big hit right off with an airplane and a helicopter for the boys. I was supposed to bring a lemon meringue pie, but twisted my ankle playing volleyball the night before. I was still up in the kitchen getting it done when Eric made me sit down and said that everyone would understand. Poor Uncle Mickey had just taken his lemon meringue pie to the orphanage because he was told I was bringing one. I think that's the first time I've seen Uncle Mickey cry! :) Carter had the whole day planned out. He informed us that after lunch, it was naptime, then he would rake leaves, and then he would come in for some hot chocolate and pie. Isaac was more than willing to go along with it. That was our routine the following day, too.

Friday morning we all drove to Elgin to the Christmas tree farm and got Christmas trees. The boys are very proud of their tree and we have it up and decorated. Isaac and Carter are getting old enough for me to really have fun with them about Santa, etc. Eric just keeps walking by quoting "Oh, the tangled web we weave." Does it really hurt for them to think that our Santa hat was once actually Santa's and that he gave it to us when he got a new one? Or that we have Santa's personal phone number? Or...Or...Or? Ashlyn so far has surprisingly left the tree alone. The only ornament we have caught her eating had already fallen off of the tree. She can now officially climb the stairs, but that is only in pursuit of me. As long as I'm downstairs, she could care less about them. However, she LOVES the dishwasher. Fortunately she's still only teetering between being cute and driving me crazy. She hasn't quite reached driving me mad yet!

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and good luck with Christmas already in full swing!