Christmas Eve 2013

Christmas Eve started out a little different from planned. I had a doctor appointment first thing in the morning and then ran to get some blood work done. I took Luke's truck so I could also go pick up Luke's Christmas gift from a friend's house. The kids were just itching for me to get back home, so we could leave and drive up to Grandma and Grandpa Hogue's house. They knew they were going to be able to open gifts, so they were absolutely besides themselves. When I pulled up to the house around 11:20am, they were out in the driveway...waiting as patiently as possible in their pajamas! Let's get the Christmas Eve festivities rolling.....

When we got to Bear Valley, we had our traditional breakfast lunch/dinner feast. Lots of good food...as usual. (I could eat breakfast food for every meal.) 
We had sausage bread, sweet breads, fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, and french toast casserole. For dessert there were pies, ice cream cake and Christmas cookies.You know I am all about the food...so I had to snap a picture of the dessert. :)

After we ate we exchanged Christmas gifts! I think everyone was pleasantly surprised by all of the wonderful and thoughtful gifts! Somehow I managed to NOT get a family picture this year. I guess I am a little scatter brained this year. :(

Merry Christmas Eve!! XOXOX

Time with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa Hogue came into town to celebrate their anniversary. Grandpa was taking Grandma to see the Hobbit movie and since Bubba is such a huge fan, they picked him up from school and took him along. He was VERY excited!

 After the movie they all came back to the house and Grandma and Grandpa stayed the night. Aunt Jenny and Randall took Tubbs to the movie that evening to see "Frozen."Bubba decided he wanted to stay home after watching the Hobbit and Wiggy decided she didn't want to go without mommy or daddy.

Saturday morning Grandma and Grandpa took the kids to Color Me Mine and they each got to pick something out and paint it. Tubbs painted a snowman, Wiggy painted a puppy and Bubba painted a Hobbit piggybank.

 After some painting they all went to see "Frozen" again." (Thats three times for Mr Tubby-Tubbs)

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Hogue!

Wiggy's Christmas Program

This year at Wiggy's school, the Christmas program was during the school day and in their pre-school's gymnasium. I actually preferred it to the more formal production last year, which was inside the chapel, in the evening.
Luke and I both left work for an hour to watch Wiggy Witherbottoms sing her little heart out about Jesus. This girl loves to sing, so she has been practicing the songs at home. After they sang a few songs they had juice and cookies. This little girl was in heaven!

Wiggy Witherbottoms

I suppose I have so many pictures of this little girl, because she is just too darn funny. She is a little nut-balls and has the most interesting personality. I really do hope she is always this much fun...even though at times I want to zip-tie her to the wall, to keep her still.

 Daddy let her do her own hair this morning. 

She is all about the hair accessories.

 She LOVES salt. We have to hide it from her.

 This little girl really wants a dog. Biggest dog lover. 

Not sure how that happened.

Thanksgiving 2013

It's tradition to head to Roseville for Thanksgiving weekend. This year we drove up Thanksgiving morning instead of Wednesday evening. We thought FOR SURE the traffic would be drastically better.

Apparently....everyone else thought so too. 

The good news is we didn't have to help prepare anything for the meal and my husband is great at singing Karaoke.
The bad news is it took us an extra two hours to make the 300 hundred and something mile trip. Thank goodness for electronic devices, because three kids in the backseat of the Passat were ready to scratch each others' eyes out about 30 miles in. Frankly, I'm a little surprised I practiced such restraint...with not throwing myself from a moving vehicle. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

 The kids were excited to meet Mazie and Izzy...the new little puppies that our family adopted. They are half Chihuahua and half something else. :)
Thanksgiving dinner was the traditional turkey with a bunch of delicious sides. Unfortunately, a little stomach bug kept my appetite in check....so I didn't eat too much. Just a few bites of this and that.

 We slept at Bobby and Lindsay's house, so the cousins were excited for the extra time together. They were graciously, awesome hosts!

 Big Daddy took the kids and cousin Natalie to see "Frozen" in 3-D, while a few of us girls went Black Friday shopping. 

The movie was a hit....and so was the shopping.

 Saturday morning was the traditional girls' trip to get mani/pedis.

 Saturday afternoon Grandpa Baer took some family pictures for us. 

Thank you Grandpa! 

Wiggy loved getting her picture taken....can you tell?!

After family pictures we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Baer's house for a big birthday party for all the November/December birthdays. Grandpa grilled burgers and dogs and Grandma fried some chicken. 

Mmmmmmmmm-mmmmm.

Saturday night we got a wild hair and decided to drive straight home, rather than fight the traffic on Sunday. We left around 8:30pm and we were in bed around 1:30am. Not bad!