More James.....

Just found a couple more cute pics of James from last month...he always takes his pants off, and then gets cold...here he is after coloring on himself with a sharpie, trying on Dad's socks which I made the mistake of leaving out on the couch...he LOVES socks.....

I'm NEVER Going Spelunking......

Calvin got to go spelunking with his scout troop last month. There aren't too many pics of him, but it looks like fun if you're not claustrophobic :)

They camped out the night before......the little red/black tent on the right is Calvin's :)

Calvin on the left in the orange hoodie

Don't know who this kid is, but I wanted to show what most of the pics look like...scary.....what would happen if you got stuck???

Calvin with his 'black mineral water' which was 'sooo cool'.....his best friend Aidan on the left......

Calvin's shoes as he climbs down

Troop 1036 survives :)

Allen Is Home!

It's been almost 2 months since my brother Allen came home, and I'm finally getting around to posting some pics....my aunt Barbie was sharp enough to actually take some, (unlike me) so I have her to thank for most of these :)

Waiting at the airport!

So glad we could all be there

We were a tad late (or the plane was a tad early) so Allen was down at baggage claim and Dad had to bring him back up to us :)

Jack was very anxious for his turn for hugs....

Allen got to meet a new nephew...you can kinda see his head at the bottom of the pic....Jack pretty much followed Allen around the whole weekend....it got a lil awkward when he tried to follow Allen into the bathroom and then into the bedroom when Allen was changing lol!

He looks happy to be home

He brought us back some Brazilian caffeine.....it was pretty good :)

He also brought back this cool herb tea that people drink down there.....

This is the cup you drink the tea in.....there is a special way you pack the tea on one side of the cup, then you add hot water in the open side, wetting only the bottom and side of the packed tea......the metal straw part has a teaspoon shaped strainer on the bottom end so you don't accidentally suck up the tea leaves.....

My Mom wasn't too hip on trying it....the rest of us all did though.....I thought it was pretty good....

It was a very nice weekend, aside from the fact that James didn't sleep the whole time we were there and we ended up leaving a day early......SO glad he's back :)

Family And The DC Temple

We don't get too many pictures with my side of the family.....not sure why, we just don't. We did get some though, when we all got together the Sunday before Christmas to see the lights at the temple.

The Jacks

Liath and Benny

Mom and Jakob

Allen

Dad and Liath

Jakob and Sean

Calvin and Sean

Rayzel, Nana and Liath

Most of us

 My favorite part of going to the temple at Christmastime is seeing all the different nativities....here are my fav's in no particular order.......

For some reason, I just really liked these Christmas trees with little wheat sheaves on them

And, last but not least, some pics of the temple and the reflecting pool :)

SO Worth It!

Christmas shopping is always stressful for me......and for everyone else, I'm sure....

But for myself, I'm worrying that the kids won't like what I got them. I deliberate for months in advance, looking at options and prices, and every year, this is what I see Christmas morning :)

These are all genuine smiles.....what more could a mom ask for!

And speaking of smiles, my Grandma Woods had to have a procedure done rather suddenly on Christmas day....SO glad she's ok!  That makes me smile too :D

Christmas With James

It's really hard having a child who doesn't understand and therefore can't care less about Christmas....But I did get some cute pics of James being himself over the holidays so this post is for him :)

St Nikolaus Day......he REALLY liked the marzipan and candy canes he found in his stocking....he also liked the Jesse picture that Rayzel had colored for him

Grandma Mollenhauer gave him an umbrella that looked like Nemo......he decided he liked it the next day after he'd had some time to sleep on it ;)

He LOVES taking pictures and having me take his picture.....here we are waiting for Tom to come home on Christmas Day

Opening his Christmas pajamas from Grandma Kelley and trying to eat the paper

He was kinda timid about unwrapping the presents, but it was an improvement on last year when he was trying to rewrap them all the time.....

He didn't like most of the stuff we got him...we ended up returning almost everything...thank goodness for Costco and Amazon...they have great return policies......

He kinda liked this one....he takes all the pieces off and puts them back on then spins it.....in that order, every time

He liked the lights at the temple :)

Cutie!     

To James From Calvin - sour skittles.....I think this was his favorite present

In his new pj's and holding his new turtle nightlight, both from Grandma Kelley

He LOVES that turtle....he was so sad when his old one broke so he's very happy to have a new one.....after he got it out of the box he was pretending it was swimming by moving it's fins :)