Random Photos from December

Uncle Jeff and Aunt Tracy meeting Taylor for the first time. They had been gone for over a year and it was so wonderful to see them again!

Aunt Tracy was teaching Dylan to play the drums and the rest of the family was part of "Dylan's Rock 'n Roll Band".

Grandma and Grandpa can get Dylan to do things he would never do at home. He fell asleep on Grandpa's lap while they were listening to Christmas music.

I love my little candy cane man!

Our crazy little Taylor will climb into anything. I can't load or unload the dishwasher if she is around.

Dylan painting paper with red and green paint so we could have homemade wrapping paper. He is a great artist and the paper turned out beautiful! Everyone loved opening their Christmas presents with such special paper.

Dylan is showing our Elf, Snoopy, the message that Santa sent him. Snoopy thought it was very cool!

Our tree had a gate around it this year because of this little cutie. Don't let the smile fool you, she is a crazy lady!

Go Dawgs!!

My wonderful mother-in-law taught me how to use my sewing machine. These are the first two blankets we made. It was so fun spending time with her and learning a new skill. Thank you, Barb!!!

Christmas 2010

Christmas was wonderful! We are so blessed to be able to spend Christmas with our entire family. On Christmas eve we went to Grandpa and Grandma's for dinner. Nana, Papa, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Tracy, Gramps and Aunt Liz were there. We met the Pheifer family at their church and then we headed home to get ready for Santa's arrival.

Nana and Papa spend Christmas eve with us and it is such a special tradition. Nana let Dylan and Taylor open a present on Christmas eve. They were so excited to get Santa and his reindeer! The kids loved it and had so much fun flying it around the house.

Our families are so generous and our house is bursting at the seams with presents on Christmas morning.

Santa's gift to Dylan. You can tell he knew what was going to be inside.

It's a scooter! Dylan couldn't have been more excited!

Taylor (and Dylan) love her Winnie the Pooh riding toy from Aunt Lizzy and Uncle Eric.

Santa brought Taylor a tea set.

The house has been a big hit! We will keep it inside until the weather turns a little bit nicer.

Dylan loves his new sleeping bag and pillow pet!

We didn't think Uncle Eric was going to make it on Christmas morning and it was such a wonderful surprise to see him walk through the door! Taylor was loving him and she wanted to hang out with him all morning.

Thank you Nana and Papa for my fun shopping cart!

Later in the day our Christmas celebration moved to the Kemppainen's house. Dylan joined in on the Red Neck board game that Lauren received for Christmas.

Special day with family!

We love you Aunt Tracy! We are so glad you guys were here for Christmas!

Dylan Hits The Bunny Slope!

Daddy finally got Dylan up to Snoqualmie Pass for some serious skiing! Dylan loved skiing around the neighborhood, but he was very excited to ski the big mountain where Daddy snowboards. Even the drive up was exciting. Dylan was amazed at how much snow was on the mountains and was really excited to hit the slopes. The "magic carpet" made getting back up the hill really easy. It sure is much nicer then the rope tow that Daddy used when he was a kid.

Dylan was natural skier right from the start. He really loved to go fast (as you can see from the video below) and didn't really seem too concerned about slowing down by using the "pizza wedge". Fortunately, Daddy learned to run backwards really fast so he could stop Dylan at the bottom.

Taylor's 2nd trip to the ER

Poor Taylor had to visit the emergency room, again. It was December 23rd and I thought I would do something fun with the kids so we went to KidsQuest Museum. It was pouring down rain when we were leaving and there were huge puddles in the parking lot. Taylor was strapped in front of me in the Bjorn and Dylan and I decided to run to the car because it was raining so hard. Dylan and I were holding hands and I lifted him off the ground a little bit while he jumped over the puddle and our feet got tangled and we all feel down. I couldn't catch myself and poor Taylor smashed face first into the cement. It was horrible and she was bleeding so much! We headed back into the mall and I tried to clean her up in the bathroom but there was so much blood I couldn't figure out how badly she was hurt. With both kids hysterically crying we headed to the ER. Luckily there was no major damage, just a smashed nose and she cut open her lip again where she had her stitch a few weeks earlier. The picture above was taken after she had been cleaned up at the ER. She was a trooper and was smiling and happy while we were still at the ER.

Here is what Taylor looked like the next day after it had scabbed up. Poor little girl!

Surprise 40th anniversary party for my parents

We threw my parents a surprise party for their 40th anniversary. It was a great party and they were totally surprised! It was so special because Jeff and Tracy were in town and 50 of their friends were able to come and celebrate. My parents are amazing people and I was so glad they had a night that they were able to feel blessed by the love of their friends!

My parents were so excited to have friends there from different periods throughout their life.

I love cake pops! They were such a fun dessert!

Dylan's Preschool Christmas Performance

Dylan's preschool put on a wonderful Christmas performance. Dylan was an adorable angel and it was so fun to watch him singing with all of his friends. Who wouldn't love that smile!

Here is Dylan singing, "We Wish you a Merry Christmas".

Dylan was so excited to have Grandma at his performance.

Dylan was all smiles with Grandma!

Snowflake Lane

We had so much fun at Snowflake Lane this year! We went twice this year. We went once with Grandpa and Grandma and then I went with Dylan on a special date night.

The snow princess was so beautiful!

Frosty was so nice!

Family fun with Frosty!

Grandpa and Grandma are so cute!

Taylor loves to give high fives!