Christmas Day 2011

Santa came!

We opened presents and played with all of our new stuff. Lots of LEGOS to build.

We had crepes for breakfast and got ready for church.

We were reminded of the first Christmas that took place in Jerusalem so many years ago.

After church we went to my parents for more presents and more crepes. YUM!

We hung out all afternoon and then went home to relax.

Christmas was so chill this year it was weird, but good! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

365- Week 51

365- has kind of turned into phone pictures.

Which means not the best of pictures, but still doing what I wanted to do- help me kind of remember the day to day stuff.

12/17/11

Saturday night we went to the live Nativity. I really wasn't feeling like going, but it was the last night and I am so glad we went. It was a great way to feel the Christmas spirit.

12/18/11

No picture

12/19/11

Alex on the POLAR EXPRESS. I thought it was neat to see his reflection in the window as he was watching as we were pulling up to the North Pole.

12/20/11

Amber and the kids came over and me made home made sugar cookies and let all the kids decorate them. These ones are some of Chloe's.

12/21/11

Nick LOVES Aubrey and Aubrey LOVES Nick. Whenever he is sitting on the floor, or sitting still for that matter she backs herself up and sits on his lap.

12/22/11

We went with all the cousins to see Santa. I will have to post the picture of all the kids together.

Of course Aubrey is crying. Not a fan of Santa this year.

12/23/11

Aubrey is still sleeping in my closet. Kind of thinking she may just stay there forever. I like her there! I always go in and check on her before I go to bed and she is always sleeping in some crazy positions! This night her feet were up on the wall.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

The majority of our Christmas cards did NOT go out this year. Sam's Club ran out of envelopes and none of the stores carried any that they would fit in. There is always next year!

We hope everyone has a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

The Polar Express

my mom and dad started this tradition about 6 years ago.

as i have been telling people i am realizing that it has become kind of a crazy tradition.

to drive 4 hours to eat pizza and ride the train and then to get back in the car and drive 4 hours home.

but...the kids love it. and my parents LOVE that the kids love it and so as long as the kids BELIEVE we will go!

We loaded up. We had to take 3 cars this year. It always takes forever to get there.

We have dinner at the Pizza Factory.

Our ticket times got messed up so we had some extra time.

The kids played in the train station, wrote letters to Santa, visited Mrs. Claus, looked at the village, and just hung out.

We finally got to board the train. We listened to the story of The Polar Express. We had cookies and hot chocolate.

We went all the way to the North Pole. Santa boarded the train with us and gave each of the children a bell.

We sang Christmas carols all the way back to AZ.

It was a fun time. And then back in the car!

Family Pictures

Yesterday we ran over to the train tracks to do some last minute family pictures. The sun was NOT working in our favor, but we got a couple of cute ones.

365- Week 50

12/10/11

Hanging out outside so we can stay out of Grammy's way.

12/11/11

Saying good-bye to Grammy and Papa.

12/12/11

Aubrey thought she was so funny to put her feet up on the table, probably because we were all laughing at her.

12/13/11

NO picture

12/14/11

The last pack meeting for the year. Nick and I received our Wolf award. Nick is now a Bear.

12/15/11

Chloe and Jordyn both dance at the same studio. They did a mall show for Christmas and one of the nights they both did a dance. Chloe looked so cute!!

12/16/11

Last day of school before Winter Break. The kids were so happy!

Aubrey LOVES to play outside any time she can, especially on the trampoline!

365- Week 49

12/3/11

All ready to got to Taylor's 1st birthday.

12/4/11

Nick at the Pamona car show. Nick was the lucky duck who got to go with Chris and Craig.

12/5/11

For Family Home Evening we decorated our gingerbread house.

12/6/11

Just my little buddies on our weekly Sam's Club run.

12/7/11

I was over at my mom's helping her set up for Bunco when I saw Max with a snuggie. I thought it was the funniest thing!!

12/8/11

Nicholas on the way to Fernley. Not sure if he was freezing to death or trying to take a nap.

12/9/11

Tahoe. Chris went snowboarding with Jordan and my dad for the day.

Fernley Trip 2011

Every year we try and go up to Fernley/Reno to see Granny and Papa and attend the Jeakins' Family Christmas Party that my mom puts together.

We mostly hang around town realizing how much we are NOT small town people.

We have a big turkey and ham dinner with all the fixings. After we do a white elephant gift exchange. All the kids get a gift from my mom. They love that!

The Jeakins' siblings

Uncle Mark, Uncle Kevin, Aunt Tammy, Aunt Michelle, Aunt Lisa, Aunt Lynda, and Mom

Everyone usually leaves pretty early since they all have to drive back into Reno. So this year we (Jenny, Katie, Ashton, Jordan ,and Amber) went to look at Christmas lights in a development that you can see from Grammy's house. There aren't too many houses in there, but man they have alot of lights. It was awesome!! We even got out of the car and did a little caroling. It was a sad rendition of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. But it was fun and then we were off to Pizza Factory for our 2nd dinner!

Sunday came and it was time to say good bye to Grammy and Papa. I always hate that part.

Shark Reef

Last week I got to go with Alex on his field trip to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. It was fun to be able to see him interact with his classmates and I loved being with him.

The kids got to go in before it actually opened and have a tour. After they went into a little classroom and kind of did some fun review of the things they learned.

Surprise!

Nick made a list of things he wanted for Christmas and his birthday and one of the things on his list was a surprise party. Then how was he surprised you ask. He also wanted a suit for church, so we went shopping for that and without plan a little discussion unfolded between Nick and his dad where Nick was made aware that if he got a suit he was not going to get anything else for his birthday. No party. No presents. I felt really bad and gave Chris the biggest stink eye, but he looked at me and grinned, it was all part of his plan!

Chris had Nick's birthday off, so he picked him from school and took him on some errands while I set stuff up and everyone arrived. He did know something was going on when he came to the front door (not knowing it was our house) blindfolded. SURPRISE!! All of our family was their and some of his baseball friends. We had a nacho bar and Nick requested Oreo cake. After he opened presents the boys were off to play some laser tag.

Nick is a special boy and I am glad that we were able to give him a special day!

Happy 9th birthday Nick!! We love you!

[Nick's School Pic]

So... I didn't post Nick's school picture with the other kids because he had a cheesy grin and we were waiting for retakes. The day before retakes Nick gets this nice scratch in the middle of his forehead that is okay, we will trade it for a cheesy smile! I finally got his pictures back and he says , "Mom, I did another bad smile". Oh well, only school pictures! I know there is a cute little grin in there somewhere!

365- Week 48

11/26/11

Sometimes I wonder how Aubrey is so BIG. She loves to play babies now and loves purses.

11/27/11

After Thanksgiving a little elf named Franky came to stay for the holidays!

11/28/11

On this day Franky was hiding in the Christmas tree and Cooper was dancing for him. I can always find Cooper making faces at him, talking and dancing for him. It was pretty funny. Especially since Cooper was kind of scared of him. He wouldn't want to be upstairs/downstairs by himself with him because "Franky had creepy eyes and he was watching him".

11/29/11

Aubrey is learning to climb up on things now. She isn't too bad at getting into stuff. I thought it was pretty cute when she sat up to the piano and played so nice!

11/30/11

I finally got Nick's album printed from 2008 and it arrived that day. Nick loved it!

12/01/11

Chloe took a picture of some of our Christmas friends.

12/02/11

Happy 9th birthday Nick!!

He was ducking behind the table because he didn't have a shirt on.