A few of my favorite family pictures Jessica took that I never posted...

She did an AMAZING job!  Especially considering that the girls were practically bouncing off the walls the whole time, Breaker pretty much refused to be set down anywhere and was practically in tears with a red face the whole shoot and she had to constantly tell the girls "ok Brooklyn look at me - ok now Brielle look at me - ok, get Breaker's hand out of his mouth" Jessica, you are amazing!

Oh how I LOVE updated family photos.

We got to Arrowhead at 10:30pm - the kids were asleep and woke up to this...

SNOW!!!

They just couldn't wait and ran outside in their jammies while I managed to throw a jacket, scarf and hat on them while chasing them out the door.  It was fun, but makes me so glad that I don't have to live in snow all winter long!  Brrrrr.

I took 3 pictures on Christmas day:

We did get lots of video though.  Things started going to fast and I wanted to live Christmas with the kids, not through the lens so I said to heck with it!  Mom, Dad and Daniel came over on Christmas morning for breakfast & to watch the kids open their gifts.  We also got to talk to David!!!  He skyped us, so not only did we talk but we got to see him too!  It was fun and I can't believe he has almost been gone for a year - and I also can't believe that he is better at sending us stuff than we are to him.  Dang, we need to get on the ball!

 There was an article that came on on Christmas day about Daniel in the Daily Bulletin - front page of the sports section...really exciting for him :)

This one I stole from my aunt on facebook:

The best part of Christmas is seeing the joy and excitement all the different emotions that your kids have on that day - it will never get old!

'Twas the night before Christmas...

I'm SO behind on posting about Christmas that I don't know where to start...so let's start with meeting Santa

They were SO impressed that Santa knew them by name. 

Breaker was a little nervous at first, and Brielle was still a little upset with Santa from a few days prior when at preschool she sat on Santa's lap - told him she wanted a DS for Christmas and he gave her a book instead.  She was not impressed.  Brooklyn was hoping to redeem herself from being "really naughty" or so she told me a few days prior to the Santa meeting.  We were on our way home from Costco and all I could hear in the the back was: "hummmf, pffft, hummmmf, pfffft" I asked her what was wrong.  She answered: "I'm not gonna get anything but coal this year, I just know it!"

Me: "Why do you think that?"

B: "Because I've been really, really naughty this year"

Me: "Well, what have you done to be really, really naughty this year"

B: "I'm mean to Brielle, but I just can't help myself - she drives me so crazy.  Hmmmmmp!"

Me: "Well, Santa is kind of like Jesus and he knows if you are trying to be good or trying to be bad.  Just try your best and we'll have to see what Santa decides to do"   

She did get coal this year, as did all of the kids - but that wasn't ALL they got :)

Out with the old, in with the "new"

A few weeks ago, Mike called me about the time he should have been getting home from work that someone had hit him on the freeway, he was fine but he would be a little late.  Turns out his car was totaled.  This was a bummer for a few reasons.  The main one being: his car was paid off!  We really didn't want a car payment while trying to save for another home so we looked for something similar and luckily found one that worked.  Mike managed to haggle the insurance company and we got an extra $1300 more for our old car than what they were originally going to give us, so we got the same car but newer & with less miles for the same amount the insurance gave us - lets just hope it doesn't turn out to be a lemon!