CHRISTMAS DAY

Even though we had a late night Christmas Eve,
the kids were up bright and early on Christmas morning.

Santa left this stack of presents ;)

We all enjoy playing Club Penguin online.

Santa brought these cool stuffed penguins dressed up as an reindeer, soccer player, and cheerleader.

These magic marker books are lots of fun.and then Santa left a present for the whole family... Wii!!!!

We also got a sports game and Mario Kart and steering wheel.

Santa even remembered to bring Hercules some presents.

He carried this one around the family room until he figured out how to open it.

While mom made lunch, the kids had some time to play with their gifts.
The girls love "texting" each other on their DS's.
They also each got a game that they spent some time playing.

The dinosaur was all charged up and ready to go.
Logan had him stomping around the kitchen.
He is pretty loud and scary.
Since we didn't have to rush anywhere, we had Christmas dinner at home.

After a busy morning of playing, everyone was hungry and ready to eat the turkey feast.

When we went to Uncle's, Melissa took a great family picture for us.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve is always a busy day for us.
We made sure to do some family pictures before we left the house.

Chris and the kids...

One more smile with mom...

Then it was off to Grandma and Grandpa Clarey's for a Christmas Eve celebration.

Everyone is having fun waiting for and opening presents.
a great picture with Grandpa Clarey

Then...we went to Uncle Jerry's to wait for Santa Claus.

All of the grandkids gathered for a picture.

Unfortunately, Sarah and her husband, Chad and their adorable twins, Connor and Aaden couldn't

join us this year.

The kids gathered around and sang Christms carols so Santa would come.

Webkinz was the Santa gift of the year.

Shannon got a chipmunk, Logan a reindeer, and Caitlin a hedgehog.

Logan got this huge remote control dinosaur from Uncle Jerry.

It is pretty awesome!

Shannon, Caitlin, and our cousin Jake all got Nintendo DS's.

We had a tremendous evening filled with family and fun.

We try to get the kids to understand that life is about the people not the things.

Spending time with our families is very special to us.

LUNCH WITH SANTA

A youth group at our church sponsored lunch with Santa again this year.

We braved the blizzard conditions and below zero windchills to attend.
The kids had a great time.

We had lunch, colored pictures, got holiday tatoos, decorated cookies,

and visited with Santa of course.

Shannon still fits on Santa's lap. Caitlin liked visiting with Santa.
At first Logan wasn't going to sit on Santa's lap since he just saw him at school.

Then he decided just to remind Santa of what he wanted for Christams.
This is the first time in 4 years that everyone smiled while sitting on Santa's lap.
It is amazing how quickly the kids grow.
It seems like just yesterday when Santa held the tiny little Shannon in his hands ;)

The kids are very excited about Christmas!

A NEW LOOK

Hercules had to get his hair cut very short at the groomer today as he was losing his puppy coat.

It is so cold outside and he has very little fur left, so we got him this adorable knit sweater.

He doesn't mind wearing it at all.

He spent much of the afternoon napping after his busy day :)

BASKETBALL SEASON

Shannon and 14 other girls decided to play basketball for Chris this year.

Although most of them have been working on learning the game since second grade, this is the

first real league they have played in.

The competition is very good but the girls are doing well.

Shannon gets set for the jump ball. The girls are still learning the fundamentals of the game.

Here you see Shannon playing pretty good defense.

The girls are learning a lot and get better with each practice and game.

Chris continues to practice patience with 15 silly 4th grade girls!

ANOTHER SNOW DAY!!!

Although we enjoyed our snow days last winter, we were hoping we wouldn't have quite as much snow this year.

That was wishful thinking!

We had an extra day added to our Christmas vacation when school was canceled on the 19th.

Poor Hercules didn't know what was going on.

Shannon went out back and worked on making a path for him.

He likes running freely in the yard but the huge snow drifts have limited his movement.

Shannon made a path through the snow so he can move around a little bit.

The latest predictions have it snowing another 8-12 inches over the next few days.

Maybe we'll get lucky and it will snow only in December this year.

We are all done with winter already!

CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

Logan loves APL school and is doing awesome.

He had his first Christmas program last week.

They sang lots of cute songs.

Logan wasn't too sure about the singing part - he didn't sing a lot -

but he did have lots of fun playing the triangle and bells!

This is the first year he actually talked to Santa.

Of course, he asked for Webkinz and cars!

THE STOCKINGS WERE HUNG...

St. Nick visited and filled the stockings to overflowing!

Webkinz are still a big hit in our house and St. Nick obliged.

Shannon got a husky, Cait and kitten, and Logan a horse :) An early morning but ready to see everything St. Nick left.

Cait still looking a little sleepy but excited.

Shannon lounging with her treats. This was Hercules' first St. Nick and the kids were afraid Herci wouldn't get anything, but

St. Nick's a smart guy and brought 3 cute winter toys.
St. Nick was awfully generous this year ;)