Our flight drama

Our flights to and from Portland were probably the worst I've experienced. If you wish to read about it - click here: http://home.comcast.net/~mintrone/Flights.html

Christmas Day family photos

The Wiens family - 4 generations on Christmas Day.

Great-Grandma and Grandpa Wiens.

...with son and daughter-in-law.

...with 3 grandkids and their spouses.

...with grandkids, spouses and 7 great-grandchildren.

Christmas Eve

The family on Christmas Eve. After our flight drama and lost luggage, we didn't end up too bad. Steve and my clothes made it right before we left for church (minus shoes - so we had to borrow from my parents.) The kids are in what we were lucky enough to find at Target at midnight the night before. =)

Christmas party

The Moms Club had their Christmas party last night. There were games and crafts for the kids, a pizza party, and Santa even came and delivered presents for everyone. (Although Izzy was terrified of him and wanted nothing to do with it.)

Sitting in Santa's chair...

Playing with the "snowballs" - they wouldn't put them down.

There was a music program, the kids got to ring bells, bang on drums, shake rattles.

Emily eating the bells off of one of the games. =)

Izzy's new friend Alicia - who's going to take care of our cats while we're away for the holiday.

Christmas comes early

The big present Steve and I got this year was a new bed. We finally upgraded to a king-size (no more queen - much more room when the rugrats crawl in with us in the mornings), and splurged on a Sleep Number bed. The boxes for the bed were thrown downstairs today after we put it together, and the kids had a blast treating it like a big fort. They've played in and on them all day. It's been a castle, a spaceship, and filled with scary monsters that only a flashlight will make go away - according to Izzy. So - we'll take back their other Christmas presents, and the cardboard fort will stay as their Christmas gift. =) Not really - but you gotta love how kids can be amused for the longest time with the simplest things. I probably will keep it around for the week just so they can play with it for a while.

More Thanksgiving...

Here's a few additional pictures from Thanksgiving.

Grandma and Grandpa with Stephanie, Allison and John (Steve's nieces and nephew), as well as Izzy outside the beach house.

Cousins - playing on the beach.

Gingerbread House

Today Izzy and I made our first gingerbread house. Hopefully this will become a tradition we do every year, as we had a lot of fun building and decorating it. (Although this one came from a kit, I'd love to try and make it from scratch in future years.)

The finished product! Izzy did all the decorating herself. Mommy did the framing (i.e. putting the house together), but the placement and selection of all the candy was done by Izzy alone.

Eating some of the unused candy (and pulling off some we DID use to eat anyway!)

Wanting to eat the house! =)