HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We got home from Indio in the afternoon on the 31st and then headed over to our neighbors, The Martinez, to celebrate the New Year. We started out with some great appetizers and an ice-cream sundae bar.....

The kids were hanging out playing and watching movies.....

.....until they decided it looked like more fun to play poker with the adults! First, they organized the chips.....

.....after that just Cameron & Jacinda actually played.....

Jeff was the dealer trying to teach them (and the rest of us) how to play.....and cheat.....

Gabby, Jacinda and Cameron made it until midnight.....

.....and surprisingly so did Jeff.....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

VACATION IN INDIO

After doing our Christmas celebrating we packed up the van and headed to Indio, CA for a little vacation. It's about a 3 hour drive to get there and the kids loaded themselves up with all sorts of things to keep them happy -- including their new pillow pets, leap frog games, dolls and, of course, some new movies to watch.....

The weather wasn't very warm, but it was nice and sunny so we ate breakfast outside (only one morning, though, after that it was indoors!).....

The resort has a fun play area for the kids.....

It also has a few ponds with ducks.....

Time to swim, play and relax.....

The next day we decided to visit the ducks again, but take them some food this time.....

They were eating right out of the kids fingers.....

Too cold to eat breakfast outside, but we are on vacation so we are going to eat in the living room in front of the t.v. with fancy cups and glasses!.....

We went to The Living Desert in Palm Desert one day. It rained on and off the whole time we were there, but it was still fun.....

The resort had a fun game room. Cameron got pretty good at ping pong.....

We went to a street fair one night in downtown Palm Springs. This is Rena and Maleah wrapped up in about 4 different layers because they were so cold and then there's Jeff walking around in his shorts and flip-flops. Everyone kept asking him where he was from that he was dressed liked that.....he had to admit that he was cold and wished he had worn warmer clothes.....

We cut the trip a little bit short because we wanted to head home and spend New Year's Eve with our neighbors and friends. So, it was time to clean up and load up. This is how Jeff makes cleaning out the fridge fun for the kids -- they all stand on the counter and throw the left-over things that we can't take home with us in the sink. They each threw in eggs and then mixed it up with some milk and juice. Kids thought it was great.....

The drive back home.....

Jeff was still determined to bring a rock or two home for our yard (you might remember a few previous posts where we were searching for a rock on a mountain). We made a couple of stops and then sure enough he found a few that he loaded in the van that are now nice landscaping rocks in our front yard. I laughed at him and called him a dork at each stop that we made, but he didn't care -- he loves his rocks! :)

STILL CELEBRATING

Today we celebrated Christmas with our neighbors, The Martinez's. We spent the afternoon at their house exchanging gifts and hanging out. Here are the girls trying to figure out the new Sorry game.....

Not sure what they are doing here, but they were having fun.....

Cameron took his Raider CS-35 over to show everyone and Jeff helped Benjamin attack Gabriel. Benjamin thought it was pretty fun, but did give his dad a big hug after it was over.....

The kids played outside a while.....

The girls got new clothes for their dolls and also got these cute t-shirts from Gabby. They say "friends are forever" and they were all so excited that they have matching "friend" t-shirts.....

To finish off the day we all came back to our place for movie night. We chose the first Harry Potter movie because Cameron got a Harry Potter Wii game for Christmas, but had never seen the movie. Sooooo, now that he has seen the movie he thinks he knows what to do on the game! Here are Cameron and Jacinda watching with their new pillow pets.....

I think this ends our Christmas celebrations! Now we are ready to celebrate the new year!

CHRISTMAS DAY

We had a really good day here celebrating Christmas at home with just the 5 of us. Our morning started at 2:52am when the kids woke up for the first time. Between 3am and 6am they were up another couple of times and then finally at 6am we all ventured downstairs.

It was really so much fun how excited the kids were first thing in the morning.....and pretty much the whole day long!

Of course we started with presents.....

Maleah checking out her stocking and so excited about the Nerds that Santa left......

Cameron got his much wanted and asked for Nerf Raider CS-35 from Santa (I'm now trying to figure out why Santa thought that a nerf gun that holds 35 bullets and does "rapid fire" was a good idea)......

Cameron was not quite as excited about the jeans, shorts or pj's that he got.....

Rena loved everything including her new compact mirror with her new purse and lip gloss......

The girls got many new outfits. They are feelin' good and lookin' good......

.....Rena picked out her new boots and Maleah picked out her new "Sketcher Stomp" shoes.....

We tried out Rena's new Easy Bake Oven this afternoon (the hat doesn't really fit, but it looks cute)......

Cameron spent the whole day playing with his new Rokenbok set.....

Jeff made us a great dinner and while he was busy in the kitchen.....

.....Rena and I did some dancing with the new Wii game, Just Dance 2, that Santa brought.....

.....while Maleah did some napping (apparently the sleepless night caught up to her).....

Time for dinner.....yummy prime rib and sides.....

After dinner we did some more dancing.....and even got Cameron & Jeff to join in.....

We also ended the night with some dessert and a couple of games of Uno Attack, which Santa also delivered. It was a really fun day here at home. We got some great gifts, spent the day together and spent over an hour on the webcam with The McCullough's at home in Puyallup. Even though we weren't all together I feel very blessed for my whole family and look forward to 2011 when we will get a chance to be together again!

We had a great Christmas season and are now looking forward to a Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS