Christmas 2011 at my Moms (Super Long)

Every year we have 2 Christmas's, either at our house if we are living in Fresno and at my moms in the afternoon. This year we were staying at my dads (which I will post about later) and spent the morning there opening gifts and playing with everything. Then we headed up to my moms for some family fun.

There is usually 20+ people there and we always have such a great time playing games, cooking, catching up with those we don't see often. I think the kids have more fun then the adults!

This year for Christmas we tried to keep the gift giving simple with our kids. We did 3 gifts for each of our kiddos: 1 from Santa, 1 they wanted and 1 they needed. We did an extra for Jt, which it was from T, but we found this really cool Dinosaur book and couldn't resist! We made my dad stick to the rules and you'll see why we did this later in the post! My mom and everyone else goes crazy! It's just ridiculous how many gifts these kids get! We appreciate them all very much and feel so blessed to have such a great family spoil them!

This is a rear picture of the 2 of them together in a photo! My mom and her sister, my aunt Charlene.

Jt who was patiently waiting to open his gifts, yeah right!

He was having such a hard time waiting and so were a couple of the kids, so we decided to let them open theirs early instead of waiting! Our family has always waited to open gift until after dinner, which I think is the dumbest thing ever. When your 4, you can't wait that long!
This guy who we never get to see is my cousin Richard and his 4 year old son Anthony. Jt and Anthony are just a couple months apart and this was actually the first time they met. They got along so well and Jt can't wait to see him again.
This is why we did 3 gifts for the kids! These gift were separated between 4 kids. so do the math, that's like 7+ gifts for each child. That is just to many for 1 kid! I will post their favorites in my next post!

The dog whisperer

My brother Jeff's girlfriend Kristle who we just adore! Love her!

My little niece Brooklyn! This was her first Christmas this year and boy was she spoiled. She had a great time ripping into her presents and playing with all of the new toys! Tanner and Brooklyn just love each other. They were sharing toys, giving kisses and he was showing her how the airplane flies! So cute!

My mom and step dad Larry getting ready to open their gifts!

While all of the big kids opened their gifts the little ones were asleep, so we opened gifts with Tanner after he woke up and the big kids were all outside playing. This made for a more relaxing and enjoyable experience for T man. I liked it because I got to watch the boys individually and actually enjoy it.

My sweet boy

Everyone, well most of everyone outside playing rings and smoking the ribs.

My mom got Jt this Imaginex T-Rex he had been wanting for the longest time and what did he do with it? Well, he found Samantha's Barbie and well, you can see! What a boy!

My brother Scott and Brooklyn. This is such a great picture of them! She is just toooo sweet!

T man showing Brooklyn how the planes fly! He's even making the noise for her! I wonder who he gets that from?

Anthony was getting the dance party started on the Kinect. For a 4 year old, he followed along really well. What a kick it was to watch him dance too. I did get a video of it, but I'm not sure how to upload it yet.

As the night was coming to an end, we made our rounds with kisses goodbye! Even the babies wanted in on it!

We hope you all had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! I know we did, it's always so nice being home with our family for the holiday. That's what I enjoy the most these days.

Christmas Tree(s)

I saw this post on Pinterest with a Christmas tree blurred and it looked so pretty. So I was trying to duplicate it and practicing my focus on Jts head to get the blurry background. I followed all of the instructions, but I must be a camera idiot cause I couldn't get it for the life of me! Maybe next year. So here are my results: Not even close......

At one point I said screw it and just played around with the manual setting and did this one all by myself! No to bad, if I say so.
This one isn't bad either!
Now, this just looks blurry!

And then.....there's my dads fake half lit tree! LMAO

Don't ask why I thought I should share this with you, but every year I am determined to get a great TREE picture! Going to be one of must.

Home for the holidays (Random)

The boys and I were lucky enough to be home for someones birthday this year! My brother Jeff celebrated his 39th birthday! Ignore the picture below, he IS NOT 40! lol

We had a great day started with brunch and then followed buy dinner up at my moms! The guys went shooting at my moms while us girls sat inside talking and catching up. I think they even went fishing! Jackson was so happy to get to spend some time with his cousins and uncles.

My brother opening his gifts!

Tanner enjoying his dinner and watching everyone chit chat!
This one was funny! We thought we would give him an extra year!
You don't look a day over 34 Jeff!

Little stink! Move away from the plant!

My brother Scott with his granddaughter Brooklyn!

He adores her beyond the moon!

So glad we got to spend the day with you Jeffrey Douglas. We love you and hope you had a great day.

Santa came to Kfalls!

Jeff was so happy and excited to see Santa, he was jumping up and down! Right, look at that face, he was probably just waiting to get out of there!

As for Tanner well, he was asleep!
This is how it's done in Eagle land!

Jeff plugging Jts ears while he watched on. Santa was just about to get out of the Jet!

And Mrs. Clause was there to greet him after he landed and was on the ground safely!

We didn't get to see Santa after he landed. The line was so very long and Jackson was ok with seeing him when we get home in Fresno. So we will tell Santa what we want for Christmas next week!

Meal Planning and Grocery Lists

Ok, so if you know Jeff and how picky he can be when it comes to food, then you might know how boring our dinners can be. I feel like we eat the same thing over and over again and the grocery list consists of the same thing. I don't know how that happens cause the grocery bill is always changing! lol I know, every other trip is diapers and snacks.

Well, I have been addicted to this website called Pinterest. You have to be connected with Facebook to have a Pinterest account. If you don't don't have either you missing out, especially with Pinterest. I have become a crafty little thing and the home ideas to recipes are awesome!

I am going to share some with you that are on my grocery list for this week and 1 that I've tried and I know some of you are wanting.

So my grocery is looking pretty short and that's because I have most of what these recipes are calling for. This is what I have on my list:

String Cheese
half & half
pizza sauce
penne pasta
capers
spaghetti sauce
4 lemons
3lb broccoli
pepperoni
2 packs of chicken breasts (skinless)
1lb shrimp
1.5 pd flank steak
sweat baby rays bbq sauce
sherry
sage
cornstarch
Green tea Bisquick crescent roll
and of coarse milk, coffee creamer, bread.....( the basics)


Meal Planning for the week: (click on the meals to get the recipes)

Monday: Stoganoff & veggie (Jeff is night flying so I am keeping it easy)

Tuesday: Spaghetti, salad & veggie (Jeff is night flying again, so easy breezy)

Wednesday: Lunch: crescent pepperoni roll up for the kids

Dinner: Creamy Grilled Chicken Piccata

Thursday: Roasted Shrimp & Broccoli with Rice

Friday: Crockpot Barbecue Chicken with Rice

Saturday: Broccoli & Beef

Sunday: Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Lion


They all look so good and I can't wait to try them!

The other one I have made a couple times now is Lasagna Rolls, try this one it's awesome!

Don't ask why I posted this, I think I am really excited to see a short grocery list this week! I absolutely hate grocery shopping, especially with kids! Something I dread big time!

Good luck if you make them, they seem super easy and inexpensive!

Thanksgiving Week

Before Thanksgiving:

We had family here starting the Sunday before Thanksgiving! We had a few things planned, but nothing to exciting! We met a friend at Jumping Jacks, which was a hit! We will definitely be going back when it's to cold outside! This was Tanner's first time jumping and he loved it!

Jackson getting ready to head down the slide and catch his cousin Kyle! Miss Courtney supervising the boys while grandma and I made sure everyone was being good and Tanner wasn't killing himself!
On Wednesday everyone was finally here! Jackson had cousins to play with and boy was he in hog heaven! It isn't very often that we all get together with Carter and Kyle. They live in Bakersfield and Carter started school this year. So life away and visits make it hard with visiting the cousins.

Thanksgiving Day:

Chris and Penny deep frying the turkey! Oh it was so yummy

Kristle & I after our belly's were FULL! My brothers girlfriend who we love dearly! Hopefully she'll be my SIL!

The Fam Damnily before we were getting ready to eat! Did I mention there were 23 people at our house for Thanksgiving! This is what it's all about. Family, food and loving each other. I love being around my family, I just wish everyone was able to make it!

The spread!

My SIL Lauren taking a picture of me, so I took a picture of her! (Lauren you better post yours:)

My mom and step-dad Larry carving the turkeys! They did an awesome job and so did everyone else who brought and made something! Thank you all for helping. We had a ton of food and it fed us for days after!

Warm it up mom!

Everyone being themselves and enjoying one another company! I love how each group is doing something!

Caught Jackson tasting the turkey before it was time to eat! Little turkey!

The Day After Thanksgiving:

We had family group pictures, went to the movies, swimming, celebrated Lauren's b'day, ice skating and sat in the spa with In law siblings! Great times and great conversation!

Lauren and Penny watching the boys swim!

Tanner man and daddy swimming in the kiddy pool!

Lauren just finished blowing out her candles! Happy Birthday Lauren!

Olive fingers! We didn't even have to show him! He did it right away! Smart little cookie!

After putting the kiddos to bed, us adults and teens headed out to the ice arena down the street and skated our little legs off! Boy was that fun and scary!

I always have these visions of falling and someone skating over my hands and cutting my fingers off! What a great thought and luckily that didn't happen! lol

Courtney and I holding hands and skating! It seemed to make it easier holding hands. Plus we would whip each other around!

Daddy and tanner looking at a airplane magazine! Relaxing and enjoying some quiet time before bed!

The last night here was just my family. My mom was getting some loves from the boys! She loves them so much and misses them dearly!

We had a great Thanksgiving with both of our families! We hope you did as well and enjoyed the time you had with them. I know we did and appreciate every single one of them!

Family is what it's all about!

Snow Days

As you can see we got some snow! lol This was just a few days after we got home from Fresno. We were being lazy after all of our traveling and because it was super cold outside and all of a sudden we noticed that is was snowing! I don't think I've seen Jt get that excited in a while. He was jumping up and down and as fast as I could blink he had his rain boots and sweat shirt on. He was ready to go and experience it! He's been to the snow before, but never lived in it! At one point he told me that this place was better then Fresno. (I don't think so buddy)

Well, He loved it and didn't last long before his little hands were Rosy red!

Our house covered in snow! I am just waiting for the next month when it really starts to fall and doesn't melt. They recently put up poles to mark how many feet of snow we get, so it has to be coming soon!
Here is when it started to come down. It came down harder when I put the camera away and stood at the back door watching it with the boys. It is literally breath taking to see this all happening before our eyes. I am just so glad that the boys get to experience all of this. I've been telling Jeff how we've experience one extreme to the next as far as climates. Mississippi was hot and humid (t-storms,tornadoes that we never got to experience, but heard the alarms a couple times) Tucson was just hot and now we are here and it's freezing + it snows.
Jt playing with his Dinosaurs. He left them out and it ended up snowing a lot more and we couldn't even see them! lol He got a kick out of that!
Just a random one! thought it was kind of cool to have icicles hanging off of our house.

Definitely love seeing this, but knowing we are stuck in the house and can't leave really takes a toll. We have been doing some school work and coloring a lot. I've even taken up some crafts!