Santa's Visit

Santa paid our house a visit - and brought some toys to entice the kids to come his way. OIt worked for Boston -

and Naomi was right up on Santa's lap checking him out . . .

This is what happened when we tried to get Madden closer -

So Naomi was the first to open her present -

then Boston joined in -

It was so fun to have Santa here visiting my grandkids. The last time Santa was at our house Michelle was 3 and Tiffany was 5 - now Santa was here in my living room again to visit their kids. It was very nostalgic - it doesn't seem like that long ago.

Even Madden finally agreed - our Santa was awesome! Thanks Santa - what a wonderful night!

Fentons

Going to Fentons is a family REQUIREMENT when the girls are in town. Their husband have all become converts too and make sure we go whenever they're here.

So here's the 3 son-in-laws with their kids all ready to head off to Fentons.

Everyone is happy at Fentons. We train them young to carry on the family tradition.

The whole clan - I don't know why we have menus - we all know exactly what we want when we get there.

Temple Lights

Monday night after our dinner at Fentons we took everyone up to see the Temple Lights and the Visitors Center. My camera failed to capture the Temple Christmas lights but we got some cute family pictures -

Paul, Summer, & Avery

Randy, Madden, & Tiffany

Naomi, John, Boston, & Michele

The grandkids: at the fountain -

and at the Visitors Center.

It's been quite a while since we had a Family Night with that much of the family - it was fun.

An Early Christmas in Livermore

My Mom wanted us to come out to Livermore for a family dinner on a night that we'd have the most great grandkids in town. That was the day after the wedding - nice not having to think about what to feed our crowd. My Mom made a meal similar to a Thanksgiving feast and then she had presents for everyone. It was like an early Christmas!

Avery checking out her new beanie baby . . .

Our Christmas party in full swing . . .

This was my favorite part - all 4 of my Mom and Dad's great grandkids on their laps for a photo op. Yes - that is them trying to hang on to 4 kids all under 3. I had to take the picture fast - but it is priceless!

Thanks Mom and Dad for the great Christmas party!

The Wedding Day

It was 5 weeks ago today - and I'm finally catching my breath and trying to update the blog so here it goes:

Tanner & Josie's wedding day was perfect!!!! Everything was wonderful - Josie even got her outdoor photos after the forecast had predicted high winds and heavy rain all day. I was expecting the worst and then we got lucky. Don't they look beautiful together?!

The happy couple with their close friends and family -

At the wedding luncheon - all smiles . . .

The reception was a fabulous party - dancing, great food, a "very memorable" slide show, and a happy groom and beautiful bride. I don't think I ever stopped smiling.

Welcome to the family Josie! We're so excited for both of you.

Santa gives books? "Pooh!" says 3-year old

Saw this clip today - HILARIOUS! Just wanted to share. When things settle down I'll be posting about the wedding, the 5 - yes 5 major things that broke this week, having the whole family here, and Christmas. But that will all have to wait for the house to clear out - until then Merry Christmas!

It's the BIG birthday - Landon is 16 today!

It's hard to believe but our youngest is now officially 16! We celebrated with a family party a few days ago - because teenagers have such busy schedules that school, Basketball practice, and the Football game today all had him tied up from 6 am - 10 pm. So for our family party we had his favorite meal and then opened a few gifts -

Landon was pretty excited about his Dad taking him to a Monday night 49'ers game.

Then the 5 of us (John, me, Landon, Tanner & Josie) went to see this movie at the Lesher theatre for his birthday party (this is an easy kid)

It's hard to believe we've gone from this:

to this

to this . . .

to this . . .

Landon's always been the baby of the family -

Now he is taller than all of his sisters, his Mom & Dad, and closing in fast on his older brother.

He's always been loved and adored by his parents and his siblings because he's always been

so cute and so sweet. What's not to love?

Other facts about Landon that make him so extraordinary . . . .

He has ALWAYS been pretty much a happy easy going kid. The teen age years didn't even mess that up like I was afraid they might. He's still happy, pleasant, and easy to get along with. I told you this is an extraordinary guy.

He's got a funny sense of humor. Pretty quiet - but he takes everything in and then makes observations and comes up with some hilarious insights on what's going on. He cracks us up.

(Of course his Napoleon Dynamite impersonation is one of my favorites)

He is so obedient - when you say take out the trash please - he just gets up and takes out the trash. That may seem like a little thing - but he is like that with everything. He never kicks back or tries to get out of things - he just does what we ask. Another our-of character thing for a teenager that I truly appreciate about Landon.

He is the most appreciative kid ever. I can't count how may times he said Thank You for helping him with his Eagle Project. But a couple of days ago he asked me if I would make him some chocolate chip cookie dough. I did - and then he thanked me - and thanked me again - and again. I counted - he thanked me 6 separate times over the course of the afternoon and evening. He's been like this since he was little - but I still can't get over it. It's amazing to me every time that he is good about expressing his appreciation. I'll make cookie dough for him any time!

He's always chose great friends - pretty smart of him :)

He's a great uncle - his nieces and nephews adore him.

See what I mean . . .

You're the BEST Landon. We love you!!!! Happy 16th Birthday :)

Our Double Date . . .

It's sort of a family tradition to take out our children and their fiancee's for a special double date in order to get to know them better. We had a lot more time with Josie then we've had with any of our future son-in-laws that lived out of state but we thought it was a great tradition to keep going anyway - so it was more of a celebration of their engagement than a get-to-know-you. So Saturday afternoon we headed out.

We decided to take them to see Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco.

We wanted to do something with them they had never done before. The show - which is a musical spoof on the days current events didn't disappoint - it was hilarious.

The costumes and songs were outrageously funny.

and guess where we sat? On the front row! I've never sat on the front row of anything before - it was cool.

And of course they are famous for their unbelievably big hats. It was great fun!

Then after the show we went and had a memorable dinner at Boulevard - we got the best table in the house - and they brought out Tanner and Josie's desserts with little Congratulations signs on them - made out of chocolate of course.

Don't they make a cute couple! We're so happy for both of them.

Welcome to the family Josie :)