Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was yet again another fun time. It was fun to have Julia be so excited about it. She was more excited to spend time with her cousins than anything else. We had to run an errand at the mall the other day and she was very disappointed that her cousins were not there. Everywhere we went there were tons of cousins so it was a lot of fun. She loved seeing Santa, aka Opa, and opening all of her presents. She is a true rocker, so she loved her keyboard and guitar from Nana and has been rocking out since Christmas day. She loved every present she got and plays with each toy every day.......it has been nice to have new toys around :-). It is crazy how fast it all went, but somewhat relieving to have it all over with. We look forward to a wonderful 2009 welcoming a new baby to our family in early March!

Christmas morning at home, opening presents

Singing with Dora

Snow White rocking out

Carlsen Christmas

Stanley Christmas

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Julia went sledding almost all day yesterday, except to eat and sleep. She had such a great time in the snow. So did Mom, Dad and Lucy :-). Below are some pictures and a video of the fun day.

Getting dressed

Julia and Lucy in the backyard

Sledding to the park, Lauren and Julia

Cheese!

Sled Time

Christmas Play

Julia went to her first Christmas play over the weekend. We went and saw a children's production of 'Twas the Night with all of her cousins. As you can see from the pictures she had a great time. The play was about 1 1/2 hours (with an intermission) and she sat still through the whole thing and stayed quiet. As a matter of fact all the kids did amazing and loved the play. She got so excited when Rudolph and Santa came on stage. She was in awe pretty much the whole time. She also got Santa pictures taken on Monday, although I forgot my camera. She didn't cry and I think they got a picture of a non-fake smile, something I cannot achieve lately! Then we went to Snowflake Lane at the mall and Julia got to see the drummer boys, Rudolph, penguins, polar bears and princess'. Once again, she was in awe and had a great time.

As I am writing this it is snowing outside, I can't wait for Julia to wake up so we can go play! I already took Lucy out in the snow this AM and she ran around for about an hour in it. Should be a fun day in the snow!

Branden, Brady, Jakob and Julia (the boys are doing "peace" but Julia is saying she is 2)

Julia has an audience

Mya and Ellie

Cameron and Wyatt

Rudolph and Santa, what could be better?!

Jim was out of town this weekend :-(, but Julia and I kept very busy with holiday related outings. On Saturday morning we went to the Cougar Mountain Zoo for the Reindeer Festival with Shannon/Danny, their kids and our friend DeAun and her little boy Logan (one of Julia's best friends). Julia got to see Bengal tigers, cougars, emu's, macaws, lemurs and of coarse the star attraction, the reindeer's. It really is a cute place, and small enough were Julia could walk the whole zoo and not get tired and still be entertained by all the animals that were there. She got to feed the reindeer apples and see Rudolph (the only male reindeer there). Saturday night we went to a friends holiday party and Santa made a trip from the North Pole to see all the kids there! She was very pleased with herself as she did not cry on his lap. She saw last years picture and how she was balling on his lap and laughed when she saw it. I don't think she understood why she was crying and told us she would not cry this year. So far, she has kept good on her promise, we will see when the official Santa photo has to be taken. On Sunday morning we went to my mom's to play. Now we are both resting before daddy comes home tonight, we are both way too excited to have him back!!!!

Riding Santa's sleigh with Cameron and Ellie

Even better, a sleigh with presents and Logan!

Rudolph

She didn't cry on Santa's lap!

The holidays are here!!!!!

This has got to be my favorite time of year :-). You just can't help but to be in a good mood around the holidays. We started off the season at my sisters for Thanksgiving. There were 16 adults and 12 kids this year, yikes! Julia had so much fun playing with her cousins. Then on Friday we headed down to Olympia to spend some time with Jim's family, and once again, Julia had so much fun playing with her cousins. Over the weekend we got our Christmas tree. In true Washington fashion, it was raining. Still fun, but a quick trip to the u-cut tree farm. We decorated our house on Sunday and Julia is in love with Christmas lights, advent calendars, stockings, etc. She begs to turn on the lights at all hours during the day. Anyway, we are loving the holidays here and can't wait to do our yearly traditions. Hope everyone is doing well.

Playing on Thanksgiving with Kate and Ellie

Tree farm: Fletcher, Lisa and Blake Ooyman

Tree farm: Julia sized tree

Tree farm: the chosen tree :-)