And the joy of Christmas begins.......taking down the tree and putting away the decorations!    The kids helped Shannon put everything away and gave him a little moral support.  Shannon loves the holidays so taking everything down was a bummer for him.  

Just when you thought those children couldn't possibly get one more thing......there's Christmas morning.  Since they had been good all year (ha!), Santa stopped at our house to give them a "few" things.

Marie got "Lips" for Christmas from Peter and Liz.  When we got home, Marie and I rocked out!

Every year we get together at my dad's house for Christmas Eve.  This year the kids had spent the night before with papa and Marina, which meant little sleep and no naps.  Santa Jim is always good to us on Christmas.  Notice the Mickey Christmas sweaters.  We kept them on long enough for the picture.  We tried to get a picture of the kids together, but Anthony wanted nothing to do with it.

We really don't enjoy this nasty weather but of course the kids love it!  I worry about them getting sick out there so I make sure they are bundled up well when they go sledding.  Here is a picture of them getting ready to brave the elements and have a little fun!

For anyone who lives in the midwest, I know you feel my pain with the weather.  Normally we don't document the weather around here, it's usually business as usual, but this ice storm really rocked our world.  Is it spring yet?  My poor trees!

This is a picture from Anthony's Christmas program.  Anthony is the one in the teacher's arms on the left.  He really didn't sing, but he did jingle his bells a few times.  Marie and Philly didn't have a Christmas program this year....a little disappointed.  

Marie did a Karaoke club after school program this quarter.  On their last day they had a performance.  Marie sang beautifully but did not use her "at home" voice, she was very quiet :).  Great job Rie! The song she sang was "Love Song"

We decided to take the kids to Navy Pier today for Winter Wonderfest.  It was not exactly what we thought, but the kids had fun.  

Ok......today was a busy day.  Jennifer gave Parker his first haircut, but not before Aunt Nectar had a  little fun.  Jon said we couldn't buzz his hair, but he never said I couldn't put a bow in it!  Poor Parker!!  Anyway, here are some pictures of Parker's first haircut in Aunt Nectar's kitchen and Uncle Shannon holding him.

Ok......I think I am as caught up as I'm going to be. Don't count on this many posts on one day from now on :)

Parker came to visit this weekend.  The cousins had a lot of fun. Check out his bib!

Ta-Da! Christmas tree number 2!  

This is Christmas tree number 1.  After falling over 3 times in the house....Shannon tossed it out the door. :)  SO.......he went out and got a more modest tree.  It has been up for about 3 hours now and hasn't fallen over.  The night is young...stay tuned.

Yippee.....going to pick out a Christmas tree!    

Dragging Christmas tree number 1 to the Tahoe.  

Here are some pictures from Disney World. October 6-14th 2008

This is a picture of the first day of school 2008.  Philly's first day of kindergarten and Marie's 1st day of 4th grade.  Anthony is in the picture so that he doesn't need a therapist later. (haha!)