Christmas 2008

I am finally off work and have some free time for myself. I decided to spend sometime updating my blog. I hope everyone's Christmas was great. I can't believe it is already over with. I am still trying to put away all my christmas decorations. Anyways, we had a good Christmas. My brother, Jason, and his wife, Sunshine came down with their 3 year old son, Camden and stayed with us throughout the Christmas holiday. It was nice having family around and we had a lot of fun. Camden is so awesome. I forgot how 3 year olds are. It was quite entertaining to watch him. Of course, Christian wasn't enjoying much of his little cousin being underfoot all the time so he spent most of his holiday week playing with the neighbor's kid, Hayden, and stayed over at his house a lot. Oh well, at least I enjoyed having my little brother and his family around and that's what counts in the end.

Jackson taking a peek at one of Christian's present.

Jackson enjoying his favorite new toy, a squeaky, stretchy elephant.

Christian pulling out his slim jim (one of his favorites)

Camden, opening one his gifts. Isn't he cute!!!

Camden, coming down our stairs for the first time Christmas morning to see what Santa brought him.
Christian's creativity coming out. As you can see the above and below pictures, he has made up two different looking roofs.

Camden's favorite part of making gingerbread houses was being able to eat all the candy.

Christian's Santa Letter

The following is a letter to Santa Claus that Christian wrote in class last week.

Dear Santa

I want a 1. XBOX 360, 2. one thousand dollars, 3. all the games in the world, 4. a cool looking sled, 5. and a big pen. Ps. about number three of all the games in the world I don't want the girly games.

Love Christian Yoder


Well, there it is. I have been bugging Christian for things that he wants for Christmas and I finally have it. Will he get all that he asked for? Definitely not! Maybe I can handle the big pen request.

Happy Birthday Denise!

Denise's Birthday Cake!! Today is one of my best friend's birthday, Denise Vancena. Several years ago, we started a birthday club. We would take each other out on our birthdays. This is the first year in a long time that I have not gotten together with the girls to go out. Here are some pictures of last year's birthday outing with Denise. First we surprised Denise when we showed up at her house in a rented Hummer. We went to Benihanas for dinner than headed downstairs to the Karoake bar for some singing and dancing. I think we all had a blast and it was fun to just let down our hair and go crazy (in front of total strangers!).

My Christmas Decorations

I am finally done with my Christmas decorations. The tree is up and decorated, the train is up and running, and my two villages are completed and displayed. The North Pole village was easy to put up with snow blankets and little sprinkles of snow on top but my Dickens village takes a lot more work. I had to find a way to squeeze 16 building plus accessories into one long skinny countertop. I did this by creating a bi level town with styrofoam, moss, paper, hot glue, and lots of VHS tapes (Can anyone guess where the tapes are at?). But I am very happy to be done with it and it turned out wonderful. I love to sit with the village lights all on, my tree lights on and a fire burning in the fireplace. It is such a wonderful time of the year and those are the times when it is so very peaceful (especially when Christian is in bed and Jackson is in his crate for the night). Now the toughest part of the holidays are upon us and that is keeping Jackson from getting in to all the stuff. He has had a field day with a few of my deers already, has had fights with the animated Mrs. Claus and the caroling kittens, and has had a run in with the train. Having a little puppy around at christmas time is hard work!!!!

Halloween 2008

SPOOKY!!!!!!!!
Do I hear someone calling for help? I must fly to their rescue!

OOOH! The Grim Reaper is here to get me. Watch out!

What did you do to me?

Well, I see that a lot of people have posted their halloween pictures up already. Here is mine. I thought Jackson's costume was adorable. Everyone in our neighborhood loved him. Steve took him out with Christian trick or treating and he was the center of attention. Poor Christian!! Nobody could see his face but he did get lots of comments on how scary he was. Some even gave him extra candy for being soooo scary! I, for the first time in 5 years, was able to stay home and pass out candy. It was great! "One for you, and one for me" was what I found myself saying all night to the kids that came by. I think I ended up eating half of the candy myself!!

Our First Fire

Well it has finally gotten cool enough, in Steve's opinion anyways, to start our first fire. Steve was so excited to start a fire. While I was out of town last weekend, he went online and researched what type of firewood to buy, bought his rack to hold the wood, and bought a rick of wood from some guy on Craigslist. So, all evening we enjoyed the ambience of a nice wood burning fire. It really did smell nice but it got a little warm in the house.

Wonderworks

We went together as a family to the Children's Musuem in Pigeon Forge. It is a really neat place called Wonderworks. Christian and I went with Denise, Julie, and Denise's mom when they came up to visit and we had a really fun time. So, when we asked Christian what he wanted to go do that day, he decided that it would be fun to go back. My favorite activity was the rock climbing, the huge simon says game (which I ended up beating the highest score that day), and the roller coaster simulator. Steve's favorite was playing on the astronaut's simulator. Christian's favorite activity was the huge bubble lab area. He spent most of his time in there and we could not get him to go do or see anything else after this (luckily this was one of the last attractions of the day). I admit it was quite fun blowing the big bubbles, but how much can you take. So, here are some pictures of us there. If anyone ever comes up to visit us or are near this area, this place is definitely worth the time.