Sunday, December 30, 2007

Christmas at the Le Bons

We had a great time at my mom's on Saturday. It was fun to hang out with my parents, sisters and nieces and nephews. It is always fun to watch the cousins run around and play together. We decided to simplify things a little this year and had lasagna, garlic bread, and salad with cheesecake for dessert. I thought it was delicious since lasagna is one of my favorite meals! Here are a few pictures of the day.....

Mom and Dad expecting their 15th grandchild any day and just found out #16 will be here in July! That is what happens when you have 6 kids, I guess (:

Chuck just one of the boys as always!

Nvea and Sawyer both liked the same things this year and would take turns holding the sheep and baby dolls. It was very sweet, unless they both wanted the same thing (:

Typical Chrissy pose-always photogenic (:

Sharyn unaware of her picture being taken....

Getting ready to open gifts-Don't look so excited girls! It is crazy having all these teenage girls now in the family-when did they all grow up?

Sawyer opening up his Vikings sweat suit-he was so excited about it or maybe it was all of us smiling and excited looking at him (:

More gift opening.....

Cortney and Cassidy-almost teenagers! They look less alike as they get older I think!

My beautiful girl!

He was working so hard.

Sweet Dad and daughter shot-they both fell asleep on the couch together-she is such a daddy's girl (:

I loved seeing everyone and hopefully we will get together again soon! We missed you Julie and Adam!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Sledding Results

This is what some fresh air and a little sledding do to a boy.....




I laughed so hard-nothing we did could wake him up!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas, full of fun, family, and food! We had one of my best Christmases this year. I can't pinpoint exactly why~maybe it is that Sawyer is older and enjoys everything about Christmas, or Jonnie's pure joy and excitement at every gift he opened and the anticipation he felt for Santa coming, or maybe it was Alaina's sweetness and joy when she opened up some favorite gifts, or.....well I could go on and on. Here are a few pictures of our Christmas, I had to hold back as I had a ton of pictures!

We start out our holiday on Christmas Eve by driving out to the candlelight service at the old Mamreland church in the country. There is no electricity and nothing has been changed inside the church since it was built. I think it is just beautiful and it is definitely one of my favorite traditions of the season. We mostly sing Christmas songs and the last song we sing is Silent Night. We all have candles that get lit and it is just beautiful! Here are a few pictures of the church.....



After church, we head on over to the Swanson's. Our traditional meal is Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, Ooscaca (no idea how to spell that), bread pudding to name a few. It is delicious and Karen and Melanie work hard every year to make it so good for us all. After dinner we open gifts, which is always a haul, and then eat some dessert. This year with the 3 boys walking around, the house seemed to be a little fuller than previous years (: All the more fun, though I think!

When all the grandkids are together, we try to get a picture of all 6 and this is how it usually turn outs (:

It didn't take him long to get the hang of gift opening!

Thanks Aunt Melissa for letting me steal your Biscotti-mmmmm

The end of the night and time for one more picture-not sure where the other 2 were



When we arrive home, we have our own holiday traditions we have created over the years. The first one is to always leave cookies and milk for Santa. It was Jonnie's turn to write Santa a note. I thought he did a great and it looked so cute. Hope you can see it.
After we get the cookies ready, we sit down and I read the same two books I have read to them for years. Sawyer couldn't stay up for this part, though-he crashed as soon as we got home from Grandma Karen's house.
Here are the two books we read. I love the illustrations in both of them. We sometimes include "The Polar Express" but it seems they have been reading and watching the movie in school year after year, so it has taken some of the joy out of it for me-I still love it, though.
After the books, the kids get tucked in bed. Alaina and Jonnie usually sleep together in Alaina's room but for some reason they never asked this year. I think they were really tired!


Santa arrived that night and left his usual note to the kids (this is one of Jonnie's favorite parts)

The kids must have been good this year!

Here they are coming down the stairs for the first time on Christmas morning. Can you tell who is the most excited? (: I love this part! They are way too cute!


Alaina got some great gifts. Some of her fav's include her CSI kit, purse-with necklace and ring from daddy, her doll that she feeds and changes from G. Karen and her webkins. She received soooo many great gifts this year that she said they were all her favorites!
I couldn't wait for Sawyer to see his new kitchen set and when he did that is where he stayed for the rest of the morning-he loves it-yay! It is the best thing I (Santa) ever brought him. He was thrilled with all his gifts and Kaylyn he LOVES his pals from North Carolina! He immediately hugged them and said ribbit over and over-it was adorable-they have been loved up ALOT since, too!
Jonnie had the best Christmas this year. If I could bottle up his joy and energy this year I would. I wish every Christmas for him will continue with such innocence. Some of his favorites are his remote control truck, tractors, and pirate books to name a few. Honestly he loves them all and couldn't pick a favorite.

One of my favorite gifts was a card that Jonnie made in school for Jon and I. I laughed so hard because I was not expecting that!

Time for a little relaxation.....


Then we headed over to the Pennock Community Center for the big Christmas. It is the same crew of Jon's relatives that we celebrate the big Thanksgiving with and it was nice to see everyone again. Here are a few pictures from there.....

Santa showed up and Sawyer was not very pleased. He only likes him from afar so he was pretty terrified when Santa came up to him and rang bells in his face.
Sitting in the comfort of Daddy's lap after the Santa episode-much safer here!


WE
ll, that is the condensed version of our holidays-my side is celebrating this Saturday and I can't wait to get together with everyone then. Jon and I felt really old this year because every night we would just be exhausted! But it was wonderful. I am always worried the kids won't have enough great memories of Christmases like I remember growing up, but after writing it all down, they have a lot of wonderful traditions that they will remember for years and years!

Sunday, December 23, 2007

A little too festive?

Every once in awhile I get in a rut and feel like spicing things up a little (: Well, yesterday I got my haircut-not too crazy or anything and still felt like something more needed to be done. Hair color! Well, my mistake was doing it myself because after all I spent more than I should for Christmas and didn't want to spend another $100 this time of year. So, after searching all the colors, I went with Cherry Chocolate Mocha-Supposed to be a deep chocolate brown with red undertones-sounds pretty right? Well, I think they forgot to add the chocolate and I got a lot of cherry. I was totally in tears last night and my family-so sweet-said I looked really cool-hahah. I know better......
So, now here are some pictures and tell me your honest opinions-should I run out and buy dark brown and try to cover it up or should I keep it awhile?
These pictures don't do it justice-it seems ALOT brighter in real life (: I wouldn't mind so much normally, but it is Christmas and I'll be seeing a bunch of relatives and I don't want to look silly (: So, Dani is it funny to see the pictures after being on the phone with me during them? (:

Friday, December 21, 2007

Enjoy your weekend!


HERE'S TO......

GETTING YOUR HAIR DONE,

EATING GREAT CHRISTMAS GOODIES,



AND DANCING THE NIGHT AWAY!


HOPE EVERYONE HAS A GREAT WEEKEND~ RELAX, HAVE FUN, AND BE MERRY!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

A day....

A day in the life of me!


Here are a few things I do everyday just to put a smile on my mom's face...


I help organize the book shelf-mom is amazed how much skill this takes to keep them all from falling and I am also building my muscles!


I really like to play with the animals on the shelf. I thought it was missing a certain animal, so I added my elephant to make it complete.

These darn trees keep getting placed on the table but they NEED to be on the floor by the couch! I have to move these many times a day-don't they understand-geesh....

The cute little toys hanging from the tree are an obsession of mine. I love them all and finally my mom is trained to just let me be and clean them up after I go to bed. I love taking them off and showing everyone in the house how great they all are. Mom also loves when she opens up a kitchen drawer or bathroom cabinet and fines a lovely Christmas surprise.


I love playing with the dollies that I find in Alaina's room. Mom just put this great bed under the tree for me and dolly to share-it is my new favorite thing to do-lay on it, stand on it, lay on it, etc... you get the picture.


Whew, being me is a full time job but someone's got to do it (: