**Christmas**

We had so much fun with Christmas this year. We

had lots of family parties, most of which we were too busy

talking to take pictures, so we'll just have to hope our

memories hold up well. Christmas has never been so..

magical, wonderful and fun until our buggy came along.

She makes even the best of things better! Our pictures

are going in reverse starting with christmas night, and

working its way back to christmas eve. It was our year

to have Christmas dinner at our house with the winns.

And christmas eve was at nana & bumpas with all of

our beloved traditions!

Lexi was a good monitor of the food, and really liked

feeding anybody who would walk by. Halli was just

happy to be getting something to eat.

manning her post.. She loves her apron Nana made her

No matter how many cans of olives i put on a

seven layer dip, lexi turns it into six layer dip in a

hurry because she sits and picks off all the olives.

She can sit down and eat a can just for a snack.

Christmas was no exception.

The anticipation is killing everyone (ps anyone who got

pictures from that night, please send them to me. I dont even

have any from the "treasure hunt" barefoot in the snow!)

Who woulda guessed her favorite toy would be the

"mater" coloring book from the dollar store?

Andy, jacks, ayla and lexi in their jammies

how cute is he?

All the excitement really wore ayla out

Well the luck of us Winns continues..

Cody was beating the mash potatoes and yet

another set of beaters broke on us..

2 in 1 month! look at us go!

All the boys pick out a present for tess every

year in hopes of making her cry on christmas eve.

Little did they know that she is into super ugly hats!

Me and my mom had to search for one just like this

just before, because its what she had asked santa for..

and the north pole doesn't do ugly!

The christmas eve jammies (shirt anyways), apron & jewelry

from nana. what an ensemble, my girl has the best of taste!

We let the kids open their cousin presents early

on christmas eve so they would have some entertainment

(more for our sake) the "christmas spirit" in kids can get

quite rowdy! lexi loved her princesses from ayla

Once lexi got a hang of cutting cookies she was a maniac.

As soon as i got the dough rolled she was slapping the cutters

down faster than i could grab them, she was 2 handing it..

We had lots of "special" shapes. But she was so proud of herself.

Working on her masterpiece for daddy. She loves doing stickers now

Why men are never depressed..

Men are just happier people -- your last name stays put
The garage is all yours
Wedding plans take care of themselves
chocolate is just another snack.
You can never be pregnant.
Car mechanics tell you the truth.
The world is your urinal.
You never have to drive to another gas station, because this one is too yucky.
You dont have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
Same work, more pay.
Wrinkles add character.
People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them (ok not a problem for me obviously, but i hear some women have this problem, gotta look at the positive :)
New shoes dont cut, blister or mangle your feet.
One mood all the time.
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
You know stuff about tanks and engines.
A ten day vacation requires ONE suitcase.
You can open all your own jars.
You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
Your underwear is 8.95 for a three-pack.
Three pairs of shoes is more than enough.
You never have strap problems in public.
you are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
Everything on your face stays its original color.
One hairstyle lasts years, if not decades.
You only have to shave your face and neck.
You play with toys all your life.
One wallet and one pair of shoes-- one color for all seasons.
You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife.
You can do christmas shopping for 25 relatives all on december 24th in 25 minutes.
No wonder men are happier!

Thanksgiving and a Christmas Kick off!

we have had a good holiday season so far. We

started it out with "pie day" all wednesday, and

sweet nicole let us tear apart her house (and some

of her appliances, but it was nice to be one with the

pioneers.) And it was our year with the "petersen" side..

along with everyone else's.

so we had quite the crowd to celebrate

with. we had a yummy thanksgiving dinner,

accompanied with football and ad searching. Then

Lexi had her first sleepover, so that cody and i could

go shopping at 5 am. i kept warning him that he didn't

want to come (for both of our sakes) since he

doesn't even like normal shopping, let alone black

friday shopping. But he was awesome! i had to have had

the best hubby out there. he was so good at grabbing

anything i pointed out, when i told him i needed a

size he would grab every boot in that size throughout

the store to see which i would prefer, and any toy

we wanted for lexi he was grabbing anything similar

to it. I got myself a new shopping partner WOO WOO!

and later that day we had the petersen christmas party,

since jen's family wouldn't be back out til after christmas.

santa even came to put the fear into all the toddlers, and

joy to the rest of the kids... the pictures are all

out of order, and i'm not organizing them, so enjoy!

this is lexi new favorite place to play.. nana's pantry's.

If you see her in one, you should run because she

will beg anyone to go in with her and assign seats to

whoever obeyed, and then she does not let you leave.

she found bumpa's head light, and also

found that the faster she ran to chase that

wierd red light on the wall, the faster the

red light on the wall moved... crazy!

santa really put the fear in lexi.. she must have really

been naughtier than even we thought if she was so scared.

and he gave issy quite a bit to think about

cole just wanted "CARS" and made that

pretty clear since thats all he would say to him

our newly adopted kiwi has nothing to be

worried about, she'll always be on the nice list

looks like someone really can scare brookie, who knew!?

jackson wasn't really scared, jacque just really wanted

to sit on santa's lap!

And ayla hated to even look at santa, it was quite

devastating.

Andy whispering all his wishes

Nana pulled out the bells ...apparently it wasn't loud

enough already

lexi loves playing with her bumpa! and maddy couldn't

miss the photo op once she saw the camera out! :)

The little girls sharing thanksgiving dinner.

Cody and brookie just watching some football.

What are little girls made of?

i dunno about yours, but our little girl is made

of lots of sugar and a little salt! i was planning

on a soccer player, however i think i

have a dancer on my hands! first i was a little

"unsupportive" of all the dress ups and dancing,

however while we were setting up our christmas

tree and listening to the forgotten carols (one of my

favorite times during christmas) i looked over to her

spinning in circles in front of the tree, trying

to watch herself in the ornaments and i couldn't

help but think a "princess" is just what we need!

she loves dancing with her daddy

dress up gets more and more interesting

everyday. she loves her cowgirl boots with any

of her dress ups! She also has a tote in her bedroom

that i throw her outgrown clothes into as we come

across them and just wait til it gets full.. well she

is pretty sure she always needs to wear a swimsuit,

with a snow hat and her boots, or any other odd

apparel she can throw together!