Christmas in Oregon

We spent Christmas in Oregon this year with Guy's family and had a great time! We were surprised to have a white christmas... Guy said it was his first one in Oregon since it usually never snows!

This is how much snow they had when we got there
The snowman that Brayden, Guy, Mike, and Grandpa made! It just kept snowing and snowing until we were snowed in!

We took Brayden on Christmas Eve morning to finally sit on Santa's lap! He asked him for a pirate ship and a construction site.

And I guess Santa was listening because that's exactly what he got

He sure made Christmas morning fun with how excited he was!Dad and Grandma reading him his new book
Hangin' out with Grandpa and Riley in bed
Playin' with cousins...he had so much fun with all the boys!

Mini Christmas

We are headed out to Oregon for Christmas this year and we had a few big presents that we just couldn't take on the plane. So we had our own "mini" Christmas tonight at our house. We did our best to take our own family pictures in front of the tree! Brayden loved opening presents and it was fun to see how excited he was...can't wait for Christmas morning to see what Santa brings! :) The lincoln log train set that Grandma and Grandpa Richardson gave him was a huge hit... not just for him! We all sat down and played with it forever although I am taking all the credit for building this setup! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa... wish you were here to see his face when he opened it up!

Here's a few videos of Brayden singing some of the Christmas songs he knows...I hope they work cause I've never tried posting videos before!

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

Jingle Bells

:: MERRY CHRISTMAS! ::

Just a little bit of....

SNOW! Yes, I know we didn't get much, but we were excited to see some white stuff on the ground in Texas! Nothing compared to all that snow in Utah though! :)

He looked so cute all bundled up!

Just playin' around in the snow. He was loving it!

And as you can tell, he sure liked eating the snow the best!

Finally Done!

I have been working forever on this advent calender for Christmas this year and I finally finished it today...planned to have it done by December 1st, but that didn't quite happen!
These are all the little pieces that you put in the pockets to countdown the days until Christmas!
Now I just need to start working on a stocking for this new baby for next Christmas...maybe I should start it in January so I have lots of time to finish it by then :)

Train to the North Pole

We surprised Brayden this weekend with a polar express train ride that took us to the north pole! We got to see Santa on the train and there were lots of other fun things to do before and after the train. They had the town all decked out for the holidays so it was fun to just walk up and down the streets and browse all the shops. Brayden got to wear his new "christmas" pj's early since they had a train on them so he was pretty excited about that! The funniest part was before the train ride the conductor was going around having kids say "all aboard" and Brayden was chosen. It was seriously the cutest thing ever to hear him scream it in the microphone all by himself! It was a fun thing to do as a family this year!:) Just click on the pictures to make them a little bigger! These are some pics from the train ride. We might just have to go again next year since we'll have 2 boys by then! These are in honor of Brayden's 'Charlie Brown Christmas' movie obsession! It's the only movie he wants to watch these days and he knows all the words! Funny kid! This girl was performing Christmas songs and Brayden decided he needed to be front and center to listen to her. He didn't even care where we were at all! It was so funny!

Happy Birthday to Guy!

Guy turned the big 26 today! (And a BIG Happy Birthday to Maria too!) We had a fun party with the Southwicks tonight, complete with Christmas cookie decorating! It was really fun to have you guys here...Thanks for coming! (And sorry I didn't take any pictures to actually document that you were here!)
The cake Brayden and I made him...it was the best we could do!
Look at all that smoke! He's getting old!
Here are some of the cookies we decorated! Yum!
This is the cookie my aunt Stacy decorated of Guy in his honor :) So Cute!
Brayden showing off one of his masterpieces... His motto is the more frosting the better!
Stuffing his face with them... it'll be hard to get him to bed tonight I think! He has consumed SO much sugar!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUY! WE SURE LOVE YOU!

2008 Ornaments

These are our ornaments for this year! I was trying to explain what they looked like on the phone last night to my mom, but decided posting pictures of them would be even better. We had a fun time picking them out over the weekend.

This is Guy's Smore Santa and Reindeer


Allison's Snowman


And no surprise who picked out this train! Once he saw it there was no other choice!


And finally, this is how I found Brayden today... too tired to even lay down! Poor kid! :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Ok so we have had our decorations up for awhile now... not that we have too many but we get a little more every year! It's a process! But I thought I'd post a picture of our tree and a few other things (mainly for my family to see!)


Brayden by our tree with his "wrapping paper sword." Our tree is rearranged by him daily so all the breakable ones are up high. He's allowed to move only the candy canes!


These are all my ornaments that I have gotten every year in order starting with the year 1985!


Our first family gingerbread house... it took all 3 of us to make this. They are harder then I thought, but it turned out cute I think!


We won't be making real snowmen here since it doesn't snow, so we decided to make one out of cotton balls for our back door. We just "pretend" we are looking outside at a white Christmas!

This is the picture of Brayden sitting on Santa's lap from last year. I love it so much and am trying to prepare myself to brave the crowds and take him again this year. Maybe next week!


No fireplace here so our stockings are hung from our mirror in the dining room... best we could do!

We went to our church last night because they put on a big nativity exhibit where people from the stake donate their nativities to be on display for a few days. I have been helping with it and it truly turned out amazing. It was so neat to see so many nativities all in one room and from so many different countries and places. And I realized as we were walking around looking at them that I have done a pretty good job teaching Brayden all about Christmas. I mean he knows Christmas songs and who Santa is and all that, but I haven't really taught him about what the real meaning of Christmas is all about. I think that sometimes it is easy to forget that because we can get so caught up in all the holiday traditions and things to do. So it was neat for Guy and I to show him all the nativities and teach him about baby Jesus and when he was born. I need to find more ways to do that this season. Any ideas? I have very fond memories of playing with this nativity set my mom had (and still has, I think) when I was younger. We were allowed to because it was one that couldn't break and so I've been on the hunt for one like that for Brayden. Wish me luck!

Trip to Arkansas

We went to Arkansas for Thanksgiving this year and had so much fun! No, we don't know a single person in that state, but we met my family there and stayed in a condo for a few days. I think we got the better deal since it was only a 6 hour drive for us and about a 14 hour drive for them! I have a major overload of pictures on here so be prepared! I'll just let them do the talking...

We had beautiful weather while we were there so on Wednesday we went on a fun hike to this place. It was really cool and the boys had fun exploring!

Jason, Kyle, Brayden and Guy climbed up on a big rock

I refused to go in this little cave because of the massive cobwebs everywhere...Freaky!

Brayden and his sticks... He's always gotta have one or two on a hike!

Brayden and I

I'm sure my mom will love me for posting this pic but I thought it was funny! :)

Brayden and Kyle mixing up the mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving morning. We had a quite a yummy feast! I just wished this baby wasn't taking up so much room in my stomach so I could have eaten more! :)
Brayden right before dinner! I was so thankful that day to be spending time with my family! They are truly the greatest blessing in my life and I love them so much!

Brayden wearing Kyle's goggles in the huge jacuzzi tub at the condo. It was seriously like a swimming pool for him!

The day after Thanksgiving the boys all got up and went golfing. After that we went to this awesome cave called Blanchard Springs Cave. It was seriously amazing! Here's a pic of our tour guide who was so funny! Brayden thought he was Santa Claus at first!

Isn't this picture so cool?! I think it would have been so crazy to discover something like this!

A quick little family picture in the cave


We walked through this cute little town after dinner one night and Brayden was loving all the Christmas decorations they already had up.

Either this chair is really big or Brayden is really small!!


Brayden's first time bowling! It was so much fun. I have to say that my dad is amazing. He seriously doubled all of our scores and he even let Brayden bowl a few of his frames! But don't let that go to your head now dad! :)

In between all of the fun places we went to, we did a lot of eating, playing games, and watching movies. What more do you need, right? It was really a fun little trip and Brayden is already missing my brothers like crazy. We were so grateful to be able to spend the holiday with all of them this year... Thanks Dad! :) Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!