Christmas morning

 This year we have had two Christmas's because Jennifer
 and family, minus Tyson :(

came a couple of weeks early.

It has been a blast!!!

On December 13th we opened presents...

...like new jamies...

...and games.

I made Jennifer a "Family Yahtzee" game which turned 

out super cute. All of the 5 blocks have their

pictures on the sides.

Quincy got a cute new doll that I think looks kind of like her!!!

 Merrick got a Transformer!!!

And Berkleigh got a Lalaloopsy Mermaid!!!

Quincy seemed to love her wooden

frog and train.

I also made Jennifer a new photo book of the first

 6 years of her life.

(Thank you Shutterfly)

It turned out really cute!!!

And we got her a new sweater that are her 
favorite colors!!!

Then we had Santa pancakes for breakfast.

On the 25th, Matthew got this really cool

 Starship Enterprise.....

wait for it.....

...Pizza cutter!!!

Yes we are nerds!!!

We sent Chris one too!!!

Merrick, Berkleigh and Quincy made me a set of 8

dinner plates with their own designs baked right into 

the plates.

Love them...soooo cute!!! 
We have already used them!!!

So our Christmas might have been a bit fragmented,

and we totally missed Chris and Tyson so much,

but we had a fun time being together as much as possible.

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!

Christmas all week!!!

My little munchkins are finally here!!!

Jennifer Merrick, Berkleigh, and Quincy flew into

Houston on Monday night.
(We are missing Tyson a lot but he had to stay and work :( )

So when I woke up yesterday morning it

felt like Christmas already because I knew we 

would get to play with them all day!!!

The first thing they wanted to do was to go to see

the alligators down the road from us in Jennings.

This is the first time Merrick has held one.

Berkleigh has held one before when they were here

two Christmas ago.

After we got our fill of the alligators,

(which didn't take long because Quincy did not like them at all!!!)

we went to play at the park!!!

We fed the birds and the ducks...

Climbed on the oil well...

Hung upside down and....

...right side up.

Played with Grandpa...

They love this...

And they loved getting Grandpa dizzy!!!

QT loved the playground too!!!

And I guess we wore them out because they

slept until 8:00 this morning...

(You have to just love this picture!!!) 

which is good because we have another fun filled day

planned for today!!!!

Jennifer and Quincy

 I found this picture of Jennifer today when she was 

 about 7 months old..... 

 ...and here is a recent picture of Quincy

 at about 10 months old.

What do you think?

Amazing!?!

Like mother...like daughter...

both so adorable!!!

Vacation 2012 part 3

 For the last part of our trip we journeyed to Manti, Utah to see

Wayne's family. The temple is always a highlight of our trip but this year

they have completed the park on the opposite side of the road and put in a reflecting pool. It is very cool and makes for another great

picturesque spot.

Usually when we see Wayne's mom and dad we are able

 to stay longer but this year we had to get a lot done 

in a short amount of time. 

But we did have time for some of our favorite activities like...

...helping Dad with the chickens...

...gathering eggs...

 ...and helping in the garden.
I helped by picking the bell peppers and then mom and I
cut them up and froze they so she can use them later.

One of the peppers had grown around the stock of the plant

so when I picked it, it was extremely bumpy.

Then when we turned it upside down we decided that

 it looked like a frog!!!

Mom was going to save it as long as she could so she could

show it off....it was really funny.

Wayne and Dad cut out dead branches from out 

of their apple tree and hauled them away.

(sorry no pictures)

And while they were busy with that, Dad asked if I

could sort through some of their pictures.

 Fortunately, I found this adorable picture

of Kathy (Wayne's littlest sister) with Jennifer.

Kathy must be about 15 and Jennifer looks about 2.

So adorable!!!

Our other project that took most of our time,

was helping Matthew purchase a car.

We were extremely blessed by finding a great little

Honda, Civic. The owner had just put the car in the paper

that morning and it was such a great buy that we just

snatched it right up. 

It looks brand new from the pictures but it is actually

7 years old and has 85,000 miles on it.

They had taken really good care of it so we felt

it was the perfect car for our buddy.

But of course after we had taken care of all the paperwork,

 he had to leave to go back to school. And we had to

leave and come back home...

But we had a great trip and loved seeing everyone.

Catch you again next year!!!

Vacation 2012 part 2

Here we are, still in Salem, out on a walk with the kidos.

 I am not sure if Quincy liked my sunglasses better

or the camera better!!! But she loves to get her picture taken!!!

Merrick and Berkleigh already had their new school

clothes purchased before we arrived ...so

we had to have a fashion show so Grandma

could see how cute they were going to look on their

first day of school...

these are two of my favorites.

 Do you love the red carpet? If you look close you 

can see Buzz standing up and applauding too!!!

The Oregon County fair was going on while we were there

so one night we went and had a great time.

We went to see the animals.

This lamb was really tame and soft!!!

  

They had some pigmy goats with tiny little baby

kids...they were so cute and tiny.

Loved the lambs...

...and the horses.

  

This pig didn't like me taking its picture...so

I hurried and got out of there!!!

  

The kids each choose a ride...

Merrick picked the helicopter and Berkleigh 

choose the hot air balloon.

  

The next day we were off to

Washington to see my Dad and my sister.

My Dad's 101st birthday was on August 27th...

so we went to celebrate!!!

  

Just a reminder from last year when we also

 went to his birthday party, Dad is almost 

exactly 100 years older than Quincy.

He was born in 1911 and she was born in 2011!!!

  

We gave him presents...

 ...Just two of Dad's favorite things,

(besides his daughters and grandchildren)

John Wayne and Westerns!!!

 We also played the card game that

Mom and Dad used to play about every day...

"King's in the Corners."

I think all of us had a chance to win at least once.

It was fun seeing everyone again and hanging out

together.

  

The next day Jennifer took us to Portland. We were going 

to catch our plane the next morning to SLC.

 She showed us around downtown Portland. 

We had lunch at this awesome cafe called the

Waffle Window...

Berkleigh's has peaches, blueberries, strawberry sauce

and lemon curd on top of a sugary sweet waffle.

(Wayne and I also had this one) 

 And Merrick had the chocolate and peanut butter.

They were the best waffles I have ever had!!!

Later that afternoon she took us to get doughnuts at the Voodoo

Doughnut house. Their doughnuts were also covered with all kinds of 

yummy stuff...mine had oreos on top!!!

(Sorry no pics...I think I was on a sugar high)

It was so fun but it wore us all out....

Part 3...On to SLC!!!