Christmas with Gramma and Grampa Gibbs

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas vacation in southern California. The weather wasn't quite as warm as we were hoping for, and therefore Noah was quite upset that we didn't get to swim, but we definitely made up for it in all the other fun things we did!

Christmas morning was full of fun presents! Santa sure delivered the goods this year. Brooklyn got the roller skates she asked for, and Noah was excited to see his asked for "Sky Captain" shark plane.



Daddy made out like a bandit with lots of dvds and music cds, and his totally cool Dogtown skateboard.


I was really excited by our present to Gramma. It turned out so cute that I now have to make one for myself. :)


Santa even brought me what I wanted! And I got some more Demdaco Willow Tree figurines for my collection too. Yeah!


The day after Christmas took us to the Children's Discovery Museum of the Desert. The kids had lots of fun with all the hands-on exhibits.



The next day we visited the Palm Springs Air Museum, and boy was Noah excited to see REAL shark planes!


Thanks, Gramma and Grampa, for the awesome Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Yep, gravity works.

Just in case any of you were wondering if *gravity had reversed itself*, I have just proven that it hasn't.



*Real Genius

Brooklyn's Winter Concert

Brooklyn participated in her first winter concert tonight. The 3rd grade classes sang "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer".



Here's Noah singing along to the "I want to wish you a Merry Christmas" part of "Feliz Navidad". Cutie boy!


After all the classes sang their songs, the string orchestra, in which Brooklyn plays the violin, came out to play a few songs. I was disappointed that once they started playing, Brooklyn was standing directly behind another child, and so I couldn't really see her.



She sure looked cute though! :)

Kerman Ward Christmas Party

We attended our ward Christmas party tonight. The highlight for the kids was being able to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.



Plus all the snacks and cookies they got to eat. :)




They even got to decorate their own cookies.



It's been a fun night!

It's beginning to finally look like Christmas :)

We finally got our Christmas tree decorated this weekend. I was so preoccupied with Primary duties last weekend that I didn't have time to do this as well. But at least this year, I had some help!



After putting the lights on, we started hanging ornaments. :)


And then we put some on the tree.



We couldn't forget our Christmas village.


And my cute Nativities.



Merry Christmas!

Our stroll up Christmas Tree Lane

Tonight we joined the Nehrings and the Molloys for a leisurely walk up Christmas Tree Lane. It was opening night, and therefore only open to pedestrians, so we bundled up the kids, opened up the strollers, and headed out.


The kids had lots of fun finding each of Santa's reindeer throughout the 2 mile walk.




There were lots of really cute displays, but as a Nativity-lover, this was my favorite.


The kids even got a candy cane from Santa himself! :)


Here we all are taking advantage of a good photo-op.




At the end of the lane was this totally decked out house display! Yikes! Imagine his electricity bill!


After taking about 2 hours to reach the north end of the lane, we decided to burn off a few calories on the way back to the cars in preparation for the delicious hot chocolate and cookies that awaited us there. After 35 minutes, and a couple gallons of sweat (from me :)), we made it. And it was totally worth it! Yummy!

My Little Gingerbread Man

The kids have been asking me for awhile if we can make gingerbread cookies, so today I finally found time to do that with them. Unfortunately, since I don't make cookies very often, I forgot that the dough had to be refrigerated for a couple hours, so we didn't get to finish them until the next morning. Of course, Brooklyn was at school, so it was just Noah who got to help, and boy was he excited! So excited, in fact, that I was lucky to get a few un-blurry pictures of him. :)

Thanks for all we've been given!

Our plans for Thanksgiving this year included, once again, our dear friends, the Nehrings and the Molloys. It was decided that we would meet and eat dinner at the Molloy home. Lora was genius enough to print out coloring pages, so that kept the kids busy until the food was ready to eat.



And here's the turkey!


Oops. I mean, here's the turkey. :)


It sure was yummy!

And for dessert. . . PIE!


We sure have lots to be grateful for this Thanksgiving, but the most important ones are the friends and family we got to spend the day with. :)