We've had a really good holiday season this year, and we've done it all without a camera. Boo! Once again, our camera is having issues. Poor Jessie won't have many pictures of her. Although I just finished scrap booking David's baby album and I'm sure I could photo shop some of his pictures, make the clothes pink, add a little bit more dark hair, whala, Jessie.

But I digress. We spent Thanksgiving at Harris and Shayna's. She made a beautiful dinner and the kids had so much fun playing together. Then we headed up to Dillon to spend time with Chad's family. It was a nice relaxing visit. I love that our kids cousins are big enough to play now. They had so much fun running around a big house screaming at the top of their lungs. We love grandpa and grandma's house.

Right after we got back we bought our real Christmas tree. It was magical. Our house smelled like a winter wonderland which made up for the lack of snow outside. We started getting ready to have our first Christmas at home, just us!  We were very excited. But when Patrick and Auretta woke up at 4am and we sleepy told them they could look at their stockings, our dream Christmas went kind of south. We woke up to candy and candy wrappers EVERYWHERE! It was a total mess and the first thing Auretta said to me on Christmas morning was, "I don't feel good." (hehe, I laugh now but I didn't then). We sent them back to bed from 7-8 and opened David's stocking with him. Once we were finally all up and not feeling sick, we opened presents which was nice enough. We ate breakfast and went to church despite the fact that all 6 of us were exhausted. It was a beautiful meeting. It wasn't' a perfect day like we imagined, but we were together and that was perfect. I love our growing family, it was nice just to be us together at home.

Now back track. We were suppose to have my family come after Christmas but my mom spent Thanksgiving to December 22nd in Missouri with my grandma Harris who was losing her battle with cancer. On the the 23rd I got a call saying she had passed peacefully. So instead of my family coming here we met up in Denver for her burial. It was the first time my family has been together for 5 years. Funerals and weddings, the great gatherings. We said our goodbyes to a fantastic woman. And had fun with each other.  It was a great 4 days. Our last night we spent in Woodland Park for New Years Eve. I got to watch the fireworks go off on top of Pikes Peak. It has been at least 7 years since I've seen that. We went to our old ward, saw a friend and headed back home. And we brought my brother Kyle back with us. Man, he has a lot of stuff!

Now we're back home enjoying the warm weather; Patrick wore shorts to school the other day :P I'll try to round up some pictures from my siblings blogs. Then again, maybe not.

Oh, one more thing, the first place winner for gifts this year goes to...... my in-laws. As the children ask, "What's that noise?" I smile and respond, "The dishwasher!"