So many Doctor appointments

I am so sick of going to the doctor. No need to worry, there isn't anything wrong just so many check-ups. Honestly, we were playing life dangerously this year by not having any medical insurance while Eric was an intern. At first I thought that it would be just a few months but when they kept extending Eric's internship that prolonged us getting insurance through his job. Starting in October we were finally covered. So I figured that it was time to get caught up on a few things. It all started with my first appt. to the lovely girl doctor since it had been 2 years since my last check-up and I was also having a little problem with my birth control. (I will spare you the details) Oh, and then my tests came back "insufficient data" so I get to go back next Monday for another invasive woman exam. (yea for me!!)

It had been a year since the kids had a well check so yesterday we took both kids to the doctor. They are both growing well and are healthy. However, I am a little (or a lot) behind on Kaylee's immunizations so we will need to go back each month for the next 2 or 3 months to get her caught up.

The other thing on my checklist was that I needed to go to the dentist. It had been 3 years since I last went and I was sure I needed some work done. I wanted to go before I got pregnant again because I want any drugs necessary to make me comfortable. :) After going to one dentist and getting a cleaning, I was pretty upset to learn that I needed a lot of work to do and it was going to cost more that what we can handle (mainly on one or two teeth). I was so overwhelmed so Eric suggested I get a second opinion. I reluctantly agreed to see another dentist. So this morning I went into a second dentist. Basically, this dentist was a little more laid back and told me what needed to be done now and what could wait (that saved our pocket books). So now I have a few more dentist appointments to go to for the next month or two.

Lots of fun over here. :) It will be nice when we are all caught up and don't need to go the doctor for a while. I know they are all just trying to help but the waiting and getting babysitters is tough.

Writers Block

Wow! I can't believe it has been since July since I last posted. I can't tell you how many times I sat down with the intention to blog and it just didn't happen. I am definitely feeling a writers block. I just don't know what to write about. I will be surprised if this posts makes it on my blog. :) Honestly, our lives are pretty uneventful these days. That is good and bad. I am so happy that my family is all happy and healthy. I love spending each day home with my two beautiful children. They are so much fun to be around and lately they can't stop giving me enough hugs and kisses. I absolutely love being a stay at home mom. It definitely took some getting used to and some days are better than others but overall I love watching my kids learn and grow. Aaron is really taking off on talking better and Kaylee is starting to pick it up a little. My favorite thing she says lately is "okay". If there is something she wants she will answer "okay."

Eric is hard at work. Starting in September he started as a full time employee instead of being an intern for the last 8 months. This is good in some ways and not good in other ways. The best part is that he is officially employed and in this economy I couldn't be more grateful that he has a job right out of school. The other great things about being employed is that he gets to start building up vacation and sick days. We also get health benefits through his job. The biggest down side is that Eric is now a salaried employee and doesn't get paid by the hour like he used too. Overtime was a huge help and now he is still working the late hours and he doesn't get paid for it. (Like tonight, it is 8:30pm and he still hasn't come home) I am hoping that when raises come next fall he will get a promotion. At least he loves what he is doing and that is most important to me.

As for me, I am trying to start up tutoring math after school. So far it isn't going very well. I have only one student so far and I haven't had a phone call in over two weeks. I gave out my business cards to the nearby high schools and haven't had much success. I just need to find some way to get the word out. I have really enjoyed tutoring again. It has been a long time since I last taught math and it is amazing how it quickly comes back to me. I have really missed it and I hope to get more students because I love to teach.

I have been horrible about taking pictures lately but here are a couple of cute ones I have. These kids always smile and say cheese whenever I pull out the camera. I have them trained.

Aaron is 3 and loving it. He loves Thomas the Train and Cars and he is constantly playing with his toys all day long. He loves to run around the living room with Kaylee and loves to make her laugh. He is such a sweet boy by always giving me hugs and kisses and telling me that I am wonderful. He is about 95% potty trained and I am so happy that most of that is behind us. He loves to sing and loves it when we sing to him at night. He knows all the words to about 6 hymns. I love this little guy.
Kaylee is almost 17 months old. She is walking, running, and loves to play ring around the roses with her brother. She eats like crazy. Always wanting something to eat or drink. She loves to wear her shoes and has them on all day. She feeds herself really well. She is a beautiful and happy girl and I love her so much.

Aaron is 3 years old

Last week Aaron celebrated his 3rd birthday. We had so much fun with it since Aaron really seemed to understand birthdays this year. I think when Kaylee had her birthday in May and I had mine in June, Aaron loved the excitement of birthday cake and presents. He was so excited to eat his birthday cake. That is all he wanted for his birthday. He loves his birthday presents and even today he keeps asking for more birthday presents.
First thing in the morning we surprised Aaron with a tricycle. He still needs to learn how to ride it but he loves to just push it around everywhere. At least Aaron got a chance to play with his tricycle with his daddy before daddy had to leave for work.



This birthday boy is getting so big and he loved his special day. We got to take daddy out to lunch. We went to the park so he could play with his tricycle some more. Then when daddy got home he got to open his presents. He got some clothes and some cars from his new favorite movie "Cars." His favorite is the truck Mack that can hold the cars inside of him.
Later we had cake and ice cream with some friends and I let Aaron stay up til almost 11 to play with his new toys. This boy did not want to go to bed so I put his toys in his room and told him that he could keep playing with his toys but in his room. He eventually passed out.

These pictures are a couple of days later when Grandma's birthday present arrived in the mail. Aaron loved getting more clothes and more car toys. This kid loves to line up all his toys and plays with them and sleeps with them. And Grandma, he loves his "Mighty Sleepy Bear" jammies. Since Aaron has taken a huge interest in playing with his toys all day I think it is safe to say that we are on the up side of the terrible two's and have now entered the terrible threes. :) He is a good kid.

Here is Kaylee at 14 months and walking. She loves to get in all the action but if she dare touches one of Aaron's car toys or thomas the train toys she had better watch out. We are still working on sharing with these kids but Aaron is not willing to share any of his favorite new toys.

As an update for us:
We successfully moved from our house to our new apartment during the 4th of July weekend. So while everyone else was having parties and fireworks we had a lot of work to do. We like our new apartment and feel that it is still a pretty good size for us with 3 bedrooms/2 full bathrooms and a 2 car garage. We did sacrifice on a yard and on a smaller kitchen but it does have big pantry. I feel like we unpacked fairly quickly and got settled easily with a few set backs. We were having troubles setting up our dryer then it broke. I think we finally have it up and running correctly. Our apartment didn't come with a microwave and we still have yet to buy one. Surprisingly, I have gone a month without a microwave and I hardly even miss it. There have been a few times when I wished I had a microwave but mostly everything else can be cooked on the stove or the oven. It took over a week to get the internet running and about 2 weeks to get our satellite set up.
I like our new ward but I still don't really know anybody but hopefully that will change as soon as school starts and people settle down from their busy summer schedules. A part of me feels stranded in the middle of California with no family or friends and this week no husband (he is on a business trip). So it has been hard but I have a feeling that things will get better as I get to know more people and hopefully when I start tutoring when school starts.

Changes

So much to blog about and I just never sit down and do it. I don't know why. I have been back from Utah for about a month now and it is so nice to be back in my own routine. However, things keep changing for us.
While we were in Utah, Kaylee turned 1 year old and now she is already 13 months old. She is as cute as can be. This last weekend we took the kids out to dinner and I was surprised at the attention my little girl was getting from the hostesses and waitresses and then a random woman came up to me and asked me her age and told me how cute she was. As the mother, I am loving that my little girl was getting all this attention for being so cute. I agree that she is a beautiful little girl. She is officially walking everywhere. She has been practicing since we got back from Utah but it wasn't until last week that her main way of getting around is through walking. She still walks like a zombie with her arms out to help her keep her balance and she is cautious of falling down but she LOVES to walk. I am also somewhat sad that she is no longer nursing. I love having that bond with my baby but she is growing into a toddler. Where did the time go?
I am also amazed at how big Aaron is getting. His 3rd birthday is in just a few weeks away. It is kind of amazing how he is slowly coming out of the terrible 2 stage. (YEA!) He cooperates when we put him to bed. (Double YEA!!) And this little boy is FINALLY potty trained (Triple YEA!!!) We still have night potty training to work on. I started potty training him after we got back from Utah. He did really well peeing in the potty because we practiced that for months, but I could not for the life of me get him to poop in the potty. For a month, I would sit with him in the bathroom and try to get him to go but he just didn't know what to do. We bought him Percy the train and put it on the refrigerator and told him he could have Percy when he went poopy in the potty. Finally, on Saturday morning, Aaron went in the potty when I wasn't even in there. Then he came running in so proud of himself saying that he gets Percy. I went and checked and sure enough he finally had done it. He played with his trains ALL day. I could tell that he was so happy and proud of himself that he earned his toy. Lucky for me the light bulb clicked for Aaron and he hasn't had an accident since.
I am doing really well these days. I have currently lost about 17lbs since I started working out in February. I still have about 10lbs I would like to lose however, I feel so much better about myself lately since my clothes are starting to fit better. I started out going to the gym 5 times a week and since I have been back from Utah I have only been about 3 times a week. I need to step it up again but at least I am still doing something. :) I also celebrated my 28th birthday a couple of weeks ago so I keep get older. :( I can't believe that it is my 10 year high school reunion this summer. Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to make it.
Other great news in our family is that Eric was officially offered a job at the same company he is working for as an intern. He starts as a salary employee in September. Eric is going to really start studying for the CPA exam and hopes to pass it before the year is over. The bad news is that we have realized that we can't quite afford to live in our current house that we are renting and so we are moving AGAIN! We found a cheaper four-plex across town. I really don't want to move and start all over again in a new ward but we know that this is what we have to do. So we are moving in two weeks. This will be Aaron's 5th home before his 3rd birthday. I hate moving! The new apartment doesn't accept pets so we shipped our dog, Sugar, back to Texas to live with Eric's parents again. This time she will be living with them indefinitely. We will only take her back if they want us to. I feel bad that we had to do that to Sugar but I honestly think that she is better off in Texas. I know that she loves it there and she is really loved there.
Sorry I don't have any pictures this time. I will try to get some up soon. :)

Fun in Utah

My parents are downsizing from a 3 story house that they have lived in for over 25 years to a beautiful house up on the hill with a beautiful view. They needed to get their current house on the market but there was a lot of work to do to get it ready. I knew that this was going to be a stressful time for them and that they needed a lot of help. So I offered to come up for a month and help them. Eric drove us up to SLC and then he flew back to Bakersfield to work.
It was really hard to work on my parents house while taking care of 2 kids but it was better than not getting anything done. After being there for about a week I was getting burnt out and then my sister, Kim, flew out with her son Alex who is Aaron's age. She got us all working again. Aaron loved having a little buddy around for him to play with.
It also helped that my sisters Cindy and Rebecca came up for the weekends to help as well. Then a couple of weeks later my other sister Melissa came out with her family from Japan to help and to vacation. With my brother, Craig, coming out twice from Texas for his sister in laws wedding and house hunting I had the opportunity to see all my siblings. It was fun hanging out with my family.
We sure did miss Eric a lot but I think the kids had fun playing at grandma's house.
Here is Aaron with his cousin Alex who is 16 days younger than Aaron. It was so fun to see Aaron interacting with Alex. They were chasing each other around the house and playing outside together. They loved each other. I just wish that Alex didn't live so far away.

Here I am with Melissa and Kim before Kim left to go back to Houston. Melissa and Kim only got to see each other for 24 hours. You can tell that we are all so tired. :) I love all my sisters and it is so hard being so far away from all them because I think we would have a lot of fun hanging out if we lived near each other.

Family Fun

One weekend in April our little family went to a Pizza buffet with lots of games and rides. We had a buy one get one coupon so we thought we would give it a try. The food was good and we walked around to look at all the games but we didn't want to spend more money so we found the little play area and the kids had fun. Kaylee found a little toy just her size and she loved it.

Aaron loves any chance he can get to go down slides.

Easter Pictures

I can't believe it has been almost two months since my last post. We have been busy especially when I went to Utah for a whole month to help my parents move. So I have some catching up to do. I will start with some Easter pictures. :)
Easter was fun at our house. We celebrated Easter in between Conference sessions and the kids loved the egg hunt out in our backyard. Eric loves the Robin Eggs and using it as lipstick. I have never been able to eat that candy. Growing up I would gag whenever I would eat a Whopper candy and I don't dare try eating one now.

This Kaylee's first Easter and she loved it. I remember being 8 months pregnant last year for the egg hunt. It is amazing how time goes so fast.

Aaron loved discovering the candy in each egg.

Here we are in our Easter clothes. :)

More posts are coming soon.

Time for some pictures

I have been absolutely horrible about taking pictures lately. Anytime we are out and about I never have my camera to take pictures of the fun things we are doing. Honestly, the funnest thing we do around here is go to the park. The kids love going to the park. I try to take them a couple of times a week. Even Kaylee enjoys the park. She loves the swing and most recently the slide. She pushes herself down the slide if I just sit her up top.

Well Aaron is 2 and a half now and he definitely has a case of the terrible two's. He gets into stuff and pushes his sister down whenever he gets the chance. Timeout is not his favorite place but he knows when he deserves it because he runs away from me. :) At the same time he is the sweetest little boy. He loves to give kisses and hugs and he loves to sit on mommy's lap. He is a big helper when I ask him to do things. He is really picking up on talking more and more. I am so impressed with the words and songs he had learned. He has recently discovered Thomas the Train and Barney and now that is all he wants to watch. However, he would much rather go outside and play if he has the chance.
Kaylee is 10 and 1/2 months old. I can hardly believe that in just 6 weeks my little girl will be 1 year old. She has grown up so much in just the little time that we have been here. She is crawling all over the place and even started to figure out how to stand on her own. She loves playing with toys. Just yesterday she learned her first word, ball. That was Aaron's first word too. She loves to laugh and play games like peekaboo, patty cake, and passing a ball back and forth. I look at my little girl and can't help but think how beautiful she is and I am so grateful to have her in my family.
These two are trying to get along but sometimes they are just brother and sister. Aaron has the urge to push Kaylee down whenever she gets in his way or he doesn't like what she is doing. Even if it didn't hurt Kaylee she will still cry and crawl up to me as if she is "tattling" on her brother. However, these kids love to play together sometimes and really get each other laughing.
Aaron loves to give Kaylee some kisses. She is just trying to get away.
Mother-Daughter picture at Denny's.
This is a picture of Aaron asleep on the Love Sac in his room. I guess he fell asleep looking at a picture of airplanes and helicopters. (His favorite)
We really have enjoyed having Sugar back. It took a little bit of adjusting after not having her for 2 years. I think Sugar and Aaron are really starting to get along. I am glad that Sugar has decided to be tolerable of my kids. I feel bad that I don't give her much attention as I used to but I think Aaron gives her plenty of attention.
Everything else is going pretty well for us. Eric is enjoying his internship. We just found out today that they are unable to offer him a job right now since things are really slow at work but they have extended his internship through July. I think they are hoping that by then they may be in a position to hire him. It is a little scary not having a secure job yet but at least they aren't kicking him out when his internship is really suppose to be up in 2 weeks. Hopefully this gives Eric enough time to find a new job if things don't work out with this company.

I am doing really good. I enjoy staying at home with my kids and spending my time with them however I do get a bit cabin feverish sometimes. We are hoping to purchase a 2nd car soon but we will see. I am still working hard at losing weight but I am definitely learning that it is important to have patience. I have now been going to the gym every morning for the past 8 weeks. I have also been on weight watchers for 6 weeks now. I have only lost about 7-8lbs but I am slowly seeing the scale go down. I am really enjoying my workouts and I keep surprising myself. Yesterday I slept in and didn't go to the gym so I decided to go after I put the kids to sleep last night. I once again hit a new record for myself as I ran for 3.5 miles in 42 minutes and burned 500 calories. I feel so good after a workout like that. I still have a ways to go before I hit my goal weight but it is really nice being in a routine to exercise on a regular basis and eating a little better, although I could still do better in the food dept.

Well that is what my family has been up to lately. We definitely feel blessed and watched over and I am grateful that I have been given so much.

Update

Thanks to everyone for their comments on my last blog. I was having a tough day and used my blog to vent. I got some good ideas from you and things are definitely better. I think we have solved the problem with Aaron going to bed. Although unscrewing the light bulb would have worked it would be hard to do every night since the lightbulb is not easily accessible. So I went with the super nanny method. I honestly didn't believe that it was going to work because when I watch super nanny I see these kids getting out of bed 50-100 times. However, it worked! I sat outside Aaron's door the first night and every time he turned his light on I went in his room without saying a word and turned off the light and put him back in bed then I left. After about 20 times or so he finally gave up. By 9:00pm he was down for the night. By the next night he only turned on his light twice. Now most nights he doesn't turn on his light. I was scared that it was time to give up his nap during the day. He is not ready to lose that nap yet because the other day we were out until 3pm and he was cranky and begging for a nap. I just make sure I put him down for his nap a little earlier and not let him sleep too late.

I am still struggling with losing weight but I am still working hard. I went to the gym last Friday and I jogged for 3 miles and 40 minutes straight. I have never ever done that before and it felt great. I am slowly increasing my speed each week so hopefully I will be able to do that again and faster. I did gain a little weight this last week according to weight watchers but I think that was due to having Eric's sister, Bonnie, and her husband, Jarom, in town. We didn't eat that great, however, I know that I did try hard not to eat as much as I normally would have. I am counting on having a better weigh in this Saturday. I am trying not to stress over losing weight and just focus on getting more in shape and eating better and hopefully in time I will see a difference.
Thanks again for all your great comments!

So Frustrated

So at the beginning of the year I made resolution to lose 20-25lbs. I have had this extra weight ever since I was pregnant with Aaron and have never been able to loose it. Well, I will admit that in January I didn't do much to lose the weight. In fact Eric and I got into this really bad habit of eating ice cream at around 10pm everynight. So, of course, I gained about 5lbs. Oops! Well we put an end to the ice cream and on Feb. 2nd I joined a gym.
I have now been motivated to lose this weight so I have been getting up at 6:15am every morning and working out. I go 5 times a week. Three times a week I have been jogging 2 miles or more and two times a week I lift weights. Then twice a week I walk about 1.5 miles round trip to the park. After not seeing any results after working out for 3 weeks I decided to join weight watchers to help me keep track of what I am eating. I have been on weight watchers for a week and a half now. I have done pretty good for the most part but it is so hard when I am home all day and have access to my kitchen all day.
Since I started working out I would weigh myself on the Wii fit board every morning. According to the Wii I have maybe only lost about1.3lbs in since I started to work out a month ago. The graph from this last month is all over the place. Does that just sound wrong to anyone else? I really don't know what I am doing so wrong. I thought I would have at least lost the weight I gained in January by now.

I am also so frustrated with Aaron and bed time. When we put him into a big bed out of his crib when he turned 2 he did great for the first 2 months. He would go to sleep when we put him down and he would wait for us to come get him. Then he discovered that he could actually get out of bed himself. After a long struggle with that we resorted to locking his door and letting him cry it out. Eventually he went back to bed or fell asleep by the door. Now he is tall enough to turn on his lights. So as soon as we put him to bed and lock his door he is right out of bed and turns on his lights so he can play with his toys. We have constantly gone in there and put him back in bed. He even tells me what I am going to say. "No lights, stay in bed." Then within seconds of me leaving his room he is back out of bed with the lights on. We tried just ignoring it as long as he is quiet. Well he was up until 11:30pm last night. Then he was up again at 1:30am with the lights on and then ready to get up for the day at 6:00am. My baby sleeps better through the night than he does. It is driving me crazy. I don't know how to keep him from turning on the lights. We have put a night light in his room so that he could still see in his room but that did nothing. I just don't know what else to do but it makes it impossible for me to wind down for the day when I am putting my toddler to bed all night long. Any suggestions?
Sorry if this is a complete blog of complaining but I need answers to these problems and I don't have them. Ahhh!

Random Thoughts

So it is 4:30pm in the afternoon and my kids are still sleeping from their naps. I decided to try to put up a quick post before they wake up. I love my kids so much but I also love it when they are sleeping. :) I hope that isn't bad to say. It is just really nice to have a quiet house for a couple of hours each day. I don't know how much longer Aaron will be taking naps but I am so grateful that he does.
Kaylee is getting very difficult when it comes to nap time. Last week Kaylee finally figured out her body and how to make it move. She is now crawling everywhere and pulling her self to stand and she is even starting to get into stuff. Well since this has all clicked for her it has been impossible to get her to lay down long enough to fall asleep. She could be super tired but she can't seem to stop crawling around her crib and pulling herself up. It is taking hours to get her to go down and lately I just have to let her fall asleep in my lap to get her to calm down to go to sleep. I really hope she figures out how to put herself to sleep again soon.
Well the kids are waking up so I better post this now or it will never get posted. Hope you had fun reading my random thought for today.

Kaylee's new trick

This week Kaylee learned to clap. This girl is 8 and a half months old and is really starting to figure things out. I love watching my kids grow and learn.

California update

I guess it is time for an update. Well we have been in Bakersfield for over a month and so far we like it. We love our house and the extra space that comes with it. Eric didn't start his job until the 18th so we had him around for awhile. It was nice but we did a whole lot of nothing. We are so broke from our move that we couldn't really get out and experience Bakersfield while he was home. Plus we came in the winter when it is cold and always foggy so we haven't really been able to make it out to the beach or anywhere like that.
We really like our ward. There are a lot of other young families for us to get to know. Although our ward boundaries are a lot bigger than I am used to so there are not very many members that live close by me as far as I know.
The kids love their new home as well. They are both growing up and learning so much.
Aaron has really improved his talking. He still has a long way to go but I am understanding him a lot more. He is singing songs and playing pretend with his toys all the time. His new favorite thing is the "Harry Potter Puppet Pals and the Mysterious ticking noise" you tube video. He saw it once and has asked to watch it over and over again. Now he will get whatever toys or objects to act out the video by himself. It is pretty cute. Aaron is also loves our dog sugar. We got her back from Eric's parents when we moved here and Aaron couldn't be happier. He loves having a dog to chase around the house. I think Sugar loves Aaron but gets annoyed by him sometimes. She loves having someone to play with but hates it when he comes up and grabs her when she is resting.

Kaylee is getting bigger and bigger every day. She is so close to crawling but not there yet. She can go from sitting up to her belly and then starts to kick her legs and wave her arms like she is swimming. She has mastered scooting backwards for over a month now. I have been expecting her to figure out how to go forward but she is still working on it. She has definitely hit the stage of being more squirmy when I hold her so it can be very difficult to hold her in my lap.
Aaron and Kaylee still love each other but they are still siblings so we need to work on sharing and taking turns. Aaron keeps pushing Kaylee down when he is frustrated (thank goodness we have soft carpet again) and he has discovered that results in a timeout. Overall these kids are pretty happy and are having fun.

It has been a bit of an adjustment for me to be a stay at home mom. For the last two years I have been a stay at home mom but with a job. It is absolutely wonderful being able to devote all my time and attention to my kids without having the responsibility of the dorm. However, it gets pretty lonely with no one to talk to but my kids. We only have one car right now so I am pretty much stuck at home. We try to go on walks when the weather is nice but that hasn't been very often these last couple of weeks. I am excited that there is a park in my neighborhood just a 10 minute walk away. That place will be seeing a lot of me.

Eric is enjoying his job. We are excited that this internship will definitely be a full time job once he is done with his internship. Half his office is LDS because they have done a lot of recruiting at BYU-Hawaii and BYU-Idaho. He may be working a lot of hours but we could use the money to save up for a car for me.

Eric's Graduation

This post is way overdue but I I am excited to announce that my husband has graduated. Well kinda, he won't get his degree until the end of his internship this semester but we are out of Rexburg so to me that means he has graduated.

I am so proud of Eric. He did a great job these last couple of years. He pulled off great grades and landed a great job right away.

It was so great to have both my parents and Eric's parents come up for the graduation and help us move.
Way to go Eric!

Christmas at the Bells

We enjoyed a nice quiet Christmas here in Bakersfield. After moving in on Sunday we got to work putting things away and cleaned up the house just in time for Christmas. This was our first time doing Christmas on our own and I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. I think it definitely helped having our kids to enjoy Christmas with but they still were not sure what was going on.
Christmas was small this year. With moving and Eric not starting his job until mid January we could not afford anything big. We did get to take a shopping spree through my parent toy room since they were looking to get rid of some toys. That store was the best because all the toys were free. I found some good stuff in there.

Christmas Eve we were invited to a dinner party by a couple in our new ward. That was really nice especially since they didn't know us. We enjoyed a great dinner with some games and great company. Then we came home and put the kids to bed. One of our traditions for Christmas eve is new pj's. We never got around to buying new pj's so I pulled out a pair that we got a couple of years ago. I think it was important that we matched to make it feel like they were new again. I think it worked. Eric and I wrapped presents while Aaron kept trying to come out of his room. We managed to keep him away from the living room. Then we had some hot chocolate.

Here we are playing with the camera

Santa made the stop to our house. We were a little worried since we just moved. He managed to find us just fine.

Santa brought Aaron a rug with streets all over it and trucks to play with.

Kaylee got her first set of dolls and a book.

Santa heard that Eric was starting a new job soon so he brought Eric a new briefcase for work that can carry his laptop too.

No Picture: Angela got the new Super Mario Bros. game for the Wii and is loving it. (I am just about to beat the game)

The kids not only loved the toys but the wrapping paper too.

Kaylee got some fun toys from Grandma Coleby. She loves her stacking cups.

Aaron was about to open another present but got distracted by the cool trains he got from his cousins.

Grandma Coleby scored once again with these awsome tractors for Aaron.

These kids loved their toys. They played with them all day long.

We had a very Merry Christmas. I think one of the things that made it feel like Christmas around here was the tree. We were not planning on getting a Christmas tree but on Christmas eve we were at Lowe's and saw pre-lite artificial trees for 75% off. So we get the tree and I think that helped make our Christmas extra special this year.