Christmas 2014

Christmas was in Grants Pass this year.  I went two weeks early so the kids and I could stay there while Joel was in Paris.  Ivy was a sweetheart and mostly just smiled the whole time.  Oskar was ... excited, and energetic, and curious and had the presence of five children.  He loved his cousins and was very sad when we had to leave them.

I took lots of opportunities to take pictures of my Ivy girl.  She is so smiley!

She's got a serious side too though.

Oskar loves Ivy so much.  He says she is my schnookums, Daddy's little girl, and his Baby Ivy.

We went hiking a few times on the Cathedral Hills trails.

And we went to throw rocks into the river.  We could have stayed there for hours but it was getting dark and a little creepy, I saw a river rat swimming in the water!

Joel had never seen the rabbit coat of my Mom's!  He had to pull it out and try it on.  His rockstar name is Thin Ice.

Ivy and Lena got along okay.  Mostly Lena wanted to hit and eat Ivy, she is a tempting morsel so I can't really blame her.  I think we were all experiencing a little cute aggression with these two.

All Ivy's older nieces got lots of time to hold her.

Christmas Eve dinner was delicious as usual.  Next time we'll help more, Keri, promise.

Christmas Eve devotional.  Those flashlight candlesticks were just too tempting for most of the kids, they HAD to play with them.

Comparing CPAPs

Santa built us a delicious candy sculpture.  Santa really gets me, he just does.

Christmas morning!  It was so fun watching Oskar really get into Christmas this year.  He was so excited about his first gift he would have been fine with just that.  And he loved watching and joining the other kids open their presents.

Mari's present to us, a great likeness. 

ROLLERBLADES!  I was so excited even though I picked them out myself.

This I did not pick out myself and was so surprised about.  It is beautiful and really made me feel bad for giving Joel such a hard time about not getting me anything in Paris.  He definitely made up for it!

Cute kids ready to play outside.

Before the picture was taken, and why the picture was taken, Zoram was also sharing the blanket.  These soft cuddly blankets can be shared by at least three people at a time.

Before we left we wanted to get a few family pictures with the beautiful green backdrop that is Oregon.  I think they turned out pretty good despite my unfortunate haircut.