Grandma's House

At some point we had thought about skipping Phoenix this year for Christmas. After last year when the morning sickness hit me, just as we were leaving to come home, the prospect of doing it all again didn't seem like a good one. Yes, I realize I'm not pregnant this time around, however the idea of squeezing the 5 of us into Vic and Virginia's house didn't seem like a ton of fun. However, Chris seemed a little homesick after his time at sea and so we compromised and went to Phoenix for just a few days after our trip to Flagstaff. So glad we did -- just look at all the fun we would've missed out on otherwise!

Good thing for Jonathan, Grandpa Vic loves donuts just as much as he does! SO we can count on donuts whenever Grandpa's around!

Grandma and Grandpa have a big tub in their master bath - the kids had fun 'swimming' in there!


Kisses for Matthew

Chris' Aunt Lynn and Uncle Dale got Matthew this little Tigger and a matching Pooh Bear for Christmas. Matthew took and immediate liking to Tigger!

He loved to hold onto Tigger...

...and bite him on the nose. (I told you, the kid's teething!)

Part of the appeal of heading to Grandma's and Grandpa's was that Clara and Jonathan would get to see their cousins again. We used to live close to them when we were in VA, but we haven't seen them since we moved to CA. They're all staying in AZ for a while, so it was great to see them all play together again.

Gift time!

Aleah, Clara, Jasmine, Brandon and Dustin

A Book!

So the story here is that Jonathan said we needed a cake - a Costco cake (with cheesecake filling - yum!) Truthfully, he saw the cakes when we went to Costco to pick up the fruit and veggie trays. He got excited and said he wanted some, just as any kid would upon seeing any old cake and since I happen to like Costco's cakes, but never have a good reason to buy such a big cake, I thought why not - After all, we were celebrating Jesus' birthday and Grandma was having half of Phoenix over for dinner :)

But Jonathan helped my story that it was ALL his idea, by sitting in front of the cake drooling until someone finally cut it for him!

He even got to help Grandma cut it!

Sooo worth it!

A ballerina princess book with a real charm bracelet inside!

Cousin Gabrielle and Matthew

Brandon, Aleah and Clara

Grandma and Grandpa got the boys some remote control trucks - which lasted about 30 minutes. Then Uncle Roger and Grandpa spent the next 2 hours trying to fix them! I suggested an erector set for them next year :)

Aleah giving Jonathan an piggy back ride

We got the cousins a couple games for Christmas - Operation was a big hit with everyone!

They played Operation for at least 90 minutes straight!

For some reason, Clemson doesn't like to go for his walk with Chris. Usually he seeks solace with me, but this time he went with the Fat Man!

While we were packing up the van to leave, the kids found some peacock feathers Grandma had laying around and decided to be peacocks!

Foolishly, when asked what peacocks sound like, Grandpa told the kids that peacocks were actually noisy birds!...I bet they were glad to see us go!