Christmas 2008

This year the kids let us sleep in again on Christmas morning. We had to wake them up at 7:30, after which each one told us that they had each woken up 10 times already but went back to bed because it was too early. This is their happy faces right after coming into the room.

From 2008 12 Christmas

Michael got video games this year, which was the only thing on his list. And all he really got was video games! and 1 book. Gears of War 2 has been his passion for the past few days now and he has spent hours playing online with Daddy (with all the M features turned off of course)

From 2008 12 Christmas

With Megan being in Kindergarden this year, she kept raising her hand before she opened a present. She knew Mommy wanted to take a picture each time. It was funny to see her raising her hand though.

From 2008 12 Christmas

Megan got mostly stuffed animals and webkinz, with some new PJs and her favorite art supplies. She is holding up her Tom and Jerry animals. Her favorite was the black bat webkinz ofcourse. After opening the Tom and Jerry, she wanted to go log onto the internet and play online with them (like webkinz) and we had to tell her that they were just "normal" stuffed animals.

From 2008 12 Christmas

Rachel got more Webkinz, clothes, books and some video games, so she had the most well rounded list.

From 2008 12 Christmas

The big winner was Santa's surprise to the family though. Rockband 2. As a family we've played about 4 hours each night (past 12 midnight sometimes) with Candice being the instigator of the whole thing!!

From 2008 12 Christmas

The kids each made us a present at school. Here we our holding Michael's "Christmas is" book that he made for us.

From 2008 12 Christmas

Candice got lots more scrapbooking stuff...surprise.

From 2008 12 Christmas

Daddy got an awesome BYU jogging shirt from uncle Kris. My first piece of clothing from my alma mater.

From 2008 12 Christmas

When the family isn't playing Rockband, Rachel has her friend over playing. They started complaining about sore arms and I told them they had already been playing for 4 hours in a row....

From 2008 12 Christmas

Megan School pj party

 

Megan had a holiday pj party in her kindergarden class, so she actually let Candice put her hair up in piggy tails. It was such a rare sighting that we had to snap a picture. The fact that there aren't tears streaming down her face with them in is amazing, as it is usually a dog fight just to brush her hair and try to put them in.

What's winter running in MN like?

 

 

What's it's like to run in Dec in Minnesota in -6 (-12 with wind chill), with 2 feet of snow? Well, I had Candice take a few pictures today. Today was exceptionaly snowy on the sidewalks with 1 to 6 inches in parts. It was worse than running on a beach actually. My outfit includes thermal polar tights with thermal pants over them, a wicking long sleave top, with a normal long sleeve top, with a fleece pullover, with a winter windbreaker on top, with my reflective vest as the last layer as it is dark at 4:45 here. The head gear includes a full face ski mask with hat and thermal biking gloves. It's almost a full load of laundry when I'm done!!

Fisher Family dancers - Christmas Elf Yourself

The kids love this every year. Here are the Fisher Family Dancers wishing you a Merry Christmas Disco and Country style.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Aunt Andrea comes up north

Aunt Andrea came to the great white north where she spent a whirlwind 5 days out in the snow, at the gym getting her butt kicked, going to the zoo, going sledding, skating and cross country skiing, climbing rock walls, building puzzles, scrapbooking and "putting on 4 pounds from all the chocolate" she ate. The kids loved having Aunt Andrea visit and can't wait for the next time.

 

Thanksgiving Vacation - Family Picture

 

On Thanksgiving day we posed for our traditional family picture. It's always fun to see new additions and how the kids get taller each year. Our drive back was long but uneventful. We stayed in Topeka KS on the way back, and ended up driving through snow in Iowa, but made it home by 5:30 (which is dark in MN this time of year). It was great to be back in our own beds again and get ready to go back to school and work next week.

Thanksgiving Vacation - Build a Bear

 

 

Addie loves cats as much as Megan does, and ended up carrying around and sleeping with Megans stuffed jaguar while we visited. So we decided to take Addie to Build a Bear for the first time and have her pick out and make her own stuffed cat - which she named Sammy. At the beginning of the vacation she called all of her cousins Rachel which was cute.