Dear G'ma and G'pa Driver

we missed you this Christmas and wanted to make you feel like you were here, so here are the kids opening up the presents you got them.
Thanks so much!!



Thank you so much for the jacket. It is really cool and I've been wearing it ever since. Miss you a lot, Love Jacob

Thank you for the hat and gloves. I like them alot, they are so cute. I can't wait to see you again, Merry Christmas!

Thank you for the boots. I wear them every day. They are really comfy. I miss you very much. Love, Maya

Thanks for the backpack. I really liked it. I already put my Webkinz in it. I love you, Macey.

And Jason and I want to thank you so much for our gifts as well. Jason loves his shoes and sweatshirt. Perfect for our trip too! I love my cell phone cover, calendar, bag, photo book (which I have always wanted to make but don't have the time!!) and of course, the jelly belly hat! So excited for all of it!!!! I must say that I was a little disappointed by the fact that one of your beautiful polished rock pieces of jewelry was not included. I was so happy when I opened it up at Debbie's house though! It is beautiful!!! Thank you so much, it means a lot!!

Hugs and kisses,

Jason, Michell, Jacob, Molly, Maya, Macey-Jo

our wonderfully crazy Christmas!

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I'll try to make this as brief as I can!
Christmas Eve we packed up the kids and went to Cameron's house. Jason made yummy traditional Croatian pasta sauce, and ummmm... I'll say.... interesting blitva. This is a boiled potato and swiss chard dish. It wasn't horrible, I'll tell you that, but I'm fine not eating it again. He also made lignje (squid). Gross gross gross. Macey and Maya tried it, something disturbing about seeing tenticles going into their sweet little mouths. We also have mashed potatoes (for the rest of us normal people), pulled pork and rolls, salads... everything (well, almost everything) was DELICIOUS!



This is one of my favorite pictures of the kids and Grandpa John. Can you guess why??? (HINT: look in the background).














This is all of the kids and Cameron and Tanya. They are going to be parents soon!! So excited that next Christmas we are going to have another little one around. This year was fun with Dani being so new, so I get to do that again in 2010! They find out what they are having Jan. 7th!!

When we got home, the kids were allowed to open one present each. They all knew what it was, I guess that is the bad thing about tradition! But comfy, new pj's for Christmas morning is the best!














I even got a smile out of Jacob!

Christmas morning was actually pretty peaceful. We told the kids that they couldn't come into our room to wake us up until 8am. I woke up at about 7:30 and quietly snuck out of my room and sat quietly at the dining room table with my computer and some chai tea. Christmas tree lights were on and there was frost all over the place outside so if you squinted your eyes, it felt like a white Christmas. I could hear the kids playing downstairs but I just took some time to myself before the mayhem started. At 7:58am, they could take it no longer. They came up the stairs to wake us up and that is when the peace was gone. But it was replaced with happiness and joy! Everyone was so sweet to each other and the gifts that the kids picked out for each other or made were the best of all! I love it when I see a child open up a present and they are truly happy and excited to get a pack of socks!

It never fails, though. No matter how much I try to get everyone to put the torn up wrapping paper into the trash bag right away...the house ends up looking like a paper factory sneezed in here!

I am still searching for one present that went missing. I so hope it didn't get tossed on accident.

After we cleaned up a bit and got ready we headed off to Olympia to see my sister's and their families and my mama. We were fashionably late, as usual. Debbie's house looked so festive and seeing everyone was perfect. I really did miss seeing my Aunt Doll, Uncle Dave and my Dad and Step Mom. You were all there in people's thoughts!!

Again, the food was awesome! Ham, green bean casserole, cheesy potatoes, sweet potatoes, makes me hungry all over again! I love seeing my kids on Christmas morning and being able to watch my niece, Daisy open her gifts brought back so many memories of some of our first Christmas' as mom and dad. Poor little thing wanted the present opening to never stop! (I can't blame her though, I love opening presents).

So I have to say to all of my friends and family members.... Thank you for being in my life! I hope your Christmas was as wonderful as mine was and that your 2010 brings surprises of peace, love and joy!


Macey got these slipper socks from Maya, she loved them.

Christmas morning.















First look at the tree.





Macey LOVES the Sounders. Thanks G'ma!































Little miss Daisy taking it all in.


























Maya got a jewelry box from G'ma. She was so happy!

Here is the whole clan. We were ordered to take this shot for G'ma and G'pa Driver. There's Murphy for you too!

I know this is a blurry shot, but she was so excited to get this shirt. It has a picture of a dinosaur on it and it says "Never forget" on it. What a goof ball!

this post is for my Dad and Step-mom...

Since you guys don't get to be here for Christmas morning, we wanted you to feel like you were here... here are each of the kids' opening up their gifts from you.

Is anyone out there?

Or am I just posting for myself?

VACATION

This week I work on Monday, then I have the rest of the week off!!! It's a good thing to because I have done pretty much none of my Christmas shopping yet. And now the snow is coming down... these kids better go to school this week!

last basketball game

If we were allowed to keep score, I'd have to say that Macey's team was undefeated. She had a great time and she did great too. Best part is, Jason got to be her coach again this year.

NEW blog!!

Ok, so I'm sure you have noticed that I haven't been blogging in a very long time. I was having some serious issues with the account. I'm not going to go into it but I just gave up and here I am all fresh and new and different. Let me start out by just sharing with you this video of my horse rider.

She is doing so great and is still in love with the horses. If you ask her what she wants for Christmas she'll tell you, "a horse". Not such a bad idea when you think about the fact that we'd never have to mow the lawn again! BUT, knowing how great (notice my sarcasm) my kids are at cleaning up little dog poops I really doubt they'd be excited to clean up big huge horse poops.

On to a new subject... today was the last day of my first quarter! This Fall quarter I took Survey of special Education, Planning the young child's learning environment and Work Based Learning. The official grades aren't in yet but I do believe I got all A's! I'm extremely thankful for this break!