Christmas 2008

Christmas was spent this year at my parents house in Pagosa Springs, CO. Their house is almost all complete now and it is soooo nice. My mom and dad have worked so hard and have done such an awesome job. It is especially nice to have our own rooms when we stay there and my kids love every bit of it. (In fact, Caiden hides from us every time it is time to go back home). They got a TON of snow while we were there. It dumped almost everyday. It was very pretty. We definitely felt like we were in a winter wonderland....

The first morning we woke up to a herd of elk surrounding the house. (I technically did not see them because I was still asleep, even though my dad tried to wake me. So whoever took pictures with my camera, thanks!)


Caiden and Paige had a lot of fun playing with their cousins....

Caiden LOVED hanging out with his cousin Tanner. He definitely was his little tag along all week long. (Let's just say it's a good thing Tanner is so nice and patient. Caiden never gets tired of playing). They had fun eating ice cicles and playing in the snow....but it was pretty deep.

Casey even got to ride a little bit on Rodney's snowmobiles. The snow was so deep that he kept getting stuck....

All the kids (and me and Jessica) made gingerbread houses. Paige especially loved the finished product. I often found her next to the houses trying to break all the candy off and eat it.

On Christmas Eve, everyone helped make cookies for Santa....YUM!

....and carrots for the reindeers....

Then, as tradition goes, we all got together and read "The Night Before Christmas" (original version) and Kim read "The CAJUN Night Before Christmas" too. And Grandpa read to the kids the story of the birth of Jesus from the Bible....

It is also tradition that everyone open one present on Christmas Eve (which is always pajamas) and if we're all together that year then we get matching pajamas (well, just the girls). If you haven't notice, our traditions are serious business!

Instead of pajamas for the guys, they got T-shirts....Papa looks like he's been drinking some spiked egg nog....

Merry Christmas!

One of Caiden's favorite gifts - the Black Spiderman costume. I think I've mentioned before how Caiden loves to pretend he is superhero of some sort. At the moment, it's spiderman. Now he can be the red and the black one....

Paige got a purse with pretend make-up that she loves. She is always trying to get into my make-up. If she only knows that some day she will hate having to put in on everyday...

My sister and I made a scrapbook of the construction of my parents home. We secretly stole all their pictures and had some of our own. This is a major accomplishment for my dad. He has always dreamed of building his DREAM home and he did it! Literally, he and my mom nearly built this home by themselves. It is amazing! We felt after years of dreaming about it and then making it a reality, it needed to be documented...

Santa was good to Paige and Caiden this year!

Then we got back to Washington and had Christmas all over again with Grandma and Grandpa Gubler....Grandma Gubler was very excited to give Paige her first doll house and it was a big hit. She loves it! Caiden and Paige are lucky to have such good grandparents.....