Monday, January 5, 2009

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.....


Sunday, January 4, 2009

Family Pictures

In an attempt to get a cute family picture to send out with my Christmas cards, I asked my friend Jami if she would take some pictures of us with her fancy camera. (Thanks Jami!) Here are some of them.....















Saturday, January 3, 2009

Casey turns 30!!

Casey celebrated his 30th birthday on the 22nd. We were in Colorado at my parents house for the holidays. He, of course, spent the day snowboarding (which is a tradition every year for him) with my brother at Wolf Creek. I did not go with him because 1) I can't keep up with him on his snowboard or my brother at all and 2) it was BITTER cold. So while he was gone we wrapped presents, bought a cake, and Caiden, Paige, Tanner, Maddie, and Lauren made "Happy Birthday" signs to put around the house....
(Isn't it amazing that after 30 years of life he still can't manage to keep his eyes open in a picture? I love ya, babe, but seriously, open your eyes!)

He had lots of help blowing out the candles....

I tried to get a shot of my magnificent wrapping job. It's about 3 different patterns of wrapping paper. That's when you know you got a good present!

Happy Snowboarding! (thanks Becky!) Well, I was a bit of a dummy and didn't realize that bindings for a snowboard can be screwed right on, instead of being mounted like skis. So I didn't bother to give him the board early since I figured he would have to take it to a shop anyway. When he opened it and I saw otherwise, I felt bad that he snowboarded all day on his old beat up snowboard. Whoops! Sorry! At least he has a whole season left....

Here are the kids coloring the "Happy Birthday" posters....what artwork!



Happy Hearts Christmas Program

I'm a little behind in posting this (December was a busy month...Christmas pictures will be coming). This is Caiden at his preschool's Christmas program. All the kids sang songs to us and it was soooo cute. Caiden was very happy to see mom and dad and Grandma Gubler out in the audience watching him. He kept doing little waves to us. It was very cute. These pictures aren't the best quality. I hate the camera I currently have. I can't wait till I drop this one so I can get a new one (yes...it happens ever year).



After the program, there were lots of cookies to eat. I think that may have been his favorite part.