Christmas 2008

This year we had a small Christmas at home with just our family. Since we traveled for Thanksgiving it was nice just to be here with the family. We had a great suprise the week before Christmas and had company come into town. Eric's brother Tim(TJ)'s wife Mary, daughter Lizzie and mother-in-law came into town to try and avoid the snow on their trip home from Texas and instead they it the snow here in Vegas and wasn't able to drive through it. Also Mary's mom got sick and they ended up staying until Sunday.


Also on Saturday Eric's, Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bob came through town on their way to Arizona for Christmas. We got together and had dinner with them at the South Point Buffet. It was nice seeing them again. We hadn't seen them since my dad had passed away in 2002 and we had gone up to Washington for his memorial. They hadn't seen my boys since Jake was 2 and Trent was only 6 months old. And they had never met Lizzie before. It was a great visit. We stayed at the buffet for 2 hours.

Well Christmas day was just small. But we actually like that.

This is the second Christmas that we have had since my mom has passed away and it is really different without her around to help me get my house all decorated for Christmas. And then with the snow we really weren't able to get into our garage to get the house all decorated up the way that we want it each year. But we did finally get one of our tree's up on Christmas eve and get some decorations on it in time to celebrate Christmas. We took around some bags of goodies to our friends in the ward. We had alot of fun doing that.The boys didn't believe us when we told them that if they weren't good through out the year that all they would get from Santa this year was buckets of coal. Well they each got buckets of coal. One small stocking with a Toontown card in it and a little lego. But I don't think that they really minded that they got a bucket of coal from Santa. They did get other gifts from mommy and daddy and they enjoyed those.

We got Bruce, Eric's dad, some sweats for USC and a digital photo frame that he has been asking for lately. Eric just asked to get his car fixed so that he can drive it again. I got a new camera that I can keep in my purse to be able to take pictures of cute when it happens. I also got a ihome for my ipod to be able to listen to it in my room.

On Friday we took the boys ice skating for the first time. They enjoyed it. We didn't last long at the rink though. My feet really started hurting and the boys I think got bored with it. I really am the only that can ice skate to be able to help the boys but we got them out there and they started to have fun.

It took me to coax them onto the ice by helping each of them by themsleves.

We were able to find these metal walkers that helped the boys skate on their own.

I think that they did very well for the fact that it was their first time being on skates.

In fact on Saturday Trent actually asked if he could go ice skating again. So to me I think that means he had fun.

Eye doctor and Glasses

I finally got all of my boys into the eye doctor. Trent was the first to go because his teacher was worried about his eye sight. It was taking him along time to copy something off of the whiteboard. So we took him in and he actually did need glasses for reading and looking at the board in school. So he doesn't need to be wearing them while playing outside. But he looks really cute in his glasses. But he could grow out of having to wear glasses.
So I finally got Jake and Eric to the eye doctor too. Jake got a good clean bill of eye sight. He actually has 20/20 eyesight. We were really proud of him for that. The next was Eric to see the eye doctor. He actually has good eyesight but in his left eye it was blurry. So he actually needed to get glasses to see long distance. He has to wear them when he is driving or watching tv at a distance. I think he looks handsome too.

Snowing in Vegas

We were luckly today and was able to get snow here in Vegas today. The boys wanted to go out and play in the snow when they found out that it was snowing. So we were able to find a place up in Summerlin where the snow was sticking and they had alot of fun playing in the snow.

We found an empty lot and was able to make a snowman with the boys.

We had alot of fun while playing in the snow.

Thanksgiving and the Beach

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. I got to go up and have Thanksgiving with my family in California. We drove up to Bakersfield on Thanksgiving and had one dinner with my family that lives there and my grandparents.

This is Trent and Jake with one of their cousins in Bakersfield, Nevin Gillis

The next day we drove up to Fresno and had another Thanksgiving dinner with my family in Fresno and Madera, my niece Taylor and my grandparents again. It was great. I hadn't seen alot of them since last year. And I hadn't seen Taylor for a year now. I really need to see her more often.

Jake and Trent with their Cousin Taylor Boswell (my niece)


Jake and Trent with their Great Grandma Mealey, my grandma.

Jake and Trent with their cousin Taylor and Great Grandparents, my grandparents.

Then afterwards we drove back to Bakersfield and spent the night and then the next day we drove down to Ventura and visited with Eric's Grammy and took the boys to the beach.

This was actually the first time that we had ever taken the boys to the beach. I think that is interesting that after 9 years of having the boys we had never taken them to the beach.

But they enjoyed it and forgot that it was the winter and decided to play in the ocean and get all wet.