Blessed Beyond Measure: 2010

Christmas #4 & New Years Eve

This year we started alternating Christmas at home & in Victoria with Shane's family. We missed spending our traditional Christmas Eve with them, but were able to have dinner & exchange gifts the week after Christmas. We were in such a rush to open all of the gifts that I barely took any pictures :(

Cousins- Austin & Evie

Sharon opening gifts

Playing with Uncle Mat

Austin opening gifts

Enjoying his new easel

We ended up getting together with some good friends on New Years Eve- so that our boys could exchange gifts! We had dinner & just spend time playing & visiting afterwards!

Austin opening his gift from Reid

Leah & I

Jared making Austin laugh

Racing

Thankful for a wonderful 2010!!

Christmas #2 & 3

After we finished opening presents on Christmas morning, we headed over to spend the rest of the day with my dad's family! We had a traditional Christmas lunch, opened presents, and enjoyed spending time visiting!

Austin & Gigi

He looks like such a big boy in this outfit

Petting Oskar- he was so curious about the dogs, but afraid to pet them

I spent a lot of time holding the cute dogs

Chelsea & mom visiting

Fishing

Nan Nan

Austin, Dad, & me

Love this one!

Our family

Austin and his buddy, Ella

Opening gifts with Gigi

Playing with a new toy!

The day after Christmas my mom's extended family started arriving, and we spent through Wednesday with them! It's been 2 years since I've seen some of them because we were not able to make it last year. As usual, lots of laughing & eating! We also made a trip out to see my Grandma Anna!

Eating at La Hacienda Ranch

Waiting to be seated

Jill & I

Some of the cousins and significant others

My mom and her siblings (minus 1)

Visiting Grandma Anna

So much fun! B- Dennis, Serena, Diane F- Jill, Amy, Becky, Whitney, Jalynn

Christmas #1

We had a wonderful Christmas this year- it's amazing what a difference a year can make with Austin... he was really into it! Things got started early when my parents arrived the Sunday before- they were here to help us get the house ready for Shane to start working from home full time. The main goal was to get the office cleared out for him & to just make more space in the house! So my mom helped me clear out closets & get the guest room ready to convert into a playroom. I'll post more about that later!

A few random pics from the days leading up to Christmas~

Getting his daily piece of chocolate from the advent calendar

Anxiously awaiting Papa & Gigi's arrival (can you tell he's excited?)

Moving the car- Austin thought he was big stuff in the front seat without a car seat

Shaving with Papa every morning

Eating lunch

Baking

Being silly & reading books with Papa

Christmas Eve
We started the day by letting Austin open one gift- we opted for one of his larger gifts- a kitchen from Papa & Gigi. We thought this might make things less overwhelming on Christmas morning. As you can tell from the pics, he LOVES it. He usually makes me a cup of coffee every morning.... with salt & pepper in it.

We met some of my Dad's family for our traditional Christmas Eve meal (at lunch this year) at El Fenix... it was yummy! And after a quick nap, we were ready to make some sugar cookies for Santa! Austin really enjoyed decorating the cookies- mainly with M&Ms (so he could snack on them as well.) I thought they ended up really cute~