Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year with family and friends in Spokane! We were fortunate to be able to spend about two and a half weeks in Spokane and enjoyed every minute of it. It was packed with lots of family time playing games, eating and having parties!! It was especially fun having Braden celebrate his first Christmas as well as meet a lot of family that he hadn't met. We were also lucky to see lots of friends from home. I don't know how I didn't take any pictures of my friends. But it was so fun to see Melanie, Kristi, and Michelle. We also had a fun get together at the McCoy's house with a bunch of our friends from high school. It had been a while since I had seen some of them. So this post is a flood of pictures, but believe it or not, it was just a fraction of the ones we took!!


These were Braden's first Christmas jammies and I loved them. They have little reindeer on them and were just fun! Oh, and that is Freddy the firefly he is holding. He has been Braden's favorite toy and is becoming even more fun now that he can hold him.

Aunt Amy loving on Braden. One of the first things we did in Spokane was head to Amy's house to do some holiday baking. We made tons of holiday treats and had such a fun day together. I just wish I lived closer to do these kinds of things with my sisters more often.

We also wished we lived closer so that Jason could have more sword fights with the kids. Jason is such a good uncle and I think he loves playing with the kids as much as they love playing with him.

Kade takes his sword fighting pretty seriously. Unfortunately he didn't make it through this battle!
Cute cousins making Oreo truffles...yummy!!! They dipped so many, I think they were a little sick of it by the end. But they were good sports about it!

Josh and Aunt Becca baking away!!

One night we had a sleep over with the Thomson kids and Braden. I didn't have to take care of Braden much with Abby and Ellie there. They were so good with him and were so eager to help change his diaper and entertain him. And Braden loved every minute of the attention!! What sweet girls!

Weston was also very sweet with Braden and kept him asleep while he held him.

More cousin fun! Mary was a little natural with Braden. Every time she came over she was so excited to hold him. I think this is a really sweet picture of the two of them.

The Thomson kids with Dad at our Christmas party. We had such a fun night eating lots of great food, playing with the kids, and exchanging presents. Becca also shared a Christmas message that made the night extra special. Thanks Becca. :)

It was so fun to see these two together. Emmett and Micah were hilarious. They are only two and a half months apart and are both so dang cute!! They would babble back and forth and went around pointing at stuff and showing each other things. I guess there was something cool about the edge of the fridge!!

We had tons of yummy sugar cookies, thanks to Katya. She spent one whole afternoon cutting them out and baking all of them. Then we all decorated them and enjoyed eating them. Thanks Katya!

Amanda and Katya busy decorating the cookies!

This picture was just to cute not to post!! Mae just might have been the most festive one out of the entire family. I loved listening to her sing Christmas songs over and over!!

Mom making Christmas breakfast in her new kitchen! Our traditional cheese blintzes tasted extra good this year since they were made in mom's new kitchen!! ;)

Braden, so excited about his first stocking!! He was even the first one up...I guess he was every day. But we like to think it was because he was excited about Christmas!

Austin in his new Thomas jammies Christmas morning. What a cutie! He's definitely a mama's boy but he finally said my name the day they left. woohoo!

Braden just chillin' with Uncle Kirk.

Jason and Kirk, hanging out at the family Christmas party. I think they enjoyed talking dentistry for hours and catching up a bit. It had been almost two years since we had seen them. We miss them so much being on opposite sides of the country!! Who would've thought we would be in L.A. and they would end up in New York for school...crazy!

Falycia and I. It was so good to be together. I just wish it could've been longer. The time flew by, but I am so glad they were able to come home!!

Dad, Jason and Braden at the family Christmas party. Braden loved hanging out with Grandpa.

David and Jeff just waiting for dinner to start!

Some of the cousins- Mae, Micah, Anya, Kade, Braden, Katya, and Emmet. Man we miss these kiddos!!

Micah was so fun to have around. He is so full of life, has SO much energy, and is such a sweet boy. Braden watched him very closely. I'm afraid he was trying to learn all of Micah's skills and is going to keep me very busy in this next year or two!

Our trip was so fun and it was especially hard to come back to L.A. this time. We miss family a lot and can't wait to see everyone again. However, we hope some family will come visit us in our last year and a half here. :)