The Harris Family

We put up our Christmas Tree Thanksgiving weekend like we do every year.  The kids love to decorate it.  Especially when they get to stand on the step stool.

 

 

We had a couple of pretty good snow storms.  The kids took advantage of playing in the snow.  Below Callie is jumping on the snow covered tramp.

 

Jace loves to sled down the small hill behind our house.

 

It was my turn to teach Jace's pre-school class so we did a fun Christmas party.

 

And the kids all made Christmas ornaments and then wrapped them up as gifts for their parents.

 

For Kindergarten Callie was in a Christmas program where they all dressed in their pajamas and sang winter/holiday songs.  It was so cute!

 

We did our annual Christmas Pajama Party/Gift Exchange with the kid's friends.  I love that we have so many children in our neighborhood.

 

We decided to not buy a pre-made kit this year and make our own gingerbread houses.  The kids had fun and made a terrible mess doing it.  (LtoR: Jace's, Callie's, Nate's, Char's)

 

On Christmas eve we have a tradition where the kids spread oats across the lawn for Santa's reindeer.  Callie and Jace love doing it and then checking the next morning to see if the reindeer ate any.

 

Here they are in their Christmas pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa Harris.

 

We made cinnamon rolls on Christmas eve to have for our Christmas day breakfast (so healthy)

 

Callie left Santa treat, chocolate milk and a note.

 

After Santa came.

 

Christmas morning.  Daren and Heather came and joined us on Christmas eve and slept over for morning festivities on Christmas day.  Later on Christmas day we went down to my parents house to celebrate with my family.  I never seem to get pictures from that portion of our day.

 

After the children were in bed, the adults played Texas Hold 'Em.  The game lasted until just before midnight.

 

Cindy was about to win.  I can't remember if she actually really did or not.

 

My mom and dad - First picture of the New Year.

 

Mine and Nate's first picture of the New Year.  I think we only made Cindy take about 30 of them before we for one where we looked decent.  We are so not photogenic.

In November we visited Rocky Point, Mexico with Nate's entire family.  Nate's uncle Neal was nice enough to let us use his beach house for the week.  We flew into Phoenix and then drove the rest of the way, not arriving until after the sun had went down.

 

The very next morning the kids were up early and in the ocean by 7:00am.  They were so excited to be there and loved every minute of it.

 

While we were there we enjoyed spending time with family.  Callie and Jace are playing Slap Jack with their Grandpa Harris.

 

There was also hours spent with the kayaks in the water.  The kids loved it.

 

All of the Harris boys on the one day we got DeWin to hang out on the beach.

 

This was a little inflatable jet ski.  Callie and Jace loved being pushed around on it.

 

Beautiful sunset one evening while out to dinner with the family.

 

We took advantage of the opportunity to lay out and get some sun.

 

We also attempted to take family photos while we were there.  Always an adventure with such a large group and little children.  I think we had some turn out alright though.

 

Jace loved it when we went deep sea fishing.  Callie stayed back at the beach house and played with her grandma and cousins.

 

The whole crew that went deep sea fishing.

 

There was also some family time spent swimming in the pools.

 

And hanging out in the hot tub.

 

We had a great week.  We even celebrated an early Christmas while we were all together.  It was fun seeing everyone and catching up.