Christmas Day 2012

Christmas day was lots of fun.  Santa came and spoiled the kids as usual...along with aunts and grandparents.  Every year we say we want to tone it down because the kids don't really need that much stuff and they are happy with very little, and every year they get lots of stuff.  But they are always very grateful and it's fun to see them excited.  Christopher loved his legos and Aunt Tatia also gave him and Michael some Magformers which have turned out to be the hot toy in our house for a while now.  Mom and Dad even like to play with them.

Stocking and gifts from Santa

Michael is still in his dinosaur phase

Anne loved her dolly and named her Brielle, but sadly she left her in a
hotel on the move to NJ.  Poor dolly.

Jacob got lots of forest animals from Santa.  He was more excited about it than he looks in this picture.

Finishing up what Santa didn't eat.

Anne got to decorate her jewelry box

After a fun morning at Aunt Tatia's we went to Papa/Grama's house to see the Sutherland side.  Lots of people hadn't seen Daniel yet so it was fun to pass him around.  It's always so good for the kids to see their cousins and build those family relationships.  They have such good examples of cousins, aunts, uncles to look up to.  Jeff and I really are so blessed with the families that we have.

Aunt Jen got lots of holding time with Daniel



Duff (Justin) won the right to climb the scary ladder and change the battery
in the chirping fire alarm.

Fun cousins - Logan, Sydney and Maggie

Anne and cousin Jane.  I love Emily in the background kissing Maggie..cute mom picture.

Opening gifts/books from Papa/Grama

Grandpa had to wear a mask because he was getting some chemo soon
and couldn't catch any germs.

Love this picture of Anne and her grandma.  They both love to do puzzles together.

 

Christmas Eve 2012



We stayed at my sister Tatia's house for Christmas this year.  We were only planning on staying for a few days because we needed to get back to Colorado to pack up and move East, but we got to stay a few days longer thanks to some big snow storms that hit Utah.  It was fun to have a white Christmas.

 

Christmas Eve was fun and laid back.  We played games, watched movies, decorated cookies for Santa and ate our traditional Christmas Eve dinner which is basically Thanksgiving dinner all over again.  You can't have too much of a good thing and turkey and mashed potatoes are a good thing.  The kids got to sleep out under the Christmas tree which made is a little tricky for Santa to get in and do his work, but thanksfully our kids sleep like rocks and Santa had no problems.

 

 

Playing on Tatia's Ipad

Yummy frosting for Santa's cookies

Christmas Eve dinner = Thanksgiving dinner revisited

A little Christmas Eve arm wrestle anyone?

Reading the annual Christmas book from Grandma Sutherland/Bearnson

 

Anne is dreaming of sugar plums...but it looks like Christopher is still awake. :)

Sibling Christmas gifts

This year we had the kids draw names and buy a gift for one of their siblings.  We wanted them to have fun giving gifts...not just receiving.  They had fun picking out things for each other and of course unwrapping them was tons of fun.  We did it before we left for Utah, but normally we would probably do it on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve.

Christopher gave Jacob a basketball

Jacob gave Anne a Rapunzel doll

Anne gave Michael a football

Michael gave Christopher a Lightning McQueen car

Wrapping up school and friends

Even though we were only at Highland for half a year, we really enjoyed it.  Both Michael and Christopher had good teachers and the school was really friendly.  A lot of the kids from our ward were at this school so it was good they had familiar faces there.

In December Christopher's third grade class at Highland put on a shadow play that they learned in music class.  It was based on a book called Zomo the Rabbit.  I'd never heard of it but it was fun.  Christopher was the voice of the Sky God.  He did a great job.

not sure what Anne is doing here. :)

Christopher's best friend Andrew

Christopher and his teacher Mrs. Yabrove

We knew when we left that we were leaving behind some great friends.  I hope we see them again some day.  The Flemings were fun.  Jacob and Ashley liked to boss each other around...in a lovey way.  Anne and Diana were best friends.  Grant was a good friend to Christopher and Michael.  We also loved having Gavin and Collin across the street.  The kids would play outside with them for hours.  They built forts, played baseball, played in the snow and rode bikes.  I can't believe I never got a picture of them all together.  That makes me sad.  They were great friends.

Jacob and Ashley

Anne and Diana - best friends forever

Michael's teacher Mrs. KT.  She is so sweet. She made each kid in her class a cute fleece
hat for Christmas.  He really misses her.  She was a great teacher for him.

I had a small surgery on my wrist to remove a ganglion cyst.  Not a good thing to do right before Christmas.  I had this splint on for a week and I had to have it elevated for a few days.

Where are we?

Take a look at the pictures and guess where we are. 

 

 

 

Okay, the last picture doesn't really give a clue, just another mom/baby picture.  We aren't on any exotic vacation, but it doesn't exactly look like Colorado does it?

 

We're in New Jersey.  What, you say?  Didn't you move from New Jersey to Colorado just a year and a half ago.  Yes, we did.  And now we've moved again....back to New Jersey.  No, it's not an early April Fools joke.  We moved back to New Jersey  at the beginning of January.  It's a super long story that I won't bore the world with, but for my own records (although I doubt I'll ever forget the "Great Decision of 2012"), we moved back for work and also cause we liked living here.  Yes, I actually said that. :)  We really like Colorado too....it was a hard decision.

 

Anyways,  I still need to go back and blog Christmas and all the fun stuff that happened before we left, but that's for another night.

 

We're living in Bergen county which is a really nice place (except for right now it is so FREEZING cold here).  We're in Ramsey and the boys are enjoying school.  We are renting an old house until we find a house to buy.  The top picture shows the old white garage which I'm sure was originally the barn.  There's also a stone pillar in the yard which the kids and I are pretty sure was an old hitching post.  Needless to say the house is old...but it could be restored to be pretty cool.  But we'll leave that job for someone else and find a different house to buy. :)

 

Happy belated New Year!