Christmas 2009

Now that it's almost Valentine's Day, I'm finally getting around to posting about our Christmas vacation. Sorry it's taken me so long! Anyway, this Christmas was a lot of fun especially with Kathryn being a little older. The three of us celebrated at home the night before we went to Seattle to be with Drew's family for Christmas. Kathryn's favorite present was a doll. She has been infatuated with dolls and didn't want to open her last 2 presents after she had opened her doll. She kept wrapping it in the nightgown my mom made for her. It's really fun to watch her play with it. Here's our tree with our presents (mostly for Kathryn of course)...
Here's a silly picture of Kathryn in the cute nightgown my mom made for her. She is squinting because of the camera flash and kept saying "bright!".
The next day we flew up to Seattle and stayed for 2 weeks. It was a lot of fun being with Drew's family and we had a really nice Christmas. Drew's mom was worried about the kids having enough presents for Christmas. We told her not to worry about it and that they would be just fine. Then on Christmas Eve we were surprised by a huge shipment (12 or 13 boxes!) that Drew's mom had ordered from the Lakeshore Learning Store. It was all toys for the kids! Here is a picture of Drew's mom and our nephew Tyler with all the boxes...
Tyler had fun making a fort out of the boxes. I love how he established it as a Brazilian colony :)
That night after the kids were in bed we opened all the boxes and were amazed at all of the awesome things she had ordered. There was a TON of stuff and only 3 kids there for Christmas, so we set a lot of it aside to give to the kids for their birthdays and other occasions and to send to Drew's brother's family who wasn't there. Here's a picture of everything...
Here are some other fun pictures from Christmas Eve...

Kathryn and her cousin Owen in their matching jammies.

Me, Kathryn, Sara (Drew's sister) and Owen.
The kids have on matching shirts that Sara made, but in case you can't read them, here's a close-up of Kathryn in hers...

Yep, that's right, I'm pregnant! (This is the main reason why it's taken so long to get this post done.) I'm about 15 weeks along now and am due July 27th. Sara is due near the end of June so it will be fun to have kids so close in age. It's just too bad we don't live closer. Anyway, it was really fun to have the two kiddos walk in on Christmas Eve to make the announcement for us.

Christmas Day was a lot of fun and full of presents, awesome food, relaxing, and ended with going to see Avatar (great movie, by the way). Kathryn had fun opening presents and was also a little overwhelmed with everything going on around her.

Check out her cute horse slippers she got from Aunt Becca.

Here she is riding her cousin's cool police motorcycle while we were at the movie...
While in Seattle we did a few other fun things. My sister and her family live about 45 minutes from Drew's parents so we were able to see them a couple of times. The first time we got to make gingerbread houses. Drew was the chief engineer for ours, but unfortunately we forgot to get a picture of it. He did a great job and it was definitely unique :) We also got to see them on New Year's Day. Here we are with my nieces...
It was really great to see them again and they were so good with Kathryn. She was definitely well-entertained!

Another thing we did was go to the zoo with Drew's family. We had a good time there and got some fun pictures...

Kathryn, Owen and Tyler

Kathryn loved riding in the wagon.

Drew and Kat at the eagle enclosure

Another day we went to see Drew's sister Becca's horse, Jules. Kathryn loves animals and had a lot of fun feeding her and riding her.
One other fun thing we did was go up to the mountains to go sledding since there wasn't any snow in Seattle. Kathryn didn't like sledding too much but she did like playing in the snow. The rest of us had a lot of fun sledding and thankfully left with no injuries :)

Kathryn with Grandpa Bill

And, one last random picture we took the night before we left. It's Drew, Kathryn, Drew's mom, and Becca.
Thanks everyone for making it such a fun Christmas. We had a great time.