Christmas 2008

Christmas Eve Grammashell made sugar cookies with the kiddos.

Hailey of course had to be in the middle of everyone's turn.

So we gave her a turn.

Hannah strategically placing her cookies to get the most out of a roll.

Shell helping Jay.
(Notice our c'mas eve jammies this year were Seahawks themed.)

Brandon being careful not to burn himself.

All the cool decorations shell had for them to use.

Jay, icing his cookies very carefully.

Matty's snowman.

We distracted the toddle-err with sprinkles. It took alot of concentration to try and pick them up, it was funny watching her.

Our masterpieces:)

My Christmas Angel with sprinkles.

Grampa handing out gifts on Christmas morning.

Brandon, stoked that he got G.I. Joes this year.

Jay, stoked that he got some more Transformers.

My Granny.

Hannah, my sweet girl.

Dad and Shell surprised me with a Kitchenaid mixer. I've wanted one for at least 8 years. It was a nice surprise!

Matthew my pirate.

My lil sis.

(She actually let me take a picture of her which never happens.)

Matthew, enjoying his plunder.

Hannah's snowman. It was only about a foot tall. It was tiny.

Hailey's six-roll open sleigh....

Our trip over to Dad's was a very interesting trip. We had just gotten 3' of snow in Spokane and there was supposed to be more coming, so we high-tailed it out of town earlier than we had originally planned.

We left town in the afternoon on Saturday. So, that meant that we'd be crossing over the mountain pass at around 8 pm. We stopped in Ellensberg to eat dinner and check the weather reports. They were reporting snow on the pass, but no snow chains required, so we decided to head over instead of stay the night.

Well. Let's just say that we are still thanking the Lord that he kept us safe that night. There was more than just "snow" there were blizzard conditions. And when we got to the summit, we literally could not see in front of us and had to come to a stop with some semi's and other cars. The semi in front of us decided to go ahead and keep driving, so I told Michael to follow him and we were off. (I reasoned that if he went over the edge we'd have enough time to stop and not follow him over....snort)

We literally followed that semi's tailights for 40 miles until we were over the pass. If he had not been there, we would have slept on the side of the road at the top of the mountain. I had packed our van in case that happened, so we were prepared, but still, who wants to sleep on the side of the highway? In a blizzard?

Anyways, we had a....

We had an hour delay going back over because they were doing avalanche clearing but no other big events. And it was a beautiful trip:)

Blessings,