Priceless!

A trip to Costco with a lizard in your purse on December 23rd, because you're afraid it might die in the car...$140. The look on his face in the morning when he gets a pet lizard from Santa that Mom swore he would never get in a million years so he quit asking a year ago..Priceless! (Meet our new pet named Scales)
Monkey jams $12 (thanks Grandma!) & a baby doll set that has a stroller, playpen, highchair...that you realize at 2 AM is going to take 'til 3:30 AM to assemble... $32.
Lego train that really moves, but that your 7 year old built in a couple hours (not enough to keep him busy for our entire Christmas vacation-darn!) ...$79
The look on her face as she sits in her baby's high chair (you're going to break it Abbey!)...Priceless!
Keeping them busy enough Christmas Day to knock them out cold on Christmas night...PRICELESS!

Christmas Morning

For the second year in a row, Abbey loves playing with Grandma's chocolate box.

For the first year EVER, I actually like my Christmas tree. My old tree cost $20 at Walgreens, if that gives you any idea of how nice it was. I would set the old one up on a big rubbermaid container with a blanket on top of it, to add some extra height. It looked really funny in our old house with the huge vaulted ceiling. This year I actually spent more than $5 on Christmas decorations, which made a huge difference I think.
Christmas morning we went over to Pulsipher's for breakfast. The Webb's and Sanchez's were there and the kids (and Dads) had a blast riding Brooke's doone buggy. She was nice enough to share her Christmas present with everyone. They were getting serious air! As you can see, the weather doesn't exactly scream Christmas! I was so glad we went over there or we would have been really bored and lonely on Christmas Day. Bronson and Casey came over Christmas afternoon and we played Mario Bro's and had appetizers. That's my new tradition...no heavy cooking on Christmas Day and stay in your jams.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Christmas Eve we had our friends Erik and Chareese over and Brodie's mission companion Carl and his wife Chantel. The kids played reindeer games outside in the freezing California winter.

Callie, Tallen, Kelsee, Payson, Crew

This is our attempt at a family picture in front of the tree. You should have seen the other ones.
Our little Abbey girl was a huge grouch on Christmas Eve. She was pouting and wouldn't let anyone touch her or play with her. Her cheeks were super rosy and dry that night, kind of like mine were at her age.
Of course we had to read " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" like Grandpa Bruce always does. We weren't lonely this Christmas Eve 'cause we decided to invite some friends over. Imagine that! Brodie was sick as a dog, so I stayed up til all hours wrapping presents, etc. At 2 AM I thought I was done except for one little box to open and get out for Abbey. Little did I know it would take me 90 minutes to put it together. So I watched a movie while I did it, and got my magical middle of the night burst of energy. I cleaned everything so it would be perfect in the morning. At 4 AM I went to bed and actually had a hard time falling asleep. Its times like that that I was really wishing there was a Harker around to stay up with me and join in the craziness!

Abbey is 2!

Bronson, Keelia, Payson, Casey, and Payton were all at the party. It was Thanksgiving weekend. Jesse and Tina had just left.
Casey, Keelia and I didn't know if we could pull off the Dora cake, but we didn't do too bad...
Abbey got a new baby, stroller (thanks Bronson and Casey!), and a Dora backpack. Now we can throw her old broken stroller in the trash! We obviously have been feeding into her Dora the Explorer obsession. She started out calling her "Dee-dah", but now she says Dora. She is starting to say all the character names. For a while Swiper was "Bowzer" for some reason, and Benny is Menny. We watch Dora many times a day, especially if Mom is busy.