Holiday Fun

Here is a glimpse of how we spent the rest of our holiday season. Grandpa and Grandma Jackson came to town. We went on lots of adventures (hiking, rode the train to Santa Fe, River of Lights) and played and played. A lot!

Christmas Morning

Christmas afternoon actually- just these two shots though.






















I got a charcoal stove! I have wanted one of those for years (for dutch oven cooking).

Allie made soap for Jason has her gift to him. The boys got a road mat that they could drive their cars around on. They love it!


































Luke made an ornament with his photo in it. We hung it next the one Jason made when he was little. They are twins- separated at birth and by about 30 years.

I love the little candle holder Luke made for me! See the photo above! A very Merry Christmas!

Blogger is making me crazy! The format in the edit and preview window is NOT the same as appears in the publish window. Ugh!

Christmas Eve 2011

I have no idea why the photos are arranged as they are?! I am tired of fiddling with this so who knows what it will look like when we go to publish this post. This was Christmas Eve. We got to have uncle Sam with us! Luke took off the last link of his paper chain he made at school (do you remember making those?!) We went to church with our neighbors/good friends that evening. Allie got to be in the pageant. It was such a nice evening and program and we really enjoyed it. We came home and read Luke 2 while acting out the story with our wooden nativity blocks. We let the kids open one gift- New PAJAMAS! They were all excited to get their own footsie pajamas.

On a side note- I love my flameless candles! So fun!

Why of course!

It is the first day of winter break. The snow is softly falling. You have had your hot chocolate. What should you do now? How about take your clean bedding and make a little nest in some dirty old wheelbarrows to watch the snow fall.

These socks stayed on

Let the Holiday Season Begin!

We are just going to ignore the fact that we are a little behind here and just pretend this has been posted for a month already.

The beginning of December brought snow! The perfect snowman making kind of snow. We went on a family walk to the park to build a snowman. We decided it was a mom and her child. We had such a fun Saturday as a family and it was one of the last times we saw Jason until Christmas. He went to work later that same day and then pretty much never came home for an entire month.
After that it was on to a local shopping area (we arrived on foot- so fun to walk in the snow)! They had gingerbread cookies to decorate, Santa Claus to meet with and Jingles the Clown to see (we are pretty sure that Santa and Jingles are an item).
If Jingles the Clown rings a bell (pun intended- ha!) it is because we have met her several times. Several. (We don't have photos of her from the State Fair but that is her artwork on their face.)
http://moregrowingpaynes.blogspot.com/2008/09/zoo-night.html
http://moregrowingpaynes.blogspot.com/2011/09/nm-fall-countdown.html

Thanksgiving Adventures (Part 2)

We apparently didn't take any pictures during Thanksgiving, just before and after. On our adventure trip home we went to Goblin Valley. I have always wanted to got there. I thought it would be a fun place to take our kids. Boy was I wrong. It wasn't fun- it was A BLAST!!! We absolutley LOVED IT! Seriously soooo super fun! Seriously.

Which is why there are now a thousand photos for your viewing pleasure.
[Jason here: So, if you are ever in the desert and dying of thirst, pull out the best piece of survival hydration gear: a 3-year old. They will always find water - and fall into it - and cry. Time after parched desert time.]

Guess who found a very cold pool of water. And fell in up to his elbows.
And lastly, there was a beautiful sunset on the way home. This is me (Joy) in the passenger seat holding as still as possible in a van going 60mph. This is a picture of the moon and Jupiter which turned out rather interesting in an artistic way (at least to me).
Can you tell which is which?