Christmas at Sky Valley

There are just too many pictures from Christmas to post them all at once. So I'm working backwards in time. Let me 1st tell THE Christmas 2010 Sky Valley Experience in words :-)

This year was definitely the most memorable. There were some up's and downs... but it was definitely memorable to say the least. It started Saturday (Christmas) morning with packing up to head on up to Sky Valley to spend time with the Fords. Let me clarify something: Jeff's parents and his brother/sis-in-law live locally but we enjoy some time away at my in-law's mountain home at Christmas. So around 12:30 we finished packing up and headed on up. Jeff was proud to have a new trailer hitch on his camry and had recently scored a great little cargo trailer off of Craigslist for pretty cheap so that in his words "we can pack all the crap we want to and not run out of space!". This is pretty exciting when it comes to packing up a toddler, especially a toddler who just got spoiled by santa and wants to play with her new toys. So lots of them came with us in the nifty trailer.

Ronni (my mil) had called just before we left to make sure we were headed out soon since they already had a COUPLE of inches of snow up there (by noon!) CRAZY! The roads were fine. That is, until about 2 miles from their home. All of the sudden we hit an area that had not been scraped by the snow plow's recently. Jeff had been driving very slowly (mostly to keep me from having a panic attack) which i very much appreciated. But when we hit the snowy area, we couldnt get traction b/c we were going slowly. Let me spare you all of the details and just say this: I have never been so scared in a car in my life. I prayed for Jesus's protection on our little family and was so grateful that Rhyan was doing so well in the back (not fussing which would have added to the stress). I cried and prayed and cried and prayed until we finally made it into the development of sky valley. There was a hill that we'd have to go down to get to the Fords home and it was at the point that we got to the top of that hill that i told jeff to stop. I had had enough. I told him i was walking the rest of the way! So i bundled up Rhyan and myself, Jeff wrapped spud in a blanket and we all walked down the short hill to their home. They were looking out the window and saw us walking down. Let me just say that my anger/fear dissipated quickly when we finally saw the family. And keep in mind I was only scared out of my brains for about 10 minuts of a 2 hour drive. I'm a bit dramatic about it all, i know :-)

OK, so we got there and immediately started enjoying the snow! And from here I'll let the pics tell some of the story!

Jeff wanted to make a snowman! (notice our car/trailer in the neighbor's driveway... he ended up making it down the hill to get our stuff to the house. lol)

SNOWBALL FIGHT!

Spud made some "yellow snow"

Ok, so after enjoying the snow, we ate dinner and then got into the presents! FUN! Btw, just for memory sake, Rhyan only slept about 45 minutes on the drive up and seeing as how we left right around her nap time and she normally naps 2-3 hours, this was not going to work for a late evening. So she napped from 5:30-6:3-ish and got up for dinner/gifts. This was a bit unconventional for her, but it worked for the day :-) And her nap gave us time to play outside!

So, while we opened presents, I didnt get many pics. Why? B/c i either get pics OR video of events and since i knew my SIL Liz would get great pics, i recorded in video our fun night. So i've copied some of her pics from the evening for my blog :-) Thanks, Liz! You're the best!

Santa's little helper :-)

A random gift from me that we missed at home that morning. So we brought it along...

I swear... she's ADDICTED to those fingers (we're working on that and its better, i promise!)

Having fun with Uncle Jason

Jeff's incredible snow angel!

The girls in our matching P.J's (fun idea, Liz!)

Now, on to Sunday. We really enjoyed just relaxing all day by the fire. Eating. Napping. Eating. Watching TV. That was pretty much the day. It was nice!

Such a great little cleaner :-)

Then, it was time for some pics in the snow! Rhyan took one look at it and said "burrrr"!

My FAVORITE family pic! Poor Rhyan can barely see out of her hat, but overall this is great! (Um, if only we could get jeff out of plaid! geez man, come into this decade!) Serious props to Jeff for letting me have my Nikkon for Mothers Day... it takes great pics on a timer!

Then, we headed back inside for some more RELAXING! Jason and Liz left shortly after all of the snow pics and so we spent the day vegetating.

UNTIL Sunday night when I woke up at around 4:30 am FREEZING. Ok, i'm really not being dramatic about the freezing part. The thermostat's battery had quit working so the heat had turned off. Long story short, we never did get it back on and by the time we got up Monday Morning it was 51 degrees. FIFTY ONE! Inside!!!!! AHH!. We considered waking Rhyan up and moving upstairs (it has a separate heating unit that was working) but she was sleeping fine and would be getting up soon, so we just put a heavy blanket on her and we snuggled back up until time to get up. Seriously, i was dying for a catheter that night... this preggo girl needed to go potty... but REFUSED! haha.

We got up and packed (faster than we've ever packed before!) and headed on home. It did take Jeff and his dad pushing our car to get us out of the sky valley development, but overall the drive home was fine.

So, see why this year was so memorable?! Lots of things I'm grateful for after this year, but family ranks right on up there with HEAT :-) Hope yours was as great as ours was, if not slightly warmer :-)

Christmas Morning: Santa Came!

I was so excited this year for Christmas. I anticipated Rhyan being in awe of all that santa would bring her, gasping and jumping in to play with all the toys. Well, she definitely has shown over the last few weeks that she really does love all that santa brought, but she was a little overwhelmed, i think, on Christmas morning :-) I totally forgot to grab a pic of everything all together before she got into it, so i'll give a quick rundown of all he brought her. A leggo table and chairs, ball pit and a grocery cart were her "big" things. He also brought her some puzzles, books, bath bubbles, 2 outfits, a coat, some boots and a few other little things in her stocking like beaded necklaces, socks, crayons, etc. It sounds like overkill, i know. It probably was seeing as how family spoiled her rotten, as well. But its hard to stop santa! :-)

We got up and let her dig into the toys and then had breakfast. Here are some pics of her enjoying her new things!

Jeff and I gave Rhyan 2 gifts: this baby doll and a rocking chair that Jeff had as a kid!

After breakfast, Jeff and I exchanged gifts. Can i just say that he SPOILED me this year? I had asked (or not so gently hinted around by leaving pics up on the computer) for a laptop. But it was not in the price range. But somehow, we both got WAY out of our price ranges this year!?!
He had kept acting like it was ridiculous to get a laptop and that all we needed to do was get our desktop (our 9 year old desktop) looked at. Sadly, i agreed. But still continued to make a case for a laptop... hoping he'd give in. Well, he did! Imagine my surprise when i opened THE laptop i had asked for. YAY! He also gave me a case for it, a thing for it to sit on when its on my lap (what is that called? he said i need it so its not on my stomach b/c he doesnt want to take chances of this kid i'm growing having a tail or something... HA!), some maternity clothes (which i actually bought for him to give me), 2 pairs of crocs to wear to work and a stocking full of yummy goodies. Seriously, i dread paying off the credit card, but am SO grateful for him putting such thought into all of my gifts. Especially since my backup list consisted of a bread pan, a book and crocs. lol.

Jeff's list is a little different b/c he bought a couple of things on his own for himself b/c he said i couldnt get what he wanted. He was probably right. He wanted a trailer hitch for the camry and a cargo trailer which he got off of craigslist. So those two he did on his own. I got for him a car jack, a book, 4 outfits for work, 2 pairs of shoes and some things for his bike that he had asked for. The sad thing? I couldnt pick up the car jack to bring it inside to wrap b/c it weighed 45lbs so i "hid" it in the garage. But apparently i didnt hide it very well so he found it. So i just skipped bringing it in or wrapping it or anything. :-( haha.

Well, i dont have any pics from us opening our gifts this year. Only of Rhyan! Sad. but hopefully you can envision what a blessed morning it was.

But in all seriousness, mr and mrs clause have GOT to keep it under control next year. We're going to have 2 kids after all! Lumps of coal for us :-)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is a BIG deal with my family. For as long as I can remember, the entire family has gathered at Mommie's house on Christmas eve for lots of yummy finger foods and fun. Until a couple of years ago, we all exchanged gifts... but our family has grown so large that none of us can afford it anymore! So now, we eat and play the "white elephant" game (aka: dirty santa). It's been a blast for us and is something i look forward to each year. But before we head to Mommie's house, my little family hangs out with my Mom for a bit to exchange our gifts. Mama seriously spoiled Rhyan ROTTEN this year... she doesnt know when to stop shopping! Here are some pics from Mama's house!

Here, Rhyan is checking out the outfits Mama gave her. Bella wanted in on the action, too!

One of the many toys she got this year. This is one of her favorites!

Our little present :-)

Helping deliver presents to Grammy... this one must have been heavy! lol!

Mama opening her sewing box. We also gave her a sweater and two pictures. An 8x10 of Rhyan and a 5x7 of us...

Once again, I dont have pics of the gifts Mama gave us but she was super sweet to give us some clothes that we both needed. We really appreciated them!
Then, we headed over to Mommies house. Rhyan really did great for the most part, but what would Christmas be without the occasional meltdown?!? hahaha~

Opening a gift from Lindy. She loved this purse... especially the lipstick in it!

Shlaine (And her fam) and My family gave Mommie a digital picture frame filled with pics of the family. Here, everyone is checking it out (and laughing at some of the OLD pics we uploaded!)

THEN, the white elephant game began. Mama drew #1 so she picked the 1st gift. Needless to say, this gift did not get stolen and actually it ended up coming home with us!

Poor Ashley had drawn #4 and had SEVERAL things stolen from her. In fact, this bag came home with ME!

Jeff got this picture of Tyler posing by his truck and actually loved it...

...but Mommie ended up stealing it and so he came home with this...

Rhyan liked all the tissue paper better than anything! She laughed and played for a while in it!

We took the opportunity to grab a couple of family pics. Here is the Cain Family.

And my little family (where is my mom? probably cleaning up already...)

Shlaine's family (woohoo for Shlaine not closing her eyes in a pic!)

and the entire family!

Mommie showing off her sexy legs w/ my cousins Ashley and Tyler

The girls showing off our sexiness :-)

Mommie and her only son (my uncle) Jonathan

Mama and Mommie wanted to give Rhyan a rocking horse this year... she was trying to figure out what to think about it!

I think she likes it!

I was so excited that this year went so well. All of our family got along without any arguments which is a Christmas miracle in itself :-) (yes, my family is a little coo-coo). We had a wonderful time of enjoying one another. And even though my family may be a little different from most, I a so grateful for the relationship I and my family share with each of them. They are ALL so special to me and to have a night to enjoy them all was wonderful :-) Its something Jeff and I look forward to each year. I just hope Rhyan grows up enjoying the madness as much as we do!