Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

WOW - these last two weeks have really flown by. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all at the same time I guess. We hope everyone had a great time celebrating Jesus' birthday. We had a lot of fun! We were gone a lot though - but saw a lot of family so it was nice! And isn't it crazy that it is already 2010? CRAZY! Below are a lot of pictures from our last couple weeks. You will get a good idea what we have been up to.

We went to Mayfair Mall to see Santa. We both did a great job. Sat nice on his lap, didn't cry and I (Grant) talked with him a bit. I told him Merry Christmas and that I would like a baseball glove for Christmas. After I got done with all the talking he looked at Alayna as if to say "and what would you like?" and she gave him a blank look like "I'd love to pull on your white beard...who are you again?" After Alayna didn't say anything he looked at Mommy and asked if we were twins...he was wondering why I was taking all the talk time and not letting Alayna say anything. HA! Silly Santa. I thought he knew everything!

Great Grandma Schmidt's Christmas was the weekend before Christmas

The weather made a dent in our original Christmas plans this year, but it all worked out. We had to plan ahead though just in case we couldn't get back home. We went to Grandpa and Grandma Kok's house on the 23rd and before we left we put out cookies & milk for Santa and a few carrots for the reindeer.

Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma Kok's

This is the towel Alayna was supposed to get at G&G Kok's house, but Mommy ordered it too late so it came right to us. It even has her name on it! COOL!

Merry Christmas to Briana. Can you imagine being at the real birthday party for Jesus in Heaven? That would be an awesome sight I'm sure!

Christmas Eve after church.

I got to have CANDY CANES. These are GREAT! Why haven't I had these before? Grandma Kok had some just my size.

Check it out...weed eater with goggles and new rain boots for spring. Now I can really help daddy outside. Thanks Grandma and Papa!

Do you like our stockings? Mommy really wanted Briana to have a stocking too, but wasn't sure what to do about it until she was talking about it with Grandma Kok. She suggested a great idea of what we could put in hers every year. See - every year Mommy buys a present that would have been something Briana would have loved to have gotten that year and donates it. This year Briana would have loved a Mommy & Me doll with blond pig tails which we donated to Toys for Tots and a learning Laptop which we donate to Children's Hospital. So our new tradition for Briana's stocking is to keep a running list each year that says what we bought and donated in memory of Briana. Now every year when Alayna and I open our stocking stuffers it will be fun to look back at what Briana's list has grown to include.

Our Christmas jammies

My baseball glove....from SANTA :)

Alayna's Tinkerbell chair - think she likes it? :)

And now on to our New Year festivities. We went to Grandma and Papa's place up north for a few days. Daddy did some snowmobiling and we got to spend a lot of time playing with our cousins. We had lots of fun. Daddy took me on my first snowmobile ride around the yard. It was COLD outside, but I had so much fun. I did NOT want to come in...I cried. Who cares if I can't feel my cheeks - let's ride again!

Uncle Chad reading to all of us.

Then New Years Day we all went to an indoor waterpark about 20 mins from Grandma & Papa's place. It was a small waterpark, but a lot of fun for us. I loved it and so did Alayna.

Grandma said she's never seen me smile this much in one day :)