Merry Christmas

Christmas morning was fantastic. I thought Michelle was too young for the waking up early routine, but nope. I have no idea why but she woke up practically two hours earlier than usual, but by 7:30 she was awake and ready to go. (Maybe she knew it was going to take forever for her to unwrap all her presents, since two took over an hour.) The picture above is her with the goodies out of her stocking.

Here she is with one of her gifts from Santa.

Just a cute picture of Michelle after opening some gifts.

She definitely loves boxes.



Michelle with cute new jeans her cousin Ashton sent to her. The belt is definitely a bonus.

Mommy with a pretty new earing and necklace set from Grandma Thornton

Santa sure must know Daddy because he brought him four Stephen's Hot Chocolate mixes and and a new Hot Cocoa maker.

Michelle with a new book from Grandma Thornton about Noah's Ark.

Michelle must have been an awful good girl this year because we found this great big stocking outside our house that was just for her.

She fit in the stocking really nice. Having her home is the best gift Daddy and I could have, sappy but true.

Michelle with her walker that Grandma Thornton brought. She was so excited the whole time we were putting it together and she ended up getting mad at us because we took so long to make it.

Daddy with his new bathrobe that Mommy got him. Doesn't it look so warm and cozy.

Daddy with a cool Boise State Broncos jacket from Michelle, Grandpa McCracken, Grandma McCracken, and Tino.This is just the candy that Santa brought us. We got even more from family and friends. Can we say we like candy?

Playing with some of her new toys.

Snuggling with Mommy.

Our tree at the end of the day with some of our new gifts.

Our Christmas this year was absolutely fantastic. We have been reminded of how truly blessed we are to have the family and friends that we have. No matter what life puts in front of us we are never alone. We have also been reminded how much of a blessing our sweet little Michelle is and how special each day at home with her is.

Merry Christmas.

One More Tradition

So a tradition I had as kid (and a million others did too I'm sure) was driving around and looking at Christmas lights Christmas Eve. Well we decided to take Michelle out this year and here she is getting ready to go. She really did love the drive around town looking at all the really pretty lights.

A Christmas Surprise

Well I got a super big Christmas surprise. I worked the night shift on Friday and when I got off early Saturday morning I sent Christine a text message wishing her a Happy Birthday. When I came home I decided to take a different route which had me coming towards our house from the opposite direction. I am telling you this small detail so you will understand my confusion. As I was pulling up to what I thought was my house I saw a car in the driveway that was not mine. I instantly got really confused. Then I got really excited because I figured out it was Mom and Dad's car. But then I got really confused again because I knew that they had plans at home for Tino's birthday. So I got really nervous that I had just pulled up to some stranger's house and was about to walk in, so I looked at the house number and low and behold it was my house. They had given me a big Christmas surprise. (I have in my defense being awake for over 24 hours straight and coming home from a different direction).

While they were at our house I decided to be selfish and have them open our presents to them so we could see their reaction. So there is Dad with the electronic Sudoku.

Mom with her new Lion's House Cookbook from Jana and I.

Here is Tino with her tool kit.

Michelle with the new clothes they brought her.

Our brand new Camp Chef. Oh I can't wait to use this. Yummy

Oh the Joy of Christmas

Well we had another early Christmas. Michelle's wonderful nurse Teddy brought over Michelle's gifts early, Dec. 18. I am never quite sure who is more excited, Michelle or me. Well, I guess it is pretty obvious that I am the more the excited of the two of us. But it is so fun to watch her. The two presents Teddy got her took more than an hour for her to open. She kept getting distracted with hitting the present and make that cool paper noise. Or as soon as she would get a piece of paper ripped off she would have to take the time to play with that piece of paper. Then of course she has taste every present and decide whether it is an edible present.

Who can get impatient with a smile like that?

Yep, here come the piranha teeth again.

I should probably not encourage her to chew on the wrapped presents, since I was getting wrapping paper out of her mouth all night. But hey, it works for her.

Wild hair, I know. I don't even think I put it pigtails that day. She just has the hair of a wild thing.

Here she is with Teddy enjoying the cool new things she got. The two presents were the coolest little book that the has an animation effect with the pictures when you turn the pages (the animals move.) The other gift was a laptop for kids. Perfect. Now while I do my thing with my computer she can do her thing with her computer, (but I have a funny feeling she will still try to help me.)

More Traditions

Monday night we decided to start another new tradition. We went to the Gardens with Toby and Tammy to see all the Christmas lights. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Our winter cabin, it is definitely cozy.

Even though it was so cold that night, it was definitely worth it to spend time with family.

Gingerbread Houses

Monday night, after the gardens, Toby and Tammy invited us to the Singles Ward FHE to make Gingerbread (Graham Cracker) houses. You can see that Michelle was very helpful. She really liked the taste of the frosting.

Our house had four walls before Michell-azilla came along and took a wall completely off the framing.

Sorry the picture is blurry, Michelle was helping the photo taker. I'm also sorry it is sideways, I'm just not smart enough to turn it this time.

The 1st Christmas Gifts of the Year

So, I was chastised by "the fam" because I have not made any recent updates. Can you blame us after seeing her do things like try to hide under her big blue cart? She is definitely a super busy little girl.

This last weekend Grandma and Grandpa came to visit. Michelle decided to show off alot while they were here and learned how to wave bye bye and play picaboo (which blew her therapists away this week when they saw her doing two very new things). They also brought us so many presents and I couldn't wait until Christmas to open all of them so Grandma said it was okay that Michelle open two because they were two Christmas dresses.


Michelle was having some difficulty opening her presents so she decided to pull out her razor sharp piranha teeth and get things going.

Isn't she so cute with all her fancy bows? She kept trying to eat these too.

A cute picture of Grandma and Michelle together. Michelle is snuggling with one of her fancy Christmas dresses.

So, kids really do love playing with the boxes after they open the gift. If only I had known that before we had spent all that money on the "developmental" toys. Live and learn.