A fun day with Gunnar

Gunnar spent part of the day with us yesterday and we had such a great time. We went bowling, played in the arcade, aet lunch at McDonalds, played in the playland area, and played Wii. What a great day it was. Gunnar is so nice to Jack and Lauren, especially for the difference in age. We can't wait to play with him again really SOON! Lauren used the ramp most of the time bowling...she got a spare one of the times she didn't use it, though. No one could believe it when she got the high score of 102! Way to go!!
The ever-so-modest, Jack jumping for joy with a good roll.

After bowling, we went to the arcade.
Love this one!

While the kids and I were out, Jason and Jeremy were at our house with several chainsaws and lots of testosterone!! Look what they did to our yard!!!

I love it! It really opens it up. The kids will enjoy a bit more grass once it is put in and I will enjoy more plants and flowers!

Christmas at the Redings

For our last hurrah, we went to Jane and John's house for one final Christmas celebration. We had such a nice afternoon with presents, delicious dinner and games. Once again, we were all spoiled rotten!

Each year Michelle, Lauren's godmother, carves her a special ornament. It is so nice to have a new one each year. Thanks Michelle, I know that those take a long time, but we all LOVE them!!

Lauren, Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Liz!

Checking out the new carved Santa that Grandma and Grandpa made for Lauren. Very cool!!

And Jack with his newly carved Santa!

christmas at the "boathouse"

We had Christmas in Portland this year. We ALL were spoiled with gifts, great food and lots of love on Christmas! What a great Christmas it was!!

Lauren named her doll Lauren because she said it looked just like her!!

Christmas morning

Jack is an early riser, so we told him that he couldn't get out of his room until his clock said 6:00. Right at 6 AM, he came running into our room so excited for Christmas morning. I asked him what time he woke up. Thinking he would get in trouble, he started crying and told me that his clock said 4-something and he couldn't go back to sleep.He was so excited, he just couldn't sleep. Lauren came into our room at 6:15, so before 6:30 we had already started our Christmas. Jack loved his star wars toys.
Light Saber fights.

Jason had just as much ,if not more fun, than Jack with these.
Lauren loved her new dollhouse!

Opening presents!

I had to take a big deep breath before posting this post (and others to follow) because we have done SO much the last few days. I tried to take a lot of pictures because the kids and I like to look back at these and enjoy the memories, but WOW, there are a lot of pics. Please bare with the typos and grammatical errors as I am trying not to spend too long posting.
This Christmas was the best yet. What great ages to enjoy Christmas. I was so impressed with Jack and Lauren. They really enjoyed watching each other open presents, sharing their new toys and seemed very grateful for what Satna and family members got them...even the boxes with clothes in them were warmly appreciated! =)
My favorite part of Christmas was when Jack and Lauren were going through their stockings. Jack tore through his quickly and Lauren took each thing out, examined it and played with it before moving on. After Jack pulled everything out, he noticed that he receieved new markers. Then he looked toward Lauren and said, "Oh no, Lauren. I think Santa made a mistake. I know that you asked for markers on your wish list, but Santa accidently put your markers inside my stocking. Here are the markers that were in my stocking. You can have them. I know you REALLy wanted that for Christmas." Well, that is what it is all about, isn't it? Jack and Lauren are both so sweet to each other. Sometimes, I am shocked by how well they get along and play together!
Sit back and enjoy the 100 pictures that are posted below....yikes!! Here is what we did the day before and on Christmas Eve! What fun....

Jack watching his santa video.
Making gingerbread houses...

Shocking, Jack didnt' want to get too messy so Jason got to help with some of the frosting.

Lauren enjoyed building her gingerbread house, but not as much as eating all the candy and frosting. She was so funny...she would look around and think no one was watching her and "sneak" bites ALL the time. Can't say that I blame her!

So cute and so proud of his house....

Ta-da was what lauren was saying when I took this picture.

Lauren was SO excited to go with Auntie Amy to get red sparkle nail polish and green sparkle toe polish the day before Christmas Eve. Amy told me that while she was getting her mani/pedi, Lauren sat very still and loved each moment!

On Christmas Eve, the kiddos enjoyed decoating Christmas cookies. They were excited to know that they could eat some and leave some out for Santa.

We had to get to church an hour early this year as Jack got to be in the Christmas "play." He was a shepherd. Jack did a great job and we were so proud of him! We are so lucky to have such amazing families...everyone from BOTH sides of the family came to Mass to watch Jack in his Christmas play debut. He did great. Lauren was so excited when she got sit up on the alter during the homily. Fr. Craig asked the children a lot of questions and Lauren had her hand rasied the ENTIRE time to answer them....she was never called on, but I really would have like to know what she would have said if she was. On the other hand, Jack just listened to Fr. Craig and told me he aswered the questions in his head, so he didn't have to raise his hand to answer. =)

What a cute little shepherd...

Lauren was so excited to watch Jack and can't wait to be an angel next year.

After Mass, we went to Michelle and Adam's house to visit.

Jack and Lauren are SO excited that their new little cousin is growing in Aunt Shelley. We can't wait for the arrival of baby Mauss in July!!!!

When we got back from Michelle and Adam's, Jack and Lauren ate dinner and opened presents from Mommy and Daddy.

Jason and I even got two special presents from Jack and Lauern from school! They were so excited for us to open them and neither told us what we were getting!

Lauren looking pretty serious playing her leapster.

Ready to set out cookies for Santa.

Jack started a new tradition in our house. For the past two years, we have had two trees and Jack is concerned that Santa won't know where to go. So, we have put out footprints to show Santa where the trees are and where the stockings are hung. We would hate it if Santa was confused!!

Cutting out footprints.

Jack rested easy Christmas Eve Night knowing Santa knew the way.