A Random Day

How about a day starting with a morning of ice, a trip through the snow to the desert where we saw a giant sea serpent AND a life and death battle between a grasshopper and a scorpion?

It's just a typical New Year's Eve in Southern California, haha!

So, Cheryl and I started with an early morning run... 5:30am and 37F! It was COLD! The grass and roofs were frosted, and the cars were covered in ice.

While we were gone, Jim was packing up the truck for our trip to the desert.

This is a trip to the DESERT? We certainly didn't expect SNOW!

WELCOME to the Anza Borrego Desert!

A rich guy whose family made their millions by inventing Post-Its paid to have these huge metal statues put up to generate tourism to the little town of Borrego Springs. The statues are scattered throughout the town... it's like being on a scavenger hunt.

Here is the sea serpent. It's HUGE... its humps span the highway!

We also liked the grasshopper vs the scorpion...

Here's Team Grasshopper:

... And here's Team Scorpion:

We also did a little 4-wheeling while we were out there:

Thanks for joining us on our typical Southern California Day!

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2013!
All photos were taken on my Galaxy TAB. I love how easy it is to post to the blog using the TAB!

Christmas Morning Photos...

I said that I would post my Christmas pictures before New Years, so here I go! It's still 8pm on New Year's Eve, so I MADE IT! YAHOO!!!

LOOK!!! Santa was here!

Jena enjoyed herself too!

BTW, we had another visitor with us Christmas morning. Did you see her in the photo of Chris? Merry Christmas, Lita!

After a morning at home, we headed over to Grandma and Papa's house and started all over again!

Merry Christmas! Have a safe New Year's Eve!

It's been a very exhausting day...

Christmas Eve Photos

My goal is to post my Christmas pictures before New Years. Here are some photos of Christmas Eve with family... starting with baking our traditional Christmas cookies:

Followed by our traditional family photo in front of the Christmas tree:

This year's family Christmas Eve party was at my cousin's house. I wanted to share a picture of the food because my friend, Mary, is always interested in what we have for dinner. There were two meats that I missed: salmon and chicken.

Games follow dinner... team Rudolf (Cheryl and I were on Rudolf) against team Frosty (Chris and Jim were on Frosty). Team Rudolf won!

Here are Jim and Cathy on team Frosty, trying to launch a plastic cup onto a bottle.

Guess who won? Team Rudolf! Go Uncle Tom! YAY, team!

Christmas Eve isn't complete without a visit from Santa! Here are the kids waiting for Santa:

Here's Santa! I bet you never saw a Santa like this one... I think he's related to Sponge Bob Square Pants.

Well, I think that's enough pictures to overwhelm everybody! If you made it this far, thanks for sticking to it. Pictures of Christmas Day are coming soon!

More Christmas

Merry Christmas from grandma and papa's house!

Merry Christmas!!!

I'll post more pictures later, but I wanted to jump on and wish all my friends and family a Merry Christmas!!!

Also sharing our annual Christmas ornament:

Merry Christmas, ALL!!!

Happy Christmas Eve

Long time, no post...
It's been a busy couple of weeks at a busy time of year. Here are some photos of picking out our tree, that I haven't had a chance to share yet.

Cheryl says, let's take this one!

Loot at THAT! Jim muscled the tree on top of the van all by himself... not, hehehe.

Chris says, that tree is heavier than it looks!

Getting it ready for the house is the man's job!

All done!

Jena loves being under the tree!

So, I pushed Jena's bed up under the tree for her... But sometimes she has to share with the kids.

Poor, Jena... Sometimes the kids don't share with her...

One more thing before I sign off for the day....
Happy Birthday, Noah!!!

It's Card Kit Time!!!

Only five days to Christmas! Are you READY?!!!

It's time for our December Kit Club reveal. This month's kit is by Mara! It was full of fun bright colors!

Here is what I created:

I made two birthday cards... I'll need some birthday cards coming up real soon!

This one came together very quickly using the stickers from the kit:

I'm in the Christmas mood, so even though this isn't a Christmas-y kit, I took it on myself to make a couple Christmas tags:

That's it for the 2012 card kit! I can't wait to see what 2013 brings!!!
Oh, and don't forget to visit the rest of the girls:

Hostess - Mara, Joni, Diane
Hostess Mary, Beth, Terri