An Early Christmas

This past weekend we traveled to Tennessee to have an early Christmas with the Jensens. Because I am unable to travel around the end of December we decided to celebrate the first weekend of this month to make sure we were all together and I was not (hopefully) going to go into labor! It all worked out perfectly and we had the best weekend! Gary and Gayla have pulled up roots in Kentucky and moved about 15 minutes away from Zach and Mandy's house, which we are incredibly excited about! We had Christmas at their house Friday night and even though they are still not completely moved in and settled, Gayla had the entire house decorated and looking like they have been there for years. It was so wonderful! We had a great dinner together Friday night after we arrived and the kids were beyond ready to tear into their presents afterward! All the kids received so many nice gifts...lots and lots of very fun toys! Ella-Ann loves her Easy Bake Oven (we made fondue in it today), roller skates, bean bag, art and jewelry kits and everything else she opened, as did Rane! I asked for bean bags for the kids this year because I knew they would enjoy them throughout the years and they really need their own seats in this house. Rane loves his and will just curl up on it with his blanket and relax. He got a lot of cars and tools and a Mr. Potato Head with like 50 million pieces and he has played with it all nonstop. He carries around his drill and flashlight all waking hours....even to run errands today! It's fun to watch him gravitate toward "boy" toys now and I find it super cute that he carries around tools and cars at all times.

Friday night all the kids, poor Gary and Gayla I don't think they realized what they were getting into, stayed at their house. Spencer and I went back to Zach and Mandy's house to spend the night and have a blissful, peaceful night sleep! It was awesome! Mandy called Gary Saturday morning and was told the kids were up at 5:45 a.m.! Whew, glad they weren't with us!

Saturday we hung around Mandy's house and the kids just played with all their new stuff. Carter received the game "Guess Who" and they played that over and over and over all day. We gave Ethan a mini Dyson vacuum and it is a very good thing I bought Rane one for Christmas because once he saw it he never let go of it the entire afternoon and I am not exaggerating at all. If anyone else tried to play with it he would pitch a fit like I have never, ever seen him do before! He was LIVID if anyone touched it. Rane would go running after whoever took his vacuum and would scream "VACUUM RANE!!!! VACUUM RANE!!!" It was the first time we have ever heard him say his own name, let alone use it in a possessive form! ha! He always likes to follow me around when I vacuum so I figured I would just get him one of his own because he often tries to steal mine!

I received a Dyson as well as a big birthday/Christmas present from Gary and Gayla. I am over the moon about it and I wanted it put together as soon as we walked in the door Sunday afternoon! I was vacuuming up pine needles after we put up our tree yesterday afternoon (we decorated it tonight...what a treat with Rane) and wanted to do a vacuuming dance I was so excited about that machine! I vacuumed the entire house today: furniture, under tables, cracks and crevices, etc. and I may just get it out tomorrow and do it again for fun!

Thanks again Gary, Gayla, Zach, Mandy, Craig and Kasey for everything and all you did for us! We had a blast!

I only posted a few pictures below so click HERE to view all of them.

I love this picture of the big kids!

Gary tried to eat a slice of red velvet cake but the little wolves descended upon him so quickly that he didn't even eat a single bite! Rane eventually ended up in his lap!