Christmas morning

Another successful Christmas at the Jones household. I think everybody got everything they even imagined this year. We must have all been pretty good boys and girls!! We have a lot to be grateful for!! So sad it's already come and gone!!

Drake feeling a little embarrassed about his "boxer briefs"

he found in his stocking..he couldn't quite

believe that Santa would give him underwear!

(pretty funny kid--he was just cracking up when he opened them up)

Charly with her new "mirror piano" --the top item on her list!

I must have been extra good this year(I've tried for many years to be this good, so I'm glad Santa finally figured it out) THis was the most amazing gift ever!! I'm still learning all about it but am amazed every day what crazy things it can do!! I can't wait to learn more!! Thanks Santa---you're the best!!

2010----here we COME!!!!!

The Big SURPRISE!

We had the greatest SURPRISE this Christmas Eve. Mike's sister Natalie was the only one not going to be there this year for Christmas. We were all really bummed and actually quite upset that they weren't coming. There were all kinds of excuses but none good enough, this was the one year where we could all be together, and may not happen for a very long time! Well it turned out that we all had a very special visitor that night. All of a sudden comes here comes Santa climbing up Garrett's back stairs up to the door in his backyard. Everybody seems really confused and the question of "who is that?" kept going around? Nobody had seemed to know this Santa, yet this Santa knew everybody's name. Hmmmm, this Santa is really good whoever it is? Well after he took care of the kids with lots of treats he asked for Pam and Wes to have a seat by him. He asked them a couple questions, one being "So do you have everyone in your family here tonight?" And of course we said no, Natalie is missing--she wasn't able to come." So Santa had everyone take a look out the back window and low and behold ---Natalie and Fam walked in from the garage to the kitchen and surprised everyone there. SO Brandon was the actual Santa even though none of us had a clue it was him. He put on a pretty good show--fooled us! So we had a great Christmas Eve with the whole Jones Family that night. Thanks to Natalie and Brandon for making the trip and a successful SURPRISE!!!

Family Pic

Garrett and Stacey's family of 8--

-look at all the beautiful girls!!

Baby Austyn and Aunt Jaclyn

Stacey, Garrett, Jenn and Luke

Gabbie did an amazing job on her piano performance...she is getting to be quite the pianist.

all the cousins in awe with her performance

Baby Belle and Mamie

Our sweet little ANGELS....

Charly, Taylor, and Tessa

Drake(in the background), Wesley, Tyler, and Ben

Stacey with a few of her girls--Aubrey, Taylor and Tessa

The Jones Family(minus the kids)

Camera experiment..

So my brother-in-law, Blake, is really good with cameras--not so much myself. I have a pretty nice camera, but I don't know how to use all the cool things it can do. These are just a few pics that Blake got when he was messing around with it. Amazing what kind of crazy pics you can get when you know how to use it--maybe someday I'll learn!

This was my first time trying these. They are known as cake balls. They are so cute so I thought I'd try them out--they were actually very easy and are pretty tasty too.

Santa's Lap!

Charly was very brave this year and listened very closely to what Santa had told her she needed to do to be able to get the things she was asking for.

Girls Day out!

My friend Rachel and I have little girls 2 days apart. They really don't have much of a choice to be friends. They will have to be friends no matter what--it's just how it goes when your Mom's are friends. It's a good thing these two little squirts love each other!! Jocelyn and Charly are the best of friends!! They are both at such fun ages where they are in love with anything princess! Rachel and I arranged for a day with the princesses at Disney on Ice. We got to go out to breakfast and have blueberry pancakes and hot chocolate and most important we got to see some of their favorite princesses. Let's just say these 2 girls were in Heaven! A dream come true. It was so fun to see their little faces light up when they'd spot another beautiful dress! It was good to get away from all the boy stuff and just be all girl for a day--especially for the chance to able to enjoy just Charly to myself!! There's just something about those sweet little girls!!