A Busy Sunday...

Yesterday was quite the day for us, packed with all kinds of fun things! We started out the morning with Church, we had our Christmas service yesterday and it was very nice, dad as always did a wonderful job in his sermon on why Christ came and the kids made some fun things in sunday school with mom!

Afterwards we went to my uncle's house to celebrate Christmas with them. They made a big lunch/dinner of Ham and all kinds of other tasty side dishes! Then it was upstairs to open presents! Mason was all excited and started tearing into things that weren't even his... but we got that straitened out and he and waylon got a Radio Flyer two seater wagon with seat belts and cup holder (I am very excited about this)! They also each got another toy, Mason a school bus with little people and waylon a truck thingy that shoots out balls! Then Ed and I got a wii fit (if you remember my thanksgiving blog and my hula-hooping experience, they noticed how much we enjoyed their wii fit) so now we have one of our own! It was a lot of fun and nice visit with my family!

Then after my uncles we ran home for just long enough to make 2 green bean casseroles, change some diapers and back out the door we went. It was our churches Christmas gathering at Diane's house. That too was a lot of fun, we had a very nice pot luck dinner and did a white elephant gift exchange and sung some Christmas hymns! The kids were quite tired by this point (and we were too) so we headed home got the kids in bed and we too were asleep by 9:30! It was a wonderful day though remembering that Jesus is the reason for this season!

And here's the boys this morning loving their new wagon...

BBC Food Drive

This year at our church we wanted to hold a food drive, I got put in charge of making this happen so I got in touch with a local apartment complex and the manager was so excited because she had 42 families that were in need of food. At first we thought that would just try to get enough food for 10 of them but God then put it on our hearts to try and feed all of them. Through much prayer we were able to feed exactly 42 families, 17 of them got big turkeys (the families with 3-6 people in them) and the other 25 each got a whole chicken and all the goodies you would need for a nice Christmas dinner! It was amazing what our little community and church gathered together for these people. So friday night Ed and I went to costco and bought all the chickens with some money that a kind women donated to us, so we stocked up on those and then on Saturday morning, mom, jeremy, stephanie and I put together all 42 bags/boxes of food and put tracts and recipes in them and got them ready to go and then later on in the day we got some help loading them up and we took them over to the apartments and went to each door and dropped off their meals! So many of them were so extremely grateful, it was an amazing thing we did there and praise God for giving us the ability to do so! I look forward to next year, I'm hoping that now I know what I'm doing a little more I can get a good jump on it and see if we can feed even more families!

Santa Pics- Take 3

Well, at two months old Mason didn't shed a tear for Santa, at 14 months old he cried but suffered through, at 26 months old he can now run so after screaming bloody murder, clinging to my leg and refusing to sit with santa he decided to not participate in the santa picture this year! Oh dear, so we went up to the mall with my mom and sister and my little nephew for what's turning into our santa picture tradition and it really was a disaster! It started out well, it really did, we took all sorts of fun pictures while we waited in line and even when we were next in line and watching the little girl in front of us sit with santa he was all excited... Then Rylan took his picture by himself then we wanted a pic with the three of them but that's when melt down one occurred so I ended up sitting in on the pic with him and therefor ruined that pic and then I was hoping that he would sit with Waylon and take one and melt down two came and then Waylon started his pouty lip and on the verge of tears so ended up just being a sad picture of Waylon alone about to cry! Ugh... oh santa... maybe next year! Afterwards we went to my mom's and the kids opened presents and got to regroup after that wonderful experience!

So far so good...

Then the tears came

But he seems to have forgotten all about it

An Almeida Christmas

This past Friday we did our Almeida Christmas gathering and game! Last year mom broke us into guys against girls, had us wear matching hats and sweatshirts and we had to do a scavenger hunt type thing and take pictures of each event along the way. It was a lot of fun! So when this year came around I couldn't help but wonder what we'd do next?!? So, we met at our house and and we broke into 3 teams. Team Prancer was Me, my father-in-law, my nephew Joe and Mason. And we had to each draw a gift out of a hat and then we were given 50 dollars to go to either Walgreens or Rite Aid and by the 4 gifts and which ever team got closest to 50 without going over won. So our gifts to buy were a keychain, piggy bank, money clip and a book. We went to Walgreens and everyone else went to rite aid! After pretty much having one of the workers there find everything for us we spent 48 dollars and were done in about 10 minutes... we thought we were doing great. So the next part of the plan was to meet at Mandarian Gourmet for dinner (chinese food). We got there first and we're sitting there with our team santa hats on and everyone is staring at us, then mom's team got there (mom, simon, nate and trent) then last but not least, Jen, Ed, Amanda and Waylon arrive! Dinner was fun, we took a group picture and then off to Nate and Jen's to wrap up the game. Well, we lost :-( Ed and Jen's team won first and they got movie gift cards, mom's team got 2nd and won starbucks gift cards and we got 3rd but still got DQ gift cards! Then we distributed the gifts, mom had each of the gifts we picked out, to give to one of us, I got chimes, mason got the piggy bank, ed the money clip and waylon an ornament. It was fun, then we played Catch Phrase and called it a night! Another fun Christmas with the fam!

Shoppin' at Walgreens

"Oh the weather outside is frightful..."

I absolutely love the snow, it flurried a little on Saturday and quickly vanished and then I heard it was supposed to snow all day today and thought "yeah right" because it never does what the weather man says it's going to do. But, to my surprise, it started snowing when we went to bed last night, Sunday and it's still snowing as I write, Monday night! We've got about a foot and half and it's supposed to keep up until midnight! I just love it, it could snow all day every day and I'd be happy... dad plowed the basket ball court area at our house with the tractor and there's literally a mountain of snow there now, it's awesome! I can't wait to get Mason out there and build some snow men, maybe even a whole family with all the snow there is! It was a fun day spent decorating, I even made a wreath, my mother-in-law brought a bunch of decorations and stuff over for me to put up so that was fun to go through! Sadly it's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, but still very cold, I think the high tomorrow is only 28 so hopefully it wont melt away to much snowy goodness :-)

I took these this afternoon, so there's even more than this, it's awesome :-)

Parade of Lights

Saturday night was the big Parade of Lights! I really enjoy this little parade, we've been fortunate enough to get this room that looks out over the street where the parade goes down (because it's FREEZING out there) so mom made Chili and everyone brought cookies and such and it's just a fun time to get together! Mason loved it last year and was just as excited this year, and Waylon as well was just mesmerized by it, they we're so cute, I think I watched their little faces more than I watched the parade!

Time with Trent and Amanda

On Thursday I got to go pick up my niece Amanda and nephew Trent from school, they had a half day and my sister-in-law is going to UNR on Tuesdays and Thursday so she asked if I'd get the kids. I was quite excited I must say! I picked them up and took them to Mickey D's for lunch and then we came home and they played in the tent and played wii and Amanda and I made some play-doh people. Then I took Amanda to dance and watch her do that for awhile, then we came home and ordered some pizza and they put pillows all over the floor and did flips and jumps, Mason was lovin' that. They were both going to stay but Amanda decided to go home, but Trent stayed, so he and Ed played some Ping Pong on wii and had root-beer floats! It was a fun time, I really enjoy when I get to hang out with them, it needs to happen more often :-)

My and Amanda's Play-Doh Family

Playing In The Tent

Amanda's Sweet Hair!

Thanksgiving '09

Ed and I spent Thanksgiving with my family again this year, so the night before we had dinner with his mom and dad and mom helped me make a Jello dessert thing to take to my uncles. Thursday morning wa pretty low key, we made a salad and headed to carson around 2pm. Dinner was excellent as always, two turkeys, stuffing, green bean casserole and every type of dessert imaginable :-) Waylon even got in on the action, my aunt gave him his own plate of mashed potatoes and let him go for it... he was a mess but was totally loving life! Afterwards we played with these disk guns that me Grandma brought, that was a lot of fun, and just about every one got in on the actions. Then we watched some football and played Wii where I busted out my mad hula-hooping skils, LoL! Also, Mason helped my Grandma and Cousin build a gingerbread house, he was kind of confused on why he couldn't eat the candy but did very well! It was a lot of fun, then after we left there we went over to mom and dad's to hang out with them for a little bit, a nice way to end a nice day!

The Boys Chowin' Down

Waylon Loving His Taters

Playing With The Disks

Waylon, My Cousin Alyssa and I

Me and My Uncle Darrin :-)

Ed and Uncle Darrin

Us with my Grandma

Building the Gingerbread house

8 Months Old

I just don't know where the time goes, it seems like just yesterday I was anxiously awaiting Waylon's arrival and now we're at 8 months old! He's quite the busy boy too, he doesn't quite crawl, he's got this army/worm crawl that he does and he's constantly pulling himself up on everything, I'm pretty sure he'll be walking before he turns one! He's a funny kid, he still is amused by Mason, Mason just has to look at him and he cracks up! He eats an insane amount of food, I think he's going to be a "healthy" one! Here's some recent pics... Oh, and he's got 2 teeth in now!