Christmas! ... in February???

I haven't been able to take many pictures lately because I'm having camera problems. However, I did go on my phone Saturday and copy some pictures from it onto my computer... ...thought I lost them all... ...gave up trying to find them... ...and had them show up out of the blue later!

Some of these pictures are from Christmas and I realized I only shared the snow with you on Christmas and not my family. I don't know where any shots of Nate or I are, so here's my kids! I noticed here that little Cole has the Playstation remote control and must be playing his Star Wars game he got from grandma Susana and poppa Jerry. I think he went straight into playing the game from opening presents, he was totally thrilled! This little guy is a Star Wars fanatic, just like his daddy was some 20 odd years ago.

In this next picture of Hallie, you can see him back to playing with the game in the background. Another thing he inherited from daddy is the obsessive video game playing!!

Hallie loves her new pj's. All she wanted from santa was 2 teddy bears. That's it. I even had to talk her into that because she didn't ask for anything. She loves stuffed animals. She has lots and lots of them, but never wants to get rid of a single one because they're all good friends. She's funny that way.

All 3 kids slept upstairs in Aly's room. They were so excited to get down stairs. This is the first year I didn't have to wake them up. Usually I'm dragging my poor little sleepy babies into a room with Christmas tree lights with presents galore when all they want to do is get some sleep! After the stockings and candy, they don't want to take a nap. But isn't that how things usually work???

2 years ago, while we still had foster children, we had a little guy who was Hallie's age. On Christmas, when the kids woke up to open presents, he just sat there bewildered asking me, "what is this?" and, "what are we doing this for?" He was so confused, I almost wonder if he had ever had a Christmas before?

Here's Aly opening up a gift. She's wearing her neck gaitor on her head. I don't think she's ever going to wear it outside. This child is your typical teen in the fact that she won't wear her winter clothes outside in the winter. You know? when it's cold!!! She was riding to EFY with her Young Women leader this last Saturday and wore her coat in the car the entire way. (Mostly due to the fact that I MADE her wear it.) When they arrived, she took it off and left it in the car. ?????? I don't get it!!! But, then again, I did see a teenage boy walking to the bus stop this morning with a t-shirt and jeans on. No coat. Granted it was "warm" this morning because it had snowed/was snowing but not like a warm that would cause people to shed their winter coats. It was around 32 degrees. Aly was wearing a coat - only because she knows she won't be allowed leave the house without it. I think Aly had a good Christmas (she had no complaints!). Her big present was Dance Dance Revolution - I love it when they exercise, no wait, I mean play that game!