Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho! Santa & his reindeer had no trouble landing at my parents house, thanks to all the snow! There was no doubt we'd have a white Christmas this year! The boys cuddled up with papa and listened to him read 'Twas the night before Christmas, in their new PJs. After the boys were asleep we had a night of laughs playing Apples to Apples together as a family. Christmas morning, the boys woke up at 7am and Lake ran from room to room waking everyone up, shouting "It's Christmas!".

West's favorite present this year was his guitar! He's been playing us songs he makes up, using a quarter as his guitar pick. :) And Lake is super happy about his new Michael Jackson video and his MP3 player. On Saturday we went over to gramma & grandpa Joyners to celebrate with them and with Kimmer's family. Those cousins are wild & crazy when they're together. They had so much fun opening presents and being silly.

Christmas is over and the snow is pretty much melted away...and I'm ready to celebrate the new year ahead!

Elf Disco

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

One Wintry Night

The snowstorm that forecasters promised us last Saturday night didn't stop us from having our family night out! We went to U Village for Santa pictures and waited in line outside in the blizzard until it was our turn to go into Santa's cozy warm cabin (hence the pink cheeks and messy stocking cap hair). We shopped until the stores kicked us out as they were closing early due to the incliment weather. I couldn't believe, the weekend before Christmas, the stores were closing early! The second part of our night out was to go to the UW basketball game. Since there was hardly anyone there, we got seats in the 8th row! West is crazy about UW and was so excited the Huskies won! After the game, there was so much fresh snow on the ground, Sean couldn't resist the temptation to do donuts in the parking lot. We had such a fun night!!

Santa pics at U Village

West at the UW b-ball game

I-5 at 10:00pm on Saturday night

Our house, the morning after...

Snow Day!

Lake's 2 week Christmas break is turning into almost a 3 week break! School's been closed the last 2 days and i'm sure it'll be closed again tomorrow. So today I decided to take a snow day myself. :) The boys and I walked to the park and went sledding and then walked to the office to see daddy and bring him lunch. Whew! A mile walk in the snow, uphill, pulling 2 kids on a sled is exhausting! But we sure had fun and it was so beautiful out!

Winthrop

As we try to do every year, we spent a long weekend away to help get us in the Christmas Spirit. We headed over to Winthrop and stayed at a cabin at the Rivers Edge Resort. With our own private hot tub on the deck, overlooking the river, it was a pretty relaxing weekend. We played in the snow, went sledding and almost witnessed Sean seriously injure himself going down an off-limits sledding hill. My mom and I laughed so hard we almost peed our pants. Who knew my husband was such a daredevil? We enjoyed making a gingerbread house, christmas cookies and watching christmas movies and playing games. We had a wonderful weekend!

Our cabin at the Rivers Edge Resort in Winthrop!

We pulled the boys on their sleds down the main street and shopped a little...

and warmed up with coffee and cookies at the bakery.

Mom & Dad

Our Gingerbread House! Isn't it beautiful?! We had a near fatal collapse situation and amazingly kept the house together. We were so proud!

We made Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Nutter Butter cookies!



And had breakfast at our favorite restaurant: Duck Brand

Mmmmm....it was delicious!

The sweetest thing was hearing Lake pray, asking God for it to snow.

When we showed up on Thursday, there was absolutely no snow. We knew it was in the forecast, so Lake made everybody be quiet, close their eyes and fold their hands and he prayed out loud. He did that about 5 times on Thursday and sure enough, Friday it snowed! A lot!

Sean Joyner State Farm Agency Party

As if we didn't party enough on Friday night...Saturday was our agency's holiday & first year anniversary dinner party. We invited our team, our mentors & those people who have played such a big part in helping us accomplish all that we have this year. A special thank you to each of you! We had a fabulous night celebrating together!

Sean & I giving our speeches

Sean, Craig & Patty

Our team: me, Sean, Michele & Cassie

State Farm North Sound Holiday Party

Friday night was the State Farm North Sound AFO Holiday Party. Since last year, Sean & I were the last people on the boat and we literally had to run from our parking place under the Alaskan Way Viaduct over to the Pier, we decided to take the whole dang day off and not be at all rushed! We got down to Seattle early and did some Christmas shopping together and then checked into our room at the waterfront Marriott. We had a beautiful balcony view of Bell Harbor and all the boats were decorated with Christmas lights.
Our party was aboard the Argossy. We got all dressed up and enjoyed a delicious dinner and cruise under a clear night sky. We had such a fun night!

Shannon, Matt, Jaime & Sean

Shannon, Sue, Jaime, Luigi & Mari

I love the holidays! Celebrating with friends and living life to the fullest. Christmas is the season of perpetual hope! We are so blessed!

Our Tree Hunt

The day after Thanksgiving we went to St Nick's Tree Farm in Monroe

to hunt for our perfect Christmas tree. It was a gloomy drizzly day, but we

couldn't let the weather stand in the way of our Christmas tradition.

We hopped on the tractor trailer for a ride around the tree farm

as we scouted out the best areas to look for our tree. We splashed thru

giant mud puddles and laughed out loud!

At last we found a tree that was just right!
This one...

Sean, Lake & Weston all helped with the saw as they tried with all

their might to cut down our tree!

And after all the wet hard work of getting our tree,

we warmed up with some hot apple cider. Then headed for home

to put the tree up and get it all decorated!

I am Thankful!

Turkey Bowl 2008

As these guys believe they're forever young, they had a great

turnout for this year's Turkey Bowl. Despite the wind and the rain, we

enjoyed watching the game and cheering the guys on!

We spent Thanksgiving afternoon at my parents house -

the guys watched the Seahawks as dinner was being prepared.

I am so thankful for all 3 of my boys!

Me, mom & gramma quenching our thirst!

We stuffed ourselves till we couldn't eat another bite!

Here's me & Sean and my cousins Lauren & Lizzy.

Gobble gobble!

Thankful for Family! My uncle Paul and his kids joined us

along with my gramma and grandpa who flew out from Michigan!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!