Christmas 2008

It was another exciting and eventful Christmas holiday for the Recob clan. On Christmas Eve morning we did presents from Mom and Dad. Julie made some delicious Monkey bread and we all enjoyed it's yummy, sticky goodness while the boys tore into their presents. Ava got into the mix a little bit too, mostly wanting to play with whatever toy the boys had just opened.

After presents we headed over to my parents to celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa Recob, Kaitlyn, Ron, Bobbi and family. We ate like normal (tons of delicious appetizers, a full course dinner featuring the "roast beast" and desserts-0-plenty) with present opening framing dinner. Logan got a remote control helicopter that he'd been asking for since September, Cooper got some new food for his kitchen (he's quite the chef) and Ava had fun opening some matching bedding for her owl themed room. We left probably a half hour too late with the kids getting a little cranky but everyone had a great time.

On Christmas day morning we woke early to find that Santa had visited and he must have thought the kids were especially good this year. All I can say is that there was a whirlwind of wrapping paper and when it was all over we had even more presents which the kids played with enthusiastically until it was time to leave for Christmas at the Miller's.

We got up to Julie's parents around 1PM and had a wonderful turkey dinner (I'm not sure how we crammed it in...I'm still full). We then opened even more presents...Logan got a trunk full of costumes (Transformer, pirate, horse) from his Aunt Casey that both he and Cooper enjoyed. Cooper got some food which he could cut (velcro'd segments) and was chopping up a storm. After presents we all went to the sledding hill to try out the new sleds that the boys got from Grandma and Grandpa. We all had a great time and everyone had a laugh at Dad when he went over an unseen jump cut into the sledding hill which gave him a nice little adjustment to his back.

Like I said, another eventful Recob Christmas...

Decorating the tree

After getting the tree back to the house and setup (thanks for your help Cooper), Julie and the kids had a blast with the trimmings. Everyone did their little bit with Julie handling the top half, Logan the middle, Ava the bottom and Cooper worked on the Candy Canes. I'm not sure Cooper put any on the tree but he had a great time eating them. The final result was one gorgeous tree, three happy kids and lots of memories.

Gingerbread Houses with the Heagneys

For the second year in a row, we were invited to participate in the Heagney family gingerbread house extravaganza. Matt and Cara invited us to come to Matt's parent's bakery to assemble gingerbread houses and hopefully visit with Santa (he's made an appearence the last couple of years). The boys had a great time, first with the gingerbread houses and later playing with the other kids (hide and seek). When Santa made his entrance Cooper was mesmerized and all three kids enjoyed their time on his lap. Once again it was a great experience and hopefully we'll be invited back next year. Thanks Matt and Cara!

Breakfast with Santa

On Saturday we enjoyed breakfast with Santa (an annual tradition put on by Randy's work). The kids had a great time eating breakfast, playing at Keva Sports Center, making balloon animals and of course sitting on Santa's lap. Logan played Soccer, jumped in the jumpy house, played bean bags, rolled on the scooters, played with a balloon and a tennis racket and just ran around. Cooper also played catch, played with the bean bags, ran around and enjoyed running on the mats. Ava took it all in and really just enjoyed the freedom to crawl around.

Bailey

Our Chocolate Lab Bailey is all decked out for the holidays thanks to Logan! She's already 5 1/2 years old...hard to believe how fast the time goes.

Cutting Down our Christmas Tree

We went out to Cold Springs Tree Farm to get our tree. It was very picturesque...we walked over a bridge into the tree farm and enjoyed the beauty of nature. We pulled the kids in two different sleds. Ava had her own and the boys enjoyed a ride in the sled we were going to use to haul the tree. As you can see by the pictures we found the perfect tree and Logan helped us haul it back to the front office where we enjoyed mulled cidar and candy canes.

Thanksgiving with the Millers

We had a lot of fun this year at my sister's house for Thanksgiving. We had such a nice time. My parents were there and my Uncle Kevin and Aunt Diane also joined us from Minnesota. We had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, potatoes, stuffing (with apples and sausage...excellent), sweet potatoes (delicious), homemade cranberry sauce and relish, and green bean caserole. We all ate a ton and enjoyed a game of 31 after we ate. While we played cards the kids had a movie theater in Casey's living room with popcorn and hot cocoa with marshmellows (in a sippy cup)..ha ha. They watched Wall-E (very cute). The kids also got to play across the street at the church playground. We played chase, house, climbed the rope, played tag around and down the slide and raced around the church building. After we came home Cooper asked to go potty and take a nap. It's great when the kids ask to take a nap...how often does that happen? It was a great day all around!

Thanksgiving with the Recob's

We spent Thanksgiving Day with the Recob's and had a really nice time. We played games in the afternoon and had a wonderful meal. Randy and Rose made bacon wrapped shrimp (a favorite of ours) and we had the classic turkey, mashed potatoes, wild rice stuffing, green been caserole, rolls and gravey. Everything was great! Afterwards everyone just sat around and visited! The kids were great and adapted to the shift in schedule very well.