Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas this year and we hope all of our family and friends did too! Christmas Eve was a quiet one this year as we stayed home and had an awesome steak and shrimp dinner with just us and the kids. We later opened up the traditional Christmas Eve pajamas and slippers. The kids LOVED their new jammies and couldn't wait to put them on! Thanks Mema for the new jammies! We then headed over to the Hinson's to have a short Christmas message and act out the nativity and exchange Christmas gifts with them. We had a quick visit with the Hinson's because they had just brought home their brand new baby Noah from the hospital and Mommy Kristin and baby needed to rest. BUT, not until after we enjoyed our YUMMY Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory! Thanks to Kristin and Neal for that heavenly treat!!


Millie was Mary, Zach as Joseph and Kali was our perfect little "Angel" .
As you can see, our kiddos just LOVE their new baby cousin Noah. Even Madelyn was fascinated with him! She didn't care about gifts or nativity or dessert...she just wanted to look at and touch baby Noah. She was SOO curious. It was really cute!

Zach and Kali love to play their new games!
How special it was to have a brand new baby around for Christmas. Noah was the hit of the night. We love our new baby cousin!
Christmas morning ~~Look what SANTA brought!! Kali and Zach were very excited to find their new bikes from Santa.
Madelyn was more excited about the slinkies in her stocking !
Zach's new Razor RipRider 360! It seriously was the hit of the whole day. Adults up to 150 lbs. can ride it! Let's just say I got on and tried of few tricks myself!
Kali's new big Barbie bike that she has been begging for! She also got a princess Belle doll to add to her collection.

This year we had Zach and Kali do a gift exchange with each other and we took them to the dollar store. They both actually got so into it. It was a little tricky not letting the other see their gifts but it worked out and they seemed to be very excited about giving their presents to each other. We were trying to work on the whole GIVING thing. :) This will definitely be a new tradition for the future years.
My homemade mug made for especially for me by Kali!

After we did our Christmas morning at home we then packed up and headed down to Sheila and Jeff's in Modesto to do Christmas with the whole Stacy family. I didn't get as many pictures here of everyone as I wished I had but here are some. We had a great time with everyone at Sheila and Jeff's new home!!



Uncle Jeremy brought some really awesome gifts this year for the boys! They were loving their new remote control trucks! Thanks Uncle Jeremy!
Madelyn loves her Uncle Jeremy. She was at his side most of the time helping him open his gifts and playing with his dog Tank.
Playing with Tank in his kennel. Jordan was loving him too!

So there you have it. Sorry I didn't get many pics of everyone at Sheila's but you can always check out the Capell Clan blog for more pics. Sheila got some great pics! We really had a nice Christmas this year celebrating with those we love so much and are so grateful to live close to so much family. We of course missed our family that weren't here with us but we want them to know how much we do love and miss you all!! We are so grateful for all that we are blessed with and especially for this season and time we get to reflect on the birth and atonement of our Savior. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
I'll leave you with a little video of me on the crazy Rip Rider!

Ranch.

Not sure that I should have ever let her taste it. She wants it with everything and will dip anything in it. Gotta love her! Let's face it...ranch does make things taste better! I'm pretty sure that it wasn't intended to be the main dish though...
Madelyn thinks so.

All decked out...

Here are the kids in there new Christmas Sunday outfits. I wasn't planning on doing outfits this year but I hit a really awesome deal at Macy's and couldn't resist the matching dresses for the girls! What can I say...I'm a mother of two girls!! Zach got a new sweater too so he was happy. Boys are so easy to please. Here are the best pictures I could get with all three...definitely a challenge.

Madelyn loved her new dress and kept posing for the camera.

*****************************************************
Kindergarten "Winter" program
Zach had a little program where they sang a bunch of songs. They were very clear about how this program was a "Winter" program and not a "Christmas" program because they were celebrating the world and its different cultures. They sang a bunch of fun songs that I had no idea what they were and they sang a Hanukkah song and African chant song...pretty much everything but anything that had to do with CHRIST or Christmas celebration. I can't believe what this world is coming to!!! It makes me sad. Anyways, there's my cute little Kindergartner on the front row in the gray sweater and jeans. He did a great job!

SNoW!

I know I'm a little behind on my blogging and I still have more Japan pictures coming but I just had to document this fun day. On Monday December 7th it snowed a LOT here in Northern California! I'm not saying just in the mountains, there was actually snow down in the valley in the Sacramento area and we even got snow here in Lincoln!! Crazy! We weren't lucky enough to actually have any snow stick at our house but we did have some friends in other parts of our town actually have enough snow to build a small snowman. Anyways, there was a lot of snow in the foothills and even more in the mountains. Mark's parents got about 2 feet of snow at their house and Mark just couldn't handle not being there to enjoy it so we loaded up the kids and all our snow gear, brought a few friends...and headed to the REAL SNoW! It was a long drive there and a little tough getting in because the roads were so bad, but we made it thanks to four wheel drive and a big truck! We had a couple hours to enjoy and play and we are so grateful to Grandma and Grandpa Stacy for letting us crash there for the afternoon. The kids had a BLAST! Here are some pics to prove it!

Love this tree! It really is beautiful with the white blanket of snow covering everything!
Madelyn wasn't quite sure what to think of the snow at first, then she decided she liked it until she got it on her hands...she was done after that.


There was A LOT of snow! I was shocked at how the kids just went tearing through it and didn't even care!

The truck got stuck coming up the driveway...so the men had to do a little shoveling. :)


Building the snowman that I forgot to take a picture of once it was done.



It really was a beautiful sight to see! It's been a long time since we've seen that much snow! FuN times!!