Merry Christmas!

I love this time of year. Getting Christmas cards in the mail, giving Gifts to those you love, and remembering the "true" reason we celebrate this season: The birth of Jesus. Levi was so cute. He told me Santa brings us presents to celebrate Jesus's birthday! Wow, a 4 yr old can really make you think huh. We also make a Birthday Cake for Jesus every year. Levi is already asking me if Jesus can have a Blue's Clues birthday! haha I told him I think Jesus would like it a lot more if we worked together and made a homemade cake to celebrate his birthday.

This is our first Christmas without my Papaw Hamilton. I miss him, but I know he is in Heaven and having a grand time celebrating with Jesus this year. I can't even imagine how happy he must be. It is hard not to get emotional when I think of him, and how fragile life is. Just this past January, I witnessed Stephen being in a Car Accident. I was right behind him and the first one on the scene. I didn't know if he would live or die, and that was absolutely the worst day ever! I can't imagine life without him, nor do I ever want to. It is so easy to take this life and those we love for granted. This year has been full of hardship and blessings. Just when I think "how are we going to make it through this", God provides a way. I will always remember the year 2006. It will remind me that we are not guaranteed a tomorrow, and to live each and every day to the fullest.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
We love each and every one of you,
Kandy

Levi's Camera

Levi and Seth each got a Digital Camera for Christmas....so that Mommy can delete all of the pictures of chairs, tv's, floors, etc! haha Levi took a few good pictures.

Cutie Pie!

My little cutie pie, after his bath. Papaw took this picture, and I thought it was so cute I had to share!

Gingerbread House!

Here is the final results of the boys very first Gingerbread house.

Gingerbread House

Granny helped the boys do their very first Gingerbread House. They had so much fun! They also made sure to leave "leftover" candies, so they could eat some! haha They did pretty good for their very first time.

Show Off!

Levi was so proud of his new Spiderman Tie. He was showing it off for the camera! haha What a face!

Christmas at Granny and Papaw's

At Granny and Papaw's, Seth got his very own Story Reader (his brother already has one and they fight over it all the time). He sat and read this, while we opened presents. He didn't have a care in the world! :)

Twister Anyone?! haha

Levi wanted to play Twister. Of course Daddy offered to spin the dial while Mommy played. He couldn't resist snapping some pictures too. haha :)

Picture Frame, Custom Built by Papa

Here is the picture frame my Dad built for the boys picture. I thought it was so cute, so I wanted to share it with all of you.

pictures

I am having trouble uploading pictures right now....hopefully it will all be working again soon.

Christmas Pictures and Shopping!

I love this time of year. Especially the shopping for the "perfect gift". Yesterday we left our house at 11:30am, and didn't get home until almost 8pm! Wow! My feet were killing me, but we did get our shopping done. Yippy!

Then we came home and wrapped presents. Levi is actually getting pretty good at that. I think that was his favorite part, besides trying to "peek" and see what his "surprise" was! haha

Before we left the house to go shopping, we tried to get a good "Christmas Picture" for our holiday cards. Needless to say, it was going to take a miracle! I set the camera up on the tripod, and then had to try and get the boys to actually look at it. We tried 4 times, and finally got 1 good picture. I put the "trial and error" pictures below.

You will just have to wait for our Christmas card, to see the actual "good" picture! haha :) Don't you just love anticipation? Levi can't stand it. He asks me every day "when is Christmas going to get here"? :)

First try.....ok, re-do! haha

Uh....ok, so we had to goof off a little, to try and keep their attention...I don't think it was working though! haha :)

Third times a charm right?...nope! haha

Try number 4...

My little cowboys, cheesing for the camera! haha

My little chipmunk. He basically bites off the apple, then stores it in his cheeks until I finally make him spit it out. Do you really get any nutritional value like that? haha He is so funny!

Here is our new puppy. My Aunt rescued a dog off of the side of the road, who was about to give birth. Gracie had 11 puppies! So we got one of them. This is Goliath. He was the largest of the bunch...a few weeks ago anyway. But he has such a sweet personality. He is so calm and laid back. He is very cuddly, and totally content to just lay beside you (or Toby in this picture). I have never seen a puppy that was this calm, and with such a sweet personality. I went and picked him up today. He is an "Early Christmas present" for the boys. Seth went with me, and Goliath and Seth whimpered and howled for the beginning of the trip home, and then not to far down the road, they both fell asleep! It was so funny!

Our new puppy only wanted to lay under the ladder for some reason. Toby was protecting him. Every time Toby would come near him, Goliath started wagging his tail! It was so cute!

making friends

My handsome hubby, driving us over to go camping! Yea! I am glad he doesn't mind driving, because I do not even want to learn how to pull our huge camper!

Every time he gets in a moving vehicle, he does this! Poor baby. he would open his eyes, look around and see that we were still in the truck, and go back to sleep. He slept the whole way!

Levi in the truck, on our way to go camping....

View from the truck, as we are driving into the park.

View from the truck, as we are going down into the canyon.....

Seth, doing his favorite thing, playing in the dirt! He was in dirt heaven! haha

Seth, saying "cheese".

Levi was so happy to finally be there. He was running and playing, and checking it all out. Here he is standing beside a huge tree trunk that was at out site...Daddy made good use of it, as a holder for his coleman lantern. :)

This was our first day of hiking. This was the beginning of the first path we went on. This was a replica of what a man lived in, who started a "ranch" in this canyon, long long ago.
Daddy and the boys are looking inside....basically it was just dirt and rock in there.....oh, and a fireplace.

Stephen and the boys at the replica of "Goodnight's dougout". It was very "rustic"....I wouldn't have wanted to live there!

We saw this huge rock on the side of this cliff, right off of the hiking trail. So the boys and I decided to climb up to it so that Daddy could take our picture. I didn't know if Seth was ever going to make it though! haha He would climb a little and then slide back down to where he started.....then after the picture, Daddy and the boys decided to climb all the way to the top! I didn't....until I heard Seth crying and they weren't telling me what was wrong. I scaled the side of that so fast, I couldn't even believe it! Seth tends to be clumbsy, and doesn't pay attention to where he is going....and he had fallen down on a prickly pear cactus. Needless to say, Stephen and I stripped him down and cleaned it all out of his legs and pants, and shoes.....and he was very cautious around any cactus he saw after that!

The boys and I, sitting on the rock....whew, I didn't think we would ever make it up to the rock for the picture! haha

Stephen and the boys decided to climb to the top of this cliff, just because they wanted to! haha Levi LOVED it!!!! That is all he wanted to do from then on, was go straight up! :)

Stephen and the boys at the top of the cliff.

Stephen took this picture of me and the boys, at the "lighthouse" information/rest spot. By this time we had been hiking for about 5 miles.

Stephen and the boys, at one of the mile markers. We were getting closer to camp....only about 2 more miles to go... :)

They reached the top, and then sat down for a rest! haha

I snapped this picture of Stephen, while the boys were climbing their "mountain".

This was toward the end of our hike. We went about 8 miles or so, this first day. By this point the boys were worn out and we carried them most of the way back to camp....then the boys took good, long, naps....all 3 of them! haha

Stephen and the boys at the "scenic lookout". Levi is looking at me with his "nockulars".

The boys and I at the "scenic lookout".

We were taking pictures of each other with the boys, then a man and his wife walked up and he offered to take a picture of all of us together.

This is the part of the canyon that we looked at from our camper door. We climbed to the very tip top of that highest peak! It was only about a 1 mile total trip, but it was mostly "up". Talk about FUN!!! :)

Here is a "zoomed in" view of our camper, from where we climbed to the top of the canyon.

Here is the view of our camper, from the top of the canyon. Wow! Talk about a long way down there!

I set the timer on our camera, and took a picture of all of us, together, on top of the canyon. We climbed straight up this thing! Even used a rope at one point to get up/down the side of some extremely tall rocks, with the boys! It was so amazing!!!!

Daddy and the boys on top of the canyon! Isn't it beautiful up here?

The boys found some rocks on top of the canyon that marked white like chaulk, so they were coloring.

Here is Levi in his new shirt and tie. He found a tie in his brothers room, from last christmas and had wore it all day, the day before this. Levi said he was "working at the church, like Papa". Stephen asked him what he does at the church and Levi said "I don't know". Then Seth piped up and said he worked at the "cookie church", and I asked him what you do at the cookie church and he said, "um, make cookies!" haha They are so funny! I LOVE this Age!!! :)

Later that day, Levi asked me if I would buy him a longer tie, but when I went out to buy groceries, I forgot. So his Daddy stopped at the store on his way home (Thanksgiving morning) and bought Levi and Seth both shirts/ties. They looked so handsome! They wore them all day for Thanksgiving, and thought they were big stuff! :)

Levi knows he looks "cool". :)

Seth posing for the camera....crazy kid!

Seth, being silly! (By the way, he picked out his own "pants"....)