Merry Christmas To All!

On Christmas Day we opened gifts from Santa and the kids opened their gifts from us. Then we went to Mom and Dad's and enjoyed a french toast & bacon breakfast. After breakfast we opened gifts which were huge hits with everyone. After all the frenzie Trent and Connor took off and went to help his brother while the kids and I stayed at my parents and watched Christmas movies and break up fights. Lets just say I had 2 VERY tired children. At about 4 we had Christmas dinner...yummy. Then we played a game and had pie. AFter all was said and done I got Hunter to sleep by 8:15 and I had fallen asleep till 8:45. And by the time 10:00 rolled around we decided to sleep here instead of going home. Wow. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed time with everyone. We hope everyone will have a happy and blessed New Year.

Froehliches Weihnachten

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed our traditional Russo-German dinner which consists of German sausage (ham or turkey for us who don't enjoy it much) German potato salad, 3 bean salad, rolls and (yes I'm going to butcher the spelling) kucin (it's a cake). We can't forget about Grandma Schmal's cheeseball. Yum.... After dinner we had our annual nativity program performed by the grandkids/nieces & nephews. That is enjoyable to see...and there is never a dull moment. After the program it was time for the mad rush of opening gifts, trying to convince the kids not to open anything until everything is all cleaned up, keeping track of the gifts, making sure everyone has opened what you brought them, and trying to watch and see what everyone else got. To say the least...it's a mad house. After the gifts were open we all settled down for a long winter's nap...or so we had hoped. Instead we dealt with fighting, crying, and fog. Then after midnight I settled down for a long (okay short) winter's nap.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Trying to get caught up on all our holiday traditions we finally got our tree, with less than 10 days till Christmas we thought it to be wise to get the tree. We all had fun and enjoyed decorating our Christmas Tree.

Christmas Bells Are Ringing

We had a fun time this holiday season listening to Haylee and Connor's Holiday programs. All cute and adorable. Both Connor and Haylee loved singing and performing. Here is a picture of Haylee's, Connor's pictures were on my in-laws camera.

Thanksgiving Dinner and after

Wild Hog

We went to Wild Hog for dinner Wed. night. I had to take a few pictures. They'll make a good scrapbook pg.

Harriet's House, well very little of it.

This is Jenny (in the green) and Lola (the waitress)

Road Trip for Thanksgiving

Mt. Shasta! So pretty

We took a road trip to Oregon for Thanksgiving. It was fun, interesting, and...interesting. Oregon was cold. The high being 35-40 with a breeze and the low in the 20's. Chilly! Trent kept the kids entertained (outside) and we found some fun things to take the kids to like kids zone. 2 hours of climbing in tubes, jumbing in balls and fun.

Karate Testing

Connor tested for his yellow/white stripe belt the Monday before Thanksgiving. The first picture is him doing a flying side kick, it's fuzzy, but pretty cool. You can acutally see how high he jumps.

Haylee's 4!

Haylee & Miranda celebrated their birthdays together. We decided to go to the park since it was beautiful weather. Haylee chose Tinkerbell for her theme, so Tinkerbell it was. She was very happy to be turning 4 because then she didn't have to be in her buckles any more (according to her). She wasn't too happy when she found out that wasn't true. Oh well.

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY HAYLEE!

Trick or Treat

For Halloween Connor wanted to be a ninja, Haylee a princess and we decided a spider (again) for Hunter. We stayed in Wonder Valley to go trick or treating. Trent and Sheldon Feigel took the kids in the big suburban and drove around the valley. Everyone was tired by the end and Haylee even decided NOT to go to the last 2 houses. With all the loot put together we had a 5 qt mixing bowl overflowing and a gallon size ziploc bag stuffed with candy on the counter. We had a TON of candy! (still do) Some houses passed out regular size candy bars, the kids loved that.

Pumpkin carving and Halloween Party

Pumpkin Carving
While I was in Chicago my family decided to carve pumpkins. Although I was gone I gave Trent strict instructions to take pictures. And he did.






The annual Stokes Hallloween Party.
We put on a Halloween party every year, so that family can get together and see all the kids costumes. We have games and food. It'a lot of fun and everyone looks forward to it every year.


Kim's little boy Branson, Hunter, Haylee & Connor
My father-in-law, Doug, always has some type of dressing up for Halloween.
The big kids got to play muscial chairs, woohoo

Chicago Fun

I had the opportunity to go to Chicago at the end of October to visit my little nephew and attend his baby blessing. It was just me, NO kids. It was a very quick trip, but enjoyable. Little Lincoln is adorable and Auntie Brenna got to spend some special time with him while she let his mom sleep through the night (well almost she did wake up at 4:30 a.m. it's a mom thing). My two older sisters and their husbands came and my older brother came. It was fun to see everyone.

Christa & Greg The group on the taste of Chicago Tour. Yum. Christa & Greg went on the tour before us.

Jeremy trying to get into Hugh Hefner's

original Playboy Mansion
One of many pretty looking houses.

Lincoln. Isn't he so cute!