George the giraffe

George the giraffe from Ariel's preschool comes to spend some time in the Marion home.

George plays dolls with Ariel, her friend Mona and Elsie

Ariel, George and ourneighbor and friend Sharon Parker

Aril and Mona give George a little makeover including lipgloss, blush and lots of perfume! We are getting A LOT of use of Ariel's Barbie makeup kit.

Lucas gets baptized!

Lucas was baptized Saturday, December 31st at our church here in Indianapolis. It was awesome. We have many wonderful neighbors and friends who came to support him who are not of our faith. Isaac, Mike and myself all spoke at the baptism. The Spirit was strong. Lots of happy teary eyes.

Lucas and Mike right before the baptism.

Very difficult to get a decent looking family photo.

We celebrated after the baptism at a little Mexican joint.

CTR power!

This little Elsie is a crack up. She speaks with her eyes half the time.

Christmas

We set up a trap to keep the kids from going downstairs too early. It worked!!!

Lucas put salmon and meatballs on his Christmas list.

Elsie sure liked the chocolate milk she found in her stocking.

She really really liked it.

The princess nightgowns from Grandma and Grandpa were a huge hit.

Mike opens his gift from Ariel that she is proud to give.

Isaac, always the great brother, helps Elsie with her present.

The boys were thrilled with the Heelys if you can tell from Lucas' face.

My lefty Elsie could color all day and everywhere. She had no interest in opening gifts after she got her hands on these twistable crayons.

The Gutierrez family gifts were awesome. The girls lit up with their purses and hats.

Christmas is an opportunity for us to indulge on these we don't tend to get a lot of like sugared cereal and specialty drinks.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we fondued cheese with bread and broccoli, beef broth with steak. It was a hit with the kids and rather delicious.We read in the scriptures of Jesus' birth and watched a great little film about it. Then following tradition, opened pajamas and a gift from a sibling.

Lucas got an electronic Rubik's cube and bath salts. He spends lots of time reading while bathing.

Lucas is very curious about the details in Santa. We spent some time tracking him on Norad.

Ariel some type of toy called Squinkies or something of the sort. Elsie got bear slippers and Isaac got a Rubik's cube and dice game.

The gifts added so much excitement it made it difficult to go to bed.

This year I made our Christmas jammies

My hoodlums

Some kid got a hold of the camera

Mike makes a rare appearance

Ariel's new play-doh dog she got for her birthday.

This nativity scene gets hours of play everyday. Glad somebody documented it.