January

As of today, there are 64 days until the wedding. Yikes!!  We are busy and excited. Here's an update on January.

Leah is still going strong on her soccer team:



Sarah is starting to sit long enough for her hair to get braided:

Barry finished a patio at Kelly's using free pavers from Craig's List!

 

 

 

 

 

I am trying to figure out how to rebuild this antique sofa:

 

Sarah thinks Leah is the bomb! She does everything Leah does.

 

 

And, sweetie Kelly turns 29!

 



 





Holiday Hoopla!

Sorry about the delay, folks. The problem was with Internet Explorer and not me, for once!

I have been waiting for the Christmas morning photos from Ashley that would complete this post perfectly, but alas they are trapped in her new I-Pad. So, I give you the final photos from 2012 from my camera. They include photos from the cookie decorating party and photos of Leah and Sarah for the Christmas card.

Kelly's good friend Marsha brought her two kids, the Garland kids were there, and Leah's two best buddies from school.

I got these costumes at Target after Halloween when they were 75% off!

Kelly got new decorations for her mantle this year. They are little Christmas birds with hats and scarves.

Of course, Leah and Maci can't get together without a ride on a Skitter!

Another Target costume.

Here we go trying to get pictures of these two for Christmas!

She was done!!

Love Leah's two-toned nail polish.

As soon as we were done they bolted for Opa's sand pile.

So much for those pretty dresses!

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Christmas Lights 2012

This year's Christmas lights pictures look very similar to last year's pictures except for these few differences:

Last year, Tom was the only Stafford boy in the picture.



This year there's a new Stafford boy in the picture!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year Sarah had a polar bear fur coat. This year she wore her leopard fur coat. See above.

Last year Steph was all by herself.  This year she brought a guy with her! And not just any guy . . . this guy wants to marry her . . . and (more importantly) he likes her nieces . . .

(Yes, Leah picks out her own clothes.)

 

Last year Ashley wore her hair down.  And Leah's coat just swallowed her up.

 

This year her hair was up.

 

And it looks like Leah will be passing this coat down to Sarah very soon!

 

(Yes, she was eating yellow cherry tomatoes.)

 

I'll be posting this picture next year. We'll be comparing the number of grandchildren, I'm sure!!

 

 



 

Leah's First Soccer Game

The whole gang showed up to watch number 7 on the Scorpion team.  She was a little unsure of what to do at first, but she listened closely to what her coach told her and gave it everything she's got . . . which is a lot!!

Yes, she's cute. We know it!

 

All she wants for Christmas . . .

There's our little peanut . . . look at the bruiser from the other team!

 

 

 

 

Sarah enjoys a little torture now and then . . .

 



 

 

In the end, Leah's team won the game, but we didn't really care. We were just proud to see her get out there and try something totally different and challenging!

 



 

 

 

Afterwards, because Kelly has to eat every hour it seems, we went to Mc D's.

 

 



Leah has so much fun with Sarah now. She can be the big cousin and help her with the scary stuff, and she can be the baby and no one tells her not to act like one.



Next post:  Christmas lights!

Disneyland 2012

Ashley, Leah, and I managed to squeeze in a trip to Disneyland last weekend. We spent 15 hours in the park on Saturday and about 7 hours on Sunday!  Leah was relentless. She was sure she could handle the scariest and she did. In the end her favorites were Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. We rode Thunder Mountain 6 times (back row, hands in the air)!

We each got ears this time. Leah's were girafe . . .

Ashley's were zebra . . .



 



Oma's were pink leopard!

 

 

 

 

Here we were about to go over the edge on Splash Mountain.



 

And this was the second time we went over.

 



Ashley and Leah loved Space Mountain. Oma doesn't do that ride!!

 

In between rides, we ate cotton candy and watched the parades.

 



If you look closely, you can see what Leah decided to spend her money on. She loved the idea of collecting Disney pins and trading them with cast members inside the park.  She bought a blue Disney lanyard and picked out a few favorite pins. A total stranger gave her one of the pins and she traded that pin for a pin that a cast member had.  She can't wait to go back and collect more!

Next post: Leah's first soccer game!