MIA - Delinquent Blogger

Hello friends and family. Admittedly I have not attended to our blog much lately, not because I don't want to, but more because of time. So, I am going to get back on the wagon and catch up since Christmas. So, feel free to delete or ignore emails if you get them. Once I am caught up I will try to stay up on my more frequent posting schedule. Thanks for your patience and I love you all!

Making and Decorating Christmas Cookies with Grammy

New Sport: Vacuum Riding

Jackson has always been just a little bit afraid of the vacuum, but Braden clearly does not feel the same way. The newest craze at our house is vacuum riding. Go figure!

Dinner With Friends

Since the Zeebs moved east the visits have been far too infrequent, but when they are here it is like they never left! Just before Christmas they were in town and we had dinner at our place. The Mattsons joined us too and it was a great evening of catching up. The kids had a blast and adults too! Of course I only have shots of the kids. The first one has the four big kids (Addie, JD, Alexa, and Jackson). The second shot is of Jackson and Alexa, best buddies since birth. They love seeing each other, I hope they always feel this way!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Where are you Christmas Tree?

After chatting with Santa we found a place close by and went tree hunting. Jackson and Braden helped pick out our tree and Daddy got it on top the car. It was an adventure!

Hello Santa

This year Jackson finally decided that Santa wasn't such a bad guy. He sat on his lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas. His wish was for a robot dog that dances, which came out of nowhere. I have it on good authority that Santa is pretty smart though, so we will see what happens Christmas morning.



Braden, on the other hand, was not impressed by the guy in the red suit!!! He gave us the classic scream pose. I snapped the picture and Daddy picked him up immediately. Then he gave Santa a high five, so I guess it was just about being on his lap. I seem to recall a very similar shot of Jackson at this exact age, so it will be interesting to see if it takes another 3 years for Braden to warm up to the idea of Santa!

Hanford Christmas Parade

My brother works in Hanford and he built a float for the Christmas parade. Since we were in town we went over to the parade. Here is the train float my brother built and shots of us all watching the lights in the parade. I particularly love that Jackson and Mia are holding hands, they had so much fun together.

Happy Thanksgiving

So Excited About Cousin Mia's Toys!

New toys are always fun, and the boys had a great time discovering all the toys their cousin has!

Books with Grammy

Okay, so you might notice that these pictures do not include my boys, but my niece Mia. My mom spent a lot of time reading over Thanksgiving, and somehow I only ended up of pictures with Mia. All the grand kids love to read with Grammy, and they all tell her to get her glasses when they want her to read, they learn quick!

Thanksgiving Road Trip to Visalia

This year I got a wild idea and suggested that we drive to Visalia for Thanksgiving to visit Scott, Marie and Mia. Here we are on the drive down, about 15 minutes into a 13 hour drive. It was slow going, but the boys were angelic and cooperated beautifully. We arrived in one piece and had a blast. All in all it was a great trip, despite 26 hours of driving!

Happy Thanksgiving Mr. Turkey

Jackson's preschool class put together a Thanksgiving program where they sang cute songs about turkeys and being thankful. Family was invited, and Jackson had a huge crew there for support. Papa, Lo-Lo, Jay-Jay, Caitie, Ashley, Mommy, Daddy, Dot, Grammy Claudia, Grammy Dotti, and Braden all attended and cheered him on!

Thank You Auntie Berta and Uncle David!

As an early Christmas gift Great Uncle David and Great Aunt Berta gave the boys a fire and police house. Hours of fun have already been had, and I think hours more are in the making. Thank you so much for thinking of the boys! They love their new toy!

Just Another Day in the Sanders House

When I ask Jackson to smile for the camera lately, he always gives me some goofy face or looks away right as I take the picture. Then he wants to see the picture, and laughs hysterically at himself.



Braden in a basket peeking at Papa.


I love Braden's joyous smile. He is full of joy and laughter most of the time, except when he is getting new teeth..then he is a little grouchy. Luckily I got the camera out to capture this moment where his teeth felt just fine.


Braden is so funny, and he has started to try and open things by himself. In this case he wants the sidewalk chalk out of the plastic. We did not think it was a good idea to open sidewalk chalk inside, so we pretended it was really hard to open. This is Braden showing us how hard he is trying to open that sidewalk chalk! I love his face and determination!