Pre-Christmas Traditions in Pasco

My family has a lot of fun traditions surrounding Christmas time.  We really just enjoy spending as much time together as possible, especially since everybody from Utah was able to come to Pasco as well this year.  That made this Christmas break extra fun.  There are too many pictures for just one blogpost.  So this will be the pre-Christmas pictures.  More will come later.

We made Christmas ornaments this year by taking empty ornaments and filling them with paint and swirling the paint around.  It is a fun project because you never know what it will look like at the end.  I asked Whitney what color she wanted to use and she said 'brown'.  I was able to convince her to also put some blue into the ornament.  Of course, the project took longer than the attention span of a toddler, so her ornament wasn't finished.  But that's okay.  There ended up being some really pretty ornaments made.

We also decorated some gingerbread men cookies.

The gingerbread man in the middle is Whitney's.  She really liked being able to choose whatever candy she wanted to place on it.

And Whitney does a little taste-testing of the frosting to make sure it wasn't poisonous or anything like that.  Once she tried the frosting, the cookie-decorating came to a stand-still.

Every year my family goes to the Griggs All-Night Sale.  There are auctions for cheaper items and blue-light specials and fun things to do.  We always set up a table and chairs to play games.  This year, for the first time that anyone recalls, there was a Santa for the children.  So we took a couple of pictures with us and Santa.

Whitney loved  the little "reindeer"; which was a really cute baby goat.

I didn't think we would get a picture of Rachel sitting on Santa's lap this year because she was born so soon to Christmas.  But I am really happy that Santa showed up at Griggs so we could get a couple of pictures with him.

It was too cold to take baby Rachel ding-dong-ditching, so she and I stayed home.  But Will took Whitney with the rest of my family out to deliver some goodies to some families.  It is hard to tell in this bottom picture, but that is Will holding Whitney and coming back from a house after dropping off some treats.  Of course, we all enjoyed eating the extra treats after coming home.

Finally, here are two pictures of us getting ready for the Nativity Story.  Our family always acts it out every year and every year we just have a grand time.  My mom always tapes it for us.  Sometimes it gets a little crazy.

Will and Rachel and I ended up being Joseph and Mary and Baby Jesus (I'll give you three guesses on who was who).  We didn't get any pictures of us, oh well.  Acting out the Nativity Story was still really fun. 

So we had lots of fun in Pasco.  Stay tuned for our next blog to see us on Christmas day.

A Baby Girl

Those who don't know, we had a 90% chance of having a baby boy.  So we had things all ready for a little boy.  But after being born, the nurse was cleaning up our baby and said she was a girl.  Boy were we shocked at the announcement.  But the shock wore off and we were very excited to welcome little Rachel Sue Keeler into our lives.

Isn't she beautiful?  I know that I am biased as Rachel's mom, but I think she is such a beautiful and precious baby daughter.  Here are a couple pictures of our family.

My mom brought Whitney to the hospital to meet her new little sister.  It is a good thing we had practiced saying 'Isaac' over and over with Whitney.  Oh well.  Now we can practice saying Rachel.  It was really cute seeing Whitney want to hold the baby.  She kept holding her arms out to get a turn at the baby.  Thank you so much to my mom and the rest of my family for watching Whitney for us.  That made everything a lot easier. 
  Finally, here is a picture of poor Rachel going home.  Remember that we thought we were having a boy.

Rachel seems to think the car seat is only okay if it is in motion.  Just sitting in the car seat is not acceptable.  I guess we will see how she does on a long car trip.  So we have a beautiful and wonderful new addition to our family.  It will take some adjustment to go from having one toddler to having two children, but it will be a good adjustment.  I hope everyone has happy holidays.

Birthday Bowling

So my family came up this last weekend for Will's birthday and we weren't sure what we wanted to do.  It was much too cold to do anything outside like we did with my birthday in September.  Then we got a coupon in the mail the day before my family came that gave a big discount for bowling at our local lanes in Cheney.  It came with eight shoe rentals, two family size pizzas, eight soft drinks, and bowling as much as you want for two hours for only seventy bucks.  So that is what we did and we had lots of fun.  I haven't been bowling in years and Whitney has never gone bowling, so we all just had a good time and didn't get too competitive.

Whitney got help pushing the ball down the lane.  My mom was great at helping her whenever Whitney's turn came up.  They used a special light bowling ball that the bowling manager had in the back that was good for Whitney and Conner.  Whitney really liked the machine that brings the balls back (whatever that machine is called) and we had to always watch to make sure she didn't squish her finger or bonk her head on it.

Whitney and I wait to see where the ball goes.  Whitney was pretty fascinated by watching the ball go down the lane to hit the pins.  Here are some more family members bowling.

So we all had a great time bowling.  I think my dad was the ultimate bowling champion.  Will and everyone else did pretty good as well.  I was lucky and got to use the lane with the bumpers; it's a little challenging bowling when you are quite pregnant.

There was a lot of fun hanging out in between turns.  We did a lot of high-fiving and cheering and pizza eating.  And there was only one Whitney escape.  She took off down the lane and I started chasing her before she could reach the pins but the lane was way too slippery and I was afraid of falling.  So my dad ran and caught the escape artist right before she got to the pins.  Altogether, I say we had a fun, successful bowling trip.

Happy 29th birthday Will!  I love you.

And just for fun.  Here is a little video of Whitney who was very excited to see herself on TV when we connected the new camera to the television.

Santas Santas Everywhere

Well, tis the season for Santa to make an appearance everywhere.  Whitney has loved seeing Santa and other Christmas decorations coming up in stores and along the streets.  She knows that Santa says 'ho ho ho' and that he is nice and gives out candy.  Now we just need to teach her the true meaning of Christmas which you cannot find in stores.  Oh well.  Here are some of our Santa experiences lately.

We went to the annual tree lighting at the library.  We have never gone before since we use to live not quite as close to the library, but this year we just walked a couple of blocks.  I didn't know if it was going to be cool or completely lame, but it ended up being fun.  Here Whitney and Will are waiting for the action to start.  It was cold outside while we waited, but there was free hot chocolate and everybody was singing Christmas carols.

Here is the tree all lit up; Whitney really liked all the lights.  There were hundreds of people at this event, so we were all pretty crammed together, but that provided some body heat.

It is kind of hard to tell from the picture, but here comes Santa on the back of a fire truck.  I think all the kids there were very impressed. 

This is the back of us up close to Santa.  It took a little while because there were a long line of children all wanting Santa.  Santa gave out little goodies to the kids - a bag of Hershey kisses and a candy cane and a pencil that says to wear your helmet.  Who knew that Santa was so safety-minded?

I believe this is Whitney's first real eating of a candy cane.  She was too little last Christmas and we never get them any other time of the year.  So this candy cane came from Santa and it was a big hit.  Whitney ate the whole thing, and anyone who knows Whitney knows how unusual it is to get Whitney to eat something new.

We also saw Santa at the local pharmacy where pictures were being taken for a couple of hours.  Whitney is so funny because she wasn't scared of Santa at all; in fact, she went right up to him to share her teddy bear.  But she would not smile while sitting on Santa's lap.  Even the picture taking people couldn't get a smile out of her.  So this is a very serious Whitney.

But we did get a little smile when Whitney got to sit on the back of the reindeer.  I guess that is better than sitting on Santa's lap.

And what is Christmas without extra treats lying around?  I made my very first attempt at homemade cinnamon rolls and I had no idea how much work they were.  No wonder I haven't made them before.

I was worried that they were going to be too done on the outside and still gooey inside, but they turned out pretty good.  We added some powder sugar frosting and they were just perfect.

We received this Christmas calendar from Will's mom last Christmas and we just moved the tree as a countdown for Christmas.  This year we put a little piece of chocolate in each pocket for Whitney to eat at the end of the day.  Although, this calendar might have to move because Whitney has learned how to push the kitchen chair over to the door and sneak a piece of candy while I am occupied in the bathroom.  So she has gotten in trouble a couple of times.

Finally, here is a cute little video of Whitney talking about Santa.

We have been having a great December.  Will had his birthday yesterday and that was fun.  Whitney made a little card and practiced saying 'Happy Birthday Dad'.  We went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner since that is one of Will's favorite restaurants.  He got some peanut mnm's, a new lunchbag because his is falling apart, and a new wristband for his watch from me.  Then Will's parents sent us a digital camera.  So it was a great birthday.  Now we are just waiting for this baby to come.