Shadow...Our New Puppy

Well, we shopped the after Christmas sale and look what we found. Ha! Ha! Just kidding. He's was the last of the puppies from Darcie & Jesse's dogs. Someone was going to pick it up for a Christmas present and flaked out. So Jessica called to see if we wanted a dog and we decided we would take him. Jessie said that he would name him Shadow, since he followed him all over their yard. Thanks, that took the work out of naming him for us. I hate coming up with a name and it really fits him.

McKinlee keeps her distance from him, sometimes

he gets too close for her comfort.

Ty really likes him, they chase each other up and down the hall.

McKinlee's 18 Month Checkup

Weight 24.25 pounds (50.43 percentile)

Height 31.5 inches (46.32 percentile)

Head Circ 18.5 inches (64.05 percentile)

Christmas Morning

Here they are on their way to see what Santa left for them.

Santa brought Ty a Lightning McQueen Bike

McKinlee just loves clothes, she got so excited she was

laying on top of them after she opened them.

Ty helping McKinlee open her presents.
Ty and McKinlee got new boots this year.

Christmas Eve Pajamas

McKinlee & Ty got matching pajamas this year. They were excited to open their one present on Christmas Eve, Ty more than McKinlee, but she really liked them when she opened them, of course, they were clothes.

They look cute in their matching PJ's, they probably won't

like that I made them match when they grow up. Oh well!

Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa's

We had the annual Christmas Eve party at Grandma and Grandpa Roach's house. The kids had fun playing with all of their cousins. Ty really likes playing with them all. McKinlee had lots of fun with Cortlynn and Braiden. We had dinner and lots of visiting and the kids did the nativity and traded presents.

Cortlynn & McKinlee
Ty & Braiden
Eric, Ty & McKinlee eating their dinner.

Here are the kids doing the nativity. Ty was a

wiseman this year, he brought a gift to the baby Jesus.

Opening presents.

Kira & Ty

Grandpa always reads The Night

Before Christmas to the kids.

The Gingerbread House

After a failed attempt at the Halloween Gingerbread house this year, we decided to try the Christmas Gingerbread house. We had success this time, thanks to Melinda suggesting that we use hot glue to put the house together instead of frosting. It worked really well and the house actually stands up this time.

Ty was concentrating pretty hard on decorating.

Our house turned out pretty good. Ty did all the

candy on the house. It looks great.

Decorating Sugar Cookies

Decorating sugar cookies at Christmas is always fun at our house. Ty loves to put the sprinkles on the cookies. We had McKinlee help us this year, she really liked the frosting a lot. Ty did a really good job with the cookies this year.

Let's Trade McKinlee

Today we were sitting at the table eating our breakfast and out of the blue Ty says he wants to trade McKinlee to Hot Hot (Grandma Whitney) for Riley (her puppy). It made me laugh. He was really serious about it. So I said to him, wouldn't you miss McKinlee if we traded her? He said that he missed Riley.

Whitney Christmas Party

Here are some pictures from the Whitney party this year. Every year we get together with all of my dad's family. Santa always comes to our party. It was fun this year. The kids have a great time playing with all of their cousins. The kids were patiently waiting for Santa to get there.
Here are most of the kids on Santa's lap. Ty still wouldn't

sit on Santa's lap this year. Hopefully he will next year!

McKinlee really liked Santa this year.

Everyone's lining up for a chance to hit the pinata.

Ty made a great hit and got some of the candy out.

Snow Day

Ty & McKinlee were so excited to play in the snow today.

McKinlee had a hard time getting around in

the snow. She fell down a lot.
Ty is still playing on the trampoline. I guess it's time to
take it down for the winter. Last year the trampoline hole
was just as fun to play in as the trampoline.

I love her rosy cheeks!
Ty loves making snow angels.

Decorating Our Christmas Tree

McKinlee & Ty had fun decorating and undecorating the Christmas Tree this year. Ty would put ornaments on and McKinlee would take them off. Most of our ornaments ended up being on the top half of the tree. Our tree turned out good and the kids had a fun time.

Here's the finished product, a half decorated tree. Ty was really proud of it.

I think it turned out great.