DECEMBER!! (...finally...)!

So within a few hours of our Thanksgiving weekend, we packed everything up and raced to Tucson! It was so fun.. we had a new baby in the family. Ryan and Tasha had just welcomed their (nameless) daughter into the world. Was she going to be Reagan Celeste or Avery Simone? After two days and some pressure from the hospital.. they finally named their baby with the help from a coin toss! Little Avery Simone was born healthy and strong.

We took this picture after Tasha returned home from the hospital. She and Mike relax with their sleeping daughters.
Later we took our wild boys to the park for a picnic... they got to run off a TON of energy. If only there was a way to harness it...
The picnic apparently included repeatedly tackling Uncle Mike! This was the only picture I had were you could see all the parties involved.. the others show a random display of body parts tangled together. In some of them, you could kinda tell that Mike was alive at the bottom... he was a good sport! -- and the boys had a blast!

We also rocked out with our guitars! -- and drums.

Who would give three year old boys drums?

Not smart!
Good finger position Ryan! You got the idea!

Gma-Dor and Pop-Pop display their coyote tattoos they were negotiated into putting on themselves rather than on Ryan. We had to take a pix commemorating his negotiation skills! At least he was consistent in placement!

December ushered in some fun birthday parties! Here is a picture of Collin's Bounce Party!

Here is a picture of Josie's Bounce House Birthday Party!

Ryleigh enjoyed Josie's party too!

After all the parties.. we were able to schedule some time to take a family picture for Christmas.

This was more tricky than we had thought! 40 Pictures later.. we finally had this one.. which was not perfect but it would work!

Ryan and Tasha were able to schedule another visit to Chandler before Christmas. During this visit, we were able to take a picture of our girls together. It is amazing what a difference a few weeks make at this age!

We did some last minute shopping at Pop-Pop's store. He was delighted to see us! Ryleigh loved being held by her Pops!

While we were in the store.. Ryan started to explore his sense of style.. apparently! He deliberately set this hat on his head in this stylish manner for this picture!

He allowed me to take his picture if he was able to take mine. Usually that means a close-up shot of my leg or a door-knob.. but this time he did a fantastic job! So I thought I would post it!

After so much shopping.. Mike and I think we are finally ready for the Christmas Celebrations. Our kids are totally spent! It is a matter of a few days when our company will start arriving from around the country. We were very excited!