Sunday evening.

I sort of have a love-hate relationship with Sundays this year. Church starts at 8:30 in the morning! I don't know how the leaders think that's okay! I mean, come on! I now have to shower Saturday night and get to bed early, meaning I might have to miss some of my favorite Saturday night shows! My face is always puffy in the morning--no amount of make-up will ever help! My car is an ice cube every morning so I have to get up even EARLIER to scrape the ice! The even more annoying part is that I wake up, scrape the ice off my car, get dressed, apply make-up and run out the door. . .only to find NEW ice on my windshield. I also can't just get to church right at 8:30--no--I have to be there at 8:15 to start organ prelude! Speaking of playing organ at 8:15 in the morning--I have never heard our chapel so quiet! Last year I used to complain about the noise level. I felt like I was playing prelude to invite the spirit but nobody was listening. Everybody thought it was time to socialize or make last minute arrangements for primary or Sunday school. Now everyone is trying to finish their sleep! It kind of freaks me out being the only noise in the whole chapel! I guess I shouldn't have complained so much last year!

Now that I have complained publicly on the Internet (about church none-the-less) I'll explain the part I LOVE about church starting at 8:30.

1) There's always time for a nap.
2) We have time for lunch AND dinner.
3) We can scrapbook.
4) There might even be time for another nap.
5) We have from 11:30 to bedtime to relax. (Making "keeping the sabbath day holy" commandment much easier to follow. . .Sunday is the day of rest and we are truly resting.)

After Emily and I got home from ward choir we asked mom if we could play a game, perhaps Racko (one of mom's favorite games). Mom's initial reaction was "No. I don't play Racko anymore because I never win." We begged her and she finally gave in.

Now, if you've never played Racko before I'll let you know it is one of the most irritating games to play with my mother. You get a hand of cards you put in your tray. They're all out of order and you have to use various discarded cards to get your tray in order.

The reason it's very annoying to play with my mom is because she always gets this smirk on her face right before she gets Racko. When she has one card left out of order she gets all excited and Emily and I just get annoyed. She always seems to get Racko right when I only have one card left! How is that fair!?!?!? Yeah mom, "I never win Racko. . .I don't play that anymore." WHATEVER!
And here's the cute kitty wanting to join in the fun. Emily always brings her in the family room snuggled up in a blanket. This cat has issues--and it's 100% our fault.

Christmas. . .Finally.

I finally have time to sit down and post our Christmas pictures. We have so many it was very hard to choose!

One of our favorite (and only) Christmas traditions is to go to Red Lobster on Christmas Eve. I think we have only missed this one year (and that year we went to P.F. Changs). We weren't going to let the snow stop us from getting to Tigard! And yes, the snow was STILL on the ground for Christmas! It was just wrong! Anyway--here are a few adorable pictures of the Christmas Eve dinner.

I couldn't get Andrew to be serious for more than a couple of pictures!

She wasn't much help!

I don't know what they were looking at but I was so lucky to catch this adorable picture. Mikaela Rose is the sweetest baby ever!


More cute Mikaela.


I love seeing Ethan with his cute baby. . .it makes me feel so lucky to have the best big brother in the whole world. (That doesn't mean Philip's not the best, though! I love him too!)


Now that Mikaela is 10 months old it's much easier to get to know her. It was so fun for us to play with her and make her laugh. We can't wait to see her again!

After yummy dinner we went home and had Ethan and his family open their presents from us. As you can tell from the picture, baby Mikaela was VERY interested in getting the presents open. But oh no, she didn't want to open them with her hands, she wanted to open them with her teeth!



Andrew giving Grandma a great big hug! He loves giving and getting big hugs and kisses from his family.

Another one of our traditions is to buy matching Christmas pajamas. This year we found matching P.J.'s at Old Navy. We loved them! (Mom is the plaid, Emily is the reindeer and I'm the Christmas trees.) (And Mom is wearing her new wool booties I bought her from Eddie Baurer. She kept saying (since September) "I really need some new booties, mine are falling apart." I found them on sale and bought them well before Christmas. Every time we were in a store with booties, I was afraid she was going to buy them for herself and then her present would be ruined! But that didn't happen this year.)


One of Emily's favorite presents was the cute kitty book called "Dewey." I think I'm going to have to read it after she does!


Mom got so annoyed with me this Christmas. I found some gum she really liked (but I bought the Costco size--12 packs--yikes!) and I wrapped each one individually and put them in her stocking. She had to open every single one. . .I was cracking up. . .she wasn't.


And this was one of my favorite Christmas presents. Ina Garten's Back to Basics cookbook. We were watching a Food Network show on her and I kept telling my mom "She's my absolute favorite! I want to be just like her when I grow up!" I guess Emily caught on to what I was saying because the next day we went to Target and she got this for me! It was such a surprise!


Mom pointed out I even look like her! That's great because I think she's the most adorable lady ever!

And here's proof we have the most annoying cat in the world. Why does she have to get on all the wrapping paper when we're done opening presents? She's soooooo weird!

But at least she's cute.

Stir Crazy.

Yesterday was the third day in a row with the snow. Today is the fourth day and tomorrow will be the fifth. This snow is going nowhere fast. We haven't had this much snow in the longest time! We were kind of going crazy yesterday feeling like we were trapped. . .oh wait. . .we WERE trapped! We couldn't get down our driveway without slipping everywhere!

Luckily cute Brother and Sister Ottley offered to take us to the grocery store with them. They have a 4 wheel drive Suburban that didn't have too much of a problem driving on the slippery snow. (Although Roy did keep saying, "I'm not having too much of a problem driving except I can't see where the ditch is!" Or he'd say, "Okay, now where is the curb?") It was so funny!

They took us to Office Depot so we could ship the boxes to Philip and then we went to the grocery store to get our list of things for the next few dinners. They needed to run to Target so we got a few extra things for Christmas and then we went home. It felt sooooo good to get out of the house!

When we got home we started a fire. . .my favorite thing on a cold day.

We bought the best clam chowder ever at Safeway (thanks to the Ottley's for the recommendation.) That was our lovely lunch.

It was soon interrupted by Philip calling. Mom always puts Philip on speaker phone because he's so funny to listen to.

We were talking to Philip and looking out the front window when we saw a car slide off the road and into our front yard!!!!! We couldn't believe our eyes! We were all laughing hysterically and the passenger jumped out of the car and saw us laughing so it kind of lightened things up. If I drove into some one's yard, I would be scared out of my pants!

The driver was putting his foot on the gas but the wheels were just spinning and the passenger couldn't push the car. Finally, some random person was walking down the street and helped push the car into the street. I have never seen such a funny sight! The only thing that wasn't funny was the fact that he had just ruined our snow! It hadn't been touched until he decided to turn the corner too fast and slide into OUR SNOW! :) (And yes, I was lucky enough to have the camera in my hand at the time of the accident so I can document this event for all my posterity to see. Like they'd even care!)

Emily and I then took a few things to our neighbors and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. I can't believe how gorgeous it is!

Snow.

I can't believe it! There's no school for the third day in a row this week! I think we're going to have a three week Christmas Break! Woo Hoo!

I looked out the window and what did I see?

A whole bunch of snow fell Sunday morning. . .okay maybe not a whole bunch. . .but it was about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch before we left for church. By the time we got home from church it must have been a couple of inches! We get so excited when it snows! Every year the weather usually teases us with falling snowflakes that never stick, but it's a real treat when we actually get accumulation! The snow isn't going anywhere fast. Our overnight low is supposed to be 13 degrees! They just canceled school for tomorrow and there is another huge snow storm scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday! I don't think Emily will have school the rest of the week! And guess what. . .next week is Christmas Break! She will have a three week break if that happens!

After church Emily and I put on our snow gear and walked around the front yard. We were hoping for freezing rain after the snow so everything would freeze over and we could slide down the driveway on trashcan lids. But no such luck.

Emily did have fun making a snow angel on the hood of my car, though!

We would never make a snow angel in the grass because we hate when our snow gets all messed up. Ha ha. . .do you like how I say "OUR snow". We're so possessive of the snow in our yard. I hate when other kids walk all over it!

Here's a picture of Emily eating the snow off my car.

And another picture of Emily eating the snow. . .

And yet another. . .

And another. . .

And yet another. . .

Can you tell she likes eating snow?

And here's a picture of Emily after saying, "Snow, what snow? I didn't eat any snow!"

I LOVE the snow!!!! Can you tell how much I love it by the look on my face?

I guess there is one downside to all this snow. We need to do get to the mall for a couple of last minute things for Philip before we can ship him a box. How are we going to do this with all the ice on the roads?

And my favorite picture of Emily. Could she be any more beautiful?

How to decorate a tree. . .Rayner style.

Step 1 - Place gold eucalyptus branches in tree.

Step 2 - Place Christmas crackers throughout the tree.

Step 3 - Put really cool ornaments of all shapes and sizes. And of course, they have to all match.

Step 4 - Put up any adorable tree topper. . .but it has to match! Duh!

We decorated for Christmas last night. We have a fake tree that is pre-lit (but it looks completely real!) so it's really easy to set it up and make it balanced.

We filled these cool jars last year and I was sort of dreading putting them together again. I found a bin in the shed that was really heavy. I opened it up and I realized we stored all three jars with all the contents still in them. How easy was that?

I found this cute nativity set at the farm store where I work.

I made these a couple of years ago out of Styrofoam cones. I glued anything silver or gold I could find. (Even pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. I could sell these for a lot with all that change!)

And of course we have to make one new thing every year. I love natural looking things and we decided to try and keep with the "natural" theme the best we could.

And what post would be complete without a picture of the silly kitty. Every time we bring out the decorations she goes crazy! Her back starts twitching and she thinks she has to sniff anything and everything!