Christmas 2008

We're Alive!!!
We know you have all been wondering what happened to us and wanted to see pictures from our Christmas trip down to AZ.

Here's our Top 10 Highlights of the trip (in quasi-chronological order)
Click below for the full photo albums

2008 Christmas

2009 New Years & Misc

10.

Emilia meets Santa (Grandpa Randy) and doesn't freak out




9.

We finally got to meet our new niece Kate Annette! So cute! She was born towards the end of November and due to some lazy blogging by her parents (hint hint, nudge nudge), we had yet to see ANY PICTURES!!!




8.

Christmas Eve with the Thompsons

Lorinda usually does quite a production for this now 3rd annual Christmas Eve tradition. This year, she really outdid herself. It was an (almost) traditional 12 course Ukrainian Christmas feast.




As usual, we also had a lively reinactment of the Christmas story. We did both the Biblical and Book of Mormon accounts. See if you can guess who we all are.

Randy's wig was a sight to behold.




As will Brenden's wicked awesome gold stretchy pants. Honestly, they could not have gotten any tighter. Seriously.






7.

Christmas Morning
If we had known that all Emilia wanted was wrapping paper, we could have saved ourselves some serious cash! Note to self: next year, paper only.




Jeff and Santa Dog.




This is the same high-chair that Julianne and all the Buehner kids were fed at growing up. It took some tinkering, but still has a few years left in it!



6.

Emilia's fascination with her cousin Kate (especially her noggin)


licking




manhandling




More tasting. Mmmm. Baby head.



There's a lot going on in this picture.
1. Grandpa Randy with his 3 favorite girls
2. Kate is screaming, "Who put the smelly dog in this picture?"
3. Emmie oblivious to the whole affair and intently focused on getting a good grip on Kate earlobe.


yanking




rubbing




5.

Emilia's bout with pink eye.

She also figured out how to blow raspberries (make motorboat noises)




Here's Emmie trying to share the wealth by poking her dirty, bacteria infected fingers in Kate's eyeball (we hadn't noticed her goobery eyeball yet). What a generous cousin




4.

New Years Eve!

We got the both my and Julianne's families together again and played a great game of Family Fued. Her family versus mine. Since the Clawsons are all dirty cheaters, they won. Don't worry, I'm not bitter at all - just memorializing their treachery on our blog.


Jenna helped the Clawson/Crandell team out quite a bit. So unfair!




At 12:00 we drove down Pecos Rd. to where we thought we'd be able to see some fireworks at Rawhide. Here's us screaming something.




Lorinda and I always celebrate by spraying some bubbly around.




Unfortunately, we couldn't really see any fireworks. Thankfully though, someone did shoot a road flare up in the sky. Thank goodness for them! We called it a night with that.




3.

McDowell Mountain Regional Park

The Pete and Linda went with the Thompsons and took Lorinda and Matthew's RV camping for a couple nights up north of Fountain Hill. It was great to go up there for a while with them and Brenden even got to go mountain biking with Matthew.








2.

Christmas with Brenden's family. On the 3rd we had presents with Pete and Linda. Good times.



Grandpa Pete reading his 3 granddaughters a book. Cora looks very intense.




Cora and Ems hanging out on their couch together.



1.

Kate's baby blessing. This got the whole Crandell clan involved as well. It was definitely a FULL HOUSE!








We ate soup bowls with everyone for lunchJulianne said to Gregg, "Show me a face that says 'Mmmmm, soup.'" Digging deep within his soul, Gregg produced this:




We really want to thank both sets of our parents and siblings for being so good to us and Emilia. You guys made this trip. It was so fun to see grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends as well. We look forward to seeing all of you guys again next time we come down to AZ in March for Gregg and Rachael's wedding.

THANK YOU!!!

love,

your favorite grandkids/children/aunt/uncle/brother/sister/niece/cousins