CATCH-UP (Part 3) GRANDMA & GRANDPA

So over New Year's Grandma and Grandpa Anderson came to visit for a few days. We had a really good time with them. Since they weren't here for very long so we mostly just hung out, played with Brianna, and well of course ate a lot of food. :) Oh and of course we all got spoiled with some belated Christmas presents!!! (Thank you mom & dad!!!) They came in on New Year's Eve, and since Justin had to work, we went to Cattleman's Steakhouse for dinner - the steak was SO good - definitely the best steak I've ever ate at a restaurant. Then we just hung out that night at home and watched a movie. Justin did make it home right before midnight, which was fun. Although we did try to watch the famous ball drop on tv, the stupid local Oklahoma station cut to some live feed of people here in town - so it was a little anti-climatic.

Justin arranged to get one day off while they were here so we took a little trip down to a drive-thru zoo. It was really fun / funny! There were a couple of crazy animals that made the whole trip - we couldn't stop laughing!!! The big hit though was the giraffes - you could actually feed them by hand without being scared they were going to bite your fingers off - Brianna loved it!

So here's some pictures of their trip.

Playing with Mrs. Potato head with grandma.

SMILE!!!

She calls this her "Santa Clause" beard.

My dad let her wear his glasses - which she thought was awesome. This picture is just too funny!!! LOL!!! Oh I can't stop laughing!!!

She's pretending to being grandma in this picture. (For those of you that don't know, my mom has terrible arthritis in her shoulders so she always has a pillow to rest her arms on.)

We went to a local diner one morning before Justin went to work for breakfast.

(Bri wasn't up for pictures)

Had to add this first one cause well, it just cracks me up! (Can we say bitter beer face?!?!)

A little bit better.

Trying to entertain Brianna on the drive down to the zoo.

I hate looking at people's zoo pictures, so I just added the funny or cute ones. (These are the animals that made the trip)

This is the inbreed llama!!! LOL!!! We couldn't stop laughing... we named him Bucky!

Open WIDE!

These weird some sorta cows came begging for food. The would just stand there with their mouths open waiting for you to dump food in. Their breath stunk SO bad - and the one I was feeding totally burped in my face which literally blew my hair back!!! YUCK!!!

Justin just ended up dumping the rest of his food cup into it's mouth.

This is the meanest/craziest ostrich ever. We hated it. It followed us down by the giraffes and kept trying to stick it's head in our truck while we were feeding the giraffes. We let it out of our sight for just a minute and it stuck it's head in and was trying to attack Brianna - everyone was screaming and beating this dumb ostrich in the head. (It makes me laugh now cause it must have looked so stinkin funny)

I took a picture of it's feet cause they are so disgusting!!!

Bri decided to drive for a little while. She did pretty good! :)

The best part - feeding the giraffes.

She had so much fun - she could have done this all day.

The whole family.

We stopped on the way home for dinner. Here's Bri with her Sweetie dog.

Just a cute family picture that my mom took.

Bri got a hold of the camera and went around taking pictures of everyone. The pictures that she took actually turned out pretty good.

Here's grandma.

And grandpa.

And daddy (he was fixing our vacuum)

And of course of of Daizy.

Showing off her slide for grandma.

Taking a chips and dip break. :)

Showing off her "skills".

We had such a fun time with them - and are looking so forward to seeing them again in April!!!

CATCH-UP (Part 2) - NANNY & PAPA

The first couple weeks in December Nanny & Papa Walker came to visit. They spend the winters down in Arizona, so during their trek in the RV down from Vermont they stopped to see us. Although it was cold and Justin had to work most of their visit, we had a nice relaxed time just hanging out. Brianna got totally spoiled while they were here! She got so used to them bringing her presents every time she saw them that if they didn't have something in their hands when they walked through the door she would ask them, "What you bring me?". :) Kinda embarrassing and cute at the same time!

Here's Bri and Nanny cuddling. It was so nice to see Barb feeling better this time. Last time we saw her she was really sick and could barely get up and walk around. It was amazing to see the transformation - she even was able to chase or be chased around the house by Brianna.

Hanging with Papa! She loved climbing all over him!!!

Getting a little horsey ride.

Playing with one of the many presents she got.

I couldn't help but include this following one. (Check out where Bri's hand is!!! Crazy child!!! LOL!!!)

While they were here we got the house ready for Christmas. Justin's parents were even nice enough / sneaky enough to buy us our Christmas tree!

Bri helping mom out.

Nanny was the ornament hand-er-outer.

The bottom of the tree was very well decorated. The rest was done by me cause the men were too busy hanging up lights around the house.

I don't know why, but after each ornament she hung up she would sprint to the kitchen and get a drink from her water bottle and then sprint back.

Me and Barb.

Holy "CHEEEESE" face!!!

Posing for a finale picture by the tree.

I had to include this "evil stare" one too! She's too funny - man that kiddo makes me laugh!!!

We also went to see Santa Clause at the mall, but since you can't use your own camera and to get a picture it costs 4 easy payments of $49.99, we decided to just take these pictures next to Santa's house.

Bri wasn't too fond of Santa - she didn't cry, but she did not want to sit on his lap. So she sat next to him on the bench with me sitting on the other side. The Santa there was so lame and barely even talked to her. No "Ho,Ho,Ho" of even a "What do you want for Christmas?". I think we only got a couple "ok's" out of him. Dumb!

We look forward to seeing Nanny & Papa again in April. It's such a nice perk to live back in the lower 48 and get to see family more often.

PLAYING CATCH-UP : CHRISTMAS

Oh how I've been slacking on blogging!!! And I don't even have a good excuse - I just never get around to it. But anyways here's a little look at our Christmas - I know, I know, it was forever ago!!! This year it was so fun because Brianna is now old enough to kind of understand the whole Christmas concept. She was so fun! This year she asked Santa to bring her a black horse (not sure where she came up with this, but she thought of it all on her own), and a Mickey Mouse phone (she wanted it at the store one day, so I told her to ask Santa for it). So here's a ton of pictures of our day.

Getting Santa's cookies out. We didn't have any carrots for the reindeer, so we went with some celery sticks.

Opening her Christmas Eve presents.

She got a little Christmas book and these cute little jammies.

Christmas Eve - man did this kid get spoiled. It looked like we had 5 kids! :) Every single present you see was for her!!!

Opening her stocking.

The Mickey Mouse phone.

Gotta love her shoes! :)

Playing some tunes for dad to sing to. LOL!!!

The "Black Horse".

She was is so CUTE!!! She ran to go get a present and was bringing it back to sit by me and open it when she stopped in the middle of the living room, looked at me, turned around and looked at all her presents, ran back and grabbed another and brought it to me and told me, "Mommy, you need to open a present!". It was just so sweet to see her not all about her and thinking everything was hers - she just wanted to share.

Being super silly with daddy.

Of course the big hit of the day was the box that Justin made into a fort.

Peek-a-Boo!

Here's a little video of her getting her kitchen - sorry it's so dark.

It was such a fun day. It took her forever to open everything. We just let her take her time and play with everything in between. I'm pretty sure we could have gotten her 2 presents and she would have been just as happy. I was telling my parents that it looked like we had 5 kids and they just laughed and said the funny thing is even if you had five kids there would still just be the same amount of presents But oh well, I guess she'll only get spoiled for so long, so she might as well live it up! :) Man I love my little family - I am so blessed!!! And a BIG THANKS to all of our family that helped make it a special day for Brianna!!! Even though we were far away from home we still felt loved!