A Busy 3 Days

I hope everyone is well rested from the holiday and ready to watch college football for a week straight. Christmas this year was busy as always but well worth it. We are fortunate enough to leave close enough to Ogden that the girls got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at home. Ava was as excited as we have ever seen her over those 2 days. We spent all Christmas Eve watching Santa on NORAD getting closer and closer. Christmas Day the girls got up and spent the whole morning playing with their new toys from Santa. Ava got a Leapster (with Princess game), and Ella got a Tinker Bell 4-wheeler that she loves to ride. We then spent the 25th and 26th in Ogden and Boone doing 3 Christmas's in 2 days. There was some much stuff the Tahoe almost couldn't hold it all. I will not bore you with all the details. I will have many more pictures up of every Christmas. Everybody have a safe and Happy New Year!!

Lance.


Family picture

Ella feeding her new baby.

The McConnell family.

Ella's 4-wheeler from Santa

Making cookies for Santa.

Ava and Santa.

As close as Ella would get to Santa. (I am holding Ella)

Sarah's New Webpage

In Sarah's constant improving of her photography she has a new website. She actually bought a domain name so it would be easier to remember. I think it is also easier for her to upload and post pictures. Follow the link below to see all of her photos. Most of the photos on our blog are from her. You can tell because they look professional and really good. Enjoy.

www.sarahmcconnellphotography.com

The Sugar Cookie has it!

Thank you to all who voted in the Santa cookie question. The over whelming majority said the sugar was the clear favorite. Now the only questions left is; red or green sprinkles?

Ava and Ella preparing their lists for Santa.

Me helping Ava with her list.

Ava giving Santa a huge hug.

Perfect picture.

Not so perfect picture. Santa is such a good guy.

Family tree.

Ava tree.

Ella tree. Notice the one ornament on it.

What a busy couple of days. Yesterday (Monday) I took the day off of school and Sarah and I got all of our Christmas shopping done. Every, single person on our list is now finished. And no, we didn't end up killing each other, we actually enjoyed the day.
We also decided to take the girls and see Santa. As you can see from above one loved the other, not so much. It was funny watching both girls react. Ava couldn't wait to see Santa, and Ella just kept getting more and more nervous. I wonder how many other people have pictures like the one with Ella screaming in it. I also decided to put all 3 of our Christmas trees on to look at. Grandma Sue gave each girl their own tree with lights and ornament. Ava was especially happy because Aunt Shawna had given her all of her Barbie ornaments so that is what is on her tree. Ella has one lone ornament and it is about 20 years old. But she loves it. Cy, the cat, loves the trees to. She tries to climb in them and eat the needles, crazy.

Lance

First J-Hawk Basketball Game

Ava and the cheering section at the game.

Ava and her favorite part of any sporting event, the cheerleaders.

As usual eating popcorn.

At the game.



A video of Ava dancing at the game. (Just hit the play button)

Ava went to her first Urbandale J-Hawk Basketball game. She went with Mel to watch her kids during the half time of the boys game. She loved every minute as you can see from the above photos. She even called me from the game to tell me about the cheerleaders. Of course she had the usual, popcorn, water, and a little diet coke. The video shows her dancing. I asked her what she was dancing to and she said, Eminem. I don't think she has even heard of Eminem but I guess I was wrong. From the looks of it I will have to take her to more games this winter.

Lance

Decorate that Tree

Putting the tree together.

Don't they look so sweet.

Playing in the Christmas tree box.

They actually look like they like each other.

One of Sarah' edited pictures.

With Thanksgiving over we are now looking down the barrel to Christmas. It is amazing that it is almost here. Thanksgiving was a very busy weekend but enjoyable. Sarah had to work the night before and the night of Thanksgiving. So, my parents came down on Thanksgiving day with all the food. Dinner was interesting to say the least. Ella had a really bad cold and she cried all through dinner and only ate yogurt. (You can imagine) On that Sunday we went up to Boone to Sarah's grandparents. Her uncle had come in from San Antonio so we celebrated Christmas and Thanksgiving at the same time. That means I got plenty of turkey with all the trimming to tide me over till next year.
With all the "wonderful" snow I finally got to use my new snowblower. Sarah finally crumpled with my relentless badgering and let me buy a nice big, new snowblower. This is the first year that I actually wanted it to snow, at least a little bit. Now it can get warm again.
I hope everybody has recovered from the holiday and are getting ready for the other one. Only 21 more days of shopping. Later.

Lance