Back to Reality and Merry Christmas!!!

So our last day on Maui was great we did everything one more time, snorkeling, surfing swimming... then it was time to come home. The flights were a little crazy and I am going to try and make the story as short as possible. First, about two hours or so into our flight to Seattle a man had a heart attack and that made things crazy for awhile but he was okay so I went to sleep(Bobby slept through it). Then as we were making our final decent into Seattle we saw a bright flash of light outside the window and as was confirmed by the flight attendant, we got struck by lightning!!!WHAT!?! Apparently it is a common occurrence because the crew acted like it was nothing. So our next flight was delayed an hour, which turned into two, which turned into three. There was some kind of mechanical problem with the plane which is always a confidence builder. Anyway we finally board the plane and the attendant tells us we are still waiting for the Pilots(nobody can drive in the snow in Seattle). They arrive and tell us they have found another problem with the plane and they are going to try to fix it by phone instruction, at this point they start a movie...not a good sign. So they fix the problem but now the plane needs to be de-iced and it's going to take awhile because they don't know what they're doing, then they tell us that they used to much fluid and it seeped in the windshield and shorted out all of their equipment so now we have to wait for someone to fix all of that! There was a point when I told Bobby that we should get off the plane while we were still living, but eventually we made it home. It was great to see the kids, not so great to see the snow. This is a picture of our backyard, there is a three foot wall back there and you can't even see it. We are going to have ourselves a swimming pool when it all melts :)

The kids are enjoying the snow very much and Bobby is right there with them which is great. He made a sled out of an old wheel barrow and they are having a blast with it.

Merry Christmas!!!

On Christmas Eve the kids all worked on a thank you note for Santa, and of course put out some milk and cookies, which Milena ate as soon as no one was looking, she even ate the carrots we put out for the reindeer, she cracks me up.

I french braided Stacia's hair so she could wear it "bumpy" on Christmas day and Milena said she wanted me to do hers too, I didn't think she would actually let me do it but she held as still as a two year old can and we did it. It's her first time with braids so I had to document it. Aren't they cute?

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. Milli really got excited and it was fun to watch. Lauren liked to open the presents, she is at the age where we should just get her paper because that's her favorite part.

Every year the kids go on a treasure hunt for their last gift, Stacia and Landon got a Wii which they are making very good use of. Thank you Santa!

Milli got a race car which all of the kids are enjoying, it's making me very nervous for the future, hopefully they will be better drivers when they turn 16 or watch out world!

We went to my mom's for brunch after we opened our gifts and we had a wonderful day. We are so thankful for our families and all of our awesome neighbors, and we are so thankful to have the Gospel in our lives. We are truly blessed!!

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!