CHRISTMAS DAY!!

Christmas this year came and left quickly. With the excitement of Símone's first Christmas, making the rounds to our families. And having the chance to speak to my brother, who has been out serving a mission in Taiwan for a year now. We enjoyed all of the fun that Christmas brought to us this year. Auntie Lorraine and her girls, Azia, and Allie, spent Christmas with our family again this year. We left out some leftover pizza and brownies for Santa and his Reindeers (definitely not the traditional cookies and milk, but seeing as Kyle was our Santa this year it was perfect). We all had a big slumber party, and awaited Santa's visit at Grandma Tangiora's house. Kyle, and I woke up with Símone at about 7am Christmas morning. We didn't open presents til about 8:30 though. Which was tough for the kids cause they had to stay in their rooms until we were all ready for them. It was funny cause they would make every excuse to leave the room... I have to go to the bathroom, or I need a drink of water. When we were all ready we got together and opened presents as a family. Símone loved it! She was eating the wrapping paper, and chewing on her new clothes. We definitely had fun watching her! After present we got ready for the day, and started our rounds early. We made our way to Kyle's parent house at 10:30 for a brunch. One of the nephews had the Chicken Pox so we visited with Grandma and Grandpa earlier. We had some good breakfast, and lunch food, and enjoyed the time we got to spend with Mom and Dad, as well as Sherrelle, RJ and Colton, Nathaniel, and Grandma Blood. Then at about 2pm we headed back to my Mom's house for our traditional Christmas lunch. We usually eat around lunch time and EAT ALL DAY!!! Finally we had the opportunity later that evening to talk to my brother. It was so good to hear from him, he has matured so much, and sounds so much older and wiser that I do. He's enjoying the work, and love the Chinese people. I miss him so much and can't wait for him to come home, but feel very blessing that he has sacrificed time in his life to service the Lord. All in all it was a wonderful Christmas, and we enjoyed all the time we got to spend with each of our families. Here are a few picture of our Christmas Day celebrations!

Símone Christmas morning in front of the presents, and in her new PJs.

The Kids: Azia, Símone, Tayvion, Allie, and Kaiden. All in their new PJs, just before opening presents!

Símone opening her presents(with help from DADDY)! She loves all her toys that her Grandma's and Grandpa gave her!

One word... Cutie!!!!

Here she is chewing on her new clothes! I think she likes them... but that's just a guess!

Daddy loves Símone!!! I love this picture!

Símone's Christmas Outfit! Daddy picked it out... I think he did a good job! We love the little hat!

Grandma and Grandpa playing with Símone and Colton!

Símone and Colton! I love this picture, too!

The four generation photo of the Blood Family: Kyle, Símone, Grandpa, and Great Grandma Blood!

We hope you all had a safe and wonderful Christmas season, and hope many blessing find you all this new year!

T'WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS...

Christmas Eve was spent with my with my family. We all got together at my mom's for dinner. We had her famous homemade pizza, Mmmm... Later on we sang Christmas songs as well as reenacted the Nativity Story with all the kids. Then we ended the night with a gift exchange with the kids. It was fun and all the kids seemed to have a good time.

Mary, Joseph, and the Donkey!!!

They were all such good troopers...




Simone had fun watching all her older cousins enjoying the celebration, she even got to taste a little bit of Grandma's Pizza!
She was so good even though she was so sick!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

Now that we are coming to the end of another wonderful year we take a moment to reflect on the events of the passing year. We have been blessed greatly by our Heavenly Father and I love this time of year that we get the chance to really focus on our Savior and his birth.

Kyle has been busy at school, as well as working at the temple doing security part-time (he loves it). He has also had the opportunity to finally open our Eve Cellular T-Mobile Store where he works full-time. He is working hard so that I can be home with our daughter. He's also got a new calling as a counselor in the Elders Quorum. He is a very hardworking busy man and a wonderful Father. I'm thankful for all he does.

Christina has been adjusting the life as a Mother. It definitely is very different when you yourself isn't the most important concern in life anymore. The birth of our daughter went great and I've recovered fully from the aftermath of my first pregnancy. I can say proudly that I've lost all the pregnancy weight (Thanks to nursing and Palates). I took a years leave of absent for the school district to take care of Simone. It's been wonderful to stay at home and raise our daughter. I've had the same calling for the past year and a half as the relief society pianist. And just got release as a ward missionary a little before I had Simone. Motherhood keeps me very busy and I'm loving every minute of it.

Simone is growing like a weed. It surprises me at how much she has grown. She is 7 months and she is about 20lbs and 25in long. She is crawling everywhere, well she can crawl everywhere but sometimes she'll just cry til someone picks her up and take her where she wants to go. She LOVES food. She gets so upset when we all sit down to eat and she's not! Even if she's been feed!! She is a mamma's girl but by the end of the day she gets sick of me and love hanging out with daddy when he comes home from work. We've been very blessed with a beautiful and healthy daughter.

Our year has brought many great changes and we are loving it all, even in this struggling time we just have to, as Elder Wirthlin put it best, "Come what may and love it". Find time for laughter, and remember our purpose here on earth is to work together to make it back to our mansions is Heaven in the presence of our loving Heavenly Father and Savior. Hope every one's year is filled with the love of our Savior and the presence of friends and family.