The Mann Clan

We went to Washington for 2 weeks starting on Christmas Eve until the last day of our Christmas vacation... Before we left, Jason and I got the new iPhones and here are the first 2 pictures I took with it in the Verizon store.
P.S. This is possibly the longest post I have ever made!

The next day Jason drove us to the airport in Austin.

I'm not bragging, okay, I guess I kind of am... My kids were angels for both flights!

I hardly knew these two were in the isle across from us!

None of us were expecting Auntie Colee, Uncle Erik and Lexi to be waiting as we walked beyond security! What an awesome surprise!

(Photo credit Uncle Erik)

Gaven was the only one of my kids who had met Lexi before.

Love at first sight for all of them!

(Photo credit Uncle Erik)

We stopped in to see Nanu (she hadn't been feeling well) on our way out to my grandma's house for Christmas Eve.

Kamryn would have played with the nativity set for hours!

The kids picked out a book for her to read to them before leaving.

I caught Carsen gazing at the tree and presents and I'm so happy I got a picture. I LOVE this one!

...And this one!

Christmas Eve at Grammy Euni's

Did I mention that they love their little cousin?

Braeden and Carsen with MY cousins Lucas and Erica

My Grandma does a stocking for each of the kids:

The boys had the giggles and were laughing because Lucas broke one of the clothes pins! You had to be there!

Back at my Mom's on Christmas Eve, opening some Christmas jammies.

I love how Gaven is looking at Lexi!

Christmas morning

Braeden and Carsen had been "asking" for remote control boats for a long time. Santa finally decided to listen...

I can't get enough of these two and it melts my heart to think that they will get to grow up together now!

Christmas Evening with my family:

Gaven and Karlee all ready to open presents!

Carsen was glued to Kyli the whole night!

Karlee is such a good big cousin!

All I will say is that you had to be there! No explanation would do this picture justice! We LOVE Kelsey and his adorable sense of humor!

Ewwwww... who farted?!

"The ONE they had been wanting!"

You can't have too many baby dolls, right?

Monster truck!!

FaceTime with my Aunt Des in California before bedtime

This HAS to be one of my favorite pictures from our whole vacation!

The morning after:

My sister, my brother-in-law and I were headed to downtown Portland and Gaven was the only one of the kiddos that wanted to go with us.

Enjoying a free pickle at Elephant Delicatessen while waiting on his meal...

The Friday after Christmas, we spent the day with Jason's family celebrating Christmas

We will get to see this sweet little guy a whole lot more, too!

Opening presents:

Cinderella shoes: PERFECT!!

Our gift to Jason's parents... We had a 4-part picture of the kids spelling out L-O-V-E...

We got the Fablehaven series from Nanu and Papa. Braeden came home and read through it in less than 2 weeks! I think he liked it!

Minute-to-win-it

Not a problem for Braeden

I LOVE Landen watching him in this picture!

For some reason, Gaven wanted the stockings over his entire face!

We decorated LOTS of sugar cookies!

These are my favorite pictures! Watch the sequence as Auntie Dara put frosting on Braeden's nose:

Here: Let me lick it off!

We played some basketball in the gym, too. Overall, we had a GREAT time!

On Saturday, December 28, we celebrated Gaven's 6th birthday with our families.

His new baseball bag

One thing that we usually miss by living far away is having SO many people that love us ALL sing Happy Birthday to us at the same time. I LOVED how his face lit up while everyone was singing!

My cousin Amanda and her fiance Merak

I couldn't resist putting this one of my brother!

Back at Grandma and Papa's

Making Grandma "beautiful!!"

Definitely B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L

This little girl shared a room with me while we were visiting. I would put her to sleep on her bed down on the floor and then come in to find her asleep like this:

This time we couldn't figure out whether she fell out of the bed or fell asleep and then rolled her way under the bed to this side:

All tucked back in

My mom's friend Elaine brought over a bin full of brand new matchbox cars that she let the kids choose from for $.25 a piece! Not a bad deal since we had just been at the store and they were wanting to spend their money on them at $1 a piece!

On New Year's Eve we let the kids stay up until midnight in Texas (10pm).

The girls:

Traditional bath in Grandma and Papa's sink... too cute!

New Year's Day lunch at Red Robin

Another one of my favorites!

I hadn't even realized Erik took these pictures when he took the two little ones out for Gaven to drive his new monster truck.

(Photo credit Uncle Erik)

My brother and sister-in-law found a great ice skating deal on Groupon, so we bought one, too, and joined them at the ice skating rink for some fun.

Photo credit Uncle Chris

We brought my nephew Trevor.

L to R: Trevor, Carsen, Hannah, Braeden and Karlee

Photo Credit Uncle Chris

Gaven was so understanding for a 6-year old that it was too soon after his broken arm, since we didn't have his splint) to have him out ice skating for the first time ever!

Bedtime story

I LOVE this guy!

Even though Auntie Sabra couldn't be there to join in on the fun, she treated her nephews and niece to a fun day with each other at Dizzy Castle.

My mom paid for Karlee to join us and she was such a sweetheart with Kamryn, helping her find her way!

Big hugs for Nanu

Sweaty Braeden taking a break with my Dad... two peas in a pod!

Papa got right in on the action... mostly picking up balls to send them back up to the kids so that they could shoot them back down at them.

Papa enhanced the excitement by sticking his buns at them to shoot at! As if they needed more motivation!

But don't get me wrong, Papa got in on the action, too!

The whole group:

The "Mann" cousins:

Lunch at Wendy's

Carsen and Kammy spent the night at Nanu's house and the rest of us went to a movie. Papa took the kids to see one and my Mom and I got to watch one by ourselves. I think that's the first time we have ever done that!

Tired and exhausted Gav:

The boys spent some of their Christmas money on Nerf bow and arrows. They had a blast shooting them off in the front yard!

We only shot a "couple" into the tree!

My Parent's next door neighbor, Guy, had an ongoing little battle going on with Braeden over the Longhorns vs. Ducks bowl game... Braeden is a Longhorns fan and he is a die-hard Duck's fan! My Dad brought over a Longhorn's shirt to display in his house and Guy brought over a Duck's shirt to display in Papa's house. Guy kept telling Braeden that WHEN the Ducks beat the Longhorns he was going to make him a shirt to wear back on the airplane. Even though we warned Braeden that the Duck's would most likely win, he was still pulling for his Longhorns. Guy even invited the boys over to watch the game at his house, so they did. We all know that the Duck's won. Two days later, Guy brought over these shirts for the kids. Braeden's says: Hooked 'Em with a duck having "hooked" a Longhorn on his fishing pole. Carsen's says Hook 'Em with a the duck all dressed up in cowboy gear and giving the "hook 'em" sign. (Carsen IS a duck fan)!! It took everything Braeden had to put this shirt on and wear it home, too!