California, part 1

In the wee hours of December the 23rd, we left snowy Utah and headed for sunny California for Christmas. Sarah was up visiting Kyle so she headed back with us as well. The car was packed to capacity and the drive went well. There was a lot of this... And that....(yes that's Lloyd, our guinea pig, in the cage. I couldn't bear to leave him)

And this. The girls all did great, as usual, and we made good time.We were anxious to leave this.... :)

The next day was Christmas Eve. Now I must say...we normally split the time fairly between both families. However, given the obvious circumstances, we decided to spend the majority of the time with my family. It worked out great because we were able to strengthen each other and have fun in a time that we would probably have been very depressed. This was our 1st Christmas without Mike and it was not the same. We miss him terribly! Anyways, we headed over to Dad and Mom Biehn's for the Christmas Eve festivities.

Among eating way too much, we had fun and enjoyed each others company. It wouldn't be a Biehn get-together without some sort of eating challenge. First, Jenny, Kyle, Tayler, Norm, Ryan, Scott and Jeremy embarked on the Kool-Aid challenge...

It was hilarious and made for some great pictures and video! LOL

Then they did the cinnamon challenge. Again, hilarious! I love that these guys know how to have fun together. They always put on a good show and make for a good laugh! :)

After gorging, I mean EATING, Santa came!!! The kids were all so excited. It was precious! Kaleigh realized this year that Uncle Jeremy is the one who plays Santa. Dang it! We knew the day would come. Jeremy always does such a good job playing Santa and we appreciate that he does it! Keeping with Biehn tradition Santa brought the kids their Christmas pajamas.

They all looked so cute in their new jammies! Here are all the Biehn grand kids, minus Trenton and Brooklyn who are in Pennsylvania. We missed them! Tayler and Ryan are on top and then, from left, there is Shelly, Bradin, Natalie, Tessa, Peyton, Shayla, Kaleigh, and 2nd cousin Collette.

Our girls LOVE their cousins! They had such a blast playing together and didn't want to leave.

Also keeping with Biehn tradition, we had our White Elephant gift exchange. That's always so much fun! This year Tayler, Aunt Janet, Jenny and Mom and Dad Biehn participated. It made it extra fun! They also celebrated my birthday that night but Scott forgot to get pictures. Typical male! LOL

Uncle Jeremy made an adorable gingerbread candy house. The kids LOVED that and didn't mind eating it at all. :)We love Christmas Eve at the Biehn's and are sad that it was our last one. :( We will miss that tradition. Here are the girls in their jammies all ready to hit the sack before Santa flies in...

The next morning was Christmas! Kaleigh gave us a gift she made us at school. It was adorable! It was a 2010 calendar that she colored and decorated perfectly. So sweet!

The girls opened their Santa sack he left them. Kaleigh got a nice Lego set and Jenga. Shayla got a Razor scooter and a porcelain Belle doll. Peyton got a V-Smile Baby and a Tinkerbell doll. They loved it!

Then Grandma Griffin made us breakfast. Yum!

And then we headed back to Dad and Mom Biehn's. Unfortunately we used 2 cameras that day and Scott has the other memory card at work. So...I will have to upload those pictures later. Here are the few I took with my camera, in the meantime. Our family, Christmas 2009...

The girls loved all their gifts and opening their stockings! So did Scott and I. :)

Here we are sitting amongst our gifts. Where's Peyton you ask? Well....

She was having some....well......"difficulties" that morning, let's just say. She stayed hidden behind this chair almost the whole time. Darn kid!

Grandpa and Grandma Biehn gave her this adorable little Snow White baby doll. That's her favorite! She LOVED it and rarely put it down. Perfect for Peyton! :)

At 4:00 we headed over to Grandma Dotty and Pockey's house. Grandma passed away 6 years ago and Pocky just passed away in November of 2008 so we wanted to get together at their house a couple more times before it's sold. :( The girls were happy to play with MORE cousins! Here's, from left, Maddie, Shayla, Ava, Peyton and Kaleigh. Cute girls!We had a complete ham dinner. It was like Thanksgiving all over again. Delicious! Here's Dad, Mom and Nana...

Me and my handsome honey! This was our 11th Christmas together. ♥

Here's Sarah, looking possessed, cousin Travis, Lisa and a few of the girls. :)

Peyton gave her "buddy" (Nana) a dental exam. All checked out fine. :)

Grandpa and Grandma Griffin gave her 2 babies that she loved. She named the big one "Colletta". That was her favorite gift from them.

And Kaleigh and Shayla were really excited about the Pirate Lego set they got them. Perfect!

Now Mom's gonna beat me for posting this picture, but I think it's tender and beautiful. I had a special gift made for them. It was an ice-block with Mike's picture stamped on the front glass. In the background it read, "We did and we still do". (Meaning LOVE, CARE and CHERISH) It turned out beautifully and, as you can see, they loved it. Mom was sobbing. (Dad isn't laughing at Mom. He was reacting to something Kaleigh said) We all cried. :_(

Mom had made 3 delicious pies and when we went in to slice them, this is what we found. Who would do that? Well......

They would! Shayla and Maddie were the culprits. It was very reminiscent of Lisa and I when we were little. We used to do the exact same thing! These 2 are adorable together. They are best buddies! They are only 3 weeks apart in age. That's the end of Christmas. It was wonderful!

Shayla and Grandma are buddies. Mom does a really great job of spending quality time with the girls and sits and talks to them forever. She treats them like babies, and they LOVE that! Shay likes to wear grandma's glasses. Cute!

Poor Dad was feeling pretty miserable the whole time we were there and it showed. We felt so bad for him and it was sad because he just wasn't himself. At all. :( Kaleigh loved snuggling up to Grandpa and I think it might have made him feel just a little bit better. :)

This is how Peyton went to sleep most nights. Snow White, Tinkerbell and a barbie in hand. Sweet!

On the 26th we headed over to Dad and Mom Biehn's where we went to lunch at our favorite resteraunt, Panda Inn. Here are the girls playing on the outside of the building. We got so busy talking that I forgot to take more pictures. We had a great time and loved hanging out at their house talking all afternoon. The girls love playing at Grandpa and Grandma Biehn's!

That night we ended up going to The Cheesecake Factory with Jeremy and Jocelyn. It was a last minute fluke and I'm so glad it happened. We had a blast, as always!

The next day, the 27th, was kinda hard. First, we decided to go to our original home ward, The Bellflower Ward, because my Dad was speaking and we wanted to support and hear him. He did a great job! It turned out that my nephew, Corey (Mike's son), was there with his other grandparents who are members of that ward. We have not been able to see him or have any contact with him since shortly after Mike's death, which has been tramatic to my family. Corey's mother is angry about a choice that MY BROTHER made prior to his death, and is holding it against us. It's so sad. Anyaways, we were able to see Corey and hold him, play with him, love him and kiss him for 2 hours. It was the best! I cried quite a few times and cherish those precious 2 hours. After church we all went over to Mike's grave. We left flowers and letters and pictures from the girls. Kaleigh had the precious idea of attaching letters they wrote to balloonsand sending them up to heaven for Mikey. It was very sweet. Mike's head stone is absolutely beautiful and perfect in every way! There's nothing else to say.

It was veery surreal being at my brothers grave. I didn't like it one bit and would give ANYTHING to have him back here with us. :_(

After the grave we headed over to Lisa and Robert's for lunch. Sam, Justin and Adan were with us the whole time. Justin was Mike's very best friend. It was greta to have them there. They are like family to us. Here's Adan with the girls...

The food was all amazing and the company was needed at that time. Justin made us a KILLER Kalua Pork. He is one GOOD cookin Hawaiin! :)

That's Justin and his wife, Sam, on the couch.

That night Peyton gave Grandpa some good old pampering. :)

Peyton slept with us every night and this is what I often woke up to find. How is that even comfortable!?

(Stay tuned for Californai, part 2....)