The Karaffa's: January 2014

happy new year

As tradition goes, we have been ringing in the New Year with the Karaffa's since before we were even born. So, we all got together, ate lots of yummy food, played games, watched a movie, and anticipated ringing in the New Year. We all stayed up for the festivities and had a wonderful time. Aunt Blip Blip got us these cool party supplies, and we enjoyed having those to help us celebrate.

The Karaffa Grandkids...ready to party

Brecken...toasting in the New Year!

Best Buds & Cousins...Brady & McKinly (5 weeks apart)

Also, best buds & cousins...Brecken & Easton (10 weeks apart)

Me...all smiles and ready for 2014!

These crazy boys partying in style!

Even Hutch participated in the festivities!

Our Family

Happy New Year 2014

puppy love

Each of us love spending time with Hutch...playing with him and snuggling with him. We are really enjoying him.

Hutch & me

Hutch & Brady

Hutch & Brecken

Christmas Day Dinner

We enjoyed celebrating Christmas with family with dinner at Oma's house on Christmas Day. Lots of yummy food, laughter, and good times were shared!

The best of many, many attempts...

Our Family ~ Christmas 2013

Oma & us

What a wonderful Christmas we shared with family and friends. We are blessed and grateful, and we thank God for the true reason for Christmas...the gift of His Son to us!

christmas morning

Christmas morning in our home! We are excited and ready to celebrate as a family!

We start our morning with prayer...and then we open our gifts from Santa...eat breakfast...change into our new Christmas jammies...read the Christmas story in Luke 2...open our gifts...and then finish with our stockings. We love to take our time, so we spend several hours doing all this as a family, and we love every minute of it!

Brecken unwrapping his gift from Santa...

...woohoo...a scooter...

...& a back hoe. This is one he told Santa all about...and all he really wanted for Christmas!

Brady was super excited about his electric scooter from Santa...

...& his castle lego!

I was so excited as I opened up one of my favorite boxes...American Girl!

Yay! The snack cart set...& I also got an electric scooter from Santa!

After our breakfast, we changed into our Christmas jammies and took a kid picture with our sweet new puppy, Hutch, before opening more gifts!

I love Hutch...I want to hold him all the time!

Brady super excited about his Wolverine action figure!

Brecken reading through his construction vehicle/tractor trailer books!

Me...

...Brady...

...Brecken...& Hutch

Mommy & me

I loved getting the RV camper for my American Girl dolls!

And, the boys were excited to open and receive...

...ninja turtle shells and accessories!

Stocking time...

...enjoying all the goodies inside!

Brady & his stocking

Checking out his goodies!

Brecken happy to open his stocking...

...& enjoying the goodies inside!

What a wonderful Christmas morning we shared as a family...Merry Christmas 2013!

christmas eve surprise

SURPRISE to us...Daddy & Mommy got us a puppy for Christmas!! We were SOOOOO excited!!

Daddy & Mommy had been secretly talking about getting a puppy for months (well, Daddy talked about it for years), but they couldn't decide which puppy they both really wanted. After seeing someone with a golden doodle, they both really liked him. But, they really wanted to get a dog that was between 20-30 pounds...rather than the 40 pounds the golden doodle would be. So, Daddy researched dog breeds and found out that there is a mini golden doodle...exactly what they were hoping for. So, after finding one online, they talked to the breeder, and got us this puppy. We were so surprised. What a gift to us!

We got our puppy on Christmas Eve. After we had attended our church's Christmas Eve service, we headed home to pick up Daddy and head to dinner. (Daddy couldn't attend the service with us as planned due to some unexpected issues with getting the puppy on time, so he was at home waiting for us!) But, when we got home, Mommy told us to just sit on the couch and we would read a story while waiting for Daddy. Then, our doorbell rang. We weren't sure what to think, but once we got closer to the door, we realized it was Daddy! Wondering why he was at the front door, we opened it and noticed he had something in his jacket. He told us that we had gotten a package. Then, he unzipped his jacket, and we were like "Is that a real dog"? It was hilarious! Then, he introduced us to our Christmas gift, our 5 pound, 10 week old, mini golden doodle.

So, before we left for dinner, we each took turns very happily holding our new gift.

We love him...

...he is adorable!

...and, we are excited about taking care of him and playing with him!

Us & our new puppy!

karaffa family christmas

We enjoyed celebrating Christmas with the Karaffa's on December 23. As tradition, we (the kids) get to wear some Christmas jammies and enjoy food, laughter, presents, and a Christmas movie. Usually, we watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but this year, we watched a new movie.

Here we are in our Christmas jammies...Karaffa Grandkids