Mark's Birthday and a Schneider Christmas

We did Christmas early with the Schneiders this year.

Our "Christmas Eve" fell on Mark's birthday.

He seemed surprised when he opened his present the girls and I got him!

Oh yeah....

A Seahawks "ugly sweater"....

I took all the girls to Sky High so Mark could have some alone (and quiet) time with 

his parents and his brother.  Just the four of them.

 The girls were super excited.....they had a great time, too!!!

Jumping and swinging into the foam pit....

And just running and jumping on all of the trampolines!

We had a great Christmas Eve dinner....

Mark chose to go get Calzones at Pete's Pizza.

A favorite for all of us!  Gramps even came and met us for dinner!

The next morning we opened stockings and gifts....

Katrina made a pretty special gift for Grandpa.

He asked all four of the Granddaughters what they love about Grandpa.

She printed their answers and transferred them to these super cool pillows!

What a treasure!

Annalise was thrilled with more LEGO Friends (the kid is obsessed!).  

She will seriously spend hours alone in the basement building and re-building LEGO Friends!

And both of the big girls asked for some sort of chair for their rooms....

Grandma and Grandpa delivered!!!

We ended the day with a delicious Christmas dinner.

It's so nice when we can all be together.

It was another great Christmas celebration!

Schneider Family Pictures

When we went to Spokane for Christmas we were able to sneak in a family picture session.

We did one years ago....Avery and Bella were pretty little.  

Since then, we've added Elsa and Annalise to the family! 

It was time for an update.

We spent a few hours one morning at the Glover Mansion in Spokane.

Grandma and Grandpa....

With their boys....

And their granddaughters....

The boys with their families....

 

The boys and their daughters....

The bigs....

The littles....

Lots of the littles...they were pretty funny!

Bigs AND littles....

We were so happy we had the chance to do this.

Lots of love in this family! 

Robin's 40th!!!!!!!!

Yes....FINALLY....Robin is turning 40!!!!

She wasn't so excited about another Vegas 40th trip, so we'll save our
BIG fun until this Spring in Palm Springs.

We decided to have a grown up night in Fairhaven and spend the night at the Chrysalis.

There's a lot of history with Robin.
We first met her when she started dating Geoff about 17 years ago.
They both worked at The Keg.
He was smitten.
And we got to know and love her, too.
Our first real introduction came in the form of a road trip!
We decided to go to Vegas, Bryce, Zion, and Utah.
Robin was so young she couldn't even drive the rental car.

 It was such a great trip!

And we've been besties ever since!
She and Geoff are AMAZING Godparents.....

And the Happy Campers began way back when....about 13 years ago....

The night of Robin's birthday celebration there was a cool Christmas boat parade
right outside our window in Bellingham Bay...

The crew came and met us before dinner....
Stacy and Robin go way back, too!!!
So much love.....

Dinner at Dirty Dan's was amazing....
Loved celebrating Robin!!!!!

What a great way to turn 40!!!
We love you Robin!!!!

Olde Fashioned Christmas

We always look forward to the first weekend in December!

Olde Fashioned Christmas in Pioneer Park is truly an annual Schneider favorite tradition!

This year we only had ONE opportunity to go!

And lucky for us.....Geoff and Robin were going to be in town and could join us!!!!

Yippee!!!!!!!

As usual...we started in the school house writing letters to Santa Claus.

Then it was off to the Post Office to mail the letters!

The "sameness" of it all makes it that much more charming.

Next stop was the printing shop....

 ....the girls stamped a card and were ready to move on.

Next stop....the Jenni House.

A favorite stop for baking cookies, crafting and playing some sort of game!

It didn't disappoint!!!

After that we headed to the barn!

 

The boys were about ready to call it quits.

They opted to head to a local "watering hole" while Robin and I finished the tour with the girls.

The next stop found us a bit uncomfortable.

 Yep...there it is...

a reindeer head in bed.

Hmmm.

Only in Ferndale.

Annalise was ready for Santa....

She asked him for an American Girl Doll.

She told me that she asked Santa for the doll because she knew it was expensive and things from Santa were "free".  Deep Sigh.  I know this won't last forever....I just wish it would!

I love the innocence and magic of Santa.

 

Avery wanted nothing to do with Santa.

She smiled at him.

Still creepy to sit on a stranger's lap.

Especially when you're pretty sure (but not 100%) that there's even such a thing as Santa.

We left Santa and went to sing carols in the church.

And finally....after waiting forever and making it on the LAST sleigh ride of the night....

we made a wonderful little loop through town listening to the cheerful bells on the horses.

Merry Christmas!