Zoo Lights

All bundled up and ready to have some family fun at Zoo Lights!

Family picture....minus John...who was behind the camera. :-)

John was trying to figure out the night function on the camera and Maddie was distracted by all the lights. At least I was looking.

Madison in absolute awe of all the Christmas lights.

The frowny face....because she didn't really want to pose for a picture. LOL.

Having fun with the camera.

Checking out the BIG, GIANT sharks.

"Ahhhhh.....they are coming to get me!!!!"

Grandma and Grandpa having some Maddie time.

My little family...having fun!

Madison loved EVERY minute of it.

Kinda hard to see, but we attempted to pose for a picture. :-)

Our beautiful Mt. Rainier and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

My personal favorite....the green and purple tree!

Soooooo many lights.

Yikes.....GIANT spider!

As a family tradition we typically go up to Bellevue with the family (Grandma Jill, Grandpa Randy, and Uncle Kevin) to enjoy dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and the music of Snowflake Lane. This year we decided to change it up a bit. We spent the evening on December 18th together enjoying Zoo Lights at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It had been a while since a number of us had been there and we knew that Maddie would LOVE it!

We all had a great time together checking out the thousands of lights that were on display. It is so amazing how beautiful these Christmas lights can be. It truly takes an artist to be able to make this all happen.

Besides just viewing all the light displays, we decided to thaw out for a few minutes and check out the sharks and aquarium. Madison LOVED the huge sharks and fish swimming around. I definitely think we have a new family tradition....we all had a BLAST!

Santa Pictures 12/15/11

Hi Santa!!! (We didn't realize the photographer was going to take a photo....hence the stroller in the bottom right corner.)

Waving hello to Santa Claus.

Having the greatest time sitting on Santa's lap.

Saying "Ho, ho, ho" in this picture. So cute!

Our sweet little Christmas angel. We love you Madison!

Oh course we had to take Madison to see Santa again this year. We were a little skeptical as we figured this year would be the "crying Santa pics" year. We ended up having to wait in line for almost an hour until it was our turn to sit on Santa's lap. Thankfully Madison did TERRIFIC waiting her turn. John wore her out by running her up and down the ramps in the mall while mommy waiting patiently in line.

Prior to taking Maddie for her pictures we had prepped her.....well prepped her as best you can for a 1 and a 1/2 year old. LOL. Every time she would see anything related to Christmas she would say "ho, ho, ho." We were off to a great start.

When it was Maddie's turn to go see Santa we allowed her to go see him on her own timing. Much to our awe and surprise, when we told her to go say hi to Santa, she walked right up to him sitting in his chair and wanted up. We got the greatest pictures this year!!!! We love them all.

O Christmas Tree.....O Christmas Tree

Fun times at the "tree farm."

"Is that the one, over there??"

Loving the candy canes!

"Let's see.....which one is the PERFECT one???"

The Pepper Family Christmas tree.....it's perfect!

Santa's little helper....with a runny nose. :-)

Helping daddy saw off the bottom branches.

Doing some redecorating.

"Yep....I think it should go right there."

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

For a number of years now we have gotten our Christmas trees from the Puyallup Lions Club. We have always been very happy with both the quality and price, so we decided to get our tree from them again this year. Eventually we will brave the mud, etc and go chop down our Pepper Family Christmas tree, but let's save that for another year when Maddie is a little older and can actually appreciate getting all bundled up to find the perfect tree.

Maddie had a great time wandering around while we picked the perfect tree. She was welcomed with a handful of candy canes....that didn't leave her hands until we got home. Getting our tree had finally put us in more the the Christmas spirit, so it was also time to get out a few decorations. Maddie absolutely LOVED rearranging our sparkly Christmas cones. Not sure how many times over the holidays they were placed in different places around the house, but she sure had fun!

Sumner Santa Parade

Daddy and Maddie waiting for the parade to start.

She wasn't so sure about the semi-truck blaring it's horn or the mustangs revving their engines.

Grandma Jill to the rescue.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. Mickey Mouse!!!

She loved all the floats.....especially the ones with Mickey Mouse. :-)

Here comes SANTA CLAUS!!!!

Ho, Ho, Ho....Merry Christmas!

Playing outside later that afternoon. What a beautiful, sunny day for December.

On Saturday December, 3rd we headed down to Sumner to enjoy the Santa parade down Main Street. Maddie LOVED dancing to the marching bands and all the music that she heard. She especially loved seeing Mickey Mouse on the floats as well as Santa Claus when he came through town on his fire truck.

Although she didn't like the honking semi-trucks or the cars revving their engines, she seemed to have a good time overall. Nothing a few candy canes can't fix. Hehe.

Playing with our new camera.

I just can't get enough of my little girls' eyes.

She still loves to empty out her shopping cart to sit in it. LOL. Silly girl!

BIG HUGS!!!

"Come with me 'Bo-Bo'."

"Make room for me 'Bo-Bo'."

"Now you stay right there."

Oh how she loves "Bo-Bo" the bear.

Thanks Grandma Kathy for "Bo-Bo."

Our little cookie monster enjoying an evening snack.

Yummy, yummy cookie.

A serious pose for mommy. :-)

Our happy little lady.

So on Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving (for those of you who don't know) - John braved the cold, wind, and rain and stood in line to get some great deals on a few VERY desired items. Since our small digital camera had broken over the summer, we have both REALLY been wanting a new fancy camera. We couldn't pass up the deals that Best Best buy was having on the camera we had wanted. John stood in line for 3 hours (from 9pm until midnight) in order to get the deals that we had wanted. Well he survived.....and we got the camera and a few other things on our wish list.

Since I just can't help but take a MILLION pictures of our little girl, I figured I would post a few for your viewing pleasure. LOL.

Happy Thanksgiving 2011

Ready to head to Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving celebration. Yum, yum!

Happy Thanksgiving from The Pepper Family.

Check out those baby blues!

My two favorite ladies. Love you both dearly.

Our little pianist.

Madison was in complete awe of the fish at Grandma Kathy's house.

Helping Grandma Kathy clean up after a delicious dinner.

Just chilling in the wagon. Having fun!

WOW.....it most certainly has been a LONG time since we've blogged. With all the fun of the holidays time has just flown by. So for now, we will back track a little bit just to keep a good log of the recent happenings. Sigh.

We celebrated Thanksgiving Day with a fantastic turkey dinner prepared by the most AMAZING woman alive - Grandma Jill. The day was complete with lots of playing and fun times with Grandma Jill, Grandpa Randy, Uncle Kevin, Great Granny (G.G.), and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa.

We were SUPER lucky and got to have a second Thanksgiving 3 days later with John's family - Grandma Kathy, Grandpa John, and Uncle Chad were there.

We are sooooo thankful for our amazing families....for all they do and for the love that they share.