New Year's Eve

Rico realized this year that he had never done fireworks with his boys. (We have never lived in a place where they were legal.) Ammon and Bethany were off doing teenage stuff so we took Caleb and Daxon to the fireworks stand on New Year's Eve. They had the best time! It was so fun to watch them get so excited. Little boys (and big boys,too) really love to blow stuff up!

Meeting Cousin Amelie

Daxon has lots of boys in his life. He has lots of uncles, male cousins, and there are 5 boys around his age that live on our culdesac. Now he has met the side of the family that produces girls. He met his cousin Amelie and her little sister Kaylee for the first time this Christmas.

Elizabeth and Pepa

We were able to see some family this year at Christmas that we don't see very often. We spent the Sunday after Christmas at Elizabeth's Aunt Wanda's house. All of her children and 2 grandchildren were there. We ate lots of food and got to know each other again as well as meeting a new cousin-in-law and her 2 girls, Amelie and Kaylee. Here you see Elizabeth with Pepa (aka Paula). This is the aunt that spent the most time changing diapers, rocking her to sleep and wiping away tears. Elizabeth was very excited to spend this time with her.

Cousin Brook

Caleb and Daxon always have a great time at Papa's house. He has a large plot of land right on the lake so there is plenty of room to run and be boys. Here they are with their cousin, Brook. She also loves to play outside so they will have many years of fun ahead.

Future Photographer

Daxon was so proud of himself for taking this picture. He figured out how to program the camera for delay and kept taking pictures until he felt he had taken a good one.

Caleb and Noah

Caleb loved spending time with his cousin, Noah, this Christmas. Here they are getting ready for some Nerf tag.

The Maranto Family Rock Band

Rico's brother, Adrian, brought RockBand over to Papa and Grandma Sandy's house at Christmas. Here you see Ammon on drums, Adrian on guitar and Rico on vocals. Eventually, everyone joined the fun and we had the room full of future musicians.

Caleb's Santa Experiment

Caleb decided to perform an experiment this year to see if Santa is real. He wrote his Santa letter, addressed, stamped and mailed it without letting Mom read it. He even went so far as to ask Santa for something that he had never mentioned wanting to Mom or Dad. Luckily, Santa is real and he was able to receive the Club Penguin Membership and guidebook he asked for in his letter.