Christmas Post...at last

So much of this...

I can't even stand it. I love it so much!! It's snowing more as I type!!!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We are so blessed with so many wonderful families and friends who love us. We are so lucky to live close to them and be able to to see them all regularly!

Our Christmas festivities always start on the 23rd at Grandpa Don and Grandma T's house. Santa always comes and we have dinner and games and presents. So much fun!

Listening to Santa tell us a story.

Don't worry. It's totally not awkward sitting on Santa's lap...

But it IS super awesome watching my husband sit on his lap.

Grandpa. What a good sport!

Cole was double-fisting gum drops all night. He was running around in circles giggling for an hour. Then he dropped to the floor, comatose. Awesome.

A little Tylenol (p.m. WHOOPS!!) and a little nap on the spot for Lou.

The big kids got to read the Christmas story at Grandma Linda and Grandpa Peter's house on Christmas eve.

Just finishing dinner, talent show and Christmas story. Getting ready to head home and wait for the Big Guy!

New Jammies!!!

Christmas morning fun!

We get to go to Disneyland!!!!!

Thomas the Tank Engine made a MAJOR pit stop at our house!! He left all kinds of goodies!!!


Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was fabulous and enjoyed spending so much time together!

It's Official...She's a Tween

On December 13 Kennedy turned 11. Yikes. What happened and how did I get so old?

She's every bit the tween. She's very into music, peace signs and attitude. OH yeah, and friends! She is a great girl who is 95% angel ;) She's such a great help to me and usually a great sister to her brothers~

For her birthday she has always wanted to have an ice skating party. Well, this was the year. So we headed to Peaks Arena. (You see if I were a good mother I would have called and checked the "free skate" time...I, however, am a horrible mother. I did not.) It was hockey time. Boo for us!! Luckily, she's a good sport and we headed over to Classic Skating for a skating party. The boys went to grandma's so it was just the girls.

Sacoya, Kennedy and Emily

It was an interesting few hours. Totally brought back awesome memories from my younger years. Interesting fact: they no longer do the Hokey Pokey. Good to know.

There's the cute girls...

If you know Kennedy at all, you know that she is a hippie at heart. She loves all things "Peace".

What better than a "tie-dye" peace cake?

My beautiful 11 year old.

So excited to get to pick out her own presents this year! Boots from The Williams grandparents, shirt, jewelery and more shirts from the Olsen Grandparents.

A Pink GuItAr from the Van Orman grandparents. Sooo happy!!

Oh yeah. From her parents, she got a hole in the ground. (It makes more sense when I tell you that Louis asked for a trampoline ;) ) Also, quite possibly the ugliest quilt on the planet.

Oh well. Live and learn. I am not a quilter. Lesson learned.

Happy birthday sassy pants.

A Real Special Child

Yep. That's my Louis. Special.

It's been a while since I posted any "Louis says..." because I felt I had worn it out...but this is a keeper.

The third graders at his school made a "Third Grade Thanksgiving Cook Book". They were all asked how to cook a turkey and the teacher typed what they said word for word and that was their entry. You see where this is going....

Here is a "typical" entry.

"You take a turkey and fill it with stuffing and cook it in the oven. The oven is 55 degrees and cook for 55 hours."

Here is Louis' entry.

Well you get the turkey out of the pen and you get a super small knife and you let it bleed for a little bit and then you cut its head off. And it runs around a for a little bit and then when it stops running you take it inside and pluck the feathers and you feed the little gizzards to the dogs. Then you put it in the sink and wash all the blood off and then you cut its stomach open and you grab out the heart and lungs and all the stuff. And then you wash the inside and you stuff the inside then you cook it for about 4 hours. Then you add potatoes and gravy."

Um.

Wow.

The worst part is, after reading this the only thing I could think is ... dang he's right. You cook it for about four hours. Way to go buddy.

I know. It must be genetic.

Sand Hollow Baby

Sand hollow = beautiful

Ross and his "dive buddies" decided to take a scuba diving trip down to Sand Hollow, near St. George. Jami and I decided we weren't going to be left behind!! So, we gather up the children and packed the minivans and off we went.


(this really has nothing to do with it, but how awesome is this picture?)


First things first. When we checked into the condo. Check out what's on t.v. Because we don't do enough of THAT at home...







The kids were a little bored so...


DOG PILE ON KENNEDY!!!!

The next morning we took the wheelers out to the sand dunes at The Hollow. It was amazingly beautiful. It was so much fun, I loved riding down there. No one else was there, we had free reign of the whole place!

I forgot my shades, so I borrowed Ross'. Cop shades really aren't my thing.

Whoever gets to ride with me gets the boring ride. Poor them. Dad is so much more fun!

The Wright's met up with us at the reservoir and the guys went diving while the kiddos froze their hineys off but still got in the water and had a TON OF FUN!!!

Um. How hot is she? Who is the lucky guy???



Oh yes. It just so happened to be Jami's birthday. I had big plans of making her a completely awesome cake. Didn't happen. So....this is what they had at Albertson's.

We decided it was Big Bird's Italian cousin, who has a gun aimed at him. Odd. But it was yummy and OOOHHH that frosting. :)

Loved the cold water!

The swamp monster

Bert and Ross surfacing

...here's the lucky guy. Is that "Syndrome"...my nemesis???

Love them.

Not so photogenic...mmmm squeezie cheese and ritz.



We went to dinner that night to celebrate J's birthday. Try finding a restaurant for 11 people in St. George on a Friday night. Not an easy task. We finally got into Brick Oven. Kennedy's old primary teacher is the dining room manager there. She brought us a yummy dessert for the kiddos. It was immediately devoured. It was quite comical. Five children shoveling as quickly as possible. Pretty sure it was gone in about 25 seconds....

So much fun! Love good friends!

The guys went diving the next day and we stayed back to swim in the fun pool. Again, freezing. It was actually raining. The kids had fun. All it takes for a good vacation is a pool!!

Most of the munchkins!!

Such a fun trip! On the way home we got caught in a huge blizzard. Bert and Jami were a few minutes behind us and got stopped on the freeway for three hours because of so many accidents. We barely missed it! It was a nail biter, for sure!! Thanks friends for a fun, fun weekend!!