New Years Disappointment

After Christmas I headed to Logan with the kids to spend a week with my family.  My cousin was in town for the week from California and I wanted to spend some time with her.  It was a lot of fun hanging out with family, so fun in fact that I didn't take any pictures.  Oh well!  Maybe next time.

We were suppose to spend New Years in Grace.  I headed up Friday night and Kenny was going to come up Saturday morning.  However, Friday night didn't go smoothly.  I'll spare you the details and just say that I slept about an hour thanks to multiple kids throwing us ALL over the place.  It wasn't pleasant for any of us.  I decided, rather than stay with sick kids, that I'd drive home the next morning.  So we spent our New Years at home with sick kids and an exhausted mom.  Oh well, it happens.

The kids were all VERY disappointed that they didn't get to stay and play with their cousins.  So once they were feeling better we let the 4 youngest get in mom and dad's bath tub.  It's totally like grandma's hot tub, right!?!  It wasn't our most favorite New Year's ever, but we're hoping the new year will be wonderful.

Love this picture of Dan.  I don't know what he's doing, but I love his face.

New Year's Sledding

Hannah headed down the hill.

Sledding in Grace was awesome. Karen and Cory rented a snowmobile and it was a life saver. My in-laws neighbors let us sled in the hill behind my in-laws house so we had this huge hill that we didn't have to climb up. We stayed out for hours and hours, without that snowmobile there's no way the kids would have lasted as long as they did. Luckily, Grandpa came out and took some pictures of us. All the kids had a blast and we even took baby Daniel out. He had fun sledding and riding the snowmobile, but he didn't last more than 30 minutes due to the cold and wind.

Ben going down with baby Daniel and I.

Surprisingly this is a smaller group coming up behind the snowmobile.

Daddy and Hannah's turn.

Daniel's turn on the snowmobile.

We decided to rig a coat rack in the hot tub room for all the wet snow clothes. It worked wonderfully. It kept all the clothes in one place and allowed them to dry. Way to go Kenny!

New Year's Fun

Gracie looking cute in her New Year's hat with her red juice mustache.

Aunt Sarah and Daniel waiting for the party to begin.

We spent New Year's in Grace this year. It was so much fun to be with so many family members just hanging out with nothing to do. All of Kenny's siblings were in town except his sister Mindy who thought she needed to stay in Salt Lake and have her twins (I think she should have waited. JK!) We all missed them, but were happy for Mindy and Jeremy.

Hannah waiting very patiently to make some noise.

Gracie helping her cousin Carlie get her hat on. What a good girl.

The rest of us had a lot of fun in Grace doing nothing at all. We had a New Years Eve pajama party for the kids at about 10:00 on New Year's Eve. They had a lot of fun counting down to the New Year and then popping confetti and blowing noise makers. I love making memories with family that my kids will always remember. After we put the kids to bed the adults stayed up waiting for the New Year. It was nice to catch up and just spend time as adults without kids.

It's party time. Here's the kids popping confetti all over the place.

Making noise and messes. What fun.

Sarah and cousin Maddi after the party.

That night we got word that my sister-in-law had gone into the hospital to have her babies. She had wanted New Year's Eve babies, but instead ended up with the New Year's babies for her hospital. Lilly and Landon were born at 4:45 and 4:48 in the morning. We were so happy to hear of there arrival. The next day my in-laws took off to Salt Lake, in the middle of a snowstorm, to see the two new additions to the family. While there they picked up Mindy's 5 year old daughter Savannah and brought her back to the party.

The proud parents. Mindy with Lilly and Jeremy with Landon. Congrats!

While the grandparents were gone we all just hung out and enjoyed each other. We went sledding (see the other blog) swam in the hot tub, ate yummy food and played the Wii. The rest of the weekend was pretty much the same. A lot of playing in the snow having snowball fights and building a huge snowman, eating, playing, trying to get kids to nap (yeah right) and just enjoying each others company.

Hot Tubbing.

Cute little Dan bouncing in his seat.

Nikki and her friend Jordan decided to build a snowman. They wanted a big one, but didn't realize how hard it would be to put the huge snowballs on top of each other. After trying by themselves and failing, they recruited most of the males in the house to help. They decided to roll the ball up the stairs and then onto the snow. Brilliant!

Just hold it there Jordan while we pack snow around it!

The finished snowman with his original builders. Good job guys.

The last night we were all there the adults decided to go for a sledding trip in the dead of night. So about 1 in the morning Kenny and I, Karen and Cory, Nikki and her friend Jordon, Gary and Michael all headed out so sled. It was a blast. I'm sure for any cars that drove past us we looked crazy, but we all had an awesome time. The guys even decided to get the canoe out and try and pull it behind the snowmobile. There are crazy men in our family, but it was all in good fun. I wish someone had been smart enough to bring a camera to capture our craziness, but even without the camera we had a great time. Another memory to never forget.

It was a great weekend and we were so sad when Sunday came and everyone had to go home. I can't think of a better way to bring in the new year.