Christmas at Mom's

We finally headed to Mom and Dad's around noon. The normally 2 1/2 hour trip took us nearly 4 hours. The weather was horrible as were the roads. We made the trip to Pocatello with not much trouble, but after that the roads got bad. There was snow everywhere. It was coming down quickly, it was blowing from all directions, and it was piling up on the roads and everywhere else. It was a slow drive, but a safe drive, for us. As soon as we got off the freeway a magical thing happened. The snow stopped, the roads cleared and all we saw was rain. It was the weirdest thing to see, but it made the rest of the trip very pleasant.

We were late to Logan, but we made it before everybody left. It was nice to see family and the kids enjoyed playing with cousins. After a few hours my Uncle Rod and his family left and it was just my Mom's siblings and their families. My uncle Todd and his family were in town from California. It was nice to have everyone together. Later that evening my cousin Kristin came with her boys and we opened presents. My kids got more from Grandma and Grandpa than they got from us. They enjoyed their gifts from everyone and we were grateful for all we received. After opening presents the adults played Bunco. I never had a desire to play Bunco, but I must admit it was more fun than I thought. It was nice to spend Christmas with family again.

Hannah with her giraffe from Aunt Cindy.

Ben playing Star Wars with Uncle Ryan. They were both in heaven.

Luke, my cousin Daniel's son, and my cousin Sam.

The only picture of have of people hanging out. I didn't do a good job of taking picture that night.

Christmas Morning

Waiting at the top of the stairs for their turn.

This year was a short, but great Christmas morning. After staying up until after 2:00 Kenny and I were very happy when the kids slept in until around 8:15. I don't know how many more years (if any) we'll have of the kids sleeping in, but we sure appreciated it this year. The kids all got up and were ready to see what Santa had brought them. It's tradition in our family to have the youngest go first and then on up the line. This meant Gracie went first. She wasn't too terribly impressed, but that's to be expected from a 14 month old. Hannah came next and loved her presents, her favorite being her Snow White dress. Ben was up next and he was the most impressed. He had the best face for everything he found. Sarah waited patiently and when it was her turn she wasn't disappointed. She found her gerbil and wouldn't leave it's side. She didn't even realize she had other presents for probably close to an hour.

Ben discovering his gerbil.

Hannah discovering her Snow White dress.

Sarah with her gerbil 'Snowflake'

Gracie loved the gerbils too. Here she is with Ben's gerbil 'Speeder'

While the kids played with their toys, I made monkey bread for breakfast. We were going to my Mom and Dad's later that day and because the weather wasn't good we had to hurry our Christmas morning along. After a little more than an hour we headed upstairs to open a few gifts. We opened gifts from sibling and from Mom and Dad along with a few others. The kids loved all they got and were so excited for it all. Thanks to everyone who helped make our Christmas wonderful.

Hannah opening her gift from Ben.

Gracie eating the wrapping paper in true 14 month old fashion.

Sarah and Ben opening sibling gifts.

As always I have too many pictures so here's a slideshow of our Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve

Opening Christmas Jammies on Christmas Eve.

We had a crazy Christmas season this year. Actually we did a very poor job with Christmas this year, but there's always next year right? Kenny's been working none stop this month and I was feeling really sick none stop this month. That made for 2 parents who didn't have time or energy to do many Christmas things. We still managed to squeeze in a few Christmas activities and shopping, but discovered on Christmas Eve morning that we still had about half our presents to buy and not much time. Kenny went shopping while I stayed home with the kids. Luckily we knew pretty much everything we wanted to get the kids so the shopping didn't take too long.

Christmas Eve evening we headed to Kenny's brother Michael's house to spend a some time with his family. We still needed a Hannah gift so we ran to Walmart 45 minutes before closing and it was a mad house. Next year I'm not going to wait that long. I was amazed at how many people were still entering the building as the doors were about to close. The last minute shopping made us late for Michael and Sarah's, but we made it safe and sound and only about 45 minutes late.

Opening cousin present at Uncle Michael and Aunt Sarah's.

Sarah (my sister-in-law) made us some wonderful snacks and we enjoyed eating, visiting, opening cousin presents, and watching our kids play together. It was a lot of fun and even though we only saw them for just over an hour it was nice to have been able to spend a part of Christmas with them.

Gracie opening her doll from cousin Cadence.

Ben's Transformer gun from cousin Alli!

Sarah's new Webkinz from cousin Zack.

We made the 45 minute drive home and arrive just before 10:00. Being that Christmas had been so rush and it was so late we weren't able to do much our are normal Christmas Eve activities. Kenny and I talked with the kids about the true meaning of Christmas (Ben's first answer was presents and his second was Jesus' birth, Sarah got it right the first try) we put cookies, Egg Nog, and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer, we choose a place downstairs for our stockings, and we opened our Christmas Jammies. It was a busy evening full of lots of fun, yet somewhat rushed activities.

Gracie and Sarah in their new jammies.

Hannah's cute butterfly jammies.


Ben and Sarah being silly in their new jammies.

In some ways I'm grateful my little family is getting not so little anymore. It's so much fun to watch our kids at Christmas rediscover the true meaning of Christmas, be excited for Santa, and just enjoy being together. It really is a magical time of year.

Cabin Fun

We spent the weekend of the 20th and 21st in Bear Lake with some of Kenny's high school friends and their families. Kenny's friend Andy owns a cabin up there that he rents out to people. They had the weekend free of renters so they invited us and another friend, Tony up for some cabin/Christmas fun. We had a blast and it was fun for Kenny to see his friends whom he hasn't seen in almost 3 years.

Gracie and Ben taking a ride on the 4-wheeler

We arrived mid day on Saturday and decided to take the kids sledding. It turned out to not be the best day for sledding. The weather was cold, windy, and just not good. The kids were troopers and stayed out longer than I thought they would. Andy had brought his 4-wheelers which made the sledding experience much more pleasant and probably made it last longer. As a treat for staying out so long we took the kids swimming at the area pool to warm up. Once Ben got brave enough to go under the water we had a great time, but my camera was too fogged up for pictures.

Ben and Daddy trip down the hill. Looks fun, doesn't it!

Oh no! This can't be good!

Now that looks cold. Ben was a good sport and when Daddy got his face wiped clean he was ready to go again.

Sarah Kate having a blast despite the cold weather.

Ben and Jaxon ready to head up the hill.

Sarah and Dylan getting pulled up for another trip down.

After swimming we went back to the cabin to have some dinner. Tony and his family and Andy's sister Ginger (who lives there in town) and her family showed up after dinner. There were a total of 12 kids (and 2 pregnant mom's) whose ages ranged from 9 to Gracie's 14 months. We had a blast and the kids had a blast as well. Ginger went home that night, but left her daughter so around 11:00 we put all 11 kids to bed upstairs in the loft filled with bunk beds.

The 10 kids (minus Ginger's 2). The blonde's are Andy's, the tan ones are Tony's and the others are ours.

Gracie and Berkeley staying warm inside with the big kids were sledding.

The adults went downstairs to watch some TV and talk. After awhile the women went to bed and the guys went out into the hot tub. They stayed up until 4:30 in the morning talking. I guess they really did have a lot to catch up on. They enjoyed their time together, but when the kids got up at 8:00 the next morning they quickly saw an almost all nighter may not have been the smartest idea.

Saturday's bad weather sledding.

Sunday's good weather sledding.

The next day was spent sledding again (in much better weather), hot tubing, eating, napping, playing games, and just hanging out. Sarah Kate took quickly to Andy's 2 oldest boys who are 9 and about 2 week older than her. Ben tagged along and kept up pretty well with only a few fights. Hannah and Gracie played with whomever they could find. It was nice to see all of our kids playing together, but I think it was nicer for Kenny than me. It meant a lot to him.

Sledding with Daddy, what fun.

Hannah was having fun even though you can't tell in this picture.

Ben finishing what looks like a fun ride.

The second day of sledding was much better than the first. Gracie and I even went down the hill and loved it (though I don't think I'll be doing much more sledding the further along I get.) It was a lot of fun to listen to the kids, especially Gracie and Hannah, giggle as they went down the hill. Being a parent can be so much fun sometimes.

Tony and Shauna had to got home that night, but we stayed with Andy's family for one more night. The next morning we woke up to a sick Daddy, a snowy day, and a lot of packing to do. Kenny slept in because we was NOT feeling well. When it came time to leave we discovered our van was not made for the amount of snow we had received. It took us about an hour to get out of the driveway and that was with some major help from the 4-wheeler and Andy's 4-wheel drive truck.

We finally made it out of the driveway and started our journey home. We got stopped in Logan canyon because of a college kid who was driving to fast and didn't quite make a turn. Luckily there were no serious injury's and after waiting for over an hour we were able to head for Logan again. Logan was as far as we made it. We stopped at my sister-in-laws house to drop off some Christmas presents and Kenny was so sick he didn't want to try driving anymore. With the weather the way that it was I didn't want to try driving so we spent the night at my Mom and Dad's. It was a great weekend that ended up being longer than expected, but we were glad we had chosen to be safe.

Gracie's Walking

Kenny and I had tried and tried to get Gracie to walk before we went to Disneyland, but she just wasn't ready. It turned out alright. Disneyland was a success despite the non walking Gracie and about a week later Gracie decided she was ready to walk.

On December 3rd I had been having one of my not so good pregnancy days and after dinner I sent the kids downstairs to play while I laid on the couch. Gracie decided she was done playing downstairs and came up to be with me. After a few minutes of crawling around she must have decided she wanted to try walking. She took a few steps from the chair to the couch. Then she walked back to the chair. She tried that a few times and then walked from the couch to the TV. I was cheering her on and it seemed to make her try even harder. She began standing up on her own and trying to take off. It was so fun to watch. The kids came upstairs and we took her into the bedroom where Daddy was working to show him.

Here's Gracie walking for Daddy. She seemed to like walking to Hannah best. She'd walk to me sometimes, but Hannah almost always won.

She improved quickly! This next video is from December 19th, by then she was walking well.