Christmas Jammies

Waiting patiently to open their jammies.

Christmas was finally upon us and we were all so excited.  We enjoyed another quite Christmas at home and really enjoyed the time we had as a family.  We tried to make a gingerbread village on Christmas Eve, but it took too long and we never finished it.  We'll have to start it around Thanksgiving next year. Finally it was time to open Christmas jammies and the kids were so excited.

Opening jammies.  Sarah always pulls the best faces.

Dan has this present opening thing down.  He loved his new Buzz and Woody jammies.

Hannah was the first one downstairs in her new jammies.  She was complaining that they were to small.  I was so disappointed until Gracie walked down, drowning in her jammies.  HaHa.  We sent them back up to their room to switch jammies.

Ben and Sarah acting cool. . .

and goofy.

The best picture we got of Dan and Adam.  They were to excited to sit still.

Much better girls.  I'm glad their jammies fit and that they loved them so much.

 After the jammies were opened and put on, it was time to set out cookies for Santa.  Bedtime came next and the kids were quickly asleep, dreaming of what Santa would bring them, I'm guessing.

Bouncing Like Kangaroo's

We miss our Idaho Falls friends terribly and sadly we haven't found anyone here in our new area that the kids can really play with.  We live in a neighborhood full of a lot of really little kids and so there are not kids for Ben and Sarah to play with. The ward constantly has people moving in and out and we've just gotten lost in the mass of people.  It's probably my fault, but it's made it so we haven't really met anyone. It's been hard on the kids, mostly Sarah.  She talks constantly about her Idaho Falls friends and asks when we can move back.  I hate it.  I'm hoping our next house will provide a larger variety of children and some good friends for my kids.

With that being said, I was leaving Walmart one morning with my 3 youngest kids, when I noticed a little girl walking in that looked strangely familiar. I watched her run up to her mom and as the woman turned around a huge smile spread across my face.  It was an old friend from a long time ago, Jillian McGregor.  Jillian and I go back to high school days and our story is kind of a different one.  You see I've only met Jillian one other time in my life, but I feel like we've been great friends forever.  We know each other because of our dad's.  They have been friends since college and have managed to keep in touch over the years.  When Jillian's family moved back to Utah, when we were in high school, my dad took me to Salt Lake to meet them.  We went to a football game and then I spent the remainder of the weekend with them.  It was so much fun and something I'll always remember.  That was the one and only time I'd ever seen Jillian, but through the beauty of Facebook I've been able to reconnect with her.  Turns out she was neighbors with my sister-in-law in college and married a Grace boy just like me.  Who knew we'd have so much in common.  Anyway, I knew she lived nearby and I was so excited when I ran into her at Walmart.

We talked a little in Walmart and then decided to get our kids together during the Christmas break.  She was taking her kids to Kangaroo Zoo and asked if I wanted to come along.  It's kind of pricey, but we'd budgeted some money for fun activities like that during the Christmas holiday so I readily agreed.  We met that Thursday for some bouncing, running, giggling and talking fun.  She has 2 older girls, a boy and a new baby girl. Sarah and her oldest hit it off quite well and I really enjoyed watching Sarah play with someone again.  Jillian's boy really liked Ben and Ben did a good job to include him.  It was a great day and I think it's about time to get together again.

Sarah and Jillian's oldest going down one of the many slides.

Hannah climbing up to go down a slide.

Adam was very fascinated with the bounce houses and slides.  He was not, however, a fan of them.  I tried to take him in them a few times and he'd kick and scream and tried to claw his way out.

Gracie just chilling out.

Dan was a little scared of the slides at first, but after Sarah took him on one or two he decided they were awesome.  This little boy had a blast.

Adam admiring the slide from a distance. He would just wander around looking at everything and everyone.

The boys in the obstacle course.

Gracie going down the slide on her belly.  FUN!!!!!

Hannah wandered around asking me to take a picture of her on every slide.  She loved the slides.

The kids ran and ran and never stopped.  They were red faced, tired and very happy when we left. Not to mention very cute. 

After all of his wandering around, Adam finally found something he really liked at Kangaroo Zoo.  The drinking fountain.  He was soaked when we left, but he was a happy boy.

Newbry Christmas Party

It was decided the the Newbry family is getting to large and the individual families are getting too large to get together for Christmas anymore.  So, they decided to have a Newbry Family Christmas party this year.  It was held on December 17 at April and JJ's house.  It was full for my 3 favorite 'f' things: Food, Family, and Fun, oh and presents too.  Enjoy the pictures.

The kids got to decorate a different kind of Christmas tree.  What a great idea.

Decorating the cousin Christmas Tree.

Cute little Gracie.  I love this girls hair.

Ben chasing Zack during a game.

Adam likes Aunt Karen. All the kids like Aunt Karen.

Grandma, Lilly and Gracie

Yummy lunch.  Christmas food is so good.

Cute Dan

Nice!!!!

Lilly and Landon having lunch together.  These to make me want to have twins

Grandpa handing out gifts from he and Grandma.  We got a year membership to the zoo.  Awesome gift!

The family opening gifts.

I don't know what Alli's so impressed with, but I love pictures of cousins.

Lilly found a new game. . .

Peek-a-boo!

Mommy

Adam wearing his construction hat from Aunt Mindy.

More Practice Pictures

Kenny had a few more photo sessions during the month of December.  I love it when he takes pictures of the kids.  I really think they are a great way to capture the everyday life of a child.  The kids are all posing for the camera, minus Dan's coloring which he was just doing and Kenny decided to take advantage of it and practice taking pictures of him. Even though they're posing, it still shows things the kids do most day and shows there personality and typically we don't take pictures of that sort of thing.  Maybe that's why I love these pictures so much.  Anyway, here they are, some complete with Kenny's descriptions from Facebook.  Enjoy!  Kenny does such a great job. 

Dan jumping on the bed.  Classic little kid shot.

Muscle Ben

From Facebook:  And this is how our son went blind. One flash to his left, and let him play with the other flash just to finish him off.

Dan coloring.  This boy loves to color.

Hannah reading a book.  I love the Christmas Believe above her head.  I think it adds to the shot.

And the last one is of me.  Sorry I normally hate pictures of me, but I thought he did a great job on this one.

Trimming the Tree

The best picture we could get of the kids with the finished tree.

 We were so happy to be able to get a Christmas tree this year. Last year we didn't have the money to get one and we really missed it.  Christmas tree's are one of my favorite things about the holiday.  I love the lights, and decorations and the smell of pine that fills my house.  We wanted to go into the mountains again this year and cut down our own tree, but apparently that's not as easy to do in Salt Lake. No wait, that's not even something you can do in Salt Lake.  We waited until a few day into December before we starting looking into tree permits.  Next year we'll look earlier.  The only tree permits we could find were over in Heber City and those were sold out in the first few days.  Oops. We were left with the choices of driving to Idaho to cut down a tree or just buying one from a tree lot.  We opted to save the time and money this year and just buy one from a tree lot. To our surprise we found a great tree in Bountiful that was fairly inexpensive. We snatched it up quick and headed home to find a place for it in our house.

Sarah and Ben decorating the top of the tree.

Ben and Hannah decorating the tree.

Dan did such a good job decorating this year.

The tree we chose was perfect for us this year.  It wasn't a bushy, typical tree. Instead it was more of an old world, traditional tree.  This is exactly what we were wanting this year.  Not only was our tree not bushy, but it had little pine cones still attached to it to give it more of that old world look.  We had to buy all new ornaments because we had thrown out our old ones a few years ago (they were looking really beat up) and we opted to stay clear of the traditional bulb look and instead opted for Cranberries, candy canes, and popcorn strings.  Of course we added a few of our personal ornaments we've collected over the years and there you have it,  the perfect Newbry Christmas Tree.

Daddy and Adam helping Ben reach the top of the tree.

Sarah and Dad decorating the tree.

Gracie putting her snowman on the top of the tree, with a little help from Daddy.

Hannah decorating the tree with Ben and Sarah.

The flashes didn't go off on this picture so the lighting isn't very good, but I