The Sledding Tradition

We went sledding and had a ball. A snowball that is....

Need I say more?

A Most Wonderful Christmas-With Some Interesting Twists

Christmas-The "Wonderful" Part

We had a very merry and wonderful Christmas. It started at about 7:15 AM with little kiddos eagerly digging through their stockings to see what sort of amazing things Santa had stuffed them with.

Baron was ecstatic from the beginning. No hesitation-he acted like he'd been doing Christmas for years and was a blur running from one thing to the next, checking out everybody's loot. His squeals of delight made me so happy.

Everyone was thrilled with their gifts, and ever so grateful, which made me even happier, and a little bit proud too.Cruisin' (and crashin' :)

The Rockstar

Baron had to try out every single person's gift as soon as they would set it down. He would get more excited watching someone open something than he would openeing his own gifts.

Jo's new "friend"

Getting ready for the ball

I guess we clean up pretty nice :)


sissy-poos (with matching flowers in our hair-we didn't plan it, I promise)

Onto the next grandparents.... let's go ahead and sqeeze a nap in while we're at it.

Turtle Boy hiding in his shell.... not ready for the nap to be over yet

Ahhhh Love. (I look so excited because I just opened my in-laws gift to Andy and me-a memory foam matress cover- I slept SO amazingly that night)

The gifts seemed never ending-we are so blessed

"LOOK mom! Real makeup!" she said.

"Oh, terrific." I thought

Christmas jammies made with love by Grandma Collette (12 of the 13 grandkids)

Christmas- The "Twist" Parts

Daphne was sick yet again. She woke up throwing up in her bed at 5 Am Christmas morning. Hence, the puke bowl on the floor. Luckily she felt great by the time she woke up at a regular hour Christmas morning. I don't know what to do with that girl. She sure is my little sickie.

We had a bit of an emergency during our delicious Christmas dinner at my in-laws. My brother-in-law Ryan was holding my darling 2 year old neice Bella in one arm and a bowl of soup in the other and he started to walk down the stairs. He slipped or tripped (nobody saw, we were all sitting at the table still) and she hit her head extremely hard on the wall, or banister, or something. Since we didn't hear any crying we assumed everything was alright until Ryan just sat there and didn't try to get up. It was instant chaos as everyone rushed over and then everyone kind of freaked out. I didn't see because I had been the furthest from the staircase, and then I heard people yell "Call 911!" so I did since I was right next to the phone. Now, I have mentioned before that I am terrible in emergencies, so I probably wasn't the best one to call 911. I was shaking so hard that I almost dropped the phone several times. I gave them the wrong address 3 times, the wrong phone number twice, and I didn't even know what had happened, so the message kept relaying through me. Apparently Bella had kind of gone limp, ghost white, and then stopped breathing for a minute. I felt horrible for Breanna, Andy's sister, who had to watch it all. Andy tried to push her away so she didn't have to see it. I guess Bella kind of came to and started screaming, and a few minutes later the paramedics showed up. They took her to Primary Children's where they did a CT scan and made sure everything was alright. It turned out that she was okay except for a giant sized goose egg on her noggin' and they got to come back later to join us and finish opening presents. I'm so grateful everything turned out well, I know it could have been much worse. Bella must have a little guardian angel watching over her; lucky girl :)

We had to retake the Christmas Jammies photo after Bella made it back. She's in the very top right corner and was none too happy that we made her do it. That's the twist- aren't kids supposed to be happy on Christmas? There's a few criers in there, don't they know this is the happiest time of the year? :)

I hope everyone had a fun, safe, and Merry Christmas. We sure did, minus our little twists.

Happy New Year everyone!

Holiday Stuff (In a Giant Nutshell)

I really didn't want to catch-up with 6-7 different posts, so I'm posting all things Christmas related (up to the 24th) into one giant post. And it is GIANT including...

-Our ward Christmas party (complete with a visit from Santa)
-Daphne's preschool Christmas party
-Laylah and Jonah's Christmas sing-along at their elementary school
-Temple Square (the real one, where we actually made it downtown)
-Gingerbread houses
-The last week of babysitting
-Christmas Eve

SO, here we go...

Ward Christmas Party

We had our annual ward Christmas party mid-December. Baron had been really whiny that day, and we actually HAD to go because the primary kids were singing a few songs and I had to lead (I am the primary chorister). During dinner (after Baron had whined and cried and gone back and forth between Andy and I) he was walking around the table to go back to Andy and he threw-up all over. I mean like, ALL OVER. It was sick, but also pretty funny. Everyone was laughing, but also got right to helping us clean-up. I seriously adore my ward and all of my friends in it. They are the best. Andy took him home because the program hadn't even started yet. The kids did great singing and then Santa came. It was a fun night. (I don't have any pictures, but one of my friends is going to e-mail some to me, so when that happens, I'll have to add them in. No pressure Mindy- haha, j/k :)


Daphne's preschool Christmas party

I planned a little holiday party for Daph's little preschool and all the mom's were so great to help. We played several games- Red Reindeer Red Reindeer- Come Right Over Here, The Christmas Walk, Christmas Musical Chairs, and we decorated Christmas sugar cookies. We also did a little Secret Santa gift exchange which the kids loved. I think it was a success. Daphne loves her little preschool and I know she will miss her teachers and her friends so much when we move.
(I stole these pictures off of my friend Corrine's blog, and I am supposed to be getting more e-mailed to me- I'll have to add those in when I get them also :)

Laylah and Jonah's Christmas Sing-along

The day school got out for break was the elementary's Christmas singing program. It was so cute. Laylah and Jonah both sung so well and smiled and had fun. I love watching my kids do anything (as I'm sure any parent is) so, even though I had been so sick the night before, I couldn't miss it. We actually got pictures of this one, BUT Andy accidently deleted them. I'm trying to find people who may have some pictures of it, so I'll have to add those if I can find any.

Temple Square

We made it to Temple Square for family night the Monday before Christmas (along with the millions of other people who decided to go for Family Night before the snow came the week of Christmas) It was a lot of fun and I love that my kids are of the age where they ask a lot of questions and I can have teaching opportunities. I love to teach my kids about the gospel and our Savior and his birth. Even though it was absolutely frigid, we still had a blast. (Oh, and found a free parking spot a block away within 2 minutes- bonus!)

We went to see the Christus Statue and these 3 just sat and stared at it for 15 minutes. I had to drag them away.

Gingerbread House

We did a gingerbread house together and the kids loved it. I love doing fun Christmas stuff with them. I hope they have good memories when they grow up. They did a great job, I only glued the house together and then put it where they told me, and they did the rest. Baron just loved to sneek the candy and stuff it in his mouth.

My last week of Babysitting

The week of Christmas was also my last week babysitting Kajia and Javis. They have been such good kids and Laylah has loved having her best friend over every day. They truly are best friends and I know they will miss each other so much. It makes me sad to think about. And Javis and Daph will still see each other at preschool. Plus, my sister-in-law is the one who is taking over the tending, so I know we'll see them a lot. Anyway, I wanted to do something fun every day of the last week. We went to the mall Monday to play in the dino playplace. We stayed for 2 hours and I still had to drag them away. Tuesday we went and got ice cream. Wednesday I took them all swimming for nearly 4 hours. I'm glad the oldest 3 can swim because I could never do it if they couldn't. Six kids ages 6 and under by myself is a little tricky sometimes. Although babysitting was hard and it just added a lot of stress, I still enjoyed it and it was a little bittersweet that last day when their mom picked them up. I know we'll still see them all the time because they're in our ward, but it sure will be different and weird to just have my own kids every day-it'll seem downright easy! Anyway, I don't have any pictures of the week. I suck.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's, just like every year. It has always worked out perfectly that way because my mom does a big Christmas Eve celebration and then brunch on Christmas Day and then Andy's mom does a huge Christmas dinner. I love it. So, we went there and had an incredible dinner. My mom is an amazing cook and always goes above and beyond at her parties. I love it. I love that I still get to be spoiled by her (and my dad too, of course :). We had a wonderful little program, read some Christmas stories and watched a beautiful movie about Christ. We also made more gingerbread houses which my kids were so excited about. Gingerbread houses do not get old. I have several pictures of all of the MOMS helping the kids and one of the DADS sitting and doing nothing :)

Oh, except my brother Doug whose wife might kill him if he didn't help her :) hahaha...

The "Men" (and Suzanne who doesn't have kids)

Daph eating the leftover frosting

Our little fam

Looks like Santa came! (Santa wraps his gifts in white with a big red bow)

The stockings were filled with care

He ate the cookies, gave the carrots to the reindeer and drank the milk. He even left a note!

Christmas post to come....