December, Christmas, New Year's, Utah

Our December started off fairly normal. Rob and the kids worked tirelessly on their first Christmas puzzle. Alyssa and Ashley can spend hours doing these puzzles! Sadly, I think this was around my last normal day for the next few weeks:( I have never had such a bummer of a December. I started out by getting H1N1 the first week, followed by pneumonia the second week...that wiped me out for the next three weeks. Even once the coughing got better, I picked up one sickness after another. My advice-Get the H1N1 vaccine! My kids were all vaccinated (plus, I think they already had it), and none of them got sick. For that I was thankful!Since Brooklyn & Alyssa both get to go to Activity Days, this year they had to share Rob for the daddy-daughter gingerbread house activity.
At least they could each take pictures for the other:)
Final product...These girls love doing things with their Dad!
All three of the girls take piano lessons from their teacher, Jessie. They love her! The girls all did a terrific job at their Christmas recital! We have had a game group with five couples for the past three years. This year I was in charge of December, and since everyone was busy on the weekends, we decided to do a family night the Monday before Christmas. We had a special visitor come to our party. Luckily, the men were able to pull themselves away from their ping-pong tournament to watch their children sit on Santa's lap:) Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the tournament.
Ashley & Santa...Ashley was my only kid that told Santa she didn't know what she wanted. Ash changed her mind daily. By Christmas Eve she wanted a real dog...She didn't get one.
Hunter may be shy around most adults, but he was not shy around Santa. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he said, "Candy". Wow! Santa could have gotten off really easy this year:)

Alyssa & Santa...She wanted a spy kit.

Brooklyn & Santa...She asked for a Ripstick. She is pretending to be embarrassed because there were boys her age at the party. She was actually VERY excited to see Santa!

A group of the little kids watching Santa leave out of the window...The older kids ran up to the bonus room to watch him leave:)

All 18 kids

These kids actually were all very good. Too bad that all of the boys wanted to play ping-pong, but the "big boys" wouldn't let them.

The night before Christmas Eve, Rob's parents met us at the Mesa Temple and then we went to dinner. I think it was the coldest night we have had all winter...I guess this is winter:)

It was nice to have a complete family picture taken...Thanks, Bob! In case your wondering, my kids did all have coats, but Ashley wouldn't wear hers because she said it made her look fat:( She isn't used to seeing people wear big fluffy coats.

While I was in another room wrapping presents, Ashley, Alyssa and Hunter decided to make a tower with some of the presents from under the tree. Then, Alyssa grabbed my camera and did her own little photo shoot.

She's a pretty good photographer.

How cute is this picture that she took of Hunter?

Where did she come up with these ideas?:)

On Christmas Eve, I was so sick to my stomach, I couldn't do anything. The only contribution I made to Christmas Eve dinner was making Rob's mom's yummy slush. Rob and Brooklyn did everything else! They did a wonderful job!!! I only wish I could have eaten more!I was the first one out of the pass-around, so here is everyone else unwrapping their presents.

Hunter's game

Brooklyn's game

Alyssa's game

And Ashley's game. We played every body's except Rob's and mine.

The girls are so nice to always play with Hunter!

Since I was completely worthless on Christmas Eve, the kids had to find their own costumes for the Nativity. They looked adorable! I love Hunter's face in this picture. He seems to really be adoring a new baby:)

They don't ever last very long before they get silly.The kids in their Christmas PJsRob even made the sugar cookies for Santa with the kids. Sadly, I didn't even get to see what they made:(
Brooklyn's favorite present that she has not yet learned how to ride.
Alyssa's spy kit that she had been begging for.

Once again the girls are playing with Hunter and his toys:) He drove his cars on his new parking garage, and the girls had their zhu zhu's ride down the ramps.
Hunter's favorite present that he hasn't figured out how to steer yet. But he sure looks cute driving it, even if he can't stay on the sidewalk.

On Jan. 30, I took Alyssa to her orthodontist appt. at 7:30 a.m. We then came home and played Wii with everyone. At about 10:00 a.m. we decided that we should go to either San Diego or Utah. Or course the kids all chose Utah. We frantically packed the car and dug out all of our snow clothes, and we were on the road by 12:30. Unfortunately, in all the excitement, neither of us did a weather check for Utah. From Flagstaff to Lehi, we hit one snow storm after another. Even with 4-wheel drive, we had to turn around 30 miles north of Kanab and drive a different route through Hurricane. 12 1/2 hours later, we finally arrived. Since my kids are too smart to surprise anymore, we once again decided to surprise my parents. The next morning my brother invited them over for an early morning breakfast, and we all surprised my parents as they walked in the door. For some reason it never gets old seeing the excitement of surprising everyone:) The kids were all excited to see snow, and Rob was excited to be able to do fireworks on New Year's Eve. It was really cold!!!

Since I have two brand new nephews, some of the adults were lucky enough to watch the fireworks from the window. I can't believe it, but I didn't even get pictures of my two new nephews. Since August, my family has had 4 babies born. The newest addition are Kya, Parker and Case. They are all absolutely adorable! I can't wait to finally meet Kya one day:)

On New Year's we spent the day in the snow. The men and the kids all built snow bunkers for a snow ball fight.

Ryan's looked strong...

But, I think Rob had more helpers.

Ashley finally realized that everyone wears big fluffy coats in the winter.

Even Rufus played in the snow.

I love this picture...Cooper and Hunter just couldn't resist eating the snow:)...Even with the dog running around...YUCK!

Everyone was taking shelter behind a bunker except for Ashley...It wasn't long before Ryan nailed her in the face with a snowball. She definitely looked like the most wounded warrior when she came walking into the house.

In the end, Rob and Adam won...Ryan and my Dad lost. Their bunker got destroyed!

Ryan has a big ice fishing sled that he let the kids take down the sledding hill in front of my parent's house. For some reason he and Rob decided to let the kids pull it up the hill and it took FOREVER!

The kids had so much fun once they went down:)

Grandpa and Cooper

Rob took the kids down and Hunter did not like it...but everyone else did.

The saucer sled was a better fit for Hunter.

Ryan wanted to take Cooper and Hunter down one last time before we went in for the night. Hunter cried the whole way up the hill, and the whole way down.

The boys went rabbit hunting. Apparently, they shot a lot of bullets, but nobody hit anything.

Whitney and Rex

Stephanie and Ryan have some friends that let us come over to their house and ride their horses. Alyssa was the only one brave enough to brush the horse.

These three were all scared to get on the horse, so they had to watch Gracie and Alyssa to make sure it was okay.

They started with the mini horses...

But, eventually they all graduated to the big horses.

Except Hunter:)

Alyssa

I'm not sure Kinzie ever graduated to the big horses, but she sure looked cute riding the mini:)

Gracie

Even Baby Colton rode the horse.

Cooper finally woke up from his nap and joined us. Such a grumpy little face for the little boy that all morning couldn't stop talking about riding the big horse. He quickly cheered up once he went for a ride.

Ashley didn't want to get off...

So she rode the donkey. This stallion got 2 horses pregnant and they both delivered babies on the same day...Wow!
I got the horse with the kids saddle and the itty bitty stirrups. Seriously, I should have just ridden bare back:) I had nothing to put my foot in when it came time to dismount:/ Or course nobody wanted to help me because they were all busy laughing and taking pictures...Thanks guys!

I've known my dad for 32 years and I never knew that he didn't drink hot chocolate...neither did any of my siblings. He told us that he didn't drink it because he got burned as a kid. Once we all teased him and Rob wouldn't let it go, he finally agreed to try it again after decades of not drinking it...His response-"This is actually pretty good." :)

We were in an earthquake the morning that we left to drive home. Unfortunately, everyone in the family except for Kristi slept through it. BUMMER! It was a 2.9...I guess we are all very deep sleepers!

For Hunter's birthday/Christmas present, my parents gave him this water/sand table. He loves it! Finally something dirty to play with:) Rob bought him some army guys and Hunter goes from one person in the family to the next asking them to play war with him. Today he came up to me and told me it was my turn because his dad played with him two times and I had only played with him one time.