Christmas!!!

BEFORE.....

and AFTER!

We had a very fun Christmas Day! We planned on waking up around 7:30 and even communicated this to the girls. September woke up a little before 5 am and was very antsy and couldn't go back to sleep. So she got up and started playing Christmas songs on the piano in their room. It woke up Lisa and Kyle in the next room. Nothing like waking up in the middle of the night to someone playing "Silent Night" on the piano! ;) We didn't hear a thing until about 7:20 when we heard something outside the door and opened it to reveal all 4 children! I guess it was time to get going with the day.

Here's our traditional Christmas morning picture of the kids before going downstairs to open gifts. Check out Logan about to go crazy on Peyton's head. Don't worry, she was unharmed.

Having Lisa and Kyle with us for Christmas morning was a bonus because we had our own personal photographers. So we just got to sit back and enjoy the gift opening without having to pause and take pictures and video. We actually didn't end up being able to get any video because when we went to use it the one and only disc we had for it was saying it had an error. So no video! But oh well, life goes on! Actually we did get a few small clips with the camera.

Logan enjoyed the chocolate in his stocking a little too much. At one point during the gift opening he was missing and we found him in the kitchen hiding in the corner eating all his chocolate!

Peyton is a shoe-aholic. She doesn't really own many shoes herself, but she loves putting other people shoes on. She was excited to have a pair of her own and immediately tried to put them on.

Kya, our little songstress, received "Singstar" as her big gift. And then together, Ember and Kya got the High School Musical game that you can play on it that has all the HSM songs.

New hoodies.....just what I asked for!

Matthew + a Blu-Ray = pure joy on Christmas morning

We woke up to even more snow on Christmas morning. I opened the door and found a gift that somebody had left on the doorstep which was now covered in snow.

My parents came and visited and brought a few more gifts, including some new slippers for the girls that my mom made.


Here's Kyle goofing around with the stockings. I wish I'd gotten a picture of him wearing the gift my mom made for him. She knit him a hat that would help him fit in a little better in Utah. It was a blue and white beanie with a "Y" on it.....and then you turn it inside out and it's a red and white one with a "U" on it! He can make friends wherever he goes.


My mom made a delicious (but random) lunch. She made white chicken chili (so good!), garlic bread, guacamole and chips, mini quiches and deviled eggs. Oh, and wassail....my favorite!


With all of the snow from earlier in the week plus the new stuff, there was plenty of snow to play in and make a snowman. Ember and Kya went out and made one, but we didn't get a picture of the finished product. Within an hour of them finishing it, it started raining which pretty much melted it and made it topple over.

September was either exhausted or needed to go the bathroom very badly when she came in because this is what we found. She pretty much jumped right out of her snowsuit. We had a good laugh!

We also had a visit later from Grandma and Grandpa Cluff. The kids had fun with them and got to show them all their new things.

It was a fun and relaxing day! We feel very blessed and are very thankful for family, food, shelter, and of course the reason for the season, our Savior. I hope all of you had as wonderful a Christmas as we did.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went over to my in-laws for our tradition get-together.....the big Christmas dinner, the grandkids acting out the nativity, and the gift exchange. The food was delicious, the nativity was funny and cute (is that inappropriate to say?), and the gift exchange was well....gifty! It was a very fun night. Lisa and Kyle weren't able to join us because they were both at home with the same bug that's been visiting the rest of us. Matthew actually had it too, but he toughed it out because it was the big get-together and it was his family.

Keely and Reece were actually sick as well. They had strep and had been on antibiotics, but they wore masks just in case. So our Mary and Joseph looked as if they were deathly ill and had SARS or something. It was pretty funny!

September got to be an angel this time.

Kya and Logan got to be a wisegirl and a wiseguy....

All the kids got toys they just loved. Logan got a Cars book and magna-doodle combo thing. September and Kya each got a Hannah Montana item. And Peyton got a set of noisy instruments!!

Here's my nephew, Khalil (aka Chanchito!). He's exactly six months younger than Peyton, but he's about an inch taller and plenty of pounds heavier. He wanted to take a ride in the back of the dumptruck we got Cohen. Isn't he cute?!

Plus my in-laws got all of the kids some new adorable pj's! It was nice because we were able to pretty much take the kids home and put them to bed. Well, after we gave them some special "sleepy" hot chocolate!

Matt & Laura plus 8!

We got a nice surprise this weekend. All four of Lisa's kids got to come and visit. So we had a total of eight kids in the house! It made for a little bit of chaos....and a lot of fun! I had seen Skyler and Ashton just a few weeks ago, but I haven't seen Jessika and Kaiden for three years. Wow, have they grown! Jessika is as tall as me!!

They've been with their dad in Arizona, and before that they were living in Georgia. So they don't get to see snow very often. They were all very excited to go out and play in it. They loved jumping on the trampoline and having snowball fights.

Lisa is Peyton's new favorite person. When she wants something she'll go beg Lisa for it. Here they are listening to some tunes together:

Kya and Skyler are like new best friends. They were practically inseperable.

Saturday night we all piled into our bedroom and played Rockband! That was a lot of fun!! We all took turns playing and singing. Pretty much everyone but Peyton played at one point or another.

On Sunday we made gingerbread cookies. Yum!

What a great weekend. It was so much fun to have them here! Hopefully we'll get to see them again before they head back to Arizona.

Breakfast with Santa

Our neighborhood did a breakfast with Santa over at our church yesterday. The kids have been wanting to go see Santa and since we didn't see any opportunities of taking them to the mall anywhere in our near future, we were more than happy to go. I love seeing the reactions of kids at each stage.

Ember & Kya, age 8 and 6......eh, cute.

Logan, age 3.....kind of bashful.

Peyton, age 16 months.....terrified!

Poor Santa for having to deal with the lovely 1-2 year olds screaming their guts out. Bless his heart!

Christgiving Thankmas

We started a new tradition in my family this year. My parents were sick of dealing with the whole "who's coming for Thanksgiving/Christmas" each year and decided to instigate celebrating the two of them together at a time in between. We call it a CHRISTGIVING THANKMAS! Pretty cool huh? It's the best of both worlds. You get the big Thanksgiving dinner and the gift exchange, plus you get to kick back and hang out with family without the stress of the actual holiday.

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, my brother owns a couple cabins up in Bear Lake and we figured that was the best place to do it at. It's big enough to fit all of us....and then some.....and it's close enough that it's not a long drive, but far enough that you feel like you're getting away. We did it last weekend and we all had a blast! It's definitely a tradition I want to keep going. Why didn't we think of this years ago?

It wasn't snowing when we left or when we arrived, but a storm was a brewing. This is what we woke up to the first morning:


I was kind of hoping we'd get snowed in so we'd have to stay an extra day. But no such luck! And the snow certainly didn't keep anyone out of the hot tub....it only encouraged it.

We had lots of great food. Peyton kept being a bully to her cousin, Zenick, and would constantly be found stealing his food. But finally she decided to be nice and actually feed him instead. He let her. It's the least she could do.

Some played games while others just relaxed....

The kids had fun playing with their new toys. Both the young.....

and the old!

The kids hardly needed toys though, they had fun just running around the cabin. One of the biggest hits was throwing things down from the loft area, especially the toy that Joey is picture in above....the caterpillar tube. They loved throwing it down onto an unsuspecting victim below to see if they could land it perfectly over them "capturing" them.

My brothers had fun playing with their nieces and nephews.

Peyton didn't think it was very funny though when we pretended she was a guitar and tried to put her away.

She did think it was pretty funny though to play with the water fountain. We couldn't keep her away from it and kept having to unplug it.

Saturday night the kids (some larger than others) acted out the Nativity. It was quite the event. It had the usual lineup. Gift-bearing wisemen.....

the baby, Jesus.....

some angels.....

even a sad little shepherd!

The whole thing was very cute and deserved a bow from the cast....

Both of my younger, SINGLE, brothers brought a girl with them. I guess we'll wait and see if they're at the 2nd annual Christgiving Thankmas. Wink wink!

Either way, I know I will be! I can't wait for next year!!