New Years Eve

We were still in Utah for New Years Eve and had a ton of fun partying up with cousins,brothers, and sisters. When I say party it up I mean let the kids stay up until New York New Year and then the adults hit the sack an hour later. Oh yes we are bad A. We ate way too much food and played games. Grandpa Nick thought it would be awesome to give all the cousins some noise makers. NOT A GOOD IDEA. The kids loved it though. It was a great way to spend our last night there.

Proof the kids were driving us crazy

Proof that they are still cute even after driving us crazy

We also had these 2012 glasses. Nick and Melissa looking good in them

Glad I got to spend the New Year with this guy. He's pretty awesome.

2011 Christmas Card

Christmas Utah Trip

We try to take the kids to see their grandparents and cousins in Utah every year after Christmas. It always ends up being a fun time and a lot of snow. Um....not this time. There was no snow. Kids were very sad that they didn't have snow to play with in the backyard. Actually the first couple days were close to the temps we had in Vegas. It was weird. We still had a ton of fun and again I only saw my kids for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

We had a little bonfire

Went up the canyon to find snow and found a a place that had some. It was old and slushie but it actually ended up being the perfect place for the kids to sled in. The hills were perfect.

 
 
 
Parker tried to snowboarding for the first time and he rocked it.

Noah LOVED sledding. I love his face in this one.

 
Sammy couldn't get enough of her cousins.

 
The kids went in the hot tub a couple times.

Noah drank entirely too much soda. Everytime I saw him he had a can of soda. I am sure half of the time it wasn't even his. I let him enjoy it because after all we were on vacation.

We tried numerous times to get a picture of the 2 year old cousins. This is the best we got.

Nick and his cousin Preston. I was sad when I realized I didn't get a picture of Nick with his cousin Kenzie. Nick and Kenzie really hit it off. They talked about Justin Bieber, and teased each other about the teams they liked in football and baseball. Kenzie is about 9 years older than him and she was so good to him. I loved it!

The posse. Zack,Parker, and Max

 

My kids are always sad when we have to leave. I don't blame them. 4 full days of playing with cousins and staying up late.No one wants to say bye to that. I am so grateful they have these cousins for life.

Christmas Day

For some reason it didn't feel like Christmas this year. I can't really explain it. We even did a ton of holiday activities. Even Christmas day felt like it wasn't the real day. It just came so fast and then was done so fast. We had 9 am church and decided to let the kids do their stockings and Santa gift. Then we got ready for church and I had to be there early because I was singing in the choir. For years Luke has tried to get me to do choir. This year I finally gave in and I LOVED it. I have missed singing. The music was beautiful. We came home and opened the rest of the gifts. I actually likes the fact that it took longer than 20 minutes open up all the presents. It was a great day. The best part of the day was not having to go anywhere. We spent the day as a family and then had some friends over for a simple dinner. It was perfect!

Kids coming out of their rooms

Can't forget the stair picture. I grew up doing this and I haven't been able to do it with my kids because we were in a one story house. It made me so happy that they could finally do it.

With stockings

And their Santa gifts
 

 
 
 
I know what you are thinking. Didn't I get a bike last year? Why yes I did. Great memory. I took it back because it wasn't the right one and I never got another. I have just been using Luke's bike this whole year. Well obviously he doesn't like me using his bike. Yes Luke got gifts but he got a lot of gift cards. The man is impossible to buy clothes for and that's all he really wanted...oh and books. So he definitely scored but no picture:(

And Mom and Dad gifts

 

 

Best gifts they got were these paper jam guitars and microphone. Huge hit. I guess you could say we are like the Von Trap family now.

Pretend/Real Christmas Eve

We got together with my family the 23rd and had our traditional Christmas Eve festivities. We ate, opened up some presents, and acted out the nativity.

Cute niece Daphne being the angel

Parker was a wise man and took the part very seriously. I think this kid was made to act.


 
Nick was Joseph and giggled the whole time.

Sammy was supposed to be Mary but got upset because she didn't get to have a real baby for Baby Jesus. So she wrapped a towel around her head and ran out of the room. Which explains why I have no picture of this. My mom tells me I did this same thing when I was her age. Whatever!

Noah refused to be in any of it and just chilled on the chair.

And Henry was just soaking it all in.

We had Christmas Eve by ourselves. It was actually really nice. I enjoyed it just being my family. First time we have ever done that.We opened our Christmas PJ's. I had to force all the kids to take a picture, well except for Sammy. She is always willing to strike a pose.




 
 
 
Then we read a book about the birth of our savior and then left out carrots for the reindeer.

Then it was to bed they go. Mom and Dad had a lot of wrapping to do.