Christmas Day 2009

What a beautiful Christmas day we had. We woke early, although the boys woke up at 3:30 anxious to see what Santa brought and we had to send them back to bed. When we woke up again at 6:00 the boys were so excited. My parents came over to watch the boys open up their presents. Each year Santa hides their presents around the house and leaves clues for us to find them. It makes the opening presents part of Christmas last quite a bit longer and the kids really enjoy it. Although I didn't get a lot of great pictures this was the big one! We all got tickets to an Arizona Cardinals football game. Santa brought Fitzgerald jersey's for each of the kids and a ticket to a real NFL game. They were so happy. For everyone who doesn't know how obsessed my kids are with football right now this was big,huge!
Here is a picture of all three of them wearing their jersey's (can't wait until I have to pry them off their dirty little bodies to wash them) and holding up these fun little remote control helicopters that they got.

Also- the Nintendo D.S.'s were a big hit this year. Talen finally got one and the other boys got some new games to play. Not that I want little gamers on my hands all the time but I must admit it's nice to get in a few quiet moments when they are all entranced with their games!

The real reason for the season.... Although we had a fabulous day and got spoiled as usual I hope that we can remember that pricey gifts and trinkets are truly not why we celebrate this holiday. I am thankful to know that we have a Savior who was born thousands of years ago. He came to this earth as a perfect person and made the ultimate sacrifice for each one of us. This Christmas season was a difficult one as I had two grandparents pass away within two weeks of each other. I am grateful to know that their spirits live on in heaven. They are with our Father in Heaven who loved them before they came to this earth and he is welcoming them home with loving arms. They were each spectacular loving people who are now watching over us from heaven. I am thankful that we are allowed to live in a free country to worship and celebrate however we wish. I am so thankful for people like my brother Kris who don't get to be with their families for this wonderful holiday because they are out fighting for our freedoms and rights. I love how everyone remembers to think of others during this season and I hope that we might carry that spirit with us throughout the remainder of the year. I am thankful to be having a new little baby come into our home soon. She will be a perfect little person who we will be solely responsible to take care of and nurture and teach about our Savior. Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Eve!

Every Christmas Eve is spent with Ed's family. Because the family is so big we always go to some one's church which works out nicely since it gives the kids plenty of room to play! Here is a game of flag football between all the little boys (and some of the big boys... Ed? Cameron?)

Also- Santa comes to visit every year with a small gift for each child. The older kids just love to figure out "who is Santa?" Santa is always a good sport with some of the strange requests. I think this year he was asked for an I-pod touch (my son- and nope Santa didn't come through with that one) and 2 million dollars!

I thought it would be funny to get a picture of all the parents lined up taking pictures...

Tray- he asked Santa for an Ipod touch. Unfortunately for him I told him that Santa doesn't do Ipod touches....

The funniest part of every Christmas Eve is the White Elephant Gift Exchange. Each adult brings one present. These are not serious, nice, or cute gifts- these are all gag gifts. They seem to get better with each passing year... Although this is the one thing that makes an entrance every single year. It's an autographed poster-sized picture of my brother-in-law Lance. Every year people try to guess which present is "the picture" because it gets cleverly wrapped each time. Nate got it this year.. ha ha ha! And the best part of the rules is that it has to hang in the receivers home throughout the whole year!

Some of the other white elephant gifts this year were: a box filled with tuna fish cans, a pregnancy test, an old pair of slippers with holes in them (yay! for me) and other funny ones. One of the gifts we gave was supposed to be a holiday CD with Ed as the artist. The actual funny part about the CD was more about the cover we used. It was Ed sitting in front of our tree looking as... pardon my french... "gay" as can be. It was hilarious. There was also a back cover but I will spare everyone from having to see it!

And the other white elephant gift we gave was a box of chocolates with a bite taken out of every chocolate with THIS picture taped to the inside of the box...

After a fun-filled evening of food, fun and laughter we headed home to put the kiddo's to bed and to wait for Santa to come visit us during the night!

A little surprise baby shower...

Every year sometime around Christmas day all of my sisters-in-law and I go to my mother-in-law's house and we all wrap our kids' Christmas presents together. It's always been a fun tradition because after hours of backbreaking wrapping it's way more fun to do it with people you can laugh with! During this year's wrapping party they had a little shower for me and my sister-in-law Cassi who is due a couple of weeks before me. My sister-in-law Jarae makes awesome cakes. She is so talented... seriously... check out her cake blog at frostedtops.blogspot.com She made this tiny cute cake for our new baby! Love it!!!

Catching up with extended family!

Unfortunately my sweet, sweet grandma passed away a couple of weeks ago so we had to head to Utah for her funeral. The one good thing that came of it was being able to catch up with lots of extended family that I haven't seen for years and years. And also learning a lot about my grandma's life that I didn't know before. After the funeral service we went to lunch at one of my grandma's favorite restaurants and then to visit at my dad's house. Here are a couple of pictures of some of the extended family... Of course that would be my boys wrestling on the floor in front of everyone *always the show-offs!*

I believe that this is the only picture of my dad, step-mom, my family and my step-sister Lindsey with her new husband Saul. We sure missed Kris at the funeral!

Lindsey and Saul- SO CUTE!! We're so happy for them!

This is my cousin Tim and his cute family- I hadn't seen him for years! I wish that I would have been thoughtful enough to take pictures of everyone but I was kind of an emotional wreck and didn't think that far ahead. I wish that I did have more pictures though because who knows how many years it will be before I see them all again!

Grammy Judy's House...

We went to Grammy Judy's house and the boys were able to open their Christmas presents from her and my Uncle Mark. The boys were lovin' it! They got some awesome Arizona Cardinal footballs and some fun D.S. games and some art stuff- and more. They were so happy and I think Aunt Judy was so happy to see their faces too. There is nothing better than watching a gift get opened that you give and having the recipient absolutely love it. It makes all the shopping and wrapping totally worth it! Thanks Grammy Judy!

How cute is this picture? Aunt Judy has always been like my second mom- so now she is just like the boys grandma too! We're lucky to have her and Uncle Mark in our lives! Oh yea- thanks for the use of your room too :)

Our gingerbread house...

Every year my sister-in-law Triska and I swap babysitting. We've been so fortunate to be able to do this for the past several years. They always take our kids the first weekend in December and we take theirs the third weekend in December. I didn't take any pictures of our weekend together- darn it! Ed took all 6 kids plus our other niece and nephew to the skate park on Saturday and they loved it. Of course being 7 1/2 months pregnant and it was freezing outside I stayed home! Ed is such a trooper! Also- on Sunday morning I had a 7:30 primary meeting at the church. We have 9 a.m. church and got up and had all the kids fed, dressed and ready to go by 8:30 (with the exception of Alyssa's hair which Meisha came over to do- thanks Meish!).

What cute kids! I'm so thankful that my kids will always have all their cousins nearby (hopefully anyway). They are all such well-behaved kids and we love having them in our home. Poor Alyssa is severely outnumbered. By this time next year though she won't be the only girl!

Tegen and Traysen's Piano Recital...

Tegen has been taking piano for one year and Tray just started in September 2009 but had to take a month off when he broke his arm (so it's really been about 2 1/2 months for him). They also have several of their friends that take piano from the same teacher. She is SO good with kids. I think you'd have to be to deal with that many little boys on a weekly basis. She is very patient and praises them for everything they do! This is us waiting for the recital to start with Tegen and Tray's friends... Tegen played Jolly Old St. Nicholas for his solo- he did an excellent job. I am seriously so proud! I really, really wish that I could play the piano so I truly hope my boys will want to continue learning to play. So far they are doing great!

Traysen played Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for his solo. For only playing for a couple of months he did so great. He worked really hard on it and was discouraged that he couldn't memorize his piece but his teacher made him feel a lot better when she told all of us that she has never been able to memorize her piano recital pieces either and it was totally fine that he didn't have it completely memorized!

Then- Tray did a duet with his teacher. I have no idea what the song was called.. OOPS!

Tegen did a duet with his good friend Zach Taylor. They played Do You Hear What I Hear? The night before their actual performances they had a recital practice and their timing was WAY off! The teacher made them stay late and come early to practice it. Unfortunately neither Marinda (Zach's mom) nor I could help them because we don't play. They did an AWESOME job!!! I was so impressed. They worked hard on their duet piece and they played it like pro's! Way to go boys!!!

This is all the boys that are friends that take piano from the same teacher. Bless her heart!! Lined up are: Jayden, Zach, Tegen, Carson, Connor and Traysen.

After the recital we went to a local favorite pizza place-Craigo's. The reason why it's a favorite is because 1) It's really affordable for our families and 2) they usually don't complain too much when we bring SO many children into the place. When I say a lot of kids there is usually about 14 kids with us that are all age 9 and under. I'm not sure that I would want to clean up after us! We sure love doing things with our friends though!

The Taylor's Cabin!

In November we went to our friends' cabin with them. The Taylor's have become good friends because 1) they get our strange sense of humor and 2) they have boys that are all our boys ages and they get a long great! Yes. I believe it's quite scary when we all show up someplace with SO many little boys! Anyway- they invited us to their cabin which was so nice. It's in an awesome location- not too far from home- and has a beautiful view of the lake! Talen and Alex couldn't decide if they wanted to be inside or out. They are so funny together!
There was barely a skiff of snow on the ground but of course all the boys just HAD to go outside to sled. What crazy boys!

This is the fun little room they all slept in, and played in, and made messes in.... (It's actually quite a bit bigger this was just the one corner)

The adults went on a Rhino ride on Saturday. Just a short one to go check out the surrounding scenery. It was a bit chilly but fun!

Thanks again Taylor's we had a blast!

Happy Halloween!

I realize that I am several months late in posting but I needed to catch up sometime! It seems like we have been on the go constantly for the last few months. Halloween was kind of low-key for us this year. I usually start stressing out in early September about what the kids are going to be for Halloween. I also usually start to plant that little seed in their minds about what it is that "they" want to be (depending on what I've found and what I want them to be). This year though- the two older boys said they wanted to be football players. Done and done! How easy- I didn't have to buy anything for their costumes and they were totally happy! Look how big Tegen is getting. I look at him and can't believe how old he is getting!
Traysen- what a little poser!

Okay- I had a slight breakdown in Wal-Mart. Talen asked if he could be a Transformer and I sadly relented. Usually I'm not the cheesy costume, thin fabric, character type of mom but how could I say no when he said "Please mom... I REALLY want to be Octupus Prime for Halloween." Yes- he says Octupus Prime not Optimus Prime. Oh well.. 3 out of 3 happy kids was worth it! Thankfully we had a pretty warm Halloween so they didn't freeze while trick-or-treating!

Our finished products....

The boys love this part of carving.. the ooey, gooey mess... ME? Not so much! But thankfully Ed usually does most of the hard part!

Happy Halloween!!!