Christmas!

I am sure that everyone in our family had a very Merry Christmas. The kids have been playing with all their Christmas toys non stop since Thursday. I have to admit that I get really excited and play right along with them.

The best part of Christmas for me was spending time with my family. Nothing is more important on this earth than they are. This Christmas I had the opportunity to see 3 of my brothers and sisters from out of town. It was so much fun to see them and their kids and just laugh and play.

I hope everyone else had a great a Christmas too!

The night before Christmas...

The boys got to open some presents with Grandma and Grandpa on Christmas eve. Noah could not believe his luck when he opened his present and found a Wii. WHOO HOO! We have had hours of fun playing with it so far. All the boys got a Texas Longhorn T-shirt from their aunt and uncle in TX. They looked so cute in matching T's.

Then it was time for bed so Santa would come and bring them more treats and toys. It took them forever to finally fall asleep. Matt had to threaten them to get them to be quiet and go to sleep. He told them that he saw Santa two houses down and if they weren't asleep that Santa wouldn't stop at our house. His threat seemed to do the trick because they all fell asleep shortly after.

The Twins are 2 (that birthday really snuck up on me!)

I can not believe that my babies are two! What a whirlwind of a two years that was. Thank goodness I have them in my life. They bring a lot of joy and laughter into our household. On Dec. 23 they turned 2 yrs old and I can't wait to see how they grow in their third year. I have to admit that they do cause a little bit of mischief around here but it keeps me on my toes. I love them so much and if I had to go through everything I did to get them here I would do it all over again.

We had their birthday party at the church gym so the kids could run around and play till they couldn't run any more. Plus we had to find a spot for them to try out their new tricycles.

My Little Boy is 3!

Mack, is just so adorable! Thank goodness he's mine. Happy Birthday to my big smile boy. For his birthday dinner he picked waffles and so, that is what he got. Since he doesn't especially like cake we made an ice cream cake. As you can see Mack likes to do things the unconventional way.
For the past 2 months I have been trying to teach him how to say "I'm three" when people ask how old he is. It wasn't going to well though. Every time he would say, "waffle" instead. Then today on his birthday for the first time when asked how old he was he said, "three". Hallelujah! We love you Mack and hope that you got exactly what you wanted for your birthday. From the looks of it he sure did get what he wanted.

Thankfuls

It is normally a family tradition to list three things your thankful for on Thanksgiving. We didn't do it this year but I wanted to list my thankfuls so my family knew I was trying to keep the tradition going.: )

1. My family- I have the greatest family ever! My husband is the best, he works hard and shows his appreciation for me and all I do. He takes good care of us and I love him tons. My five little boys who are not so little anymore. They bring so much joy into my life with their gentle sweet spirits. I love being their mom. My parents are such good examples to me. They have taught me so much and helped me to love the gospel as much as they do. My brothers and sisters are so much fun to be around! We play games and laugh and I just love being in their company. Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Cousins the list just goes on and on, with how much I love my family. I could write a book but I wont, let's just say they're the best and I love them!

2. Prayer- I haven't ever gone to Heavenly Father in prayer and not received an answer to my never ending questions about life. I hope I can teach my children that life is so much better when you pray.

3. Lastly, I am grateful for sleep! Okay I kind of switched gears a little bit. How can I ignore the fact that now that my children are older I can finally get some sleep! Maybe now I will be a little less cranky, lets all hope anyway.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Its a little late but better late than never. Here we are at my sister's house from left to right, Alex, Annie, Chad, Greg, Michelle, Matt, Me, and Luke. My brother Greg and his family drove from Las Vegas to join us for the holiday too. It was really great to spend time with him and his family. He is getting ready to leave for Afghanistan in April so the more I get to see him the better. Stephanie cooked all day for two days to make this delicious meal. We had appetizers only a couple hours before dinner so I think we were all full before dinner even started. Thanks goodness for left overs because they tasted really good the next day too.

The kids ate their meal together and I don't think they ate any of it. One of them mentioned they wanted a hot dog and that got every ones attention so they all ate hot dogs for thanksgiving. There is something very wrong with that but I guess their only kids so what do you do?

By the end of the day this is how the little ones fell asleep. I think it was all the food! Thank you to my sister for all her hard work on our behalf, we love you!

Holiday Vacation

We were lucky enough to go down to Arizona for a week to visit my sister who lives there. Matt and I were a little nervous about the 2o hour drive and how the kids would handle being in the car that long. We decided to split up the drive into a two day trip and stop in Salt Lake City the first day and stay with Matt's sister Erin. Thank you Erin for letting us invade your house and I hope that we didn't do to much damage.

Day two we arrived at my sister Stephanie's house and we were all thrilled to finally be out of the car! Stephanie is such a great hostess and made us feel right at home. I am so grateful for my sister and her kindess. I don't know many people that can handle my big family running around thier house for a week. Steph never complained and my kids had the best time! The weather was awesome the first day we got there so we headed out to a park and let the kids run and play. Here are some pictures from the park. It was a train park and we got to ride on a mini train and check out some real trains that housed some past presidents when they traveled.

There was also a mini city that had a jail and a stagecoach. It was 70 degrees outside and that sure did feel good. Almost December and 70 degrees was a little wierd but I am not complaining.

Noah, Ethan, and Mack sure did enjoy playing all day with thier cousins. I hardly heard a peep out of them because they would just play and play non stop each day. On the way home we decided to drive straight through in one day and I think the kids slept 15 out of the 20 hours we drove. It was probably because they were so worn out from all that fun during the week or maybe it was the lack of sleep.