Christmas 2011

Guess what happened in our house Christmas eve? Yes, it's no big secret, Santa came. We had four families at my house this year, and one of those families was Grandma & Grandpa...so there were an abundance of gifts under the tree! 

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the house on christmas eve, after the kids are asleep and Santa has come. So beautiful and peaceful, it's my favorite!

The stockings were nestled on the couch, cause they were too heavy to hang by the chimney.

Except for JJ's stocking. It was nestled by his new horsey.

We get a little carried away with gift wrap in our house. Especially when there's super fun ribbon to be found!

My favorite picture of the holiday. The tree on Christmas eve!

Brett was checking out the goods.

Then, it was morning, and the kids were up, early. Luckily with all the other families/adults there, Kevin and I actually got to sleep till 7!

Hot cocoa, a must have on christmas morning. Someone was feeling shy!

The kids were spoiled, again. They had a blast, as always!

Peyton was stuck on the couch on Christmas due to her nasty swollen foot. Which I just found out this past week was actually broken. Dang Kevin and his thinking that every ankle injury is just a sprain. Luckily it's healing well, and she'll be fine, even without a cast!

Halli couldn't figure out what a CD player was. It has a docking station for an iPod, which she doesn't have. But she also got a Selena Gomez CD, that's her favorite singer right now!

JJ even got into it, and figured out that opening gifts was fun!

We spent some more time that morning playing with new toys, and eating!

I love this rapunzel hair and think Lexie looks so different with it, what a doll!

Relaxing in their ball pit.

I'm the worst at posing for pictures. I had the most darling christmas outfits for all the kids, and didn't take a picture of them all dressed up. But the rest of the day was spent at church, and cooking for christmas dinner with the Williams family. We then spent the rest of the evening there, and I didn't take any pictures. Sometimes I just get caught up in the moment, but we had an awesome christmas surrounded by both of our families, that was a first. Then we got to keep Kevin home with us for the next week, and loved every second of it!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've sort of been a slacker about blogging lately, but in my defense, there's just not enough time in the day! I can't be on the computer when JJ is awake, cause he thinks it's his own special toy, and like all toddlers, he somehow knows just which buttons to push in that micro second he touches the keyboard, to just screw the whole thing up, so I've quit! That only leaves bedtime, and frankly I'm just super busy editing photos. Alot of them!

There are just so many things I need to catch up on though, like Halli's basketball league, which she loves!

Or Lexie's new Joy School that she goes to once a week that a friend of mine does. She LOVES it and asks everyday if she's going to school. I think this girl really needed some structure, and time away from me!:)

Oh, we also had our ward party last friday night and met Santa. JJ may or may not have had fun, but don't worry, a candy cane totally made it all better. Everyone must have a picture of their child crying with Santa, it's tradition!

We also got to go see Halli in her school choir performance, and apparently I only took video and no pictures, so that will be coming soon. She did amazing and even had a solo, we're so proud of her for getting past her fear and doing it, she did awesome!

Kevin had an awesome dream vacation right before thanksgiving, when he went to Maui.

Yep, he got to play lots with his brother and dad. I'm totally fine with it....I think. Don't worry, next year is our tenth anniversary, and he'll make it up to me then, I'm sure. Right?:)

Other than that, it's just been some crafting here and there  to get ready for christmas (like the girls christmas shirts, easiest thing to make ever and so cute!), a little bit of shopping, lots of photo sessions, and lots of editing, and lots of designing. I'm having fun with it, but it takes up a significant portion of time. None of this even takes into account all the day to day stuff we moms do. Cleaning, working out, which I found a new program that is AMAZING and I love it, running kids all over the place, cooking and just having a 17 month old who is basically into EVERYTHING! I'm planning on being done with all of the photography stuff by this friday though, and then I can soak in my kids and no school for two whole weeks...I'm looking forward to it!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!!

I just love this time of year! So glad my whole family does too. We're trying to just soak in the magic and enjoy our family traditions...I'm loving every minute!

Thanksgiving

Our thanksgiving was full of great food, wonderful family, and Kevin coming home from his big trip to maui...I'll have to post about that later, but he is one lucky dude!

So, here's our thanksgiving in pictures...lots and lots and lots of pictures. For once I remembered to bring my camera, and I used it this time!

Jamie holding our niece Miss Ellie. What a sweet and big baby girl she is, she's adorable!

There was absolutely no shortage of food there...always tons of food and tons of leftovers!

Everyone in the kitchen, ready to dig in!

We had Eric and Jill there with us this year too! It was great! We didn't head over to grandma & Grandpas house till later that evening, so it was nice to have more family in town to hang out with during the day, and Lexie absolutely loved having LaNea there to hang out with, she loves her!

I just saw a quote that says.

Grandma's house: Where cousins go to become best friends. So very true in this instance. These girls all love each other so much, and the four little guys are getting a little older and interacting more too, it's so much fun to watch!

Speaking of the little guys, here's one of the cuties himself, colt!

Sweet Savannah, with her other cousins from Jamies side of the family. Halli loved having a couple older kids there to play with too.

Oh my heavens, she almost makes you want another one right? Only when they're happy and can't move though.:)

I just love all these girls!

And apparently the boys just love babies, and miss Ellie in particular.

What else are you supposed to do with olives?

I didn't get any other pictures, but do you notice the shirts their wearing? I saw them on pinterest and thought they would be cute...little turkeys. The girls loved them, so it was worth it!

I guess with 19 kids all 9 and under, and 16 being 5 and under, things will get a little messy!

While we were cleaning, I started wondering what the kids were all doing. They were, as always, up in grandma's storage/secret room, having a blast!

Spunky girls!

There's miss LaNea, wandering around in her princess shoes. I always have to remind myself that she's younger than I think. She's the same size as Lexie and over a year younger, and almost a big sister herself, can't wait to see what the new baby will look like!

At some point that night, Alan, Greg and Kevin wanted to review the maui invitational games to see if they could see themselves in the stands at all. We had found them two of the nights there, and they had fun showing us everything that was happening. They had a dream vacation full of hawaii and basketball, how can it get better than that? Oh, maybe bring the wife along? Yeah, that might help! More on that later though, I'm sure!:)

We had a great thanksgiving and had a small redo the next day with the leftovers too.We're so blessed to be surrounded by so much family and love that we can get together with them, we just need to try to do it more often!

Backing up a few weeks...Soccer ended!

Peyton recently finished her second year of soccer. She has so much fun playing with her friends, most of whom were on her team last year. Although she's not quite the aggressive type, she still loves to get out there and run around. That's really what she does, doesn't get the ball too often, but she looks awesome in her uniform don't ya think?

Lots of team spirit with the Stingrays!

They get a little fiesty on the sidelines, but it's all in good fun!

Our awesome girl!

Peyton & Jada, two of the three girls on the team.

Peyton may be bigger, but Jada definitely has more spunk, and went after the ball!

The team with coach Mike. Sean was also the coach, but was typically flying on saturdays, so Mike would step in and coach the games, he did awesome!

This is the Peyton we know and love, not all that interested in the actual game!:) Actually, she told us, she liked practice much better than the games cause you got to do more.

Peyton and Braden. When they were on the field together, she usually just ran after him. Kinda like how Halli and Blake play basketball, funny kids!

Going through the tunnel at the end of the game.

As much fun as we have with soccer, I've got to admit that I'm slightly glad it's over. I tend to get that way with most sports though, you just get to a point that you want your saturday's back. Not that that's happened though, Peytons last day of soccer was the same day as Halli's first basketball game....and so it begins!