We went to the Festival of Trees with my mom.
And saw Santa.
Devan was there too, but I preferred to pretend to be a single mom to see if I could get any sympathy or money. I got neither.
We did get a free clown nose though, so that's almost as good as money.
Kids in Christmas clothes!
We made salt dough ornaments. I was too lazy to hang them on the tree.
Josh had fun along with the rest of us.
Ben tried over and over to eat the dough. It never seemed to taste as good as he would have liked it to.
Joshua quickly grew bored of us.
We went to Devan's company Christmas party at Famous Daves. We enjoyed the food.
We opened presents with my Mom and Aunts. I didn't take any pictures. Kory bought them these Santa outfits.
We headed to Utah and spent a couple of days with Chad and Ashley and Steph and Xay.
I miss that little boy so much I can't stand it sometimes.
The kids had so much fun together.
We had a 3, 2, 1, and 0 year old all in the same house for 2 whole days. What could be more fun?
Sunday night we had a Christmas dinner and then Aubrey came over and we stayed up way too late baking. By "we" I don't mean I did any baking. I just sat. And it was great. I've missed Ashley's almost all nighters.
We got all the cousins together for a picture for Nana (and because I really, wanted one.) 7 kids, 5 of whom were under 4. So fun and so crazy.
We took lots and of course very few had everyone looking at the camera.
This was going to be the one.
And then I did a little work on this one and...
Voila! Aren't they just the most beautiful group of kids you've ever seen?
I was especailly excited to get to meet our new little neice Sarea. She is 3 weeks and 3 days older than Joshua and I love her. I so wish that they were going to be able to grow up together.
We stayed at Kevin and Dawn's house for the rest of our trip. They just bought a house so they had a guest room for us to stay in. I dream of the day I will one day have a guest room. We had so much fun. Our kids loved playing together all week. We also got to go on a girl's night with Nicole Fish. I only go out with friends without my kids once or twice a year and I always have so much fun and wish I could convice myself to get out more often. We went to the mall and for dessert at The Chesecake Factory. It felt like we were in Jr. High again!
Christmas Eve we went to Nicole Steele's house for a breakfast dinner and ping pong. We had so much fun.
Before bed, Ben and Hannah got to open their birthday pajamas. This was something my mom always did for us and I wanted to continue. But we got home late and I hadn't wrapped them yet and the kids were tired. Devan tried to just give the kids their pajamas, not wrapped, and then I got sad. I think I was just tired. This is the second year in a row we've been traveling on Christmas, and I felt like I hadn't been able to start any of the traditions I wanted for our family. I started getting the kids ready for bed, and then without me realizing it, Devan snuck out and wrapped the pjs. I was so grateful. It was the first present that Ben opened all by himself and the kids were really excited about them. It was a nice moment with our family in the midst of all our running around making merrry.
We had to wake up at 6:30 the next morning so the kids could open their stockings and then we get to Nana and Papa's house for breakfast and church. The kids were a little hard to wake up.
Church was wonderful. Then we went back to Nana and Papa's and hung out until everyone came for Christmas dinner.
Then we opened presents...
Nana made monkeys for all the bigger kids!
We stayed in Utah for 3 days after Christmas. We shopped and ate and visited. I had so much fun I felt guilty. It was like a real vacation. But by the time it was time to go home I was ready. We did the trip all in one day and it felt so good to get home.
1 comment:
Sounds like you guys had a wonderful packed Christmas season. I know how you feel with making your own traditions. It seems like for me too it is really hard to find the time. My blogging is a little held up too! I hope you are able to do more blogging again.
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