Grandma & Kids

Since my siblings and I all have lots of little ones running around these days, we couldn't all be at my parents at the same time for Christmas. So on the Tuesday between Christmas and New Year's we got together at Clark's house for a day of fun. The boys all went golfing (minus Tige who had to work). The big kids got to go to Jumpin Jacks while the little ones took naps. Then the girls all went out to a chick flick and then we had pizza. I snapped these pictures on my phone while all the kids were together for a picture with Grandma!

5 baby boys (one from each family) all born within 11 months.

All 12 grandchildren and grandma. Plus Andy announced the 13th is one the way!

Christmas PJ's

Christmas Festivities

Christmas this year was spent at my parent's house in Cedar. With our growing crew (12 adults and 12 grandkids), we had to stay there in shifts. On Christmas Eve, my family along with Clark's, Andy's & Jeff's did the nativity. Char has a script and costumes she's sewed for everyone. She's amazing. It was fun to watch the kids in the nativity. My mom had a fantastic dinner and we had fun just being together.
Kason got a remote-control car & lego set from Santa. From us a money sorter, criss-cross crash hotwheels set, clothes, games. All the kids got PJ's and a book from G&G Hazleton, and a pillow pet, books, and zhu-zhu pet from G&G Taylor.

Abby got this doll set from Santa.

Taylor is just happy to be around. He got some teething toys from Santa.


The Nativity cast. Minus little Ryan, the stable animal who was not happy about it.

Angel Abby getting dressed up.

Mary Paige and Joseph Adam along with Taylor as baby Jesus. This only lasted a minute until Taylor got too wiggly and we opted for a doll instead.

There's stable animal Ryan and shepherd Josh. I love Abby's face--"what's going on? why are you crying?"

Wisemen: Brock & Kason

Gingerbread Houses

I saw a gingerbread house a few weeks ago at the store, and thought it looked like fun, but I didn't get it. But then Kason was out of school the whole week before Christmas and was totally bored, so on a trip to the store I broke down and bought it. The kids loved decorating it--One candy in the mouth, one on the house. One in the mouth, one on the house!

Snuggle Bug

Is there anything better than snuggling with a sweet baby? Not much, that's for sure.

Taylor @ 6 months.

16.7 lbs 26.4 inches

Cannnot figure out how to swallow rice cereal

Sleeps 11 hour stretches at night

Loves his thumb

Smiles all day

Tree Trimming & Santa

We managed to put up the tree and hang the stockings with assistance from our "little helpers." When we were done, the kids all laid underneath the tree looking up at the lights and decorations, just like my brothers & I used to when we were little. Christmas time is magical.

Santa appeared at our ward party. Kason asked him for a fish tank, which was news to me. He's been asking me for about 100 different things for the past few months, and that was never mentioned. Hmmm. Abby wanted no part of sitting on his lap. But after Kason did it and she saw that he got a "treat", she was willing to stand next to him in order to get her own treat.

Turkey Holiday

Thanksgiving was spent with Tige's family in Monticello. It was cold, so we stayed indoors playing and having fun together. We had bad weather both on Tuesday driving there and Sunday coming home, so we had to take the southern route through Arizona both ways. But we enjoyed the long drive in our new van (as much as you can enjoy a 6 hour drive with 3 kids) and were glad to spend our holiday with the Hazletons. Here are a few pictures from our trip. How cute is my little rolly-polly boy? Taylor (5 months) He's so happy, content, and easy-going.
I didn't get pictures of the food, but grandma sure puts on a good spread. We especially enjoyed the chocolate cream pie, Tige's deep-fried turkey, grandma's rolls & Shalisa's orange jello.

Grandma has a little section of her basement that's just for the grandkids. Kason enjoyed drawing pictures there. This was a tank he drew--and I had to take a picture as he's usually more of a pencil/stick figure kind of artist. This was truly his best work ever.

Abby enjoyed pretending the fireplace handle was a microphone. So funny.

Happy hugs from 2 cute kids.Tige's mom gets a bunch of prizes and puts on a bingo game for the kids (and another one for the adults). This year was the most fun year since the kids are a little older and fueled off each other's excitement. Kirk would call out the cartoon character, and all 5 of them would repeat the character at the top of their lungs. They were so darn excited and had a great time.

I think the favorite prize was some Flurp noise putty that made tooting sounds. All 3 of the older kids got some, and they sat around the table for about an hour after the game making tooting sounds and laughing hysterically. There were kids ages 2-7, and all of them could not contain their giggles. It was fun to listen to such pure joy. If you have some kids or nieces or nephews of this age, this $1 gift is sure to be a HIT.

"Flurp" tooting noise putty. HOURS of fun for kids of all ages.

Kirk & Shalisa, our favorite Mario Kart buddies. We got to sneak away late at night after the kids were all sleeping and play with them.

Soccer Ends

Well, soccer season has come to and end. I can't say I'm going to miss having a game every Saturday. At the beginning of the season, Kason was content to just stay in the backfield and play defense. So his daddy promised him $1 for every goal he scored this year to help him be more agressive. This was a mistake as he's scored many, many goals since then and we're out of dollars (I honestly lost track of how many, but it was between 1 & 4 each game). He's a good player with a lucky kick! Once he kicked a curve ball from a corner kick that acutally went in the goal. A few times it richocceted off his knee into the goal. Twice he scored from the kick-off at center field. It's been FUN!

( check out that action shot. I even impressed myself!)

L to R: Kason, Max, Chet, Simon, Spencer, Nathan, Tanner, Ethan.

Kason turns 7

Our big boy turned 7 today. We can't quite believe it's true. Last year after I was so exhausted from his 6th birthday party, I decided I was only doing a party every other year. For his birthday present from us he got a really nice new bike, but we gave it to him a few weeks ago. So when his actual birthday started rolling around, I couldn't bear the thought of him not getting a fun party and also not having many presents to open since he'd already gotten his bike. So I broke down and did a party. We ended up celebrating on his birthday with a sports party that was lots of fun. Tige helped me set up an obstacle coarse in the back yard complete with running through "tires" that we drew with chalk, jumping rope, pogoing, shooting lego men off the swingset with a water gun, etc. Each kid did it and was timed, so they loved that. They also played a few other sport-type games including trying to keep a balloon up in the air with soccer rules (no hands). We fed them pizza and grapes, gatorade & soccer cupcakes. The best part is that Grandma Bev stopped by at the beginning of the party to give him a card and some stickers, and so we invited her to join us for pizza. She wrote another fabulous poem for Kason's special day that captured everything! She's so great.

Kason got lots of great presents from his generous friends including 4 lego sets, a game, a DVD, a maglite flashlight, and a sidewalk chalk spinner. Also a spinderman triple battle truck from G&G Taylor and some PJ's and $ from G&G Hazleton. He's a lucky boy and we love him very much.

I didn't snap a lot of pictures because I was so busy with everything, but I did get a few...
Balloon soccer.

Soccer cupcakes. Kason said he couldn't tell they were soccer balls. Oh well--you win some, you lose some.

Dad & Abby enjoying pizza.

Kason, Cameron, Caeleb, Brock

Nathan, Ashton, Lance, Matthew, Taye, & Paige.

Bryce & Cables

We ventured up north this weekend in our new minivan. It was a nice trip with lots of room. The kids all had their own space & watched DVD's most of the way. I've decided it's the only way to travel. Anyway, we headed to Kamas where my nephew, Bryce was baptized on Saturday. We were so glad to be there to watch David baptize him.

We managed to snap a family picture. Just one though because Abby does NOT like to sit for pictures and is completely uncooperative. I doubt we're going to get a family picture for a Christams card. She's a stinker when it comes to pictures. After the baptism, eating a bunch of yummy food, and watching lots of football, we headed down to North Salt Lake to see our best friends the Cables. We lived next door to them 10 years ago before we moved to Virginia. We had a great time playing games & catching up. We took our kids to the Discovery Kid's Center at the Gateway. Abby loved it and was just a perfect age for it. We did things like that with Kason all the time when we lived back East, but Abby has missed out on those kinds of things. So it was fun to take her and watch her explore...

Abby & McKenzie. Kenz was the perfect little babysitter--took Abby around and played with her and showed her everything. I sure wish this girl lived in our town--we'd hire her every Friday night!

Rock climbing wall.

Grocery cart & checkout. Abby licked all the plastic food. Gross!!! I'm sure she'll be coming down with a cold immediately.

Taylor, just along for the ride. What a trooper! (and with 2 teeth now).

Playing with the magnetic shapes. They were totally fun--we could have played with them for hours. They had some in the gift shop, but the basic box of them was $65. Geez. I don't think so.

Life flight helicopter.

Kenzie & Taylor