Christmas EVE

We celebrated Christmas Eve at my sister Janay's house this year.  It was so much fun, my whole family was able to be there.  My nephew is leaving for his mission in a little over a week.  So it will be the last time with EVERYONE there for a while.

I took a couple pics with me and the boys and Gentry and the boys while we were waiting.  Alyssa had already gone with her cousin Kate.

 We gave my parents a big canvas of our latest family picture.  They loved it.  My mom started crying when she saw it.  Not a great pic of her, but the other pic we have she was blinking.

 Every year the kids re-enact the nativity story.  Brock was a wiseman.

 Boston started out as a star, then decided he would rather be an angel.

 Gentry's parents came over to join us.

 Reese, my cute little angel niece.

 Alyssa, Cooper and Kate were all shepherds.

 Alyssa holding Jett...who was baby Jesus.

 Alan always gets to be the narrator.  He takes his job very seriously.  He has a script, but tends to "ad-lib" just a little bit.

 Boston and Reese as the angels visiting Mary and Joseph, played by Morgan and Porter.

 The WHOLE cast.  CJ filled in as the star since Boston wanted to be an angel.

 We were lucky enough to have several cheer and dance performances by these four girls. Kate, Reese, Morgan and Alyssa.

 My nephew Connor played Santa.  He was cracking me up the whole time.  He was the best Santa, and the kids all loved him.  

He told Brock to sign "ROCK ON".

 He told Boston to point like a "Super Star". 

 He even did a little cheering with Alyssa.

FUN NIGHT!!!  Can't wait til morning!

MY MOST FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR!

Well y'all know how much I love the pajama night...and this year wasn't any different.  I couldn't wait to go!  Loved the pajamas.  These might just be my favorite...according to Cyndy I say that every year....but really I was even looking for sweats like this, and waddaya know, Cyndy found em.

 Boston and Brock had to check for their presents...they couldn't wait!

 The grandkids...Kamri, Jordyn, Bridger, Boston, Brock and Alyssa

 The Girls

 We had to laugh at this picture.  The Utah fan got a blue shirt, and the BYU fan got a red shirt.

I thought I got a picture of the whole group, but apparently I'm not as computer savvy as I thought.  My computer won't let me pull it off the disc.  So I may have to add that one later.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

NOAH'S

My sister's in-laws rented out Noah's for their Christmas party and were nice enough to invite us!  It was so much fun the kids got to ice-skate for the first time, and I was really surprised they were pretty darn good.  (I'd like to take credit for that...they probably got my jeans and I'm an incredible ice-skater..ha ha)  There was lots of food, and tons for the kids to do.  Here are some pics from the night.

 Boston is down in the background.

 And he's up again.

 Really..I swear she was having fun.

 Brock was a maniac...he loved ice-skating.

 I brought donuts..."for the kids of course"...just wanted to make sure they weren't poisonous...I know I'm a saint.

 There was an injury...Jennifer's little girl Reese accidentally ran over Jennifer's foot with her ice-skates.  I think she ended up with stitches.

 What I love about this picture is, can you see the grip I've got on him?  "Brock, you're gonna smile and you're gonna like it!" said through gritted teeth.

 Gentry gave me an "action shot".  This picture cracks me up.

Santa came and brought all the kids a cute little candy cane with their name on it.

The second we got in the car to head home, Brock yelled "BEST. DAY. EVER!"  Gentry laughed and said OK Brock let's recount what happened today.
1. Brock fell while ice-skating and smacked the back of his head.
2. Brock dropped the ice-skate on his foot with-out shoes to protect it.
3. Brock got hit in the head with the racket ball racket.
I think all the hits to his head made him forget the pain.  Glad he still had fun too. 

Santa Cow

Today we took the kids to  Chick-fil-a for the breakfast with Santa Cow.  They had fun.  It was an "all you can eat" breakfast...not sure if the kids got their money's worth but Gentry and I did.  Katie came with her kids so I think the kids all had more fun playing together than eating.

They had Munchkin Radio teaching the kids the "Chicken Dance", or whatever it's called.  So I got a little clip of the kids.

Christmas Party

My friends were wanting to plan a Christmas party and my friend Allison said she  would take care of everything as long as someone would host it at their house.  I thought that was the perfect opportunity because everything Allison does turns out fabulous.  So I volunteered.  I told her I wanted to take credit for everything she did.  But if I'm being honest the only thing I did was...well if you look in the back of the picture you can see the bag of rolls I bought and I provided some drinks in the fridge.  Oh wait I can't forget my Rolo pretzel things.  (I had to go to 3 stores just to find the dang Rolo's) 

Allison loves to have themes so this year it was an "F" theme.  Friends, Finger Foods, Fun etc.  The invites were really cute too.  (Allison made the invites too.)

 Allison even had labels for everything. Fancy cupcakes, Fudge, Fish, Fruit Flavored candycanes etc.

 Back to front: Jennifer, Nichole, Becca, Me, Katie, Allison

Candice, Lindsey, Heather, Lindsay.

 Brooks, Brent, Ryan, Gentry, Steve, Mark, Mike, Gerry.

 Chocolate FOOTBALL.

 The $10 gift didn't have to start with an "F" though.  Cafe Rio and Chick-fil-a gift cards were a hit.

 I love Gentry's pose:)

Lindsey and Mark got a Fanny pack! SCORE! ha ha.

 Nichole was lucky enough to get Fish and Chips...the fish were real though...

 So with the white elephant presents all starting with the letter "F".  Ryan happened to open "Fake Boobs".   So I blurred them so they would be appropriate for my blog.  LOL.  Allison brought them and we all got a good laugh.  Katie tried to cover them as I was taking a picture, but it looks like she was grabbing them instead of covering them.

 I was going around taking pictures in the room and I went to take a picture of Kaydee and Gentry and Katie slipped in so it didn't feel so awkward.  But like normal Gentry blinked.

Lindsey and Lindsay had already left, but we didn't get a picture with Kaydee so this one was for her.  She's to the left of me.

Ups and Downs...

Last week was a really hard week. Thursday night we were getting ready to go to Alyssa's school performance and on our way out we ran over Claire.  For some reason, she didn't move and we didn't see her.  I started crying and panicking along with my kids, when we realized what had happened.  Gentry told me to take the kids to the program and he would meet us there.  I called Gentry to see how Claire was and he said she died.  I was crushed.  I didn't think I really cared about animals all that much, but Claire was the perfect pet.  We were all having a hard time, and I had to go get the kids from school the next day because they were still having such a hard time. 

 Alyssa at her performance.  She did a great job and the whole program was adorable.  I felt bad for her because we had all been crying right before she had to start.

Saturday afternoon I noticed that at the District Petco was having the Humane Society pet adoptions.  So I told Gentry we should go over and check it out.  We took the kids and literally immediately I found our kitty.  I got this lump in my throat cause I knew she couldn't replace Claire but that she would be a good addition to our family.  She's been a good little kitty so far.  Gentry was the one who named her and he picked Lily.  The kids all liked it so the name stuck.

 The kids all wanted a chance to have their picture with Lily.