Just Hanging Out

It's Liz Day!

On Sunday, the day after Christmas, was Liz's Birthday.

We met the family at my parents church and then had dinner together.

Liz and Justin BBQ'd some yummy chicken (in the snow).

She got some pretty cute home decor along with other things.

Hayden is there as usual to help blow out the candles.

It's always fun to spend birthdays with any of my sisters.

You are such a great sister, aunt and friend.

I'm so glad we could spend the day together! Love you Liz!

Christmas Day

The more functioning hour was about 7 AM. I can't complain about that at all.

(only the earlier 3 AM awakening)

I picked out some of my favorite pictures of the kids excitement.

Hayden has been asking for comfy socks since his birthday.

It's hard to find some for little kids in boy colors at that.

So, Even though they go to his knees, he is super excited about them.

And then, there is another badge/pin to add to his collection.

I love how little kids get so excited about getting the same thing,

even though they are different, for every holiday. More Lego's and

Bakugans for Brandon.

All Alyssa really wanted was makeup and jewelery.

You can imagine her excitement when she got a big box set of play makeup.

Her other early present that Dad had to come home with...

is her Christmas kitten.

She has been begging for one for a long time.

(like we didn't already have a cat)

This is Jasmine.

After our morning of relaxing, playing with toys and eating our yummy cinnamon rolls....

My parents and Mike, Liz and Heather came over to exchange gifts.

Then, we headed over to the Finley grandparents house.

We got there just in time to get to talk to uncle Kelsey on skype.

It was good to see him and talk, it's been a long while.

Everyone opened up their presents from grandparents.

We kind of just hung out for awhile and relaxed and ate.

It's kind of a blur because it was such a long day.

It was good to see all of the family in one day.

Liz snapped a few quick pictures of us earlier that day.

These first few days were just the start of the busy days ahead.

It was fun seeing everyone and hanging out and being with family.

But, I kind of miss our own time alone as our own little family.

It does not happen very often with our very busy schedules of work, school, church and

anything else that comes along. I am hoping next year will be a bit slower and relaxing.

It's such a mixed emotion.

I am thankful for this Christmas and everyone around us and how wonderful people can be, for the small and big things

It is a wonderful time of year.

I want to be able to carry the feelings of Thanksgiving and Christmas with

me all year long.

One of my favorite presents.

This is who it's all really about.

I hope that someday my children will fully understand and appreciate that.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

The first part of Christmas Eve we had dinner at my parents house with three of my siblings.

We then let the kids open a few tiny presents from them.

We got home and read the Christmas Story from the Scriptures, listened to and sang some Christmas songs and talked about Christmas.

Then the usual opening of a gift, (the normal PJ's)

Alyssa was so tired because it was getting late and cried when she opened hers for some reason.

After a bit of praising convincing her that she would be so very cute in her new PJ's

she was happy. Not another sad moment about them.

It was such a crazy night because Justin had to work and we felt kind of rushed through everything. We actually put the kids to bed without putting out their stockings where they wanted them. So we got them out of bed, to then remember the cookies and drink for Santa. In the confusion my camera skills were lacking.

With that.

To all a good night.....

Until about 3... something in the morning when one noticed the presents were out

(on a potty run) and had to wake the others to see.

And... back to bed til a more functioning hour....

Playing in The Snow

I had to make a little comic for him after looking through the pictures and seeing this.

I know this is really what he was thinking.

Copy Cat. My Boys with their snowman with a carrot nose.

Having fun sliding on his bum and diving in the snow.

I have not braved the frigid teens to go play with them yet. It has been so very cold, getting down in the single digits to negatives at nights. BRRRR. Really too much for me. We have had so much snow recently.

I really hope we can get a little better temps with the snow in the coming

weeks so I can play too.

Pre-Christmas Festivities

We made marshmallow snowmen with baking chips and sprinkles and spaghetti.

They had a lot of fun and it was so easy.

Our ward had a Christmas breakfast one morning.

We wore our pajamas to church and ate yummy food, the Bishop read a wonderful story to the kids and they sang a few Christmas songs.

Santa came!

The kids were all searching the parking lot for his reindeer afterwards.

It was a fun morning.

The kids school put on the annual program where all the classes sing a fun

Christmas song for the parents.

Brandon's class sang a fun Noel Song...

To spell Santa's name is easy to do

You write S A N T and another A, too

But no L, no L, Santa's name has no L

And he won't be too pleased if you don't learn to spell

Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch water from a well

But when neither one could find it , Jill started to yell

No well, no well, can't believe there's no well

We walked all the way here and I'm mad, can't you tell?

Captain Ahab took his crew, his harpoon and set sail

And he called out to ships, 'Have you seen the white whale?

No whale, no whale, we ain't seen seen no whale

Saw a couple of dolphins, and a big yellow tail

If you've listened to this tune, then you probably can tell

That you've heard it before, it's a song you know well

Know well, know well, it's a song you know well

And we've ruined it completely, so we all say 'Oh well'

oh well, oh well, We'll just say 'Fare thee well'

And Merry Christmas to you and a Joyous Noel

Alyssa's class sang 'I want a hippopotamus for Christmas'

and... the Chipmunks 'Christmas Time'

If only I could upload the video... We will see. I love seeing them with their friends at school.

Alyssa had to decorate her Santa and dress him in new clothes. When we were up for Dallin's Baptism The cousins dipped pretzels in chocolate and decorated them. That was a hit. So much fun to do things together. I don't feel like we did as many activities before Christmas as we usually do. But it we did have some fun times.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was small in numbers, but nice. We really missed having Justin there. I believe this was our first Thanksgiving apart. I should have taken pictures with him when we went to visit him at work. I really didn't take many pictures at all. I think I was just enjoying spending time with everyone. It's always a good thing when Dan and Liz make the trip to be with us.

We had fun just hanging out. The kids took turns sledding down the stairs , I think all kids try to do that sometime in their life. We went sledding, on the wrong side of town and had to go on a shady snowy drive. It was still fun, there was just more snow other places not closer to home not where we drove to. It was pretty laid back. I'm So Thankful for many things, especially all of my family. I feel that this past year my eyes have been opened up a lot more than usual to everything around me than what's just in my little bubble. I love this time of year to reflect on everything I have and how much I really am Thankful for.

Time.........

I can't believe how fast time is going by. Does everyone else feel this way; as you get older it goes faster. I feel it is being taken away from me too fast and I just can't keep up. There are so many things I am always wanting to accomplish. I want to be able to enjoy my family more. I just need one week to move in slow motion so I can catch up. Since I can't really change that, I will take what I can get now. I am thankful for every day I have and I want to remember the times spent together with everyone I love. So, I will catch up eventually on those memories.

One thing I think I need to do is organize more, so I can find that missing time. I know it's there somewhere. Until then... I will still keep moving forward with what I have.