Christmas and Beyond...

We went to an ugly sweater party with my extended
 family the weekend before Christmas.  We drove
up north for the weekend...

And man, were we ugly.  I wish you could see Marty's shirt I made!  Dang.  It was hilarious.  Liam almost one the grand prize!  ha!  I think it's because everyone was impressed he kept a cup pinned to his shirt all day.



The kids starred in a nativity at our 'other' extended family party that same weekend.



On "OUR" Christmas Eve (which we had a day early-and I am so glad we did)...we went to a nativity with the Chambers at Tuachan and out for Pizza.

It was a 15 min. performance with live animals- and 3 real camels- and the reading of the Christmas story from the Bible.   Then the kids got to see Santa. 
 Oh, Santa... you look so overwhelmed:)

Santa's letter (hand-crafted by Ruby) and food- we almost forgot to do it!
I heard some good ideas this year from friends that I might adopt...
 3 gifts per kids because that is what Jesus recieved.
Getting ONE gift from Santa-(whatever they tell him on his lap) and the rest is from mom and dad.
All toys from Santa, all clothes and things that might need to be returned or exchanged from parents.

Christmas Jammies!

Their' big' gifts this year...Charlie a 'flinstone' car, Ruby a guitar and Liam a scooter.

We went hiking on 'our' Christmas Day after naps and eating and eating and laying around.  It was actually Christmas EVE for everyone else...kinda weird.







 

It was a gorgeous day.

We had church at 9 on Christmas day. We saved a little present for the kids for that morning and Ruby and Liam exchanged gifts which they were SO excited for. We'd gone out shopping the night before and split up Liam with dad and Ruby with me. They bought it with their own money and all. I was so happy not to have to do Santa presents on Sunday, especially because we left about an hour and a half after we got home from church to drive up north for Christmas dinner at my parents with all my family.








Up at Grandmas. Ruby and Liam singing the 12 days of Christmas to everyone for the talent show. They have both memorized the whole song without any push from me...so funny.

My mom and dad tried to 'scale it down' with the gifts for the grandchildren...but only giving 3 presents each still felt like a madhouse!!! With 24 kids in tow!!  One of their gifts were these hats...and of course my mom had all shapes and sizes of extras upstairs for exchanges...I swear Target hated her when she walked in to return all the ones that weren't taken!! 

Charlie's birthday was the next day.  I am still trying to convince Marty to let me change his birthday to January 26th...it's just too much to celebrate the day after Christmas.  And this proves it...he didn't want me to make a cake cuz we'd had to much 'crap' to eat over the holidays and also didn't want me spend the time on it....HA! Like I'm not going to make my son a birthday cake for his 2nd year birthday!

{SO excited}

Charlie got to celebrate his birthday with cousins at my mom's house and then again that night with cousins at Ryan and Becca's (Marty's bro) and with Grandpa Lee and Merry.  What a spoiled kid.  He is a riot at 2.  Although he isn't as ornery as he was months ago...he is still REALLY, REALLY loud and still screams often.  Now he is usually such sweetie and and his screaming moments are less frequent.  His temperament is way different.  He is singing little songs most the time, giggles alot and pulls all kinds of faces!  And and is learning so much...counting to 5, singing jingle bells, saying everyones names.  He is obsessed with trucks, trains and cars-just like a true boy.

We celebrated New Years Eve day with my family up north with a big breakfast at mom's (waffles, pancakes, ham, eggs, egg and potato casserole, fruit, 3 types of milks and 4 types of juices).  Then we went to the church building-yes our family is that big now- to play games and so the men could play basketball. 
This is all the grandchildren-minus Brystun and Brigham- at the church.



Then we sped home to St. George and celebrated that night with the Chambers...Karlin with her sidekick and hip bruiser-Charles Henry.



Yep kids...whistle in the new year....here we go...it will be better and brighter, ya?