Christmas Morning

It was a picture perfect Christmas-at least in my view. Chris and I were talking before bed and he actually complained about the cold (Arizona boy)!! I was in heaven with the Christmas Eve snow. It made everything beautiful and frosty. Perfect!!

Here are the children on my bed at 6:30. As you can see, everyone was wide awake except for Carter. Ten seems a little early to be losing the excitement of Christmas morning!

This year, our kids drew names so that they only bought for one sibling. This is the gift that Grant chose for Andrew.

Carter chose this dart board for Chris and was really excited when he found out there is a "trash talk" feature on it. What's better than playing darts with your dad and having some trash talk going on? (honestly, I don't totally get it, but I AM a girl).

Hailey got a "perfect pet": a cute dog that breathes while it sleeps. I honestly hope this is the only pet we will ever have. Cute little Alyssa always wants to be close to people and has learned to climb up on the chairs. I now call her the hurricane-she is creating constant destruction.

Alyssa opening her gift from Carter. It took awhile.

Hailey's choice for Grant. It was a beautiful thing to see them playing this together later in the morning. I love it when they are happy and having fun together. We had a wonderful time together.

Christmas Eve

Every year on Christmas Eve, we have our children act out the Nativity. For the past several years we've gotten together with our good friends, the Birds. The kids enjoy dressing up and the adults enjoy focusing on the true meaning of Christmas. We also invited the Menzel family and I hope that they weren't too overwhelmed by the craziness and noise (all of their children are older).

Hailey wanted to be Samuel the Lamanite this year (Samuel always gets marshmallow "stones" thrown at him and she wanted to eat them). Here she is preaching to the people.

Grant was the star and was on his tip toes several times trying to hold it up as high as possible.

Here is sweet Emma being Mary.

The entire cast (minus Kori the fabulous piano player and Chris the amazing narrator).

Thanksgiving

Chris took the boys out on Thanksgiving morning for a little football. Brave man considering he hates the cold.

Chris' parents were here to celebrate with us and Hailey got to experience a small dose of the traditional Stradling pie making marathon. She loved baking with Grandma.

Luckily, Chris' mom reminded me that I wanted a picture of them and I got all of the kids with their grandparents. We were so glad that they came!

Fun in the sun

Chris and I were able to go on a cruise with 4 of our dear friends right before Thanksgiving. We had such a marvelous time and it's hard to even imagine summing up the trip. Needless to say, we would do it again in a heartbeat!

The girls hamming it up in Honduras.

The boys checking out the female stingray.

While he's not a huge fan, Chris did a wonderful job with Neil Diamond's "America" for karaoke. He actually had the whole room singing and laughing-definitley a success.

Visiting the Mayan ruins in Tulum, Mexico. Super interesting and I loved seeing the huge iguanas lazing around in the sun.

We stopped at an island of Honduras and this was one of the few times it wasn't raining. We braved it for a bit, but then headed back to the ship for the hot tub and ice cream.

We had so much fun. Sitting here in the snow, it's hard to believe that we were ever there!