A few of my favorite Christmas pix

I wanted to post a couple of my favorite pictures of Christmas day...

We finished a puzzle.

Hailey practicing on her sewing machine from Santa. She's already made a couple of projects and is ready to make a quilt (her mother isn't quite ready to embark on that project).

Favorite toy EVER. Santa brought Alyssa an Elmo and she is in love. She dances with him, and just laughs every time she plays with him. Thank you Santa!

The kids draw names and Hailey had Carter this year. He hasn't stopped playing Madden since yesterday. I can only tolerate this kind of playing at Christmas.

What a ham. My parents, who are serving a mission in Canada, sent us each a Canada shirt. We love them and wore them all day yesterday. I'll have to wash them all and get a group shot.

Grant got gifts for Hailey.

Andrew drew Alyssa's name. She LOVES the playdough.

What a wonderful day.

Is there anything more painful than family pictures??

I seriously hate taking family pictures. Someone is usually grumpy (usually multiple someones) and there is always the weird expression, blink, nose pick, etc. It is PAINFUL. However, I like seeing a current picture in our house, so we tried once again. Nothing turned out great, but it was kind of funny trying.

This was the closest we got.

Then we tried for individual pictures of the kids. They were totally goofy...

Is there ANYTHING natural about this pose of Andrew's???

At least we're having fun...

Hailey's "tights" are actually women's knee highs and she complained about them the ENTIRE time that she had them on. I hope that they are never seen again.

I feel exactly the same way as Grant.

I'm glad that I saved this one for last. She was pretty amiable to getting her picture taken. Thank goodness for the 2 year old! :)

I don't think I am ever going to try this again.

Worms, and Grasshoppers, and Frogs...oh my!

Andrew is my science kid. He loves it. For his birthday, my parents (with my suggestion), got him a dissection kit. He was a little freaked out at first, but then he dove right in and started with the hardest animal-the frog. He did all of the cutting himself while Hailey and Grant looked on. He thought it was so interesting and was so excited to show Adam (Cory's husband). Adam wasn't quite as thrilled and had to wait "until his food settled" before looking. :)

They all look a little weird here, but they all had a blast watching.

Gingerbread houses

We have an advent calendar with a different Christmas activity for each day of December. For our Christmas craft, we decided to make gingerbread houses/trains. Luckily for me, Cory was here to help. In fact, I got them started and then headed out to a meeting while Cory finished the job. She may never return to our house. The kids inhaled the candy and she had 4 very sugared up children.

Carter was the last to complete his and used up every last bit of frosting and candy.

My little crafter.

Grant's train that he did totally solo.

My sweet sister helping Andrew.

Baby Lily visits

My sister, Cory, came out unexpectedly with her daughter Lily and husband Adam. They only got to stay a few days, but it was so fun to see them. Each of my children was enamored with Lily and we're still trying to cope with their absence. Alyssa, in particular, was thrilled with her new baby-she moves, eats, smiles, and needs to be changed. A perfect toy! Lily was so patient.

Arizona or Bust!

We headed out on Saturday for Arizona. Unfortunately, our lovely airline, Frontier, failed to notify us that our 3:40 pm flight had been changed to 6 am. We missed our flight, without even realizing it. We had quite a day taking to customer service for 2 hours, taking a cab to a different airport, getting kicked off another flight b/c it was oversold and then finally getting out 4 hours after our original flight left. We didn't get in until 2 am Chicago time. The children were SO patient-I couldn't believe it. This is the second time Frontier has messed up our plans and our last time booking with them.

During our last hour of waiting-we played by the giant TRex in O'Hare airport for over an hour.

The boys checking to see if any flights were open or if we could possibly leave that night.

FINALLY here! Diana, Andrew and Eric spend some wonderful time together.

The annual pie making party. Chris' mom traditionally makes between 15-20 pies. This year it was 19 and we had fun talking while we baked and the kids played.

Aunt Jessica-everyone loves her. Alyssa and Joseph.

Andrew and Timmy at the Mesa Temple lights.

Most of the adults at the temple.

"The Fam"

The girls were particularly impressed with the cacti. We got out during a drive to Tonto Natural Bridge to check them out. It takes the suguaro cactus 50-75 years before it will start growing an arm and they only grow in Arizona and a small area in California.

At the Tonto Natural Bridge. Beautiful! We got to hike around and enjoy the beautiful cave that was carved out from the river. Above Grant, you can see the water falling down from a small waterfall. Poor Grant fell into the river and said, "Why did they have to put water in here???"

All the cousins hiking down to the Bridge.

We had reunion shirts made. The theme was "Let your light so shine" and Emily had shirts made with the Tangled sun with our names written across the front. On the last day, we let the Chinese lanterns go into the sky, like in the movie.

Our last night. Grant and Timmy were outside for hours playing soccer together. What a wonderful time we had with family!

Thanksgiving

We were so lucky to be able to spend Thanksgiving with Chris' family in Arizona this year. It took some doing to get there, but once we were there, we had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful, the children had a FABULOUS time with their cousins, and the adults actually got to talk. Win-win.

Alyssa eating her Thanksgiving feast.

Alyssa and Joseph playing Uncle Ben's piano.

Aunt Janene was in charge of crafts for all of the children. They got to make turkey luminaries and pine cone turkeys.

These 4 were inseparable during the reunion: Carter, Eric, Diana, and Andrew. We rented a bounce house and it was constantly being used from the minute it was put up on Wednesday until they took it on Friday. Worth every penny.

The small cousins table. Oddly, the rest of us sat at folding tables and somehow they scored the real table. Go figure. (Eric, Thomas, Diana, Hailey, Ella, Caleb, Christian, Aaron, and Grant).

Alyssa

Alyssa is definitely two-she is so independent and I hear "self!" all the time. But, I also see such a sweet and loving child that it just warms my heart. I love to hear her talk, watch her try new things on her own and light up whenever she is around other people. Whenever we are at the store, she always tells people, "go ahead" and smiles at them. She is a joy to have around.

In her outfit from Stacy

Feeding her new baby-she is VERY maternal

She wanted to get dressed for the cold just like her siblings

Holy Candy, Batman!

Having extra incentive this year with the buy back program, Carter left early to go trick or treating with his friend. The spent 2 1/2 hours and he managed to get about 16 pounds of candy. He sold back every piece except for the 6 full sized bars. Knowing how much this kid loves candy, I am still in shock that he sold it all back! (Did I mention that all of the money he is earning is going towards buying our family a couch that he really wants)??

Trunk or Treat

Last night we had trunk or treat at the church. It is amazing how much candy they can accumulate in 15 minutes! Chris has figured out a buy back program. With Carter's help, they have done some market research and found the average price per pound of candy (this is over multiple stores and multiple kinds of candy). Carter is going to sell us his 4 pounds of candy. I guess it's worth it to avoid the cavities that will inevitably surface later. I am also glad that I spent under $10 for all 5 children for their costumes this year.

Alyssa as Raggedy Ann.

Hailey as a very tired baby.

Andrew the gnome.

Carter the rapper/gangster. Easy costume.

Grant as Mario