Snow Days

We spent a couple days playing in the snow over the break. One of the days we went sledding, and my brother took the kids on little rides on the snowmobile. Kalun was able to go on a snowmobile adventure with my dad and two of my brothers, he had a lot of fun. I kept telling him he was lucky I am pregnant or I would have gone and made him stay home.

Christmas 2009

We had a lot of fun this Christmas. It was so nice to have our family all back together. Having Kyli back in our home is an amazing blessing that we are very grateful for. We spent Christmas eve gonig to see the Chipmunk Squeakquel which we all loved! Then we went to my mom's for the annual huge dinner and nativity with all my mom's side of the family. The kids all got to open their new PJ's that night. Christmas morning was lot's of fun. The kids all slept in. We thought that maybe Kyli would wake up early, but no one did. I had been waking up off and on all night I was so excited, I started to get so antsy when the kids weren't getting up. Finally at 8 we went and woke the kids up because we had invited a family in our ward over for Christmas breakfast at 9:30 and I wanted time to open all the presents. Needless to say we barely got them open and had started to clean up a little when the other family arrived. So breakfast was a little late and crazy, but it was still fun. We tried really hard this season to open our home to families that we prayed about and felt needed a little extra cheer this season. We ended up having quite a few different people over during the break. It was really fun to get to know these families better. I felt very very blessed this holiday season!!!

Santa

My good friend Vennessa just happens to know Santa, so we were able to have him come to her house for just our two families. It was really cute, Haylie wasn't quite sure about him, I had to kneel right by her the whole time and she always kept her hand on me. Santa grilled Kyli, it was pretty funny. He told her to study hard and to make sure she did her chores without being asked. Tate has really started to get into it this year so that's been really fun. He got to meet Mrs. Claus even at his speech class and thought that was cool. Santa even made Kalun and I sit on his lap, I thought we were going to break poor Santa.

Christmas Cookies

Every year for the last few years we have a cookie decorating party. It usually involves our good friends and their kids. This year we also invited another neighborhood family. Tate and Haylie were really into it this year. I think Haylie used an entire thing of sprinkles on one cookie.

Prego's

This is not a flattering picture but this is me and my sister in law Camie.

Our Many Nativities

We had many family and friend parties over the holidays. The kids had the opportunity to do many nativity scenes. Haylie never ended up keeping her costume on long enough to get a good picture, she wasn't a big fan of the whole thing. Tate was usually a wise man or shepherd. Kyli was an angel and part of the livestock. Haylie was always supposed to be an angel.

The Sealing

My brother and adorable sister in law were blessed to be able to adopt a while ago and were finally able to have their daughter sealed to them. It was such an amazing experience. I had never been to the sealing of a child. It was so touching to be a part of. It was a very spiritual experience for me.

Carving Pumpkins

Carving pumpkins is always an adventure. It takes a lot of time to carve 5 pumpkins. But it's always worth it after when the kids get so excited as we light up the pumpkins for the first time.

Cornbelly's

On Kyli's actual birthday we decided to go to Cornbelly's as a family. We had so much fun. It's just so nice to have us all together and be able to spend time like that as a family.

Kyli is 12!!!

I cannot believe that our little Kyli is 12. I went home to meet Kalun's family for the first time the day she came home from the hospital. She is so cute and we are sooooo soooo soooo grateful to have her be a part of our family again. We decided that this birthday needed to be a big one. It started the Saturday before her b-day. We had a party with her friends. We had planned on going to Cornbelly's, however it decided to rain and hail. So as the girls were arriving we were desperately trying to come up with a plan B. Luckily we hurried and booked a party at classic skating in Sandy. It ended up being so much fun, I'm glad it was raining and Cornbelly's didn't work out.

We ended up booking the Karoake room which was a huge hit. It was fun to watch them get up and sing. My favorite though was Haylie. She loved the stage. All the kids went to play laser tag and I stayed in the room with Haylie. She just repeatedly kept singing the happy birthday song to Kyli except that Kyli wasn't in the room. It was so adorable. Tate and Haylie love Kyli so much. It's adorable to see how much especially Haylie has grown to love Kyli, because she didn't really know her.

Then on Sunday we had a special birthday dinner at Grandma's. Then Mondeay (her actual birthday) we got up early and made her favorite breakfast, took treats to her class, and went to dinner, and then went to Cornbelly's.