Happy New Year!

December 31, 2012

Jenny and Keith threw a fun New Years Eve party...lots of great friends, fun games and of course good food.  It was great to bring in the New Year with people that we love.  I think we counted that there were over 20 kids there...they had a blast playing and staying up until midnight...everyone was up until midnight except for Ivy.  I was amazed the kids all made it and there were no major melt downs!  (I say no melt downs that night...as for the rest of the week, I have to say we had to pay for Emery not getting enough sleep over the holidays.  She was a complete disaster.  I am pretty sure no amount of fun is worth dealing with her!).  

Emery and Kennedi had a fabulous time doing their two favorite things-dressing up and dancing.  The boys were playing Skylanders and torturing the girls with Nerf guns most of the night.

Eva can not get enough of Ivy.  She always want to help with her, play with her and even begs to change her diaper.  Now that is true love. 

I actually don't think this picture is from New Years Eve...but we played Sequence a ton over the holidays.  I think that is one of my favorite parts of Christmas Break-getting together and just hanging out and playing games.

Uncle Keith gave Ivy her first cookie.  Safe to say she liked it.

Not a great picture, but all these kids made it to midnight and made a really loud ruckus to bring in 2013. 

On New Years day we went with Jenny, Keith and Charlene (Jenny's Mom) to see Les Miserables.  I had been dying to see it and it was amazing.  John babysat for us while we went to the movie and by some miracle got Ivy to fall asleep in his arms.  I can't even get her to do that.  He is the best babysitter ever!

First Snow!

December 29, 2012

We finally had some snow and there was some serious excitement around here.  I was just happy it was a Saturday and Steve was home so I didn't have to go out...that is is a 'Dad job', I am pretty sure!  Since it doesn't snow very often we don't have real snow gear so their outfits are pretty sketchy, but they had a great time building a snowman and making some snow angels.  

Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2012

We had such an amazing Christmas Day.  Our kids are at such fun ages and it really was magical!  Here are way too many pictures...

I loved this reaction!  Such excitement!

Ivy didn't really get the concept of opening presents but loved being a part of everything.

Davis' wish list was skylanders, bey blades, legos, legos and more legos.  Santa really came through for him.

Emery wanted stuff for her babies and she is now well outfitted.  She has been so cute being a little mommy.

The best presents by far! We (most of us) love BYU!

The aftermath

Our traditional Christmas breakfast

Love this picture! 

We stayed in our pajamas most of the day and had a great time just relaxing and playing with the kids loot.  I loved every second of it.  We went to dinner at the Madsens and played games that night to finish off a perfect day. 

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2012

I love Christmas Eve!  We had such a fun day.

As per tradition, we went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then to a movie (Monsters Inc.) to celebrate cousin Josh's birthday. 

We had Christmas Eve dinner at the Larsen's and as usual, Jenny had an amazing meal.  Of course I didn't get a picture of any adults...but we were there, I promise!

My mom made the kids a puppet nativity set so we decided to try it out for our nativity on Christmas Eve.  It ended up being hilarious...we learned that you should not let 8 kids sit together behind a couch and expect them to be quiet and reverent.  They were rolling around on each other and riling each other up and being anything but reverent.  Not sure that was what we were going for, but it was definitely memorable!

Davis' note to Santa...told him everyone in the family had been good except for Emery.  To his credit, I had just caught her licking Santa's cookies. 

I got a picture after Santa had come.  So excited for the kids to get up!

All dressed up

December 23, 2012

We were late to church because I had to get some pictures of the kids in their Christmas clothes before they had a chance to get all messy!  They looked SO CUTE!!

 

I think Ivy looks so beautiful in the picture.  What a doll. 

Kindergarten Christmas Party

December 21, 2012

I got to go help with Davis' kindergarten class Christmas party.  It was fun to see him in his class with all his friends as well as get to know his teachers and some of the other parents better.  

Ivy update

December, 2012

Ivy is growing so quickly, I can't believe it.  Her first birthday is right around the corner.  Crazy!  She is still the sweetest girl..she is starting to get an opinion and has started getting into everything!!!  I am pretty sure she couldn't be any cuter...here are some instagrams to prove it!

We finally had to lower her mattress since she started pulling herself up to standing (I think this was in November sometime)

The week of Thanksgiving I starved her into submission and she finally starting taking a bottle.  I had to cut her off cold turkey from nursing and it was a good 4-5 days before she ate consistently.  It was ugly, but we made it and life is much happier for everyone now!  That same week she finally got her first 2 bottom teeth (of course it was the same week!) and got a black eye courtesy of some rough housing siblings.  Poor thing.  Glad she made it through such a rough week. 

Fuzzy phone pictures, but such a happy girl! 

Found some chocolate on the floor, thanks to her sister.  I think she liked it. 

Love those eyes!  She still scavenges the floor for leftovers. 

Incident #1 of becoming very interested in the bathroom.  There was toilet paper all the way down the hall and in the kitchen...and in her mouth.  And yes, she got it out of the garbage.  So gross.  I love how innocent she looks in this picture!

Bathroom incident #2.  Having a grand old time playing in the toilet.  (Emery had put her hood on her head).  Her latest thing is put things in the toilet.  I have found legos, garbage, hair bows, etc.

Davis turns 6!

December 15, 2012

There was some serious anticipation for this 6th birthday!  I hope his day lived up to his hopes and dreams!  We had a great time celebrating this big, 6 year old boy.

We went to our ward Christmas Party that morning and then Josh came home with us and spent the day with us.  We had a really fun time bowling...

Davis chose Red Robin for his birthday dinner.  We had a great time there with the other Larsens.

Davis wanted a Mario cake...this was a hard one for me!  I kind of copped out with the Mario figures, but he was happy so it was all good. 

 

His big present was this Lego table (thank you to my friend Michelle Steel for the idea) that we built from Ikea shelving.  A place to store all those legos and a place to build them.  He has spent a lot of hours at this table since his birthday.