Christmas Eve

We all gathered at Jon & Misty's house for our annual dinner and festival of togetherness.

Here we are, being together. 

Doesn't Bill look jolly?  He always pretends not to like Christmas, but he can't fool me.  He's like a little elf!

Here you go Mom, the traditional forced photo.  Merry Christmas!

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After much anticipation and begging from the adults it was finally time for The Family White Elephant Gift Exchange.  Which everyone knows is the best part of Christmas.

Jon stole this squeeky frog twice from a small child! (I heard there was coal in his stocking the next morning)

Can you see how excited Berlin is to see that the "Not a leglamp" vase made a return this year?  I'm pretty sure I heard her say she was going to redecorate her bedroom around it.  She seems to get the best gift every year!

Ella is pretty happy with her gift.

I think we can all agree that Brandon was the big winner of the evening,

making Misty the big loser.

Here's Jackson with his Yoyo ball, he's very serious about his yoyo skills.

  Eli was lucky enough to leave with the present he brought.  Don't all little boys dream of a big bucket of cheese balls they can call their own?

You aren't going to believe me, but Wesley really loved getting that Papa Smurf, he just REALLY hates having his picture taken.

When we got home it was time for Eli to don his traditional holiday sweatshirt and hit the sack.(It looks like it was also time for Nate to pull out his trademark pose, I think it's time to ban the viewing of Zoolander around here for a while.)

Edge and Wesley always let Ivy sleep in their room on Christmas Eve.  This is the bed she made on the floor and surrounded with pillows, apparently she was afraid she would fall off. 

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Finally, after much stalling (and a few threats) it was off to sleep.......

Merry Birthday Jessica!

We hope your day is super great!!

What's up?

This time of year is super busy so I'm going to try to post once a week, mostly so I don't forget anything.

We'll see how that goes.

A couple of weeks ago Edge went to Winter Formal.
He looks pretty happy about it, doesn't he? 

Last week Ivy had her first orchestra concert.  It was the best live performance of Hot Cross Buns I've ever been to.

On Saturday Ella & Ivy helped me get the tree up.

(For the record, Ivy picks her own clothes and she's available for fashion consultations, her fee is very reasonable.)

Over the weekend Sylvan, Edge, and Wesley went to Globe.  They went to several antique stores where Wesley scored 5 Zippo lighters for $1.00 each, much to my delight.  And they saw this, which is someone's PET that has been preserved very nicely.  I think it's very natural looking.

Happy Birthday!!

Today the lovely Mariah turns 13.

If she wishes to remain on my list of favorite nieces she will stop all of this having birthdays business.

When will these kids learn? When they get older, so do I.

Enough already!

Happy Birthday Mariah!

We love you!!

Thanksgiving in Utah~part 3

On our last day in Utah we all gathered together to take some family pictures.  I don't think there's anything more fun, do you?

Here are Grandma and Grandpa surrounded by all of their grandchildren.

Afterwards the O'Barrs were kind enough to have everyone back to their house again so we could all hang out one last time before we headed home.

The girls posing for one last picture

I'm pretty sure Ryan would have been happy if the party had ended just a bit sooner.

On the way back to Mesa (most of us) were thrilled to see that it had snowed over night. 

It was actually beautiful and not something we see very often.

Thanks O'Barrs, Rogers, and Utah Lunts. 

We had a great time!!

Thanksgiving in Utah~part 2

One highlight of our trip was that there was SNOW on the ground when we arrived in Utah.

Not much, mind you, but enough for our kids to have fun without needing parkas.

Here is Wesley half-way finished making the biggest snowball EVER.

As you can see, the conditions were not exactly arctic.  I have NO idea where Eli thinks he's going with that sled.

Oh, here we go. 

What you are seeing is a man kidmade "hill" which when given the proper push will propel you right into the street.  Genius!!

These are Wesley's shoes.  I'm not sure if this act of revenge was from the target of his giant snowball, or from a brother whose shoes Wesley had filled with snow the night before.

While the boys were outside getting all frostbitten and whatnot, the girls were inside being.....girls.

Sylvan decided that he would teach his mom how to send a text from her cellular device. 

Because everyone knows that in the future we will all B TXTING R GMAS.

Thanksgiving in Utah~part 1

Last week we loaded up our mittens and drove to Utah to spend Thanksgiving with the Lunt side of the family.

A fabulous meal was prepared and we all gathered 'round to be thankful.

Thanks to Uncle Eric all of the little boys were starving after their pre-dinner smack down.

He really goes the extra mile.

Here are Grandma and sweet little Ruby.

Look, here's a nice shot of me stuffing my face.

Eli searched for weeks to come up with just the right outfit for the occasion.

Did I mention there was pie? This is only about half of them.  I think the ratio ended up being 1 1/4 pie per person. Not quite enough, but we mananged.

Grandma and Grandpa just before Grandpa whipped out his calculator and figured out my BMI. 

At least he waited until after dinner.

Part 2 tomorrow. 

But before I go I have to tell you about the mints that Ember made--with her OWN TWO HANDS!!! You know those super yummy wedding melty butter mints?  She MADE some, and they were soooo good.

 

I may have eaten more than my share.