Playing in the Snow

Blake and Tiffany invited us to go up to her grandparent's cabin for the weekend in Prescott and it was amazing! The cabin was huge and surrounded in snow, so we didnt even have to leave to play in the snow. The snow was kind of melted a little bit so it was very slick and fast sliding down the hills. The kids played all day on Saturday and then we watched movies around the fire in the family room and played games. It was a blast. Thank you so much Blake and Tiff for the invite! Even though Brian and I did find a DEAD BAT on the floor by our bed, it was a great weekend! Seriously, a DEAD BAT!

Dawson, Alaina and Colton hanging out!
Dawson didn't go inside until we forced him to come in and eat
Blake pushing Alaina, Colton and Dawson down the hills. The snow was so slippery that we just slid down on our butts! And yes, it was FAST...
Aislyn and Blake taking the hill

This is me taking a picture as I am sliding down the hill.

Daddy and Dawson

Aislyn was making me laugh so hard when she would go down the hill. I didnt think that her legs could go any wider! She kept them spread like that the whole time she would go down.

My handsome men still playing hard
Here is the unique snowman that Brian and the kids made. I'm not quite sure what is up with the hat, but we do what we can right?

Bryce and Emma came up on Saturday to play in the snow with us. Then after the kids went inside Blake and Bryce were trying every possible thing they could do to jump. Most of it is on video and it is hilarious. They used anything from boogie boards to riding down the hill on a metal snow shovel. Here are just a couple pictures of Bryce going down the hill.
Blake and Tiff brought the game Battleship and we were trading partners playing the game. When Blake was playing Bryce, I was sitting next to him and mouthing to Blake where his ships were. He had no idea how Blake kept sinking all of his ships. Then when I was playing Bryce, Blake was doing everything he could to tell me where his ships were. We tried several things and then finally succeeded when he decided to just text me the starts of all his ships. He had absolutely no idea, until Blake took this picture from the balcony above Bryce and the flash gave us away. It was so hilarious! Bryce refused to play Battleship with us again. I cant blame him.

Christmas at Mom and Dads

We are so lucky every year because we get three days of Christmas. We usually celebrate Christmas Eve with Brian's family, this year we did it on a different night. Christmas day we have to ourselves, which I LOVE! I get to stay at home in my pajamas and spend Christmas with just us. Then the day after Christmas we head out to my parents house for another day of opening presents and eating tons of food. We usually do a name draw gift exchange amongst the siblings, but this year we all bought desirable gifts around $20 and did a white elephant gift exchange. Well, you can probably guess how that went with my 6 competitive brothers. I had to put a stop to going around a second time because the stealing gifts would have definitely started a brawl! :-)

My mom has started a cute tradition with the grand kids, she chooses a spiritual Christmas story and reads it to the kids. They are amazingly very reverent and interested in the story even though as soon as she is done they get to open presents.

The chaos we call Christmas!

Christmas Morning!

We had such a beautiful Christmas this year. Even with money tight and feeling that I wish I could have done more, I felt so blessed to have the Christmas that we did. My kids are so sweet and were thrilled to see the things that Santa brought. The girls got a new dollhouse and Dawson got his very own Big Boy Race Car Bed! He loves it! Every Christmas after opening presents I make a huge breakfast and then we just kick back and enjoy being together. It was a perfect Christmas morning and in the evening we went to the Johnsons house and played Rock Band until 11:00 at night. It was a blast!

Opening up their stockings

Dawson got his favorite movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"

Aislyn with their new doll house

Alaina busy at work with their new chalkboard

Their favorite gift of course was the press on nails that all of us girls got. We put them on together and decorated them with polish and sequins. Here are the hand models...

Dawson's big boy bed!

Dawson absolutely LOVED his race car bed. I just wanted to share this picture of him on his first night out of the crib. Whenever they reach these milestones in their lives I go through a lot of emotions. I am excited for him, but it just makes me so sad to see him growing up so fast. There is always new and exciting things to look forward to, but it is sad to see the cute baby stuff fade away as they get older. Soon we will be potty training! Of course he had to snuggle with the biggest truck he could find! The truck was so kindly donated to him that day by his cousin Jace J. Thanks Jace, he loves it!

Christmas Gift for my parents

With money being tight this year I decided to try and make gifts for my parents. My friend Sheri made some plates for a relief society activity and they turned out really cute so she showed me how to make them. I went out to my parents house and stole all of the photo albums to pick out my pictures. Then you photocopy the pictures that you want to use and modge podge them onto the back of clear glass plates. They turn out really cute and I had a lot of fun doing them. I made one of my parents when they were young before any kids and then one plate for each child. My favorite was the one of them.

My oldest brother Jason

Jeremy
Justin
Me :-)
Blake
Bryce
Beau
Bria

Our Christmas Eve at the Zoo

This year for Christmas I asked Santa for a season pass to the Wildlife World Zoo and because the prices were going to be going up considerably, Santa got me my present a little early this year. There is a new Aquarium that they built on to the zoo, so last Saturday the prices went up about $40 per pass. I got them just before the price increase!! So, on Christmas Eve we decided to load up the kids and head to the zoo. It was empty, which was great of course! We were there less than 2 hours and got to see the entire aquarium and even a few parts of the zoo. It was a lot of fun and I am so excited to be able to take the kids anytime I want to go see the animals and play at the kids play area. There is a new ride that they built as well. It is some kind of a water log ride that goes inside the aquarium through the reef tank and then back outside. They also have a train ride, a sky ride and a boat ride! My kids are very excited about going back. In the aquarium they have a big pool that is open to put your hands inside and touch the sting rays. I know what you're thinking, "isn't that how the crocodile hunter was killed?" They assured us that these were sweet and very safe. So, here are a few pictures of us touching the sting rays.

You can buy some shrimp and put your hand up to the wall for them to come eat it off of your finger. Kind of creepy but very cool.
They are expecting to get 30 more sting rays in by the end of the week.
Dawson wanted NOTHING to do with them!
And of course Brian was in HEAVEN!
Aislyn and I were being very brave. They were very soft and seemed slimy but didnt leave anything on your hands.

Alaina was brave enough to do it all on her own.

Then of course Dawson had to stop to take a rest. Good thing it was as dead as it was.

This is where all the sharks are and the other big fish.

The famous White Albino Alligator.

What has two thumbs, a big smile, and loves alligators? THIS GUY!

I dont really know what to say about this picture :-)

Some kind of creepy turtle that has a long neck like a snake or something. This picture is for you Ginger! I know how much you love creepy turtles :-)

Aislyn thought this was a perfect place to take a picture. So we did!

The peacock was running loose all around us. They have a Barbie movie that has a peacock in it names Azul, so they kept screaming at the bird, "Come back here Azul!"

And that was our fun trip to the zoo. They wanted to feed the Giraffes but it was too late and cold out for them, so good thing we are going back ;-)