My Loves

It's a good thing and a bad thing when you have so many great pictures from a photo shoot that you don't know which ones to put on your Christmas cards.  Luckily Chambers was pretty grumpy from having to be woken up from a nap that was too short so we could weed out a lot of the family pictures.  It is pure torture trying to get everyone ready and smiling for one family shot.  I even worry so much about what to have everyone wear.  We get a family shot every year about this time though and of course it's so worth it...when it's all over!

My talented sister Danielle took the photos and I have to say it has been great having a photographer in the family.  I never complain when she asks to use one of my kids to test out her skills, location, or a new lens.  She has such an eye for unique and fun photos.  She definitely go the artistic gene in our family.

These two oldest kids looked picture perfect in almost all their photos.

I am so blessed to be part of this family.  There have been too many days over the past few weeks that I haven't remembered that.  I have felt overwhelmed and inadequate.  I have questioned my purpose and role as a mother.  I have felt down with the sometimes monotony of my days and the value of my daily activities.  Maybe I just need to glance at these pictures a little more often to remind me that it's all that really matters. Or maybe I just need a long vacation!

This year has been good to us.  We are looking forward to more adventures this coming year for our family.  We hare hoping to SELL this house (which is another long depressing post), and move on to new things.  I would do the traditional cheesy Christmas letter, but I have a blog, so we can look back at the things we did all year.  And this is the most blogging I've done in one sitting, so I'm going to fold the laundry that's been sitting by my couch for 2 days.

Christmas Eve

I am on a blogging role.  I was feeling so behind with all my pictures and our activities, but today I'm changing that!  We headed over to my parents for Christmas Eve night.

I made sure we got a group shot.

Then we started decorating our gingerbread houses.  I actually had a lot of fun doing it with them.  Truman and Tacy pretty much did theirs by themselves and I helped Cardon.  They worked on them for over an hour before they started to get tired of it.  They looked so good my dad put them out for decorations, which is quite the honor among all his Christmas decorations.

After gingerbread houses, more family came and we had fajitas for dinner.  Not traditional, but it's what we like.  We went around and talked about some of our favorite Christmas memories and we were all laughing when Grandma Tacy told us about how when she was a young girl she remembers a friend of hers bringing a gift to her at her house and she didn't like it I guess, so she threw it back at  her.  I had never heard that story and I just can't picture my Grandma doing that!  It was probably the highlight of our Christmas stories.  How could anyone top that?

 After dinner we started passing out family gifts.  It might as well of been Christmas morning with all the stuff the kids got!  Last year I made Grandma and Grandpa a photo book with pictures of them.  I did the same thing this year with pictures of them throughout the last year.

The slippers the little boys got from our neighbor L'Deane was one of my favorite things they got.  Chambers especially loves his "melmo" slippers.

Captured this sweet shot of my grandparents cuddled up on the couch holding Itsy.  All my mom's 3 dogs love Grandma Tacy because she feeds them cookies.  And my mom gladly lets her because how could you not?  They get so excited to go to her house and she has really taken a liking to them.  She has never really liked taking care of a dog so this way she gets all the fun without the worry of taking care of the.  It works perfect.  They actually whine for her to pick them up and put them next to her or on her lap.

As you can see the kid were already in toy heaven and it wasn't even Christmas yet!  So much for me trying to keep in a simple Christmas!

We gave my sister Monique a frame that I put 16 pictures I had of her throughout the year that she could take to college and hang up.  You can't see the photos here but they are all of her doing something fun or goofy with my kiddos for the most part.  It's not often that I can think of a meaningful, homemade gift but I knew this would be a great idea for her.  I like it when I get the chance to be crafty.  Just wish I got to do it more often.  But I guess being a mom is a lot more important than having time to craft!

After my parents we headed home to get ready for Christmas morning.  Luckily Santa was a little prepared this year so most everything was wrapped and he didn't have to put a lot together so it went pretty quickly and we got some decent sleep.

Visits With Santa

The kids' first visit with Santa was at our war Christmas party.  Truman finally got old enough to be too nervous or cool to sit on his lap, but with a little persuasion from Grandma he got brave enough.  The little boys weren't feeling great so they ended up staying home with Jer for this one.

The next night the kids got to go over and decorate Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas tree.  They purposely left it for them to do and it turned out wonderful.  The kids had a lot of fun doing it and Grandma couldn't have been happier with how they did.  Grandpa hasn't been feeling great for the last few months and has had a number or procedures and has been in and out of the hospital and emergency room.  Luckily he seems to be doing better but has had a hard time getting his strength, energy, and old self back.  I know it has been so hard for him.  He feels a lot of responsibility to take care of Grandma and he feels as though he can't do as good of a job.  Besides the fact that he really can't see well anymore.  It's hard watching them get older and seeing him in pain and not doing his best.  They have always been so healthy we are hoping for  things to get back to normal soon!  But in the meantime we haven't minded helping them out a bit more.  I know they are appreciative and that makes it so worth it!

Our second visit with Santa was at our annual trip to Tuacahn to see the Live Nativity.  Truman was less hesitant this time and he looked like such a cute kid.

 My sweet Tacy telling Santa she wanted an "American Girl" doll.  Santa said he would do his best.

We are always unsure of how Cardon will do in these situations.  We tried to prep him with what to expect and what he should do.  And to our surprise he did great.  He wouldn't look at him for the first little bit, but they he warmed up.

There's his cute smile!

One family shot before saying goodbye.  I honestly can't believe we got a good shot of all the kids.  I was sure Chambers would scream.  He doesn't like anyone to hold him but me so we just planned on throwing him on Santa's lap and snapping a picture.  Kids sure can surprise you!  I could have sent this one out for Christmas cards.  Maybe next year I might actually spend a little money to get a professional shot.  But I'm sure no one would cooperate if I did that.

The weather was really decent and all the kids enjoyed the live Nativity as usual.  I think the 2 live camels are a crowd favorite for our family.  I would say it's one of the best things we do to get in the spirit of Christmas!

Treat Time

Um...apparently we made way too many treats over the holidays.  When I downloaded all my pictures I think like half of them were of us making some sort of treat!  We did give a fair amount away to family and neighbors.  

Truman and I started off by making some healthier cookies with just the two of us.  They didn't turn out great but it was fun doing it together.  He picked the recipe out of a kids cookbook we have.  I always have intention of doing more cooking stuff with the kids but it sure doesn't seem like it happens as much as I'd like.

Then we made peanut butter hershey kiss cookies.  It actually seems like it's getting to the point that the kids can actually be a help instead of just making it harder!  Well, except maybe for Cardon who always wants to help with everything!

Then we made the addicting pretzel treats that are so easy to pop in like 10 without even thinking.  These are easy and fun and we don't have to follow a recipe.  Just put a chocolate treat on a pretzel (I like rolos the best but you can also use hershey kisses, etc.), put them in the oven on the lowest setting for a few minutes.  The chocolate will almost get shiny and a little soft when they are ready.  Pull them out of the oven and put m&m's in the middle (you could also do some sort f nut).  Then just let them cool and harden for about 20 minutes.  Pretty easy!  In the above picture Cardon is trying to patiently wait for them to cool so he can eat one.

Probably the kids' favorite cookies to make are good old sugar cookies.  We made these Christmas Eve during the day to leave for Santa.  This is another cooking activity that used to be so stressful and hard for the kids to do, but they have gotten really good at it and the cookies turned out so cute.