Thanksgiving 2013

We had the family over to our house for Thanksgiving.  Abby helped me with all of the cooking.  She is such a cutie and such a great helper :)  After we prepared the feast, the family came over and we ate yummy food and then relaxed and watched some good ol' Thanksgiving Day Football :)

Happy Birthday/Thanksgiving dessert to Austin!

Austin's 15th Birthday!

Austin is one of the lucky ones that shares his Birthday with Thanksgiving every so many years.  This has it's pros and cons to it, I'm sure he could elaborate more on that than I could but since this is my blog I guess we'll leave it at this.  One of the pros is that you are sure to be with family on your actual birthday, one of the cons is that your birthday is easily forgotten among the Holiday.  This year his birthday was shared with Thanksgiving, he said he enjoyed spending time with the family :)  (We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house).  He already got his MAJOR birthday present at the beginning of the month, Max.  He did get a few other things from us but most of all was excited to get his Colorado Hockey jersey that grandma gave him.

 

 

Silly Kid!

So hard to believe that I have a 15 year old!  The time goes so fast and then I wonder where all the years have gone.  This kiddo makes me so proud!  He is a great kid, gets good grades (for the most part, lol), loves to play sports, and has a tender heart.  I am one proud Mama!

Happy Birthday Kiddo!

Christmas 2012!

We had our first Christmas in our new home.  Nana and Grandma Marci (my Mom) stayed the night with us on Christmas Eve.  The kids didn't wake up to terribly early, which was nice since we were up late.  They were really excited to see what Santa had left for them and if they had been good.  "Og" our Elf was a big excitement for the kiddos this year.  This was the first year that they really understood the concept.  Every morning Sebastian would come running downstairs and start looking for Og right away and get so excited when he found him.  He and Abby would tell each other all month that Santa and Og were watching and they were going to be put on the naughty list if they weren't nice.  On Christmas Eve we had them tell Og goodbye and that they would see him next year.  We wanted to make sure that Sebastian wouldn't be heart broken Christmas morning when he couldn't find him.  It all worked out well and they realized they must have been good because they were filled with joy when they saw all of the gifts.  Santa left Gabe and Sebastian each a bicycle, he left Abby a power wheels car, and Austin got Chicago Bears bedding.  After looking at what Santa had left for them it was time to move on to family gifts.  It started out slow and organized and before we knew it it was complete chaos!  I don't even remember seeing them open up half of their presents.  It was crazy, they were zipping thru presents all at the same time while we were being left in the dust trying to get the toys out of packages.  We need to come up with a better system for sure!!!

Austin's favorite present......iPhone 5!!!

and Bam the unwrapping is done!

Austin set all of his stuff up on his bed for display.  He has done this since he was a little kid.  Unfortunately I didn't get to set up the little kids stuff, they were to quick to play with all of their toys bouncing back and fourth between all of them.

Winding down time while I prepare our yummy Christmas dinner.  I made my 2nd turkey dinner and it turned out fabulous!  Getting hungry just thinking about it.  

My Honey and me!

Christmas Eve at our house!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve!  Everyone came over to our house for dinner and our traditional White Elephant Gift Exchange.  What a hoot!  We had 22 people participate in the exchange and had some great laughs!

We found these cups and thought they would be great!  They were a hit!  Scott loved them and planned to use them at a company party.  :)

Of course we had to use the picture of Vinnie again in some way and this is what we came up with.  Last year Mia opened the framed picture and wasn't to pleased.  Noah traded her and was very excited about his gift and displayed it on his desk at home.  This year she opened the present that had this T-shirt in it with the same picture, again wasn't too pleased.  Noah did some finagling so he could take the shirt from her and she could open another one, it worked.  He was now excited to have the shirt to go with his framed picture of his Cousin Vinnie.  BUT now it was Erika's turn to open a present and she stole the shirt right away from Noah.  :(  so sad..

Abby somehow got an oversized toothbrush..

We had so much fun and laughed so hard.

After everyone left we gave the kiddo's their Christmas Eve presents which of course were pajamas and slippers.

The kids went to bed and Santa came and did his thing.

Merry Christmas!

4th Of July Fun!

We had a great family day for the 4th of July.   First we went to the West Jordan parade.  It was so hot and so bright, fortunately there was a Walgreens right behind us and we were able to run in and buy some umbrella's.

The kids had fun watching the motorcycles and low rider cars...

I love the way Abby is sitting back in her chair here...

This picture shows Sebastian's tough attitude perfectly!

After the parade was over we headed up to Snowbird Ski Resort for the day to do some fun summer activities.  We started out on the trampolines.  It was quite a long wait in line but the kids did pretty good being patient.

After that it was time to go play on the Alpine Slide...

Riding the chairlift to the top..

We took the kids on the Mountain Glider, Gabe was a little unsure at first as we flew through the sky backward to the top of the hill.  Once we reached the top and started flying down the hill, he loved it!

We then took a Peruvian chairlift to the top and walked around up there for a little bit.  Huge chairlift, long ride.  Daddyo rode with Sebastian on the way up while I rode with the other 3.  Then Gabe and Sebastian switched for the ride down.

Austin took Sebastian in the tunnel that goes through the mountain.  It was so chilly in there.

Can't believe how big my Austin is getting!  He is one good lookin' kid!

As we were leaving we noticed that we were driving by "Austin Pond" so of course we pulled over and I made the poor kid go stand by the pond so I could get a picture of Austin standing by Austin Pond.  He was very reluctant.  LOL!

Abby had so much fun today, she wore herself out!

Love my family!