Christmas Eve

I took less photos this year as I was sick a good portion of the holiday vacation, but I will share some of what I have! Here is the traditional photo from Christmas Eve when the kids opened their 'elf' presents and this year everyone got new pajama pants! The boys are Star Wars and Kaylie's is monkeys. The kids really didn't need more Jammie shirts this year. Kaylie is wearing a t-shirt from when I was on the Jr. High basketball team and Cam is wearing one of Scott's old Water Polo shirts. (Yes we were going through keepsake boxes a few months back.)

Kaylie has been taking a sewing class and she made this fabulous--and very cozy--blanket in her class. She finished it right before Christmas and has been enjoying it immensely!

We acted out the Christmas Story with the children and my parents.

Here are the children acting it out!

We sang Christmas Carols, read the Christmas story, watched the Nativity story and enjoyed some hot chocolate together...a great evening!

GingerBread Houses

This year some friends in the ward gave us some gingerbread houss they had baked and built! They were all ready to be decorated and they even donated the frosting bags and candy too! I surely didn't have energy for such an occasion this holiday season so I was thrilled when they offered these houses to our family.The kids sure loved to decorate them...we made it a family night activity. Kaylie's house...

Dallyn was super proud of his creation...and yes he and Kyler insisted on wearing their Jazz Jerseys to bed even though I thought it was super cold outside!!

Cam's house...complete with a roofer on top...as our neighbor fixed our roof for us after the crazy storm we had here in December!!

Kyler's House...

This year we did a different treat for our neighbors...instead of homemade goodies we "Whisked" our friends a Merry Kiss-miss and a "Happy Root Beer" when we caroled. We put together these whisks full of 'kisses' and then handed everyone a rootbeer as it coordinated with the song. Yes, we thought it was pretty clever although we didn't come up with the idea!

Our family getting ready to go caroling. No snow this Christmas but boy was it COLD!!!

Hard Chemo Days

Well I haven't posted on here in awhile because I have been in bed with chemo side effects for several days. I am doing better today and hoping that I am on the upswing from this round of chemo. I have to take the good with the bad and although the bad days are no fun I am so grateful for the good days that I am blessed with!!

Other Fun Photos..

Kaylie and I enjoyed attending Time Out for Women and girls with my sister on Friday night and Saturday. Kaylie had a great time at Time Out for Girls! It was a wonderful opportunity to be uplifted and rejuvenated!

Cameron has been swimming on team for a year now and we decided it was time to bite the bullet and get him a Speedo swimming backpack. He has been using a mesh bag that has a hard time fitting all his gear in it. Most of the kids on his team have Speedo packs and they are really nice. Cameron's pack is just huge though....its bigger than him almost but he is so excited about it!!

Another highlight of the week was having the Wangsgard family visit with us for a few hours. It's never long enough but we sure love seeing them when they come to town.

Here's the kids all together again. Cam and Brad are now braces buddies. We are so grateful for our great friends!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was great to be healthy enough to host Thanksgiving at my house again this year. We had a wonderful meal and enjoyed time with each other. My brother Jason and his wife were out of town, but otherwise the rest of my family was together, even my parents came out from Utah and it was great! Here are some of our group photos...

We celebrated Austin's birthday and he got a great new pair of dress shoes which he was in desperate need of...holes letting water in his old shoes!

Mom's brother Mel and his family came by to visit..it was great to chat with them for a bit too.

Kyler enjoying the Turkey headband! =)

Thanksgiving

I just had a get a photo with my sweet Hayley girl on Thanksgiving.

She had just given me a snuggle love right before we snapped this photo! It was so precious!

I had fun reading books with Abby girl too!

The cousins played together and had a great time...including lots of fun with puzzles.

Grandma spending time with the grandkids too!

Happy Birthday Hayley and Austin

Hayley and Austin's birthdays are a day apart and Hayley turned one on Thanksgiving this year so we had to celebrate with a cake in addition to the holiday pies. Hayley loves Spot so Amy put Spot on her cake..well it was really Austin's cake..this is his favorite dessert from Costco! Yummy!

Here Hayley is opening her peek a boo card from Grandma and Grandpa, she was just loving that card!

She got some darling clothes!!

Here she is playing peek a boo with the card! So very fun to see how much she has grown! I can't believe she is one already! Seems like just yesterday we were visiting her at the hospital!

I gave her spot books, as you can see she may be more interested in ripping the tissue! =)

Ok, well maybe I am interested in the flaps in this book after all Auntie!

Abby is really excited about the "Spot" dog from Auntie....what does Hayley think of it?

It's ok, but this tissue is really a lot more fun!! =) Happy Birthday to my precious niece!