New Years Day!

New Years Day the fun just continued! We spent the whole morning playing with Grandpa and Grandma Blake. Then at lunch time we headed over to see more cousins at the Johnson's. The kids sledded in the backyard, played to their hearts content. i got a much needed nap in and we all just plain old relaxed. Then we all ate dinner at Big J's

Matt and Grandpa

Matt would play with Grandpa all day if he could here they did puzzles and then they found all the things that matched the puzzles. Matt came to and said mom i need a picture!

Matt

Look its Ralphie off of the Christmas story. all you need to do is add a huge scarf
and maybe an extra coat!

Sam, Melanie, and Kaitlyn

Hayley and Matt!

Melanie was our die hard who came in soaking wet and cold!

Kaitlyn

Wouldn't it be fun to have a sledding hill right in your backyard. I guess having cousins that do is next best. All in all we had a really fun relaxing New Years Day!

New Years Eve!

New Years Eve is always a party at our house. We get to celebrate the new year along with Kaitlyn's birthday. This year we had a bunch of my family come up and celebrate with us. We had a lot of fun. The best part of the whole day was that Dad took half the day off so we got to see him a lot more. Good food, yummy cake, fun people, pinatas and a ton of Rock Band. Turned into such a great New Years Eve!

Melanie, Kaitlyn and Matt

Opening her presents! She was so excited to finally get her DS.

Birthday Cake!

We did the pinata again, but this time we hit it!

Grandpa finished it off all while the kids were chanting "Break it, Break it, Break it!"

All of the kids that could come up!

Melanie dancing

Matt dancing!

Kaitlyn

Matt starting to get tired on one of his favorite people, Grandpa. He did not last til midnight that is for sure!

Rock Band was played all night long and was a big hit. oh how we love ourselves some good old Rock Band. Kaitlyn loves to sing!

Melanie loves the drums!

Sisters!

Oh how I love some good old blow horns! And so do the kids! We rung in the new year at with all the New York people at 10:00, in hopes to get the kids to bed, but Matt was the only one that didn't make it till midnight.

Happy New Year!

Kaitlyn's 7th Birthday Party!

Kaitlyn had her 7th birthday this year. She was very adamant on having a friend party this year. I have always talked her out of or bribed her out of a friend party. Having your birthday on New Years Eve is not the easiest day to have a party. Most people are out of town or have family plans. Well there was no bribe good enough this year so we started to plan it. She was very specific in what she wanted to do. She wanted a High School Musical, Pajama Party, Late Over. so we planned a party to be on the 29th in hopes that is would work out better. And wow did we have a turn out. All she wanted to do was Make bracelet's and necklaces, eat pizza, have cake and presents, and watch High School Musical on the big screen. And that is exactly what we did! The highlight of the whole party was after though. She was so excited to find out that her cousin Makayla was actually going to sleep over. And man did they have fun!!

Kaitlyn all ready for the party to begin.

The cake!

The pinata!

Watching High School Musical on the "Big Screen"

Ice Skating!

Ed rents out an Ice skating rink every 26th of December. We have never been able to make it to Ed's skating party until this year. It was so much fun that I think we might make a bigger effort in years to come. The kids were very scared to start out with, but came around and didn't want to leave when it was time to go. Great Food, Great Company and Great Fun = One Great time!

Will and Melanie laced up ready to go!

Matt waiting his turn!

Kaitlyn trying to be brave and try it one more time.

Ed and Matt

Ed was kind enough to try and help us out with Matt and towards the end just picked him up and gave up. Matt needs much, much more practice!

Wendy, Melanie and Brad

Kristi, Kaitlyn, and Jenelle

Temple Square!

We had a lot of fun going to Temple Square with Greg and Jenelle and their family on Christmas Night. It was Freezing cold, but I think we all still had a lot of fun. The kids loved all the different Nativity and absolutely loved the glowing candles in the reflection pond. Most of all they just loved being with their cousins.

Matt, Brad, Kaitlyn, Kristi, Melanie

The Family in front of the Temple.
Matt, Brad, Melanie, Kristi, Kaitlyn

Julia, Kaitlyn and Melanie in front of the reflection pond.

Will, Melanie, Julia, Kaitlyn and Matt

I think we were all so cold at this point everyone was ready to head back to Grandmas for some nice Hot Chocolate.

Christmas Morning!

We had a great Christmas! It all started at 5:20 that morning. We told the kids they couldn't come get us unless it was after 5 and sure enough 5:20 is after 5 we should have said 6. I was startled awake by our sweet Kaitlyn saying with the biggest smile on her face mom it is after 5 I think Santa came. So I asked her if she wanted to climb in bed with me. She replied with a very assertive NO! so we woke up and continued to wake everyone up. First Dad, who after a few grumbles climbed out of bed, then Melanie, who jumped out not sure really what was going on, and Finally Matt who just was not going to wake up, he kept rolling back in bed and swatting his hands at his sisters. We finally got everyone awake enough to go and see what Santa brought.

Melanie a little groggy, Matt thinking what in the heck are you doing and Kaitlyn cheesing the biggest smile, who just can't wait.

The girls were so excited for their cameras, I think I am still seeing spots from the many, many pictures that were taken.

Matt loved just ripping into all of his presents!

Just love the excited surprise expression of Melanie!

I just love it when I catch the moment!

Kaitlyn was so excited to get her real live camera, Mickey doll and polly pocket surprise. Along with way too many other things.

Melanie was thrilled with her American Girl Belle Dress, real live camera and all of her surprises.

Matt was just thrilled with his Geo Tracks, in fact he made us pack the whole train and track up to take down to Grandma Hiatts in Salt Lake City.

After playing with our toys and of course watching the Christmas Story, we packed up the van and headed down to Grandma Hiatts to be spoiled once again. We were able to stay the weekend and had a fun time being with Brads family. Some highlights were, temple square, pedicures, and ice skating!

Christmas Eve Fun!

Christmas Eve was always a day I looked forward to as a child. Since we have moved up here and are not as close to family we have had to start our own traditions. Each year they seem to change, so I don't know if you could really call them traditions yet. This year ended up being a super fun Christmas Eve. The first surprise of Christmas Eve is that Brads boss told him to just take the day off. That in its self made it the best Christmas Eve so far. We had so much fun having Brad home and he had a chance to get some stuff done that have been neglected ever since they started working Sat 3 months ago. It was great to have him home for a whole day and not have it be Sunday.

Matt, Melanie, Kaitlyn

We started the day off making Sugar Cookies for Santa. Lets be real though we ate most of them and saved four for Santa. The kids had so much fun frosting and putting many, many sprinkles on them.

Matt, Kaitlyn, Melanie

While Dad worked on some things in the backyard. The kids and I made our Gingerbread house. Instead of the traditional eatable gingerbread house we went for the cardboard box that you can use for a hut, aka: my new treadmills box. Yes we finally got a treadmill you would think we would have gotten one sooner with Brads job and all. At least I only had to wait three years.

That evening we had our friends the Mollens over for Christmas Eve Dinner. It was so much fun not eating Christmas Eve Dinner all by ourselves. The food was delicious, the company was great and the kids had so much fun playing.

After the Mollens left the kids opened their Christmas Eve PJs and Slippers, and we watched a movie as a family. It was the end of a wonderful Christmas Eve!


Kaitlyn, Melanie and Matt
The Cookies, Milk, and Carrots were all out and ready for the big man to come! Off to bed were three very excited kids!

Christmas Dresses!

I love getting my girls Christmas Dresses each year! I love to match them too. I think they are starting to want their own style now, so this might be the last year of the girls matching dresses although we sure had a lot of fun while it lasted.

Kaitlyn and Melanie

They really are best friends and I love that!

The whole fam!

Kaitlyn, Melanie, and Matt

What would I do without these kids? They are my life!