Christmas!!

We got the special treat of the kids sleeping in on Christmas day until their usual waking time of 7:30! That was awesome because Ben & I had been up way late!! We actually got like 3 hours of sleep! Whoohoo!! Once the kids were up and Nick had shown us his tooth fairy & extra Santa present, everyone was so excited to go downstairs and see what Santa had brought!! We always make them wait on the stairs until we have the cameras are ready. It's the toughest moments of patience all year! The kids always run for their stockings first! We all got lightsabers in our stockings and of course Nick & Kade had to get a battle in before we could even check out what was under the tree.
Santa definitely came!! Our rockstar, Skylar, finally got the guitar (but we call it a contaur, right Sky?) she's always wanted! It's pretty awesome because it even says her name on it since the company that makes them is called Sky. She also got a new camera. Now there's two of us taking a million pictures!
Nick was stoked to get a really fast RC car, Legos, and Ben 10 figures!
Getting a picture of Kade opening his presents was nearly impossible! Crazy kid! He was so thrilled to get a flipping RC car, Trios, and Legos!
Alexis only ever asked for two things when we asked her what she wanted for Christmas...the pink princess castle and a "Tinana" doll. Her wishes were granted!She also got some cooking stuff. How cute does Alexis look in her new chef attire?Ben's favorites were an awesome statue of Obi-Wan and the anti-freeze ice cream scoops that I got him, of course! I loved getting such personal thoughtful gifts from my kids (and my Ben, who helped them). Kade got me a dragonfly necklace that matches my Gabriel ring perfectly. I adore it. Nick got me the Willow Tree Forget-me-not statue that I love. My girls and Ben made me a personal sign with our family picture and the quote from Jeffrey R. Holland, "Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come." It has dragonflies all over it. I absolutely love it and the thought that went into it!The kids always trade names with each other and have so much fun picking out the perfect gift for their siblings. They're always among the favorites!We also got a lot of family gifts...lots of DVDs and Wii games and Ben's work hooked us up with a new I-pod!
The kids were super ecstatic with the new car we got!! My parents bought a new couch and got the bonus of buying this RC car for just $30. They asked us if we wanted it. Of course we did!! We looked like heroes to our kids! Thanks mom & dad for the hook up!! Also thanks to our awesome friends, the Coxs, who stored it at our house and even put it together for us (including batteries and all!) so it was all ready to go Christmas morning!! That was seriously awesome!!
We ran out of time and had to hurry and have our traditional yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls & breakfast casserole and then get ready for church. We had to pause the present opening for a bit until we were all ready. I wish I would have taken a picture of all of the kids in their Christmas outfits. They all looked so adorable! At least here's Alexis's with Kade in the background. The outfits are the same as our family picture. We went to church and the program was so beautiful. The choir did an amazing job and the 2nd counselor in our bishopric gave a wonderful talk. I actually had to say the closing prayer! Talk about pressure on a special occasion like Christmas!!

Later on after we cleaned up a bit and took some really good naps, Ben's mom, brother, Dave, and sister, Jessi, came over for dinner and more presents! We also got to skype with Ben's other sister, Emily, who lives in Arizona. The kids love skyping with Auntie Em!
The kids had so much fun with their little cousin, Kye.We had a relaxing and fun time together! We had a really wonderful day! I loved that we were able to go to church and talk about the real meaning of Christmas, especially on the day it is often forgotten with so many new presents. I am so thankful for the birth of the Savior and for the meaning it has to me personally. What a blessing to know that He has made our forever family a possibility through His birth, His death, and His atonement....the very best gifts ever!

All I Want for Christmas.....

Nick has been waiting forever to lose his two front teeth! They have honestly been loose for a month or two but just weren't making their way out. The dentist even asked Nick a month ago if he wanted to pull them out but he refused. We decided that Christmas was the perfect time to get them out so that Nick could ask for his two front teeth for Christmas. Not every kid gets lucky enough to actually ask for those!
We tried the old tie the string to the tooth, slam the door trick, which totally worked for Skylar. We strung Nick up and Ben slammed the door...and the string fell off...but not the tooth! We seriously tried this like 10 times before we gave up!
We even tried having him eat all sorts of teeth losing things but to no avail.
On Christmas Eve Eve we decided that enough was enough and that it was time to try again.

The last picture of Nick with his two front teeth....can you see how they are jutting out all funny like? He was starting to look silly!
We decided to just try to have Ben pull it out instead of relying on the door trick.
It worked!! One tooth gone!
Then we realized that we actually had lost Nick's tooth for real!! When it came out we had all heard it hit the floor and then it disappeared. We searched all over the kitchen and living room for it, sweeping and pulling furniture out. We finally found it about a half hour later downstairs! It had flown from the kitchen all the way down. So glad we could find it so the tooth fairy could do her job that night!
After wiggling his tooth all day long on Christmas Eve, the second tooth was hanging by a thread. It was time to take that baby out!
We decided that this time we needed to do pull it on the carpet so it wouldn't get lost! Nick counted down and then Ben pulled!
Toothless! Nick wasn't too happy after...that one really hurt to come out!
But Christmas morning was different! Nick was super excited when he woke up to find that not only had the tooth fairy visited and left him a whopping 5 bucks since it was a very special occasion, but that Santa also left him a present by his bed...along with this note:Merry Christmas Toothless!!

Christmas Eve

We had our annual Christmas Eve family party at my mom & dad's. Almost everyone was there! Here's most of the grandkids! My kids love their cousins!!
My brother and all of his kids, minus Dylan who is on a mission in Mexico, were there. My sister, Steph, was there but I don't have any pics of her and her husband, Jim. Sorry Steph! We had a new member of the family with us this year, Kelly Ann, my nephew Mark's new wife. Last year on Christmas Eve we were so excited that Mark was about to pop the question and now we have a fun new niece and cousin! She even joined in on the cousin dog pile on top of Marky!! My aunts, Yvonne and Mary Jo, and my uncle, Allen, and his wife, Marcia, were there to celebrate with us. My grandma was definitely missed. Every Christmas Eve of my life has been spent with her and it was so strange to have her gone. We miss you sooooo much Grandma!!!
We had a little talent show. Skylar played Do You Hear What I Hear? from her piano recital and did an excellent job!Nick played Away in a Manger beautifully.
Kade decided that his talent was reading us the Star Wars Alphabet. He has this thing memorized! It is quite a talent!!
Alexis performed both of her dances from her recital with a little help from Skylar leading. She did so good!!
Everyone loved Alexis's dances so much that they wanted to do it with her. So while Nick played Up on the Housetop on the piano, Skylar led all of the girls in Alexis's dance. How cute are they?!?
Then we dressed up for our nativity program. Skylar was the angel, Nick was Joseph, and Kade and Alexis were both shepherds this year.
I love seeing the kids act out the nativity. It's a tradition we've done all of my life.
Then it was time to open presents from the grandparents and cousins!!
I hope my parents liked the family tree I made for them...I know my brother, Al, loved the Kindle us siblings got for him! My brother reads more than anyone I know, even Skylar! Finally at the end of the night the kids put on their new Christmas pjs and we headed home.
The stockings were hung by the computer with care....We checked Santa's progress on the Santa Tracker and knew he was getting close!

So after some tooth pulling (next post!), the cookies and milk and carrots for the reindeer came out and we headed off to bed where we read the Night Before Christmas before settling our heads.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Ode to the Rocky

We had yet another goodbye this Christmas break....we said goodbye to our Daihatsu Rocky. Yes, we finally sold the Rocky! I can't believe we did it and it still kind of makes me sad, even if it was just a car. We have had the Rocky since Ben and I were first dating. It was my dream car back in the day and so much fun to drive! We took it on our honeymoon to Yellowstone. It's joined us on so many adventures! The kids have loved whenever they've had the chance to go for a bumpy ride or do donuts in the parking lot across from our house on snowy days. It has been part of our family as long as we've been a family.

We've always felt a little frivolous for having three cars. Seriously, we only have 2 drivers! But the Rocky has been paid off since I got it since my parents helped me buy it before they left for their mission, so we've only been paying for registration and insurance on it for all of those 15 years. When we bought our Echo, that was our family car....yes, we ended up smooshing 3 kids into that teeny car! Ben still drove the Rocky then. Since we had the Echo paid off when it was finally time to move to a minivan with Alexis on the way, we decided that the benefit of having the Rocky's four wheel drive for Ben's YM campouts and snowy commuting days was good enough reason to keep it even though we didn't need it anymore. We finally decided that since Ben isn't commuting as much anymore, it was time to let it go. We've had a few families in our ward that have been asking us for years to buy it and we finally gave in and sold it to one of them. Who knew the Rocky was so very wanted?

Before we sold it the kids begged for one last ride. Since we only can fit two of them in the backseat, we had to go in shifts! The girls and I went to the car wash and drove all around the neighborhoods and the boys and I drove up the beautiful canyon for one last adventure in our awesome Rocky!We also all had one final picture with our dear Rocky....So the Rocky is now missing from the curb. We've already had friends stop by wondering if we even still live in our house because the Rocky was gone. I have loved that we've gotten to have it this long! It feels so weird to have it gone....especially when we see it parked at our friends' house just a block away. I guess it's good to still be able to see it and know that the new owners are now enjoying it. We'll miss you Rocky!! You totally rocked!!

Ode to the Abillas

I have the most amazing friend, Angie. Truly she is one of my greatest heroes. She is loving and generous and kind and strong and so much more. I feel so very blessed to have her as a friend. I know that we were meant to be friends. Heavenly Father has confirmed that to me so many times.

Angie and I met at Denny's, yes Denny's, way back in 1994 when were both new at college. She was there with our friends from the Numbs and it was like instant friendship. I just loved her from the start! We bonded and hung out for a few months before she moved back home. Then she still couldn't get away from us. My roommates and I went out to stay with her awesome family in California and had such a blast! Here's us looking all old school and stuff! Honestly, I had the best hair, right?
Angie and I stayed in touch through letters before the interweb thing came along...some of which I still have and they crack me up! She was there through all the drama and romance of Ben and I. Angie married her high school sweetheart, Pete, when he got home from his mission, and moved a block away from us when they came out to go to school at BYU. Later that year I married my Ben and Angie was there in the temple with us, pregnant with her first baby. We ended up being in the same BYU student stake and although we didn't get together as often as I'd have liked, we saw each other at every stake conference. It was so fun to see Angie's family grow! She had 2 babies and one on the way before they left BYU and their littles were so darn adorable! I think Ben's big push to begin a family came from seeing just how fun Pete and Angie's family was. Pete and Angie moved back to Chicago for graduate school and sadly, we lost contact.

Then one night I had a crazy dream about Angie and hanging out in San Fransisco with her! I woke up the next morning and knew I had to find my long lost friend. I googled her, found her blog, started reading it, and noticed the most amazing thing ever. Her son's baptism pictures were in front of our stake center! I could not believe it! I commented and asked where the heck their family was and Angie replied and we found out we lived 2 blocks away from each other!! I was in awe that we had been so close for a couple of years and hadn't every known. We quickly got together and bonded all over again!

Angie's sweet family had grown from 3 babies to 6 by then! Over the last few years she's added 3 more babies to her beautiful family and it's been so wonderful to see their family so happy! I totally stole this picture, Angie, but I had to show off your gorgeous family!! All so adorable!!

One of the best bonuses of finding Angie again was that her boys are the perfect friends for my boys. They've had so much fun throughout the years going to preschool together, playing soccer together, and having all sorts of fun play dates. We love the Abilla boys!!

Well, all good things can not last and sadly we had to say goodbye (for now) to our dear friends, the Abillas. They got a great job opportunity and have moved to Tennessee for awhile and then will be headed onto Asia! Wow! I'm not sure we'll end up living in the same stake again, but you never know!

We hardly had any time to prepare for the Abillas moving before it actually came but we tried to soak up as much play time as we could while they were still here.

Here's Kade & Preston:
Here's Nick with the twins, Caden & Carsen!
Two nights before they left on their new adventure we had the boys over for a late over! We had a blast playing games, watching movies, and I'm pretty sure those 5 boys consumed their weight in junk food!
Alexis is sure going to miss Preston! He's always so sweet to her and includes her. I think she has a major crush on him!Then it was time to say goodbye! There were lots of hugs and wrestling all around...and I was the only that had some tears, even though I know my boys were heartbroken to say goodbye to their awesome friends. We are soooo going to miss having the Abillas to play with. I made them promise to come visit all of the time and it's already been decided that they will all be college roommates when they come back to go to BYU.
The next day it was time for me to sneak to Angie's and say our goodbyes. Her house looked so empty and I was so afraid I'd just start sobbing. I held it together though and even though it took a hundred hugs, I finally said goodbye to my sweet friend.Angie, I love you. I will miss our long talks with our kids dying from boredom while waiting for us to stop. I will miss the love and understanding that you have always shown me. I will miss being able to just get my Angie fill whenever I need it. I'm so glad we have texting and e-mail now to stay in touch across the many, many miles. I'm so thankful that you are my friend and I know that you have truly been a gift from our Heavenly Father. You have helped me through so much, dried my tears, and shared so many laughs with me. I miss you so much already but I know that we'll forever be friends! Here's to us, sitting on the porch when we're 80 in our Converse! Love you, love you, love you!!