Christmas Morning!!!!!!

Santa Snapped a picture with my new camera before he left!!!!
Those are some lucky kids!
I am pretty sure that Tucker only got about 2 hours of sleep last night. He was in and out of our room all night. At one point he brought in part of his filling that fell out doing heavens know what in the middle of the night? We actually woke up about 7:30 am....pretty good for us.
Gwyn and Gil got a new horse! Gwyn rode her with no problem.

Gil.....well he struggled a bit.
Abe FINALLY got his DS. That is a happy boy.
Tuck got his LONG awaited Super Mario Galaxy Game for the Wii.
Gilbert's favorite presents were the candy canes from his stocking.
Oh, the happiness a Mario toothbrush brings.

Nanny gave Gil his very own police car, now he can keep up with his sisters pink car.
Gwyn had to try on her lovely new dress-ups right away....it said on the box ages 3-7, doesn't there seem to be a big difference between 3 and 7? Thus explaining the largeness of the dress-up. Oh yeah, the fan was broken in two hours.
Possibly Gwyn's favorite present came from her brother Gil.....an old fashion jewelry box. She is obsessed with it. I am just happy the ballerina is still twirling when you open it.
Santa: What would you like for Christmas? Gwyn (or Violet as her dad calls her when her hair is down): Babies!
Hello little Bob:)

Christmas Eve

So here is our dinner set up.....our traditional Cornish hens and Christmas salad. Mmmmm...makes me hungry just thinking about it.
Bob totally surprised me Christmas Eve with my new camera!!!!!!YEAH!!!!! He told me that I should have it to take pictures Christmas morning. (expect better pictures)
I let Gwyn open Nanny's present Christmas Eve. She was crazy excited about her new Bitty Baby. She was asleep with her baby Rose, for about an hour when she woke up crying. When I went into her room she was upset because her "baby had become unwrapped." Then she looked at me and said "She's just sooo cute mom."
Gil and Gwyn in their Christmas P.J.'s
All four of my sugar babies in their Christmas Jammie's, listening to the Christmas story.

Christmas Sunday!!!!

Here is my little family right before church.....
I love this picture....captures all of my kids.
Okay, here is Gwyn's other Christmas dress.....every girl needs two right?
Gil utterly happy in his blazer and tie.

Christmas Project......

I made a few little Christmas memories books for my brother's family and a few friends who are not Scrap-Bookee. I am am not really into the scrapbook/Stampin' up thing so this is as good as it gets for me. During Christmas it just doesn't feel like Christmas until I actually do something with my hands...so there you are!

Soldier Abe......

Abe's entire first grade put on a Christmas play. It was so cute. Abe was a soldier and he took his one line very very seriously. He was the cutest soldier there and I could eat him up.
He was showing us some of his "soldier" stances.

Abe and Kyrstin.....she was a Doll. Abe informed me that I should watch her too because she came on right after him. This play inspired Abe to come right home and start on righting his own play. He had parts for all of his friends. I love Abe, always the creative one.

The Birth of a Boy Scout

This is my boy ready for his first Pack meeting. He is in his scout uniform and was so pleased to finally get to join his friends in the scouting world.
Here is Tuck in front of our Christmas tree that we cut down ourselves! Not bad huh?

Gingerbread House

So here was our annual Gingerbread house decorating night! Gwyn kept tasting the frosting/glue and shuddering, yet kept going back for more.

Abe watching dad build the house....we needed an Engineer.
A little decorating.....Gwyn and Abe had just gotten some winter hats from their friends......
The night before her surgery.

The finished product. I love that the kids are so proud and Gil just wants to get his hands on the candy.

Oh Christmas Tree

So, this year Bob decided we were going to cut our own Christmas tree. He got us a licence for five bucks. So after a little persuasion,
I agreed that we could go ahead and look for one (even though we live in a DESERT, I was a little doubtful.) So a week ago we got in our neighbors BIG truck and drove an hour away looking for a Christmas tree. As we were driving all I could see were some cactus and ugly sagebrush. Just as we were giving up hope, we found a few pine trees. This (picture above) was the first one I saw. We hiked around for about 45 minutes and came back to this one. Bob got out the chain saw and three minutes later we had a Christmas tree! It is not perfect but it is actually really pretty and worked out great! So I will post pictures of it decorated later. I love when Bob gets a bee in his bonnet!

Okay....we went.

So we decided at the last minute that we would chance the Snow Storm....I 'll admit I was not that pleased to be going.( I had a lot of pressuring done on me.) But, it turned out to be great.
We had a good drive up and when the kids woke up in the morning they were THRILLED to see the snow. They kept there p.j.'s on and on threw their snow clothes and were outside all morning. Gil went down for a nap, so he still hasn't experienced snow yet.

This was Abe's Snowman in "midget mode" as he called it. He loved this little snowman, and when his big brother kicked it down there were many tears shed.....sometimes older brothers are the pits. So Tucker lost his beloved DS for the rest of the day.
Here is Tuck's snowman....he is an alien. Tucker and couldn't wait to build him and then destroy him. Abe helped in the destruction.....but this was something Tucker was excited about. So, you can see the problem rising right?
Here is Gwyn's Snowman....my favorite. She and daddy built it together and she thought it was great to put food on for the hair and face.
As you can see she was giddy over her snowman....I couldn't resist posting this picture!

When we got home from the wedding festivities their was a fresh new 8 inches of snow. After the babies went to bed Bob took the boys out to snow blow the driveway and play in the snow some more. They didn't come in until midnight. I think when you don't live in the snow it is easier to appreciate a snow fall like that. We couldn't leave until Sunday morning so Bob missed meetings, but oh well what can you do? The time the kids played in the snow made it worth it.

A few great moments from the weekend...

Gwyn is obsessed with the Nutcracker Ballet. When we got to my mom's I found her with the Nutcracker trying to repair him like Clara does in the Ballet. I had to laugh, she is a funny girl.
While waiting for the wedding dinner to begin my kids loved walking around Temple Square and looking at the lights. We also enjoyed The Joseph Smith Memorial building. The kids were mesmerized with the HUGE Christmas tree.
Happy little man, he was so glad to be walking around at last.
Coy Gwynnie.....

P.S. She thought that Tiffany the bride was a princess. She kept telling me,"I want to be a Princess too." I then replied, "You are, you are the Red Princess tonight and Tiffany is the White Princess." She replied,"I want to be a Snow White Princess when I get bigger too." I told her," Okay, but you have to find a handsome Prince first." Gwyn looked at me like I was crazy and said, "I have one, he is Gilbert."

Here is the lovely couple....I swear I have never seen such a pretty couple. It was fun to see how sweet they were together.
Here is my handsome father with my sweet little niece Minie.
Let's say wedding dinners are not enjoyable with your children. Especially when the kids meals come 20 minutes after all the adults meals. It was all lovely....accept for my crazy kids.
Like I said CrAZy KiDs!!!!

Question????

We are suppose to be heading up north this weekend for my cousins wedding Saturday afternoon......but tonight on the news they said there will be a major snow storm all through the weekend. I-15 should be really ugly. Would you still go? Bob has to be back for church meetings at 9am on Sunday and Gwyn has surgery Tuesday morning......Would you go?

Baptism.....

Look at my big boy! He was baptized last night by his dad, and it couldn't have been a more beautiful night for me. I love this picture because I still see my little baby boy in his face. Stace took these pictures and I adore them.
Here is the full picture of him in his suit. He wanted a suit like his dad with a red tie, just like his dad. It's funny because he wore his suit to church today and he sat so much more reverently. I guess we should have gotten him a suit long ago. He fasted for the first time today and it truly, nearly killed him. He went upstairs while his brothers and sister ate so he didn't have to be tortured. All through sacrament he kept looking at me asking when he could eat again, tears in his eyes...(I'm not joking). I feel bad because we have church at 1 pm and that makes for a very LONG fast. I kept telling him that it was his choice and he could eat if he wanted to. He kept shaking his head no. Oh, my very serious little man.
Here is Tucker and Bob right before the baptism.
Here are the three older kids, Gil was crying in the car wanting to be napping.
The boys in their whites....
Me and my boys.
Tucker got to be baptized with a couple of friends. Brendan (in the middle)is in Tucker class at school, and they are friends. Josh has been in Tuck's primary class for years until they recently split our ward. It was great to see them all together. My mom spoke on the holy ghost and she did an awesome job. I love her and Tucker thinks she walks on water....I think she might. The kids sang and my beautiful niece Kate played her violin. It was a lovely program.

Here are all the men that stood in the circle to confirm Tucker. We were missing some beloved uncles....they were missed. What a great group of men.
We had dinner catered at a little place called Stahlie catering....pretty yummy. The kids always love being together, we hope they broke nothing to important while being crazy all over the place.
Kennan and Brooke chatting it up. My sweet sister Brooke had a miscarriage the day before. I couldn't believe that she still came. She is amazing and I so enjoy her. I know it was hard for her and she didn't feel well physically or emotionally but she told me she wouldn't miss Tuck's baptism. I love her. What a great sister and Aunt....thanks Brookie, you are one in a million.
We got Tucker his first nice CTR ring. Quick story: I told Tucker to put the ring on his finger so he wouldn't lose it. His cousin Hunter told him while sitting right next to me ..."it's alright if you lose it they are really cheap and they'll just give you another one at church." I told them both that this was not like the kind they give you at church and it was not "cheap"....So then they proceeded to ask how much was it? Boys!
Nannie and Grandpa gave him his first set of scriptures! He was SO excited about this. He has been packing my old ones around for a year. One of my memories of my baptism was of my grandma and grandpa giving my first set of scriptures....I loved them. Tucker bore his testimony so sweet and serious, he is such a kind boy, and I love him like crazy. Bob's confirmation was beautiful and eloquent, I couldn't have felt more proud of both of them. What a great weekend. Thank you to all my family that came. Also a big thanks to my great friends who came to the baptism too...you know who you are and you are my St. George family!I love you all.