New Years Eve

Happy NEW YEARS EVE!!  Where has the year gone??!!

Tonight we (Our family and the Welch's) headed over to Joanne's for a little Chinese food, loud party blowers, hats and lots and lots of fun!

Marse and some of our kids were trying to show Coby that their horns worked...  I think he liked it!

Joanne needed a little bubbly....WE ALL DID!  

And after some fun fireworks and a little smooch-a-roo to ring in the "early" New Year (9 pm)...the New Year was official!

It was a GREAT night...and the casualties were minimal.  (Jaden was a mean little cat and scratched Corb's neck pretty well.)  I love spending time with our family and happy that this New Years was laid back and low key.  Just the way I like it!

Core-Four White Elephant Exchange Party

Tonight we had our "Core-Four" and spouses White Elephant Party.

Was it a BLAST????!!!  Uhh....that is the UNDERSTATEMENT of the century!  We met at Pizzaria Limon for fresh pizza and a few crazy gifts.

Speaking of crazy gifts...Ang said she'd be holding on this little beauty for about 6 months!  A Condiment dispenser?  EVERYONE needs a condiment dispenser!  Bear Lake is going to be excited to try YOU out!  

I got a Speghetti measurer....PERFECT for me since I tend to always over estimate just how much angel hair pasta our family actually eats!

But this little treasure had to be the WINNER of all white elephant gifts EVER in the entire history of White Elephant parties.  It's a FUR Jock strap!  (Seriously...where does one find a FUR JOCK STRAP??!!)  Camille was the lucky recipient of this little beauty! I bet Brett is excited!

Rob got a key chain with a pair of underware attached.  Because afterall, you never know when you're going to need clean underwear!  

Coby wanted to enhance Fab and Amy's love life by providing a little "mood" music by the one and only Donnie Osmond!  :)  Hope they can handle it!  

Tonight we had so many laughs that I'm sure I wasn't the only one walking away with a side stitch!  :)  I love these girls and their husbands so much!  Never an ounce of drama, only good moderately clean fun and the best memories!  :)  Can't wait til the  next one!

Rich Sibling Gift Exchange

Tonight Joanne took us all to the Roof at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for our Sibling Party.

I'd never been there before and it really did live up to all hype.  The french onion soup was to die for!

Here is a shot of me and my cute Coby.

Then a shot off all of us.  Even Bobby and Sara made the trip down from Boise.

After dinner we headed back to Joanne's for games, gifts and lots and lots of fun!  We played heads up with Ben and Coby's cell phones.  (A game where you put the cell phone on your forehead and the people sitting across from you can see the word you have to describe for the person holding the phone to guess.)   Do the charades part was the most comical! And as you can see from our silly Santa hats (insisted upon by Joanne)...we're all just a bunch of goofballs!

And most of really like to kiss our spouses....  some more than others!

Thanks for the GREAT dinner and fun night Rich Siblings and cute Momma Jo!  I certainly LOVE this family I got the SUPER lucky to marry into!  :)

Post Christmas Boy's Day Out

After all the fun of Christmas day...what's a boy 

to do??!!  

Well, go to Ogden and ride the Flow Rider of course!!

Here's Cobe showing us all that surfing is super easy....

Jadesy making body surfing look like a piece of cake...seriously, this kid is such a light weight that it takes him forever to get off the board because he just goes from side to side without ever all off!

And Corb showing us all that body surfing is really the way to go!  Believe me...I know...and have the neck pain to prove it.  Thank goodness I'm in charge of the blog, otherwise you may see my epic fail Coby so kindly made in slow motion!

Later that day the boys headed over to Honey's for a little sledding action!  I think this is the first snow we've had all season!

Later that day Coby and the boys made a snow fort in the front yard.  I wish there was more snow so they could really get their snow ball fights on!  :)

Christmas Breakfast with Honey

This Christmas morning we got to go to Honey's for breakfast and to open our stockings. 

This year she was VERY generous (as usual) and is taking us all on a Disney Cruise at the end of January.  Here are all the grand kids minus a big chubby blond haired little guy and a tall, dark and handsome Poppy.   They are loving their little "extras"! 

Jaden is especially loving his mask and nerf gun!

After a delicious breakfast we sent the kids downstairs and got to open our stockings.  Thank you so much for the Cruise and little extras in our stockings.  We certainly LOVE our Honey and her generosity!  I am sure today was another hard day to be without her Jimmy.  It must be unbearable at times I'm sure.  I am glad that we all (well most of us) live pretty close so she doesn't have to feel so alone.  I'm sure Jim was close today.  I still think Missionaries should get to have some communication with their families.  I'm still waiting on my call from Jack...someday! 

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas!!

We were all twinners.

These boys couldn't wait to get down the stairs to see if Santa came...

Looks like he did!

A much needed book for Corb.

A lego building station for Jaden.

A shirt from Jos. A Banks.

An Essential Oil diffuser for me.

A Red thick Ipad protector for Cole.

Coby was a sweetie and got me some beautiful topaz earings.

Even Pup got a little something.  

She was overly excited for her bone and to make sure that NO ONE took it...she promptly went outside and buried in the fraction of snow we got this year.

Did Santa go overboard...probably!

Cole was loving his first real Christmas!

Corbin loved all the Snowboarding gear and board.

Jaden couldn't wait to get his legos out of the box.   

                ...and all over the table to set up.                  
Cole watched in awe...

Boot socks, jewelry, phone case and some liquorice... I was LOVING it!

Coby got a corn hole set.

It was a fabulous Christmas!  We are so blessed!  Blessed most of all because of the birth of our Savior.  Because of Him...every Christmas spent without Jack, will be made right.  We WILL be together again.  I love Him and thank Him daily for such blessings!  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Dinner with the Burton's

Since we did breakfast with Honey, we got to have dinner with my family.  I love how laid back it all was.  Dinner was DELICIOUS as always and a great way to end the magic of Christmas Day.

This little guy was super excited because he never had to get out of his Christmas Jammies!  He LOVED all the Lego sets he got from Santa and from my mom and sisters.

And this little guy has learned to NOT share!  He was so happy with his trucks and made sure to keep them extra close to as to make certain NO one touched them.  I see a cute little guy (Tav) watching and hoping in the background that Cole puts them down for just a second!

This year for Christmas our little family gave my mom a little charm bracelet with pictures of all her grand kids and a silver coordinating charm that matched each one.  Corb - football, Jack - Angel, Jaden - a book with ABC's, Cole - a train or a bus, Ronan -Mickey Mouse and Tav - a Mickey Mouse Key (they didn't have any Donald Duck charms).  She loved it and I know because she cried!  :)

 My dad was the real hero this Christmas and surprised her with a new dishwasher AND a new (new to her) Car!  He got her a super nice Toyota Avalon.  I am happy...it was about time!  I don't know how much longer her little Camry was going to last.  It was also super fun to have the whole family together for Christmas.  I am loving getting to know Sommer's little family better.  It's great that they are all here and we're together in the same state!  I hope it lasts a long time!  Merry Christmas!  It was a FABULOUS day all around!  Thank you Mom and Dad (and all the rest of you Burtons)!

Christmas Eve

Coby gave me an early Christmas gift...Idina Menzel!  LOVE her!

The kids exchanged their gifts to and from each other and then settled in for a treat and a new movie.

After reading the kids Santa comes to Utah and the Cajun Night before Christmas...(in which Jaden finally looked at me and said, "Mom...why are you talking like that??!!!")

We hoped the boys could fall asleep as they happily anticipated Santa's arrival quickly.

After a few "minutes" of wrapping (because the elfs were lazy this year and waited til the last minute to get everything done)...it was finally ready!

I love this night.  I love the anticipation that is leading up to tomorrow and the excitement that we'll see tomorrow as they race down the stairs to see if "he" came.  But right now it's quiet and peaceful.  We are so blessed.  I love my family!