Christmas Day

We woke up and had our Christmas with the kiddos at Chris and Kristen's. It was really nice to have a low key morning.

Traditional stair, and stocking shots.

Natalie had a great first Christmas.

The kiddos each earned $5 and bought gifts for each other. They were so proud of their gifts and it was so sweet to watch them open them.

Katie (and Austin too) got a new mp3 player!

Ashley got some awesome sewing stuff that she had asked for.

After we got ready we went over to Mom and Dad's to spend the day. It was a lot of fun!

Anna and Leah.

Monica got a Tinkerbell Club house

Julie got a cool dolly in a sling.

We spent the day eating and watching movies and of course playing Guitar Hero!

Monica, Mandy, Katie, Elisha, Anna, Ryan, and Lewis played this round.

The end of the day crash :)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent with the Taylor's. We hung out at Chris and Kristen's and opened a lot of gifts.

Ryan was a sleepy head from the start.

Reagann is such a cutie!

Austin got some books that he had wanted.

Lewis helped Natalie open her gifts.

Good Morning Sunshine :) Ryan took a little while to warm up to a house full of people once he woke up.

Kristen turned Doug and Lydia's wedding pics into a book.

Evalee got each of the girls a CTR necklace and took some time to tell them how special jewelry is and that they needed to take super care of it.

Ashley received a ton of doll clothes.

Missy made us these amazing ornaments.

Chris and Kristen adopted a dog from a lady that Chris works with and that was Ryan's big Christmas present. He hugged the dog and told the whole worked that he loved his doggie.

After we cleaned up Doug read the Night Before Christmas to the kiddos and then it was off to bed to wait for Santa.

Light Scoop and Christmas Crafts

Dad got me a pre-Christmas gift of a light scoop. It is an attachment that you place over the flash on the camera and it bounces the light into the room so that you have an evenly lit object. I took the above picture at 5 in the morning in a dark house and using my new toy.

Dad and Katie made Peck Cookies together and I took the opportunity to keep playing with the settings on my camera with my new toy.

Mom had some small wooden ornaments that she had the kids paint and then she hung them on her little tree.
The kids spent the next day with Evalee and did some crafts and decorated sugar cookies, unfortunately I don't hve any pics of those.

Happy Birthday Katie!

The first day that we were in Albuquerque we had a birthday party for Katie at Peter Piper Pizza. We had most of our family there and it was great to just hang out and have cake.

Anna and Monica.

Grandpa Dellon and Grandma Kathy.

Lewis, Missy, Katie, Ryan, Chris, Lydia, Doug and Ash.

Missy and Katie are buddies.

Kristen and Ryan.

Katie got some neat gifts. The above was a doll that you remove the head to change the clothes. It was deemed a very "disturbing" toy by Doug and Katie loved that word.

Watch the tissue fly. Uncle Doug helped Katie read all her cards and it still amazes me that he doesn't do voice overs.

This was Austin's prizes that he bought with his tickets. Goof ball!!

Tonight

This is what happens when I give Monkey a bath. Everyone thinks that it is time to go and horse around in the kitchen.

Exhibit A.

And yes Monkey is 8 months old :)

My girls are so sweet.

Monkey Update

Well, I thought that I would let you all know how Monkey is doing. I took her in yesterday to the clinic to get some meds for a cold that she has and they told me that she weighs 21lbs. 10ozs. and was nearly 28in. long (and she isn't even 8 months yet!). HOLY MONKEY!!! What a little chunker :) She loves green beans and bananas with oatmeal, and this morning was standing up in her crib when I went in to get her. She can turn on her mobile and fish tank in her crib and is pulling herself all over the place. She is such a joy and we are so lucky to have her in our family!

Here is Monkey in the sink, where she gets her baths. I try to get her one every night but it is more like every other night that she actually gets one. She has a lot of fun with the wash rag and cup, and really likes splashing the bubbles until they are all gone.

7 Months Already!

Monkey is 7 months old already! I can hardly believe it!!! She is become mobile and is army crawling all over the place. I liked this picture since she was trying to crawl away to eat the leaves.

New School Pics

I was so upset with the kids school pics that they participated in re-takes today. While I was looking at the pics I realized even re-takes might not get me what I wanted so I took some shots before school. I was really happy with how they turned out.

I had to sit Natalie in the driveway and not by the house since she just wanted to eat everything on the ground. She is such a little stinker :)

Who's That???

It was really dark when we left so we took some pictures at the church. We have GI Joe, a Rock Star, Obi Wan Kenobi, and a Skeleton. Katie loved her costume and the beard. People thought that she was a cross between Obi Wan and Princess Leah.

Carving

So we did better this year and actually made it to get pumpkins but they almost did not get carved. We had a crazy week and I had an errand to run right before the carnival. When I came home, this is what I found....

A Carving party!!! Sorry there are not more pics of the actual process and the outcome but we were nutty, nuts to try and get them done before the party.

This was the favorite.

Rings on Monkey

We were sitting the other night with the Missionaries and our friends the Warner's for a lesson for Tim Warner's baptism. Lewis was sitting at the table with the baby and she was fussy so I put a handful of Cheerios on her tray and Lewis started licking them and sticking them to her forehead. It was really funny but now all the kiddos think that this is a good idea. She doesn't mind too much and just eats them off her face.