Christmas 2010!!!

Well, after a full week of playing with friends and family, Christmas finally arrived! Christmas Eve we always spend at Mike's parents house with all his brothers and sisters and their families. Mom McDougal always goes way out of her way to make a wonderful dinner and delicious desserts for us all! It's fun to be all together for the holidays! While we are all together on Christmas Eve we always open our gifts to each other. Each sibling has a different sibling, there are gifts between kids and parents, and the grandkids draw names each year to give a gift to one of their cousins. That is so much fun! the kids LOVE it! My kids love picking things out for whichever cousin they have that year and love to watch them open it. It's also fun for them to see what their cousin picked out for them. Here are the cute cousins in front of the tree getting ready to open their presents!

Talin (3), Kamree (2), Connor (2)

And all the cousins (minus Ariel who wasn't there quite yet) - Jaricka, Cade, Shawn, Brady, Talin, Connor & Kamree

Silly kids!!!

It was a lot of fun to spend the evening with the McDougals. After our party was over there, we headed over to the Reid's house to spend the night. As tradition, we always get to open a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve. Here is Connor holding a box to open (not his) - we thought it was funny cause the box was almost as big as him!:)

And here is the fabulous modeling of our new Christmas PJ'S!!!
Shawn, Brady & Connor:
(we all got "warm-up" type outfits for our pj's this year)

Our cute family:

David, Lesa, Kevin, Derek & Jenna:

Mom and her 2 girls :)

All those boys!

Daddy (Mike) and Connor:

Daddy and Brady:

And Daddy and Shawn:

After putting out our stockings and a treat for Santa, it was off to bed!
The next morning was kinda funny because we expected the kids to wake us up pretty early (they always do!) but this year it didn't happen! They all slept in until a little after 8:00 in the morning! Crazy! (Usually they are up by 6!) In fact, Grandma and Grandpa woke up before the kids did! It was great! But soon we all were awake and lined up and ready to go see what Santa brought!

It's always so fun as a parent to see the look on your child's face Christmas morning when they see what Santa brought. (and all the other presents they get too, but especially what Santa brought!) Here is Connor with his gifts:

And Brady with his presents:
He was SO excited to get a Buzz Lightyear! It is the only thing he's been asking for for about the last year! Such a happy boy!!!

And Shawn with his new toys - A DS game (with toy) that he's been DYING to have and a new book!

This is the toy Connor got from Santa - a little Toy Story 4-wheeler toy that really goes when you push a button! He LOVES it!

After all the excitement from Santa, it was time to open up gifts from everyone else. That was a lot of fun too watching the kids as they get excited for things. Shawn and Brady had even picked out themselves and got things for a few different people and it was fun to see how excited they would get when those people would open their gifts! They really got into the spirit of giving this year and it was fun to see that!
After all the opening was done, I was able to snap a final shot of each kid with their final haul of goodies for the day.
Connor so happy he can hardly stand it:

Brady absolutely loving his new toys:

And Shawn so excited for everything that he got:

It was such a good Christmas! It is always nice to be able to spend the holidays with family. It was sad when the day after Christmas we had to get up early and drive all the way home! We love visiting family and always hate to leave! BUT....it's also nice to get back home to our own beds and the warmer weather! :)
Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!!

Hangin' Out in Good 'Ol SoJo

So for the week leading up to Christmas we spent it in South Jordan UT with our families (as I mentioned in the last post). Here are just a few pics of the fun times. Here is my cute nephew Parker asleep in my brother Derek's arms as he plays on the computer. So cute!

The kids of course got way too many late nights hanging out playing with everyone. I mean, it's Christmas vacation after all! :) Here they are one night playing with Grandpa Dave:

And messing around with their Uncle Aaron:

Thursday night my little brother Kevin went through the temple for the first time since he is leaving on his mission next month. It was neat to be able to be there with him! And something else cool happened that night - Elder Russell M. Nelson was there and in our session! It was so neat to be there with an apostle!!! {My mom and I even got to shake his hand!} Such a neat experience! It's always a good experience being in the temple with family!
Here is the beautiful South Jordan Temple:
(we are standing in front of it, but it's dark so you can't really see us.)

My dad, mom and brother Kevin:

Dad, mom, Kevin, Emily and my brother Jared:

Hugs from Grandma Dayley!

Grandpa and Grandma Dayley with Kevin:

Brothers and Sister - Kevin, Emily & Jared:
(yes, they both are my little brothers, even though they both tower over my head!)

It was neat to be able to be there for such an experience in my brother's life! We're excited for him to go on his mission next month even though we will miss him a lot!!!

Snowmobiling Fun!

We went up to South Jordan, UT where our families all live to enjoy some fun for the week of Christmas! One of the things we love about going home to visit this time of year is that we get to play in the snow!!! Our kids really look forward to a little bit of snow-time! {Only problem about the snow to me is that it's FrEeZiNg!!!} :)

One of the days we were up in UT we spent the day with Mike's brother Jared & his family and Mike's mom & dad snowmobiling. It was SO much fun! It also was a lot more work than I remember from previous years - especially when you get them stuck in the snow! :) But TONS of fun!

The kids absolutely LOVED going for rides! Even Connor would run up and ask for a ride every time someone would come back from a run! And all the kids especially loved the time to just play in the snow. Here is Brady and Connor:

My cute niece Kamree:

Kamree and her sister Jaricka:

Connor being sad when his glove fell off, and Kamree looking at him like, "what's wrong friend?"

Much more happy with his glove fixed!

The three amigos: Shawn, Cade & Brady

Shawn liked to try and eat the snow, but he made sure we all knew to "never eat yellow snow!"

And now for the snowmobile rides! Here is Mike taking Shawn and Brady for a ride:

And Mike with Shawn and Connor going for a ride:

Michelle heading off with Cade:

Grandpa McDougal taking Brady for a ride:

Michelle and Cade again:

Brady just thoroughly enjoyed himself the entire day! He is definitely the kid that enjoyed it the most I think! He just loves the outdoors so much!

Emily and Brady going for a spin:
(and Connor standing there begging for a ride!)

Cade and Shawn:

Jared and Jaricka:

The kids found this HUGE hill of snow they started to play on. {It actually was the side of the cabin that you rent the snowmobiles from.} The kids had a blast climbing up and sliding down or jumping off! Here is Cade jumping:

Connor with a big old grin!

The kids all climbing up and sliding down the hill:

Mike even joined them for a minute!

We had such a fun day playing in the snow! {And even though it was freezing cold} it made for a great day and some fun memories!