Merry Christmas

Okay so I'm not the best at taking pictures on Christmas morning.  I never have been.  I just get so wrapped up in the moment, and this year was no different.  We had a really great Christmas. This year we decided as a family that we were going to have a smaller Christmas for ourselves so that we could help others.  We picked a couple of families to help out and the girls had so much fun picking out presents and wrapping them, then dropping them off for Secret Santa.  It really made them think more about the true meaning of Christmas.

We did so many activities this holiday season as a family and really enjoyed the time that we spent together.  We hope that your families had a wonderful Christmas!!

Christmas morning 2009

Christmas Eve with the Mangelson's

One of our favorite family traditions is spending Christmas Eve with Jared's side of the family.  This year I had to work a half day so we didn't get out to Levan as early as we wanted to.  We managed to get out there around 5 and visit with Grandma Myrt.  Then we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Mangelson's house for a potluck dinner and then presents afterwards.  The kids always have so much fun.

Lucas with Grandma Irene, Grandpa Golden is in the background.

Brittyn, Paige, Lucas, & Braylee

Grandpa Jerry, Grandma Marilyn, Paige, MaKady & Lucas

Jared's cousin Bruce is on a mission, so Aunt Julie had everyone hold this sign for a picture to send to him.

The kids love playing at Grandma Irene's house because she has so many (old) toys.  Jared said he played with this boat when he was little also.

Russel, Julie, Patty, Melanie, Jerry

Golden & Irene

(Jared's Dad & his brothers, sisters, & parents)

Our family with Golden & Irene

Mike & Paige (Jared's cousin Mike is one of Paige's favorite people)

A Tooth

Finally a tooth!!! If you can't tell, Tabi really had to wrestle with Lucas so we could get a picture of his first little tooth. It was so funny to watch. You can see that the one next to it is getting ready to come in also. Unfortunately for this little guy, his nose has been running for weeks now, and he goes through a ton of bibs every day, but finally his teeth are starting to come in.

Happy Birthday Paige

It was the real deal this time. Paige turned 7 on Saturday. I can't believe how time flies. What a fun, feisty, rambunctious girl she is. Full of energy like a little ball of fire. I think she is going to give us a run for our money when she is a teenager.

Tabi and Kole came up for Paige's birthday. We had the cupcakes and presents at noon because Paige just couldn't wait any longer. Then for dinner we ate at Winger's. Not because we particularly like it, but because the last time we went we filled out one of the little postcards that they mail to you right before your birthday. So all week long Paige has been begging us to go so she could get her "free" birthday meal.

It was soo fun, as always, I just love my family. They are so much fun to hang out with. Happy Birthday Paige!!!

Donna, Jared, & Paige
Lucas & MaKady

Paige and her tower of cupcakes, notice the empty looking tower, well that's because I only had half of the cupcakes baked, but she just couldn't wait any more, the anticipation of opening presents was driving her crazy.

Tabi & Lucas

Donna, Kole, MaKady, Tabi, Paige, Lucas, Jared

Christmas Lights

Last year we got too busy to do a lot of family activities at Christmas time, so this year my goal was to get the shopping done early (I was done in October) and just enjoy the holiday season and spend it doing fun things with my family. So one of the things we did this year that we missed out on last year was to go and see some great light displays.

We started in Spanish Fork, then we went to Salem to drive around the pond which was gorgeous and then last (but not least) we went to Payson to see the "house". There is a house in Payson that the lights are synchronized to a radio station that plays Christmas music. It was really fun to watch.

(Directions to the house in Payson: Go to Payson High School, go South on Main street, turn on your 3rd left, there is a crosswalk sign, the street # is 1260 S. It is the 3rd or 4th house on the left, you can't miss it)

Visitors

This week has been a crazy but fun week for us. We have had a lot of partys to attend and things to do with the kids. On Wednesday my Dad called me and said that he and my mom were going to drive down to visit us for the evening. I was so excited because they don't get down this way very often.

When I got home from work, they were just getting to our house. They had KFC for dinner and a cake for Paige so we could have a little party for her while they were here. She was so surprised and excited. We had a great time just visiting and eating all the yummy food.

This cake was soooo yummy, and the candles were pretty cool. This picture doesn't really show it, but the flame of each candle had a tint of color that was the same as the candle. It really showed up great in the dark.
My parents brought Trinity along with them and the girls had a great time playing with their cousin.

Gingerbread Houses

On Sunday we decided to make real gingerbread houses. Last year we just bought the kit from Walmart, but it wasn't as much fun. So this year I dug out our family recipe for gingerbread and we got started. I got the dough made and then sat down to make a pattern. Jared asked me what I was doing and I told him. He was mortified that I wasn't using a ruler, so he volunteered to make us a (perfect) pattern (using a ruler, of course)!!

The girls had a great time decorating their houses. I love them because they are both so unique and they fit the girls personalities.

Paige's House, MaKady's House

Crawling...

He is finally CRAWLING.....

Dance Recital

On Friday Paige had her winter dance recital. It was soo cute and she is doing so well in dance. This is her 3rd year in it and she loves it. Such a cutie!!

10 Months

Lucas is 10 months old. He is getting so big. Every where we go people comment on how big he is. He is into 12-18 month clothing. But the Dr. says he is healthy, and the most well mannered 10 month old he has ever seen. He is (finally) starting to crawl around a little bit, although he is still really lazy, he does this sort of scoot/crawl thing, and then flops down on his stomach until you notice him. He can also sit up from a laying down position. We had to move the mattress down in his crib because one day Jared heard him playing in there and when he went to check on him he was sitting up in the corner of the crib playing. He is also starting to pull himself up to a standing position and he can stand all by himself for a few seconds. I think he really just hates the crawling thing, and he might just start walking early, that's what MaKady did. He is eating everything in sight. Literally, he puts everything he sees into his mouth. We really have to watch him because he can spot out the tiniest piece of nothing on the floor and then it goes straight into his mouth. I usually vacuum twice a day.

Birthday Party!!

Paige's real birthday is on December 19 and it usually gets wrapped up in holiday stuff, so this year we decided to have a party a little bit early for her. On Saturday we had 18 girls at our house. They played freeze dance, limbo, and musical circles (it's just like musical chairs except without the chairs, we just used cut out circles of paper). They girls also made personal pizza's and we had cupcakes and icecream. At the end we had a treasure hunt so the girls could find their treat bags.

It was a lot of fun. I think all the girls had a great time, and we made it through the whole party with mostly happy girls, we only had one girl that got sick and had to go home. It was so much work, but so worth the smile on Paige's face at the end of the day.

Cupcake tower & gift bags
All the girls, some of them are hiding behind the taller ones.

Here is Jared helping out!!!

Lucas slept through the whole party and woke up after all of the girls left.

Thanksgiving, Turkey & Trees...

Happy Thanksgiving!!! We had such a fun holiday weekend. We spend Thanksgiving at my parent's house this year. Most of my sisters, and my brother were there and a couple of my mom's sisters. We had tons of good food and just a fun time visiting.

Thanksgiving Day we got up early and drove to my parents house. Jared deep fried the turkey like he has for the past few years. My sisters, mom, and I spent most of the morning in the kitchen making pies, dips, potatoes, stuffing, etc. I love Thanksgiving because you get all of the fun family stuff plus all of the good food without all the worry and hassle of presents.

Jared and Uncle Ray cooking the turkey


Lucas and Dad

Mom

Yummy deep fried Turkey!!

Me & Lucas

Lucas, Baby Orin, & Me

Tabi

My cute parents

Jared, Trent, Josh, & Tyler

On Friday after Thanksgiving we were invited to a friends house for more turkey dinner. Tyler wanted to use his new turkey frier and Jared told him he would help him out so we went down and had dinner with the Painters. Tonya made a bunch of yummy food and it was just like a second Thanksgiving!!

We also set up one of our Christmas trees and Jared hung the lights on the house. The girls were so excited. We listened to music and danced around. Soo much fun!!

Poor Lucas, Paige found this little viking hat at the Painter house and put it on her brother. He did look so adorable though.

We have been trying to get a tree permit all week, but everyone is sold out. We thought it would be fun to cut down our own tree. So we tried and tried, but we just couldn't get a permit. We looked at the tree lots, but the trees were all over priced and almost dead, so we found a place in Farr West that had a Christmas Tree Farm.

On Saturday we went with our friends the Carters and we drove to Farr West and in true Griswold fashion, we cut down our own trees. The girls loved it. It was a ton of fun walking around through all those trees.

Paige & Kinley

The Carter Family

Our family

Jared cutting down our tree

We managed to get both trees tightly strapped in the back of Jared's truck. Jared and Craig had an easy ride with only 1 kid in the car with them. Jessica and I had the other 7. What a loud bunch of girls. We vote that next time Jessica and I are going to drive the truck and Jared and Craig will get to drive the suburban with all the kids. Hey fair is fair, right?!!

We figured since we had already driven all that way we would make a day of it, so we drove out to Antelope Island on our way home. We drove around and ended up at the ranch. We walked around for a while and let all the girls look around and explore.

Craig showing all the girls how to rope a cow.

Right before I took this picture Paige slipped a little and screamed and it scared Lucas. He started crying but I wanted to take the picture anyway.

Cutie pie Laney

MaKady and Kaitlee

We finally saw some buffalo on the way out. They were kind of far away but Jared and Craig got out of the car and walked a little closer.

It was a super fun Thanksgiving weekend and a great way to start out our Christmas Holiday.