Friends!!!!

The week between Christmas and New Years was lots of partying! I went to Thanksgiving point with Mike's sister and bumped into a Spokane friend, Erica and family! It was so fun to catch up for a bit while the kids played. The crappy part about moving is leaving great people!!!!  We miss them! 

Another night we met up with Bart and Kellie who were in town for a couple days, also from our Washington life, but also BYU life before that.  Mike and Bart were college roomates.  We went to JCW burgers for dinner, then drove to a TRAX station to ride the train into Temple Square to see the lights.  We just so happened to pick a FREEZING night and our van may or may not have gotten stuck getting to the trax station. Thankful for friendly people during a snow storm. :)  Bart and Kellie have 3 boys and finally had a little girl.  They are opposite of us. Isabelle was in heaven with little baby Elsa.  She said, "I think Elsa can be my sister."  Those 6 boys were in heaven going for a train ride! 

Luckily on Temple Square there are lots of warm buildings to warm up in every few minutes.  

So bummed this isn't flipped....oh well. The kids took turns snuggling and sharing the stroller.  There were however, LOTS of tears and frozen children. 

Luke was miserable towards the end.  We stopped in at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to warm up for a bit.  

We stopped to see the candy windows at Macy's on our way back to the Trax and then got on and still had all 8 little kiddos!  We didn't lose a single kid, definitely a successful outing. :) 

We love Bart and Kellie and miss living by them!!!! 

Another friend stopped through!  One of my dear friends from our Florida life, Michelle and family stopped in for the afternoon!  Isabelle and Addy were best of friends in Fl.  It was one of those friendships they could play forever and never have a fight or disagreement about anything!  Michelle was a woman full of service to our family and always up for a chat while the girls played.  I could talk to her forever. They have 3 older boys (teen/college) that played with my little boys every time our families got together.  This time was no exception.  My baby was played with and my crazy little boys got lots of energy out with their big boys.  It was such a fun fun day! It was really cute, a few days before they came, we had Chinese takeout.  Isabelle's fortune was, "A past friend will reappear in your life." She was so giddy that it was coming true because she was going to see Addy.  So cute!

 We are happy to be in Utah where people tend to make it at some point and we get to hijack a bit of family time. :)

And a Happy New Year!

For New Years everything was kind of last minute, but ended up being an absolute blast! We had amazing smoked BBQ from my neighbor and us and Mike's two sisters and families went to his parent's for a celebration.  We played tons of games and ate delicious food and did a few fireworks, before everyone froze. 

Josh and Spencer are hilarious together.  They are 3 months apart and get so excited to see each other. Lately everytime they see each other, it turns into a wrestling match. SO cute and hilarious!

The celebration!  It was around 10 and then everyone went home.  We had planned to spend the night, but now I don't remember why, but we ended up going home too. 

I really don't have many pictures from that night....but this picture with Mike's mom and a camera, that means there are tons of pictures somewhere else. ;)  Thank goodness for a good camera operator in the family. 

We had such a fun night! The kids had a blast!

Leftover Christmas

Grandma's house had kids and toys in every room playing together. 

Isabelle and Sarah had fun playing with each other's new toys.  

And then they spent the rest of the time in and out of the snow.  They played outside til they froze, came in and played with toys til they thawed out, then back outside....all day.  SO fun.

The day after Christmas Jeannie's family came and we did all the cousin gifts. 

Really this should have been in the last post, but it's not. Haha!

Merry Christmas, Also Late

It was so fun to be back with Mike's family for Christmas. There really aren't lots of words, just some great pictures. We had his huge family Christmas Eve dinner. Then we did our Christmas Eve books and grandma's pj's.  We spent the night with Sharon and Jeff's families at Grandma's house and had Christmas morning together.  All in all a fantastic Christmas. 

New Jammies

Christmas morning sleepy looks.  We didn't get started until after 7!!! 

It finally snowed on Christmas.  They played and played out in the snow.

Luke asked for a "lellow wace tar."  It was adorable listening to him.  He got a remote control yellow race car and was in heaven.

Mike got the same sweatshirt he got for his birthday, but this one fits. When he opened it up, he laughed, "Is this my birthday present?"  Yes, yes it is.  I'm a HORRIBLE gift giver.  The fact I got a smile out of him is a great accomplishment. 

This cute little tractor is has an adorable story behind it.  Isabelle saw this and wanted to give it to Spencer, "Mom!  This is what he will love!  I want to get this for him."  It was above our set price limit and she wanted to put in her own money for the difference because she knew how much he would love it.  Sure enough, it was his FAVORITE present. :)  The other babies loved it too.  

The boys got an 8 ft trampoline for our basement to help get winter wiggles out.  We sent them on a treasure hunt because that thing was HEAVY and I was not wrapping it.  haha

There is more Christmas to post, but it's bedtime.....