Bear Lake

We headed up to Bear Lake the weekend after Christmas with my side of the family.  It was beautiful and freezing up there.  Mark took Charlie and Kenya skiing/snowboarding to Beaver Mountain one day, we did some sledding and lots of playing games with cousins.  A new one this year was when the older cousins (5 and up) would disappear for hours at a time making and editing a movie with their itouch.  The movie was pretty funny, I would've loved to have something so accessible as a kid, making videos is always fun. :)

They trecked it up this ginormous hill and came flying down on their tubes.  It was kind of scary to watch.  Charlie and Kenya both did it a couple times.  Leila was happy to walk up a few feet then slide down on the tube.  She loved it.

We didn't really even plan to do all those cute braids, just kind of happened.

All the cousins on my side of the family, two more on the way!

The frenemies Scarlett and Leila.  Can't wait until their 3ish and playing better for longer periods of time.

Sledding

It started snowing on Monday, Christmas Eve and didn't really stop until Thursday and into Friday too. I loved having so much snow over Christmas and for the break, it just wouldn't have been the same without it.  The kids were playing outside in it a lot, Mark got the 4 wheeler and sled out again and they bummed rides off the Johnsons 4 wheeler and sled after our day of sledding.  Charlie didn't come inside until about 7:00 that night I think.  He was out in the snow for 5 hours straight not including our sledding earlier that day.  I'd say his new snow gear is keeping him pretty warm, or he's just an energetic boy. :)

That night Charlie got invited to sleep over at his friend Brock's so we took Brock's sister Kiley and she had a sleepover with Kenya.  They were both so excited, we don't really do sleepovers, just cousins and a couple select friends.   The next day was Friday and I spent the day packing us up to go up to Bear Lake for the weekend.  I can't believe how fast our break is flying by.  Mark had pretty much the whole week off which was so nice.  He got to go enjoy the powder on Thursday up at Snowbird while I took the kids sledding.  Lucky guy.

Random

 Dinner with Tia and Brooke.  A night at the Cheesecake Factory and shopping.  Despite the fact that they kept coming back and telling us they were out of half of the stuff we ordered it was a great night. :)

 Part of Charlie's gifts to his friends.

I grew a lot since my last picture.  December 19,  24 weeks

 We went to Les Miserables the day after Christmas, all my siblings, my mom and Rick and my dad and Christine.  Almost filled up the entire row.  It was so, so good.  I didn't expect to cry throughout the whole thing.  My new favorite movie and I think Hugh Jackman is now officially my favorite actor.

 Charlie showing my mom his piano skills while I was doing her hair.  

I put her to bed with mini oreos in her hand, books, toys, sippy...she is definitely the third child.

Christmas

Can't believe it's come and gone already!  Even Charlie this year said how fast Christmas came, which I thought was unusual for a kid, it usually goes by so slow.  He was savoring every moment.  This year was really fun with all of my kids ages because they were all so excited about it.  Leila loved opening her stocking and gifts.  Charlie woke up at 5:45, Leila 6:15 and they got Kenya out of bed at 7:00.  No sleeping in around here.  I think Mark was just as excited as they were though. :)  

Christmas jammies and opening stockings...

She went through a whole pack of gum in a matter of minutes.  She was excited for her "colors" from Charlie and her pillow pet, which she won't sleep with though.  I was hoping it would replace the scraggly bunny pillow she sleeps with every night that's falling apart but she won't part with it.

Kenya got the cinderella carriage she asked Santa for and was thrilled.

Leila got a baby cradle and Charlie got Madden 13 and a sled from Santa.  Santa brought our family a soda maker.  I love their faces in the picture below when we told them what it was.

 This was a big surprise for the girls, and Charlie was so excited to get his Red Ryder bb gun.  He looks so old in the picture below on the right, it's freaking me out.

Last but not least the kids each opened a Disney ornament and a box filled with balloons and a paper that said we're going to Disneyland!  They didn't catch on at first but once we told them what it was they were thrilled.  We head out February 1st.

And the aftermath, mess and playtime...

  She ate a lot of pez packs too.

Charlie did really well shooting it with Mark, he had a pretty good aim for his first time.  That day was nice and relaxing.  We didn't have anywhere to go until 5:00 so we ate breakfast, played, ate lunch, watched a show, took a nap, cleaned up, and got ready to go to Cami's for dinner.  

Cami's house also ended in a talent show with singing and dancing cousins with a dance party finale by all the littles.  It was pretty entertaining!!

Gifts from grandpa.

Entertainment by the twin 2 year olds.  Scarlett was hilarious dancing in her underwear.

Christmas songs by the 5 year old triplets.  They all have the same kindergarten teacher.  Kenya kept getting after Knox because he wasn't doing the actions to "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus."

And the dance party...

Another memorable Christmas!

Christmas Eve

 We had our traditional bowling fest with the Poulson side this year at Boondocks.  We had to wait for an hour to get our lanes together but since we were at Boondocks it was fine, we just ate lunch and let the kids play games until our lanes were available.  Then we had an hour of fun filled bowling.  The kids loved it, I loved the tiny bowling shoes Leila got to wear.  Charlie lost by 1 point to Sailor on the older kids lane and Mark won on our lane, not sure about the third lane but it was probably Luke, he is the bowling professional. :)

The triplets, Kenya, Greta and Knox and the older cousins.

Love the pose she kept giving me.  Look at those tiny bowling shoes.

We had Mark's family over for Christmas Eve dinner that night.  It ended with a little talent show of my kids singing all the Christmas songs they learned at school this year.  Leila wanted in on the action and got up a few times when they were done to sing "Twinkle Twinkle" or as she says "Winkle Winkle"  she knows the melody really well but doesn't get very many words right.  It was pretty cute.

The kids opened up their traditional Christmas Eve pajamas and we got them to bed around 10 I believe.  We noticed Santa came later that night so I took a few pictures of what was left for the kids under the tree.  He ate our cookies, answered Charlie's questions (sort of) and left a little note for the kids.

Sunday Best

The girls in their new Christmas dresses, I might have given up on getting Charlie to wear anything else than his suit.  We'll have to settle for a Christmas tie I think.  Kenya was giving me some attitude and didn't want to smile.  By the time I got her to Leila was done standing still.  I love that she's playing with her dress though.  When I put it on her she said "pretty!"  and started twirling around.  Last year Kenya was full on crying in the picture so this is a step up. :) Love these little cuties.

Ice Skating

There is a little ice skating rink at Station Park that we took the kids too with the Nixon's.  They had so much fun!  We didn't head over until 7:00 on a school night so it cleared out pretty quick and by 8:00 we had the rink to ourselves.  We had to drag the kids off the rink.  Kenya said she wanted to live there she loved it so much. Mark ended up taking them to the rec center that weekend too because they kept begging to go ice skating again.  

Leila and I just watched but she loved when Mark would hold her and skate around with her.  She ran around with Luke, they were so cute together.