December and Christmas 2013

 

I've been slacking big-time on blogging this past year.

As a result, my posts mostly consist of lots of pictures and few words

so I can get caught up.

 

This is probably going to be the most picture-heavy

blog post that I've ever written!

Get your scroll finger ready!

 

 

One of our favorite Sunday afternoon rituals

Cookie making!

 

 

Early in the month, we went to the UAF Christmas party.

Anya and Hazel were the only ones who would sit on Santa's lap.

Eli wasn't feeling well and I guess the others

are thinking they are too old now. :(

 

 

This was Hazel's first encounter with Santa Clause

since she came home Christmas Eve last year.

Good thing she's not afraid of ANYONE!

 

As we were leaving, she ran back to Santa for a little goodbye smooch

Creepy?

I don't think he actually kissed her lips.

 

 

Watching Calliou's Christmas after all the big kids left for school. So cute.

 

Bennett went to his first pack meeting since he became a cub scout.

We were a little taken back by how SMALL this group was

compared to our last ward's pack.

Talk about quiet and boring. :)

Hopefully they will get a little more lively as the months pass.

 

 

 

Smoothie mustache.

Early in the month, one of our water heaters in the basement broke

and flooded the family room next to it.

Luckily, Jeremy discovered it when the water had only gone

about 10 feet into the room.

He has lots of experience with basement floods.

Apparently, they had a lot of them as kids.

Good thing for us!

And we were glad that our neighbors had fans

and another neighbor knew how to bypass the broken water heater

with the pipes so that we could have hot water

while we waited for the new water heater to arrive.

We were also very glad this was covered in the Home Warranty

that we had the sellers pay for in our contract a month earlier!

 

 

 

The Three Littles watching a boring kid show. At least it was boring to Miss H.

 

 We had some big snow storms come in early in the month,

dumping a foot or two of snow on the ground.

The boys loved snowboarding and sledding down the hill on the side of our house.

We were glad to see that our yard is even a playground in the winter!



Bennett, his friend Dillan and Eli



Bennett and Max on another day

 

One day, I took a picture one day of what I found

when I opened the laundry chute.

The place where the kids drop their laundry is located in the playroom,

so you never know what you're going to find.

 

 

 

 

An afternoon arm wrestling match between brothers.

 One Monday night, we invited our new neighbors over

to make gingerbread houses.

We're actually the new neighbors, but that's OK. :)

We had so much fun getting to know them better.

 

 

The next Monday night, one of the other families on our street

invited us over. We had Family Night together.

After making fry cakes in their kitchen,

we went downstairs and had a lesson about Christmas

and played some games.

Such great people! I wish I had taken pictures that night.

 

The Sunday before Christmas,

We had my two nearby sisters' families over

for our annual Christmas party.

Some of the Larsens stayed home because they were sick.

But it was so awesome.

We laugh at just how.many.children.

we have between the 3 of us!

The Larsens have nine

We have 7

and the Bachers have 4.

It makes gatherings so much fun!

We really enjoyed entertaining in our new home for the first time.

We look forward to doing this more!

 



Michelle made an amazing upside down gingerbread cake!

Landon and Sam have grown up as such great friends.

Even though they live about an hour's drive apart,

They still spend time together online playing games.

I guess that's one plus to video games, eh?

Man, I can't believe how time just passes you by.

 It seems like they were just little guys a couple of years ago.

 

 

 

The Sunday before Christmas, eating lunch after church. We need to teach this girl some table manners!


 

 On the 23rd, we drove to G&G Fillmore's for our annual family party there.

I don't know what I was thinking, but this was the ONLY picture I took there,

or at the Halling lunch the next day!

 

After the Halling party, we drove home and watched

Monsters University (a gift from the grandparents) together,

then the kiddos all went to bed. Santa came later that night!

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Morning!

 

 

A weekend trip to Dixie

 

The day after Christmas, we all hopped in our cars

(We have to take two when all of us go somewhere.)

and headed to St. George.

We rented a condo there

and enjoyed 3 days with G&G Hinton,

and the St. George cousins.

The Larsens and Bachers came down the next day, too!

 

There's never a trip to STG without a trip to Chuck-a-Rama.

A nice sunny afternoon eating suckers at Judd's Candy Store

There's a new FREE Children's Museum in STG. It's awesome for little ones!

 

 

 



It felt sooooo good to leave the inversion for a few days 

and enjoy some sunshine! 

 

My high school friend, Julie and her kids

came and met me while we are at the park.

Her kids are so big now!

We had fun reconnecting again.

It's been a few years since we've seen each other.

Julies family is one of the ones who inspired us to adopt internationally.

They were in the process of adopting Gracie from China

when we started thinking about it.

I wish I had taken a picture of her cute kids!

 

 

And that takes us to the last Sunday in December!

We attended our nephew, Jordan's missionary homecoming talk

at their ward in Heber. Jordan's talk was amazing.

He grew up so much during those 2 years that he

served the Lord in Argentina.

We're proud of him and are thankful for his example

to us and our children.

 

Here's a picture of Eli and Anya at their church as we waited for everyone to come out.

Cutie Patooties.

 

 



Anya and Hazel wore their Russian dresses to church two of the days in December. Eli looked pretty cute, too.



New Years Eve at the Cabin

 

This year, we celebrated our 20th year

at the Brady's Cabin in Midway

With the "Cabin Crew."

Actually, it was my 19th year.

I was on my mission the first year they all went.

Jeremy was the only one there who wasn't

engaged or married that year.
The next year, we were all newlyweds.
Jeremy and I were the last of the group to get married
and the first to have a baby. :)
And we now have the MOST children.
Everyone else has 5 or less.

 

 

The cute teen girlies. Sadie says this is officially her last year at the cabin. She was missing the big stake dance back home, and she said everyone at the cabin was either OLD or annoying little kids. Ha ha.

The Bradys' first selfie of the year.

Scott, the living miracle and his miracle baby

(they found out Terri was pregnant weeks after Scott's bike accident.

Isn't she just the yummiest little thing ever? I love her so much!

 

A few of us brought pictures from past years

and we looked at them on a big screen.

 

We always take a group picture at the fireplace.

I need to find one from our early years.

My how we have all changed! 

 

This is the view that has greeted us every January first for the last 20 years.

It makes me want to do yoga and sit and meditate.

What a perfect sight to bring in each new year.

 

OK, the kids are out of school today and it's 2:00 pm

and we're all still in our pajamas! .

That took forever! This is why it's so hard to blog. 

The rest of the house/family falls apart. 

You should see the pile of dishes in the sink

that I have to help Max do because our dishwasher just broke.

 

I went back and read some of our 2008 blog book the other day.

It reminded me how much I miss writing

and how FAST time is flying and the kids are growing up.

This will be our last year with all 7 kids at home.

Landon is planning to leave this summer/fall for a mission.

So.... my goal this year is to write an entry every week!

So now you know my goal and I have to stick to it!

 

Happy 2014!