Cousins Christmas Party

Every Christmas since my parents returned from their mission they've hosted a Cousin's Christmas Party for all their grand kids who are out of diapers. It's always a big hit and the kids love it!

Mom and dad with the grand kids who could attend

Their bags of gifts, etc...

Preston was a little stinker and refused to participate until the gifts were handed out at the end!

Dad telling the story of Jesus/Christmas

The tables set up

The crafts they made

Listening to Grandpa

Making Christmas Tree Cupcakes.

Making the crafts

Opening their gifts

And thanking Grandpa and Grandma

Soon after we arrived to pick up our kids, there was a family emergency so my parents left to take care of things and we stayed with the kids. Nick helped the boys transform their transformers and get batteries in their cars/trucks, etc. It's nice to have a handy man around!

Then the other parents arrived....

I tried to help Amelia do a Christmas Tree Cupcake, but I had cleaned up a bit before she arrived and accidentally threw away the frosting. bummer...so I gave her the one grandma made.

I took Tyler and helped him open his gifts from grandma and grandpa

Once they were opened, he loved playing with them.

It was a fun time and Nick and I were able to get all our Christmas shopping done during the party and just spend some much needed alone time together! It was wonderful! :-)

Thanks mom and dad!!!

Christmas Cookies

Finally this year we made treats to give out to our neighbors. I got the idea from Betsie to make these melted snowman cookies. This is what they are "supposed to" look like....

Unfortunately, it was a little bit harder for us to make them look that good, but I think ours had more character. ;-)

Snowman

We had a bunch of snow so Nick and the kids went out and built a snowman while I was at work. Pretty great job! :-)

My hair... over the last year and a half I went from blonde, to brown, to both, and back to blonde again...that's a lot of chemicals in my hair and a lot of damage resulted! My hair felt like sandpaper and it would break and fall out and just looked horrible! Finally I decided--after trying to grow it out--to get it cut when I went to get it colored again. Nick's cousin Lindsay does my hair and does such a great job! I love how she cut it this time. :-) My hair, although it's a lot shorter now, looks so much healthier and feels so much healthier too! I'm happy with it! :-)

Random pics

Preston wrapped a "present" for me and wrote on it with permanent marker and I guess put it against his face. That resulted in this little black mark above his lip...Nick was there and took this picture. He looks like Hitler.... but my little man is still adorable!

Nick's Aunt Lori, uncle Dean, and their kids were in town for Isaac's blessing at church (David and Lucy's first baby). We went to Juli's for lunch after the blessing and I got to see Landon (Michael and Aubree's son) again and meet Isaac and hold him for a bit! I absolutely love little babies!!! I could hold them all day long!

My kids watching The Gruffalo--a tv christmas movie. They're so cute!

We got a free elliptical--thanks to Jana for helping us get it. It's pretty old and had been on the owner's front porch for a long time, but it works and the kids and I have been having fun using it. And hey, it was free! :-)