Thursday, December 25, 2008

Our Park City Christmas...

Surprise!!! I'm BACK.....and it's STILL Christmas time in my little "blog world"!!! That's what I get for taking such a LONG HIATUS!!!! Wow...I have sooo much to blog now, so I thought I would start off with our christmas trip to Park City since this really has been the post that I have been dreading doing as it was sooo overwhelming for me to just pick a few pix...(hence the long procrastination). But thank goodness for PICASA!!!! It really has saved mine and your life, cuz if you saw how many pix I was just about to individually post you would've written me off for good, never to return to visit....Enjoy.... (p.s. you can click on each collage to enlarge it if you care to.)

This Christmas we were all invited up to my Sister Meghans' beautiful home in Jeremy Ranch, which is in Park City. We were so excited to finally all be together, although a little crazy...with 12 adults and 14 kids in one house YIKES!!!



We had soo much fun driving up to Utah knowing we would soon see the long awaited snow!! It was a beautiful drive and the kids loved having their own little "slumber party" in the back with all their junk food and movies of course!!
The first thing we all did was get our snow gear on and Merrick made snowballs with the snowball maker that grandma had got them, Kristian did what he does best and started shoveling the pile of snow that they had on their back deck, Fischer was dodging Merricks perfectly made snowballs and Campbell made a big fat snowman with Uncle Rob and her cousins Taylor & Bailey.

I absolutely love it when my sisters and I are all together, it is so rare these days that we totally take advantage of it when it happens!! We sit around and laugh, play games, eat lots of baked goodies that we've all made, go shopping, go to dinner, go sledding, go to the movies and we even got to do a "Spa Day" with my Mom while the boys stayed home with the kids! Soo Fun...
The cousins also LOVE being together in one big house!! They made snowmen, went tubing, had snowball fights, watched 3D movies, made forts, took "tubbies" together, reinacted the Christmas Story and dressed up as the live nativity, danced, played Ethan's coveted x-mas gift-The Wii a ton, decorated gingerbread men and houses, played x-mas bingo etc.


Continued below.....

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Park City Christmas cont....

And of course, none of this would be happening if it weren't for my AWESOME MOM & DAD!!!! Thanks again sooo much for making this Christmas sooo very special!! We all LOVE you soo much and appreciate all the fun dinners, kids activities and I should say adult activities, planned events, gifts and endless generosity that you gave us!!!!


We will always Cherish and Remember Our Park City Christmas 2008!!!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Bust Out Your Most Ugliest...

This year we were invited to an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party, which we were so excited to attend!! So of course I ask my Mom (who used to be your "typical" Teacher's Aid) to raid her closet...and these are only a few of the uglies that I "dug" out!! But hey Thanks to my Mom, she pretty much outfitted 1/2 the party!! Here we are striking up our best "Olan Mills" pose in her cute sweaters!! Even the guys benefited from them...You gotta love the "80's maroon" mock turtle neck with 3/4 sleeves 1/2 shirt that I made Kristian wear...Thanks again Mom!!
Here is Pete and Missi Waldron...I love the sewn in x-mas adornment Pete...Oh yeah...I mean newly appointed Bishop!! How crazy is that??? Krissy and Brent Lowe...

Justin and Julie Draeger...
Jared and Erin Munoa...
Todd and Hillary Crump....

Teri and Cheri Phippen.... Heather and Jake Muir...
Derrick and Leslie Scott....
Me and my "Crazy Elf" who I think drank way tooo much NOG that night!! haha (wink wink)

Ally and Nate....Are you serious with that pose Nate?? Remember, your wearing my Mom's "puffy paint" Santa t-shirt and ugly x-mas sweater vest!!!




And who can forget cute Mandy Newbold, who we had to stand in for her MIA husband Dan!! We totally missed you man...BTW Allyson totally took the prize home for "Ugliest Christmas Sweater" (again thanks to my mom) Who would've thought that hearts, cows and sheep walking across that french blue sweater would take 1st place!! Next year that one is mine!!! Thanks again Krissy and Missi for a Great Time that we all will unfortunately (for that crazy "elf") remember forever!! haha

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Santa Came EARLY!!!

This year we were heading up to Park City for Christmas to be with my whole entire family...(An event that I still have yet to post, so stay tuned). So I wrote Santa a note to tell him where we would be and to just deliver their stockings and wait to deliver the rest of their presents to my sister Meghans house in Park City...BTW I love this guy...And I just had to take a picture of my new 9 foot Christmas tree that I waited till after Christmas last year to get and was practically the first in line at 5 in the morning waiting to get "the best deal" around!!

Cami with one of her favorite gifts from Grandma Diane...Yes this thing really sucks out of a sippie cup and pees in her diapers which Campbell loves to change!! Thanks Mom!!
Another winner from Granma Diane and Granpa Bob. Merrick thought she was straight out of "Teen Beat" mag with this stylin' purse!!
Sorry Fish, I don't know what happened here, but this is the only good one I got of you showing off your "loot".And this is one of my most favorite christmas gift of all time!! I finally got the Willow Tree style Nativity Set from My Mom and Dad!! I love it soo much!!My cute Christmas decor which makes my house look soo cozy, I love Christmas time!!


Saturday, December 13, 2008

Christmas with "Amee"...

Before my Mother-in-law Judy left to go back to Boston we decided to have Christmas with her since she wouldn't be with us....

So Santa came a little early this year in the form of an awesome Grandma who my kids call "Amee"...


Campbell was sooo excited about her new Barbie Diamond Castle princess dress that she ran over and gave her Amee the biggest hug!! It was soo cute.Then of course, not another minute was wasted before she had it on and was modeling it all over the house!! She wants to wear that dress everyday now...Thanks Judy!!
We Love you Judy (Amee)!! Thanks for all the fun Christmas presents and spending the last 2 months with us!! We can't wait till you move here!! (wink wink)

Monday, December 8, 2008

Santa's Village!!!

Every year we take our family down to San Diego to see the Christmas lights and a few years ago my Mom discovered this amazing house in Poway which they call Santa's Village! It's this couple who owns the Family Fun Centers in San Diego, and they totally transform their whole house and front & back yard into a winter wonderland!! We LOVE going, it's now become a tradition for us.They have all kinds of huge blow up christmas characters that are lit up in their front yard...I know, I know, that last phrase actually sounded like we were going to a white trash house but it was done with class, I promise.Here we all are trying to get everyone in this group pix, which can be very hard when you have 10 kids who want to all run wild!!This is another one of their amazing decorations that is about as big as a 2 story house!! This pix doesn't do it justice, seriously. They also provide hot cocoa, apple cider and cookies and people who donate their time to work there! Merrick with her cousins Maddie and Catelyn.One of the rooms that were transformed.My cute Mom and Dad.This is basically their living room.Another amazing perk they do here is let each child pick out a toy!! And they have about 20 different bins that are set up with all kinds of toys to choose from!! Seriously..who are these people?? Soo generous!!We know what Cami went for...Cute Little Princess!!





This is what their backyard looks like...you can't see from the pix, but they have a snow machine out there so the snow will fall when you walk through the cute little village.


Me with my sister's Liz and Heather.








And of course Santa and Mrs Clause were there waiting to take the traditional "santa" pix with all of the kids!! Thanks you Santa's Village for a Great time!! See you next year!!