The Holiday Season

One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is all the little traditions and activities that you get to do that lead up to the big day.  We were able to do a few here and there this year.

We read Christmas books with cousins (or whatever you would call your mom's cousin's grandkids)

We made Christmas ornaments for Kent to hang on the tree at preschool.

We rode the Front Runner train down to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square.

Grandpa Mills met us there.

We had a little visit with Santa and his reindeer.  Addy loved the reindeer (she cried when we pulled her away), but...

hated Santa.

We bundled up...

to watch Kent's preschool class sing at the Christmas Village in downtown Ogden.  It was so cold we didn't even get to enjoy the village, we went straight home.

I made these with my nursery class at church.  We used the kids' footprints as the manger (we only had tears from two kids, but forced them anyway).  The star and baby Jesus have velcro on the back so the kids could take them on and off.  

 Last but not least, we rescued this lost dog and took him to the shelter.  He was perhaps the friendliest dog I have ever met, jumped right in the backseat with the kids.  However, he was rather stinky, mangy, and his fur was extremely matted.  I wish people took better care of their pets, or that their parents did if for them ;)

Doesn't everyone...

watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the table and 

pretend to cook in the (bleached) kid potty?

Take 1 and 2 and 3...

Nothing irritates my dad more than trying to get the 4 grandkids to all look at the camera and smile at the same time.  When Rachel was here before Thanksgiving we took the kids to the park.  We tried our luck at getting a picture of all 4.  Here is the outcome... (Don't mind Addy's large coat.  I like to buy clothes in advance to get them cheaper, i.e. I buy Addy's winter wardrobe for next winter this year on clearance.  It works beautifully for Kent, however Addy is a lot smaller than I expected, hence the large coat and rolled up pants, what can you do?).

Take 1 (Screaming boys)

Take 2 (Something's funny)

Take 3 (Who is this girl sitting next to me?)

Take 4 (Roar!!!)

Take 5 (McCall's done.)

Our Thanksgiving Break

This past Thanksgiving break we had the opportunity to travel thanks to Ammon's little brother getting married in Spokane.  James is the last sibling of ours to tie the knot, so that means no more family wedding for a while.  We decided that if we were going to drive all the way to Washington that we might as well spend a week there.  We caravanned with Rachel up from Utah the weekend before, which did make the trip go a little faster.  We stopped and stayed the night in Boise with Ammon sister and then made the second half of the trip the next day.  It was nice to switch things up a bit and put both boys in Ammon's car and Rachel and I kept the high maintenance girls with us for part of the trip. When we finally made it home we had a busy week full of lots of family.  My paternal grandparents were also up for the week so we got to spend time with them and of course Ammon's whole family was there as well.  None of these pictures I took myself, I guess that happens when everyone has a nicer camera than you, so thank you Dad, Rachel and Derek for the pics.  

Aunt Rachel prepared a craft for the boys, making turkeys.

Can you tell which one the boys got help with?

These two always have a good time when they are together.

 A lap-full of kids, who knows where McCall is.

 The great-grandparents with 2 of their 3 grandkids and all their great-grandchildren.

Cousins in matching outfits thanks to Grandma.

Family picture since we were all dressed up for the wedding.

 Ammon helping Addy demonstrate her modeling skills.  

Kent showing off his gift that he got during the cousin gift exchange, he couldn't have been happier.

After the cousin gift exchange we stuck all the kids in this room with their new gifts while the adults did their white elephant gift exchange.

Wedding day for the happy couple.  Ammon's brothers and sisters have something for people from Pullman/Moscow.  Aubree married Derek who is from Pullman, Ammon married myself of course from Pullman, Jared married Jo who is from Moscow, and James married Annie who is from Pullman.  What are the chances?

Derek got this great picture of our handsome boy.

The whole family, minus Aspen's husband who was busy direction air traffic at the Boise airport.

Brothers

Ammon has a bad habit of escaping all wedding receptions to spend hours decorating the happy couples car, this happened at Lance and Jared's weddings too.  

James with the boy cousins.

Annie with the girl cousins.