Merry Christmas - 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We spent a lot of great time with family and friends, enjoyed each other, and of course, were spoiled rotten!!

We hope you all had a wonderful Holiday as well and pray you all have the best year ever!!

Aah, the excitement of Christmas Morning. It's so fun to have young kids to make it magical! Cooper was just so excited and happy about everything. It's so nice to be appreciated!

The kids in their Christmas PJ's

Some of the absolute best gifts are from our kids!! Cambrie made this picture collage for us - what a treasure!

Cam is so thoughtful and gave Conlie a box FULL of books that she has been begging for. It was pretty selfless for Cam to give up so many books for her sister but she is so sweet that way.

Chon and I (along with the great help of our friends Sam and Jen) took on a fun project and made a bed for Cambrie's American Girl doll. It was surprising how much work it was but it was so much fun! I was so excited to give it to her. And also, a little confession, I was pretty proud of us too! We aren't known for being crafty but we pulled this one off. There were many nights spent up til wee hours of the morning getting this one done but it was so worth it!

The Mayhem!!

Cons and her Unicorn Pillow pet from Grandma and Grandpa. She was sooo excited!!

Grandma and Grandpa Warlaumont with the kids

Londyn and Cambrie

Grandpa, Cambrie and Londyn

It has become a tradition for Chon's family to go to "The Dragon" restaurant each Christmas. It's a little different that what I am used to but it is very nice to see Chon's family and for the kids to hang out with their cousins and aunts and uncles.

Chon's Family

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

As the song goes..."These are a few of my favorite things". Well, a few of my favorite things happen to occur at Christmas time. Here goes:

** Family
** Humor
** Mrs. Cavanaugh's Light Orange Cremes
** My Grandma's Christmas Eve Party
** The "personalized" gifts my Grandma Gives
** Silly Kids
** Good Food
All of these favorites of mine are shown in the following pictures and words.

The Whole Family. This is the first time we have ALL been together for several years (maybe 5). It was really great for everyone to be together.

Every Christmas Eve, my grandma gives some kind of cute little gift to each of us. There's 28 of us so that's a lot of people to buy for. She has an amazing talent for finding just the perfect thing for each of us. She knows us so well and hits it right on the money EVERY time. I know she spends probably most of the year doing this. She travels all over the place to find just the right things. Here's what our family got this year. Just to give an example of how these match our personalities I wanted to share the sayings on some of them just in case it doesn't show well in the picture.

Carrie's - "Lord, if you can't make me skinny, make my friends fat."
Chon's - "So many buffet's, so little time"
Cambrie's - "Don't give me your attitude, I already have one"
Cooper, Conlie and Cannon's are self explanatory.
If you know us, these are perfect.

I love my grandma and grandpa for this. I know she thinks they are silly little things but they mean so much because she spends so much time on them and puts so much love into them.

Katelyn and Cambrie in their cute Christmas Clothes

"The Feast"

Cooper, Ammon, Ruby, Cambrie, Katelyn

Derrick and Hollie...sorry caught them with their mouths full!

Brian, Brittany, Monte, Megan, Gayle

Matt, Dad, Kurt, Rose (Matt's Mom), Mindi

The kitchen help! I wish they could sit down and enjoy a little more but these three are always up bustling around making sure everything and everyone is ok. We appreciate it!

Conlie and Noah

The next two pictures would be way better if they were videos because this crazy little Santa hat did a little song and dance. You should have seen us...what nuts!!

I have no idea how this one got started but 8 or 9 years ago, Cooper and Colten got ahold of a bag of clothes pins and just thought it was hilarious to pin them on Grandpa Gailey. They were only 2 or 3 years old at the time. For the longest time, each time we would visit, out would come the clothes pins onto grandpa's shirt. It finally died off a couple years ago...until tonight. They brought back the fun and games again except they pinned them on every unsuspecting victim they could find. Grandpa is such a great sport about it even thought I really think it drives him crazy in side. The funniest part of this story is everyone was laughing it up, especially my mom, but little did she know she was getting attacked, little by little, with clothes pins. You can see below in the photos, it started up with just a couple and ended up with 13 pins hanging from her sweater and she truly didn't know. The boys got the BIGGEST kick out of it! It was so funny to watch them.

Clothespin #1 (Grandpa Gailey)

Clothespin #2 (Kurt)

Clothespins #3-15 (Mom/Grandma)

This is one tradition I hope always stays. I don't know how long we have been enjoying Mrs. Cavanaugh's Chocolates but it's been a long time. The Orange Creme's are my absolute favorite and Grandma Gailey always provides plenty of them for the party.

"It's Christmas...Now What Are We Gonna Do?...We're Going To Disneyland!!!"

We decided to surprise the kids with a trip to Disneyland for Christmas. We were so excited to let them know, we gave the tickets to them on Christmas Eve, a day early! We aren't going quite yet so I made little certificates for them. I was so excited to see the reaction. They were kind of speechless for a few minutes then they got all giddy and crazy. I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it!

As you can see Cannon couldn't care less!!

This is the speechless part!

Kids Christmas Artwork

I ABSOLUTELY love the artwork my kids create! They make so many wonderful things and I really enjoy them. It is however, a bit difficult to keep them all so on occasion I think I will take pictures of them and blog them so that I can have them in the books I intend to publish at the end of each year. I do have a large box with special art but it is growing bigger and with 4 kiddos who make wonderful creations, it is getting harder to store them.

Love ya kids!!! I appreciate everything you do!

Cooper's Poinsettia
I really appreciated this one because I actually remember making something very similar when I was a kid

Conlie's Snowglobe

Cambrie's "Stained-Glass"

Snow Fun!

We woke up to snow this morning....perfect snowball, snowman making snow, that is! Coop and Cam took advantage of the situation and made a couple of creations. They made a really big snowman (as tall as Cooper) and then Coop made a little chair to get some R&R after all the hard work.

Cheese!! - We're Both Missing Teeth

So, what are the chances that two kids in the same family would lose teeth on the very same day? I'm thinking it's pretty slim but Coop and Cam did it today! Guess we're keeping the tooth fairy busy tonight!

Here's the pic of the cheesy grin without one of their teeth. The angle doesn't show Cam's gap but it's there for sure! We have this cute little tooth pillow that the kids put their lost tooth in and then the tooth fairy replaces it with the moo-la. Coop lost his tooth first so Cam had to settle with an old-fashioned envelope.

Say "stinky feet"!!

McKay-Dee Hospital Service Awards Dinner

A couple weeks ago, we were able to attend a Service Award Dinner for employees who have worked at McKay-Dee for 20 years or more. Chon is at 22 years so now we get invited every year. They had a nice dinner and program for us to enjoy. It's hard to believe that I have worked there for 17 years as well. Am I really old enough to have worked anywhere for 17 years? Wow!! In addition to us both working there, it's sort of our life since we met there, and all four of our kids were born there, and between us, we are friends with at least half of the people that work there. We are grateful to have stable employment at a great place.

This is our picture they took of us at the dinner.
(Kind of takes you back to Prom days, eh?)

Indoor Soccer - Go Red Devils!!

Today was the last day of this session of Indoor Soccer so I wanted to snap a few pictures. Cooper loves soccer and does a great job and we are very proud of him. He has improved so much over the last year and it's just a lot of fun to go and watch the games. This was a really fun and intense game. They were pretty evenly matched and our team really held their own especially since the team they played is in a higher division. They won 5 to 2. Great job Red Devils!!

I'm not a great photographer but I have realized I am a HORRIBLE action photographer as you can see in these pics and the ones of the girls' dance recital...Anyone out there with any tips, let me know!!

I almost missed the shot but his is one of Coop slammin' the ball!

Intensity from the sidelines!

Team meeting after the game. His coach, Eric, on the right with the black hat is really great with the kids. We appreciate what he is teaching them. Also, Linda, the team manager does an amazing job of keeping us all informed and organized and scheduled. She does a fabulous job and I certainly wouldn't want that responsibility.