Olivia is HERE!! and Julia and Tim and Tanya and Andy and DEVIN!!

So much fun!! Here are a few photos and a few tidbits to hopefully help us remember what happened..."The Devin doll on the bed", boys' fun b-ball shooting game, grandma telling the kiddos about the lobsters before cooking them...playing the "guess my number" game, Devin trying to get to everyone and figuring out who we all are, Barney, new phones :)

...staying up late playing games and watching movies, LOVED that one movie Tim told us about...cooking yummy food, Olivia's sleep habits, tub time, Olivia...wait...wait...wait...

Merry Christmas!!

Fun with the Gale side! Dinner, games and lots of laughs!!

Christmas Eve, all tucked in a wrapped up!!

...a few decorations, our "rented" jammie photo, and yummy Christmas breakfast!!

December happenings...

Honor-roll assembly...

Christmas tree and ward party...Mikenna was refusing to get in the photo with Santa, so with a bit of grandparent intervention...

and the o-so-fun gingerbread houses!!

oh the things you can do when no one is watching...

So, the majority of toys are downstairs...where I can't really monitor unless I am downstairs with them. The other day, Mikenna and Kellan were playing downstairs and the above is what I found.

I love that they are actually "playing" with the doll house now. Well...mostly...before, Kassi would destroy things on it (this was when she was 2) poke out the windows, hang on pieces until they broke off, picked off the window panes, running her fingers down the stair rail pickets to bust them off...now...it's the Polly's that are "falling" apart and the furniture legs that keep "breaking off".

In the house...three

In the house...two

In the house...one

...smile...

We've been visiting with a few orthos these past few weeks...a lot of ideas....a lot of money...too many teeth...

...the move out...

...the plan...

Divide and conquer...kind of...After we were all sufficiently full, everyone gathered at mom & dad's to look over black Friday ads...the kiddos ran around getting themselves ready for a big sleepover!! Ali, Mike and I headed out at 10:00 to Toys R Us, only to turn around the line wrapped all the way around to Old Country Buffet!! I think I heard the line was 2 hours long!! Aaron & Ali headed out around midnight to try and score some things at Walmart...Mike shopped online and got most of his things through the various store websites...I woke up early and went with Ted and Stacy to Target...I can't believe the number of people that were out!! Mike picked me up at Lowe's later...off to Sears, Toys R Us (again...no line this time :) then off to Freddies for the bit 1/2 off sock sale. Then home to nap...Later out to JoAnns and Michael's...boy...I don't think I've done this much shopping in one day. Don't think I'll do it again either :)

We got donuts for the kids in the morning to try to squeeze in a few more minutes of sleep! It was a super fun weekend with those people who are on our "Most Thankful For" list. Thanks for all the fun!

...the beginnings of an igloo...

...a cousin stopover...

Finally...I let them go out in the snow...

....and they come in with runny noses and coughs over the next few days...