Aunt Kayla's baby shower...

We had a baby shower for my little sister while she was here for Christmas. It was so much fun. Angie, her mother in law, and I threw it for her up at my dads house. It was so much fun decking his house all out in pink! :) Angie is excited, she has four boys; this will be the first official Croskrey girl in their family! :) (can you say spoiled!) Also, Angie is so talented and cutesie, I knew that things would turn out great for the shower. Here we are filling up the balloons. You can be sure that Carter was right there just WAITING to get his hands on one of those babies! :)

Our cousins, Kristin & Stormee drove all the way up just for the shower! Love these girls so much! :)

I decided to do a craft instead of play games. That way everyone could just hang out and eat and chat or chat and do a craft. My mom and I went to Hobby Lobby and just got a ton of stuff to make bows for baby Viv. (We got used to calling her baby Viv, because her name was almost 100% sure of being Vivian, now they aren't so sure about the name, but we still call her that!) :) Anyway, the bows were to make for Kayla for her to take home, but we had SO much stuff, a lot of people were able to make some for themselves, which was just fine!

The gift table. My mom always does a huge gift basket for each of us at our showers-for the first babies. Thats that huge thing at the back of the table. Mine for Tucker was so cute, a little wagon full of a few boy items. Kelli's for Keyton was a little bigger, Angie's for Carter was even bigger and now Kayla's for Vivian was HUGE. The biggest thing I have ever seen! And she had to get it all back to Milwaukee! :) They had to get all of this back to Milwaukee-they actually did it, which I was pretty shocked about!

The food table. I love my dads marlin that he caught in Mexico on the wall behind the food. It totally adds that feminine touch! :)

We had a great spread, if I do say so myself! :) Thanks for the help everyone!

Kayla's mother in law made these delicious and totally cute cupcakes! She is SO talented! Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache & Vanilla frosting. Divine! They even say, 'it's a girl' but you can't read it in the picture.

And she also made these cute 'Thank you' jars. Filled with pink m&m's. And you can't see it in the picture, but each jar had a little charm with baby foot prints on it! So cute!

Kayla and some of her friends...

Stormee & Kristin...

Me & the Taters...

The preggers...

She is so cute pregnant! Here huge belly sticking out like a basket ball. You can't even tell she is pregnant from behind! She is due to have her baby girl on February 17th, which is Taylor Rae's birthday. I am praying that she has her on that day. I would love for them to be birthday twinners, exactly a year apart. But something tells me that she will come early.

I am so jealous of this quilt! I love it! :) Another Mother in law made quilt! :)

The boys were banned from this party, but since my uncle drove my aunt all the way up here and didn't really have anywhere to go during the party they all stayed. Seriously, my Uncle Scott, Ben, Tucker, Nathan, Carter & Jason all went downstairs and watched football and ordered a pizza while all of us ladies were upstairs. It was actually fun having them here. Every now and then a child would wander upstairs and get some attention.

Grandma & Carter...

My Aunt Kathy, Angie, Nathan & Kayla. Aunt Kathy drove all the way up just for the shower! I am so glad she did, it was SO good to see her! We love Aunt Kathy!

Amanda, Angie & Kayla...

Aunt Kathy & my mom...

Me and my mommy and my sissy! After the party was over and the clean up was finally done, we were ready to go home and relax! :) (don't you love my sponge bob band aid?) :)

Ok, now you can officially come, baby V! :)

Benny-Boo's birthday...

Ok, it really bothers Ben when I call him that, so I rarely ever do, but this is my blog dang it! :) (ok, the name bothers me too, but I have to do it every now and then!) :) Either way, my dear, sweet, loving, talented and super sexy husband turned the big 31! (He will like that last one!) Ben's birthday falls at that bad birthday time. The week after Christmas! When we are all partied out and exhausted! I feel for him. He is always so good at making my day SO great, while his are usually pretty lame, I'll be honest! It's usually, ' Here Ben, here's breakfast in bed and you get to pick where we go for dinner.' Or 'Oh, your Birthday present, you opened it on Christmas, I didn't tell you?'

This year was no different, Breakfast in bed. This year he at least got to share it with TWO little munchkins also having their breakfasts in bed...

We went to Twigs for dinner. ALL OF US! They gave us the special room where we wouldn't bother any of their other patrons. 5 kids under the age of 4 gets a little crazy at restaurants.

Me and my handsome man...

Allen, Kelli & Keyton gave Ben this pack of fake mustaches! Now he can have a different type of mustache for every day of the week! Lucky dog! :) Keyton loves him some Uncle Ben and had to sit by him and get a picture with him! :)

They had to try on the mustaches right away!

They look pretty good to me! :) PS... Ben has been practicing wearing contacts for when we go to Hawaii, so he doesn't have to wear his glasses and he can see while in the water. I think he looks so good without glasses. He things he looks funny without something on his face. What do you think? Anyway...

Happy Birthday Ben! Here's to many many many more Birthday celebrations for my favorite man! I love you!

Grandma got ran over by a reindeer...

Coming home to our house two days after Christmas. Oh the joys of having divorced parents! :) (joking!) So so so many Christmases! My mom came up the very next day and we had ANOTHER Christmas with her at our house! :) We always get so spoiled by my mom, or I should say, my kids always get so spoiled by my mom. We do too, though! :)

It was a great day! We spent the morning and early afternoon just hanging out at our house. Finger foods were out, delicious food was being made (Taco soup!), the kids were playing, movies were being watched, And all sorts of hand held electronic devices were being played with or watched or checked, or whatever you do with them. It was so nice just being together!

The whole gang...

Tucker opening his cool remote control car from Grandma. I'm not sure why the look on his face, but notice the tank top over the shirt! Tuckers new discovery that makes him so happy that he can wear tank tops in the winter time. One quick funny story about this tank top obsessed boy. We were at Old Navy, I think right after Thanksgiving sometime. I wanted to get him a Christmas sweater vest. I was trying to decide between two of them while Tucker was playing with something in the cart. Finally I asked him which one he liked better, he looked up at them, and got a huge grin on his face and said, 'is that a tank top I can wear in the winter time?' He was so excited! :) I'm not sure what I am going to do with this tank top obsessed little boy! :)

The absolute HIT of the day for Tucker was his pillow pet from Grandma. I thought that Tucker was so silly for wanting one of these so bad. Apparently every kid his age was obsessed with them this holiday season. It seems like every one of my friends and every blog I have read their kids wanted one so bad or got one for Christmas. Thank goodness for Grandma pulling through for us! I am not much of a stuffed animal person, so they usually aren't on my radar for gifts for my children. The look on his face was priceless! :) Thank you Grandma!

That night, all ready for bed with his new pillow pet!

I got these pj's for Taylor and she was apparently VERY excited to wear them! :)

My mom stayed through the week for my sisters baby shower and we always have lots of fun when Grandma's here! :) Here is grandma modeling the pretty bows that we made for Kayla. :)

And playing with Tucker and Taylor, which they love! Or I should say Buzz light year and Taylor. I got Tucker a tub full of costumes for him for Christmas. After halloween he loved wearing his spiderman costume so much, I got a whole bunch on clearance. He got: Batman, Buzz Light Year, a Ninja, and a Transformer. He wears them all the time!

Thanks Grandma for everything! Remember next year, we are scaling back a bit! :) We love you and appreciate EVERYTHING!

Christmas with Papa...

The day after Christmas we got together with my siblings to celebrate Christmas with my dad. He had just gotten home from Alaska, but of course spoiled us all!

Do you notice something missing in the picture below?

Ummm....maybe a Christmas tree! He got home so close to Christmas this year and he always has so much work to do right when he gets home and with Christmas shopping to do, he didn't even get his tree up! He had to go back to Alaska 3 days after Christmas, so he decided to forgo the tree this year! :) All of the presents were just piled up where the Christmas tree usually is! :) Silly father!

My dad got all the boys 'Deadliest Catch' beanies. Ben's was huge on his head, but Allen's barely fit! :)

Kayla & Jason (and baby V) :)...

Taters and her daddy playing in the wrapping paper...

Carter LOVED the wrapping paper! :)

Aunt Kayla made the most beautiful quilt for Taylor! I love it! Thank you SO much Aunt Kayla! I...I mean, Taylor... absolutely adores it! :)

Kayla & Angie...

Me & my babies...

Tucker has been obsessed with playing on the iphone lately. Kayla & Jason both have one and my mom has a droid and Ben just got a droid. He's obsessed! His favorite game over the holiday's was 'Angry Birds'. I don't know how he picked it up so fast, but he was a pro! {Which is why we don't have a gaming system in our house, it makes me nervous!} We were all looking for him before dinner to say prayer and I found him in the bathroom like this. He had totally snagged someones phone! I snapped this picture really fast from around the corner, that's why it's focused on the door and not on Tucker. :)

And then of course, we all had a delicious meal prepared by my dad who is the best cook ever! It was a great day! Thanks Papa, we love you!

Cassidy always looks annoyed with me! :) She used to like me, I'm not sure what happened!

Christmas day...

Christmas day was the most relaxing/best day of our week! I loved it! I will always reserve this day for just our little family. (as much as I can anyway) No places to go, no things to do but just be together, open some presents, and enjoy each other!

Ben & I have a tradition of wrapping all of the kids gifts on Christmas Eve night together, while watching 'National Lampoons Christmas Vacation' . It is a tradition I love! We've obviously have only really done it three years now, but I look forward to many more years of this with him. Every year as we are wrapping the gifts, I always think to myself that we need to tone down Christmas. I really really REALLY love shopping for my kids and getting them toys and gifts and presents. I love researching toys, and playing with toys with Tucker and I love that he enjoys so many things. But I don't love that he expects to get everything he wants on Christmas day! This year one of my friends posted on her blog that she goes by this guideline while shopping for her kids for Christmas; she gets them:

Something they WANT, something they NEED, something to WEAR and something to READ. I loved that! I think that Ben and I are going to start adapting that rule into our home during Christmas each year. I think it is perfect! It is something that I really will need to work on! But I have loved the excitement and wonder and sparkle that has been on Tuckers face this holiday season. There is nothing better than celebrating the holiday's with a child. I love it! I really need to be better at reminding my children the true meaning of Christmas. It is so easy to get caught up in the commercialized version, which can be great, but obviously it is more important to remember the REASON we are celebrating. I have read so many great ideas this year on my friends blogs to introduce the Spirit into Christmas better in our home. I hope to implement these things next year, when Tucker is a little older and maybe able to understand things a little better. This year he was ALL about Santa and Presents. And I just couldn't help but let him get caught up in it, what 4 year old doesn't deserve the wonder and excitement of Santa and elves and magical flying reindeer. I love it! Anyway... Our Christmas was fabulous. The day was perfect!

Here is our tree on Christmas Eve as Ben & I were finally going to bed... I love Christmas Eve. Tucker left cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. :)

Tucker playing with his new shake-n-go extreme race track!

OOps! Santa didn't realize that these were skinny jeans for men. Those of you who know Ben know that he is NOT a skinny jeans wearing type of guy! :)

Taters with her loot! :) I love that pretty face!

Moon sand is so much fun! Moon sand is so messy! :)

Taylor gave me a great Christmas present by pooping on my couch! Yea! :) Thanks Taylor, I really appreciated it! :)

The rest of the day was spent just playing together and watching movies together and having fun! Oh, and an awkward run in with the missionaries! :) I saw them walking by and yelled out the front door that we could give them a ride. Ben was sleeping, they were REALLY early for their appointment and we just kind of all stood there for a few minutes not really knowing what to do. Anyway, I guess you had to be there! :) (We love the missionaries!- We just don't know these ones very well and I don't think that they had a clue who I was, so maybe they thought I was a potential investigator?) :) a little awkward! :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

I love my little family! The rest of our week was so crazy and hectic, I am so glad that we had this one day to ourselves. Sunday we had Christmas with my dad and family. Monday we had Christmas with my mom and family. Tuesday was Ben's birthday, Thursday was my sisters baby shower and then Friday was New years eve! It was a crazy hectic and busy week with tons and tons of family & friends. And I have lots and lots of pictures to post, so stay tuned! :)