Happy Holidays

I'm finally posting about the holidays. We did so many fun things and took so many pictures that I can't even choose what to talk about and what pics to use. So instead I'm not using any pictures.
Our Christmas was sooo much fun! Our kids were so excited the night before I didn't think they would sleep! But they did, and we didn't get up until 6 am! The kids loved what they got and we have spent many hours since playing Mario Kart and Lego Star Wars on the Wii.
It was so fun to see ALL my family! It was the first time in eight years that my entire family was together. It was cause for much celebration and pandemonium! With 8 couples (including my parents) and 23 grandkids it was craziness, but soooo fun! We had family pictures taken which amazingly went very smoothly! I thought it would be tough to get us all looking at the camera at the same time, let alone smiling, but thanks to photo shop, my mom was able to get a good picture.
Although I hate when the holidays are over, it is nice to be on a normal schedule again. It was hard to see all my family leave again too, but at least we know it won't be 8 years before we're all together again! See you all in 6 months!

Smiles

Owen was full of smiles today, and even though I was holding him and trying to work the camera I think we got some good ones! I love when my babies start smiling!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We went to my parent's house in Lehi along with my sister Kelli and brother Rich and their families. We missed the rest of our family, but being small(er) in numbers allowed us to do something we might not have done with a bigger group. After eating our huge and delicious feast we made gingerbread houses with the "younger" kids. The older boys were too old for that, so they went over to the church to play a little B-ball. We had tons of candy and the kids spent way more time on their houses than I ever thought they would. It was lots of fun and made for good memories!

Alli and her house.

Owen snoozing away. He's such a good baby!

The masterpieces

Taylor and Caden decorated themselves too!

They are Rudolph if you can't tell!

Taylor and his house.

Caden

Awesome Tradition

Matt's parents have the best tradition ever! It all started with his dad and grandparents and they have carried on the tradition with our kids. Every Christmas season they take all the grandkids for a sleepover and have dinner and a movie with them and they either buy or make us a present. Then it gives us a chance to go Christmas shopping without our kids. So they did this the day after Thanksgiving this year and they had so much fun! And so did Matt and I! Of course we had Owen, but he just slept in his carseat while we shopped. When we went to get the kids today they were all wearing new matching pj's and had a snowglobe with a picture of all four of them inside as a gift for us. Our kids are so lucky to have such great grandparents!! Thanks Mark and April!!

Blessing Day

We blessed Owen on Sunday and everything turned out much better than I had hoped for! I worried about fitting both Matt's and my family in our house and about the dinner turning out okay, but everything turned out perfect. The blessing itself was great, as always, and I'm very thankful I have a husband who can bless our kids. All in all it was a wonderful day.

This is a picture of all our boys in their blessing outfits. I thought Owen looked like Caden when he was a baby until I compared these pictures. Now, I don't think any of them look alike! Caden and Taylor are the ones in the double frame (Caden on the top, Taylor on the bottom) and Owen is in the single frame. They were all taken at Kiddie Kandids.
Here is our little man. We had a different blessing outfit for him, but it was too big and we couldn't wait for him to grown into it, so he wore Taylor's.

Dad, Taylor, and Owen

Dad and Owen

Mom and Owen

Alli and Owen

Caden and Owen

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Today we took the kids to see Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. If you liked the first Madagascar, you'll probably like this one too. Matt and I laughed...probably a little too hard. Sleep deprivation will do that to you! With four kids, one being a newborn and the other three having had the stomach flu all week, sleep deprivation is inevitable. But, on the bright side, it made for one funny cartoon and a nice afternoon OUT with the fam! I have to say the penguins were my favorite, and the Alec Baldwin lion...I'm laughing just thinking about it! Oh yes, I need some sleep all right! I highly recommend it...but if you don't have young kids who keep you up at night, you may want to try staying up all night the night before you plan on seeing it! It will just make your movie previewing experience all that much better!

Halloween...Finally!!

So, as you can tell...these first two pictures have nothing to do with Halloween but I just thought they were cute.

Alli loves Owen! She has been sick for the last three days and it is killing her not being able to hold and kiss Owen. She is a really good big sister!
I love this picture of Owen in his carseat. He is getting so big, which makes me happy and sad all at the same time. He will be one month old on Sunday!

Here are Alli, Caden, and Taylor on their way out to go trick-or-treating. Alli is Miley Cyrus, Caden is Indiana Jones, and Taylor is a pirate.

This is how Owen and I went trick-or-treating. This little sling kept him nice and snuggy.

I know you can't see Owen's Halloween outfit in this picture...but I thought it was a cute closeup of his face.


Owen with his Halloween loot. If you look closely you can see he is holding a tootsie roll.

Isn't it nice how I have several pictures of Owen and only one of all my other kids? That's kind of how it goes with a baby, right?