Christmas

Of all the things Brady got for Christmas this shirt and tie was his favorite! He wore it for 2 days and only took it off to have it cleaned! His Mish-Er-Airie shirt he calls it. Sunday was his last day in Nursery so he got all dressed up. He also got a mini Book Of Mormon, which he carried around singing, Follow The Prophet, all day!

Here are my boys opening Zachies walker from Gramma Caren and Papa Neil. He walks Everywhere on it! So great, and it makes him so happy!

Jeff got this Nerf game from Courtney, he loves it!

Here is the Romote Control Puppy Santa brought to Brady, it has the intellect of an 8 week old puppy! Pretty cool. This is the only thing he asked for (since October). When he came into the room he saw it and said to me, "What is it",

me: What do you think?

B: Mote Troll Doggie. Can I have it?

He loves his dog, so do I. It doesn't cry, poop or eat, and you can turn it off. My kind of pet!

Here is Zach in his PJs from Great Grandma Cusick, they fit perfectly and are so cute, THANKS Grandma! Zach and I were the first ones up, so we played in the front room for an hour. He found the last cookie that Santa left, and he ate it....messy but yummy!

We had all the Cusick's here (minus Elder Newel) for Christmas. We spent everyday together, here are the kids opening their PJs.

Ok, so for posterity, here is my run down of our weekend....

Our family arrived Christmas Eve, which was perfect. We had Pizza and just enjoyed our selves. Cusick kids sang Christmas songs to us, which was darling. Traditionally we all (unmarried) get PJs from my Gma Cusick. She was true to form this year and sent PJs for our kids, she actually makes them all, different each year. We love our PJs, so much so that now my mom buys bottoms for all the women! Thanks mom and Grandma!

We have been running our fire place lately so the kids were very converned that Santa was going to get burned on his way in!

Christmas morning we had about half an hour at our house with Coutney's family, which was great, but cut short by a very excited gramma calling to say that Newel was on the phone and we should hurry over! (remember he is in London). We had him for almost 2 hours, all if us taking a turn talking to him. He is doing great and loving life over there!

Over the weekend we painted ceramics, (Colin's were the BEST!) went bowling, ATE, played frizbee golf, went down town to see Mystere, (AWESOME) and sat around laughing.

The best part was one morning Bean and Lainey sat on one kitchen chair eating crackers and milk...they were feeding eachother, in silence, every so often Bean would give her a kiss and Lainey would just smile and keep eating! She chased him around calling out his name, she loved having another kid around when she woke up! She didn't care much for Zach because he pulled her hair!

Have I mentioned that both Courtney and Heidi are pregnant? They are, and it's great, next year we'll have 7 kids running and crying all over the place!

We are all doing well and are trying to get over the Post Christmas Blues! Luckily we are reminded of our Savior and that the true purpose of this Holiday is His life. We are so blessed as a family and so grateful for our health and homes!

Love to you all, and Happy New Year.

Snow Part Deux

I know it doesn't look like much, but 3 inches was amazing to us!

We all went out to make snow angels, adn sled in the yard when Jeff got home from work, Brady asked all day if he could, "Get Bundled", to go out! You can't tell from his face, but Zach LOVED the snow and the cold-cold weather. He just looked around and was happy as could be!

Best Place to Live!!

What? Snow?? That is right , it has been snowing here all day. We drove all the way to Herriman for some snow last month and now it has come to us! It is true that kids don't understand temperatures....but that they get used to a certain type of 'outside', and it sticks. Brady ran outside in thin gym pants and bare feet and started throwing snowballs! It wasn't until I told him to come in that he cried because his feet hurt!! Silly kid!

We went out 4 different times already, and when Jeff gets home we will go out again.

Zachie loved his first experience with snow, and he SCREAMED when I brought him inside, I took a video to prove it, but that will come later!

Brady and Colin had a very serious snowball fight, as they both have a pretty wicked throwing arm!

You may ask, Why the "Best Place To Live"??? Summer all year long, with some snow right before Christmas, what more could we ask for?

Lights!

We wanted a cute picture, so we got a funny face one instead!

Zachie slept the entire time, which was great, but the only picture of his first time to the lights is just one of a huge stroller!

There was a high school choir there, and the kids loved it, one girl was dressed in a HUGE poofy dress, Carly made the girl hold her! SO cute!

We went with our cousins to the Ehtel M's Cactus garden last weekend to see lights and have hot cocoa, it was great! It could only have been better if our kids had longer attention spans, we drove longer than the time it took to see the whole place, they were bored and ready to go after about 10 minutes!

Would you like a great recipe??? A sure fire way to get your kids to pee the bed?? Ok, here it is, buy them their 'very-own' hot cocoa a half an hour before bed. Easy and fun!!What a great night!

Santa, A Rite of Passage, DONE!!!

We went to see Santa last week....don't let Brady's smile deceive you - he was terrified, but at the last second I yelled, "I'll give you gum if you smile!" It lasted only a second, but he did it! Zach had just woken up from a nap, so he had sleepy face! But he loved Santa, cuddled into him and relaxed. Check out Brady's FUTURE MISSIONARY badge, he loves it, so funny! He wants to be just like Uncle Newel!

Zachie slept through his First Thank Giving! But he was susre to eat after, notice the messy shirt?! Isn't he the cutest little Indian ever? Jeff had the idea that everyone should dress up as pilgrims or Indians....it was a hit, you should have seen Jeff's outfit (I can't describe it here, he'd be mad, lets just say it was GREAT, for a laugh!)

Here are the boys playing at Gma P's....

We weighed Zach at the Dinosaur Museum, 25 lbs..... 4 heavier than his 18 month old cousin!!!

We set up half of our Christmas stuff before Thanks Giving, only the tree left to do.... Beaners loved the stockings, and Zach just didn't want to be left out! It was very fun...I have 3 Nativity scenes, Beaners likes to get all 3 Baby Jesus' and set them next to eachother.

We had a great time in SLC for the past week. We saw almost all of our family (sorry friends). The kids ran wild and played until they were exhausted, we ate and sat and laughed and relaxed.

Jennifer hosted the meal , and it was Beautiful!! She spent hours setting up and cooking to make the day perfect, THANKS JEN! The kids we told to make up a skit, they sang songs, rad stories, did a skit and made up new words to 12 Days of Christmas, making it, 12 Things I'm Thankful for on this Thanks Giving day...so awesome!

We had a great week, thanks to all of our wonderful familes!!!