Sunday, January 4, 2015

Christmas

We spent Christmas in Las Vegas with Steven's family. We had a great time and my girls cried half the way home. They absolutely loved spending so much time with their cousins and grandparents.

First, this girl turned 4....

and this one turned 2...
They bring me so much joy. We left for Vegas the day after Aubrey's birthday, so we got to celebrate Cora's with Steven's family. 

It was a pretty crazy, loud, fun, busy ten days. 9 kids with 5 of them 2 and under. 

 And, I have way too many pictures, so I'll try to be brief:
The kids acted out the nativity. We almost had two Mary's, but convinced Aubrey that holding a gift as a wiseman would also be fun.

She had lots of practice as Mary.

Cousin play-dough fun. Loved that little table... we pretty much just let them all fend for themselves down there every meal.


We gave out bags of toiletries and food to the homeless in downtown Las Vegas on Christmas Eve.  Very humbling, and I loved seeing how happy it made all the kids to be able to help others.

 We also painted these toy cars to give to children at some shelters downtown.

 The only time they were quiet...

Jason and Shanna had their baby, Oliver.  We have a new nephew!


Shooting rockets in the dry lake bed. We all loved this. Steven especially. This was like his Christmas morning. 

Aubrey insisted on wearing that mask she made in primary all day...

Cora would happily climb up and read books with anybody that was willing. She is lucky she has such a good grandpa.

 Family pictures were taken. Here are a few of my favorites...


She is too smart and too cute. And often trouble...

I'm glad to be a part of this crazy family.

Christmas Eve jammies.

Christmas Sunday dresses. I love when they match.


Two ipads + two sets of headphones = quiet bliss in the car. For a while at least. They both got bored of the movies fairly quickly, and for some reason my kids do not sleep in the car.

Steven and his namesake.

Feeding the ducks at the pond. It was pretty cold, but not that bad. I mean... we were in Las Vegas. My poor California girls could barely handle ten minutes outside that day.

Christmas sparklers.

An example of the constant chaos.

Aubrey thinks her cousins house is better than Disneyland because they have a stage and plethora of princess dress-ups.

Aunt Kimmy was home from her mission!

Lots of grandma time. I'm not sure what Aubrey is doing here....

Swimming. Katie's parents heated their pool up really warm and it was soo nice to swim in.

Crazy cousins. They stayed like this for a long time.

And, of course Christmas morning. They were so excited to go inside...

We brought all of our Christmas to Las Vegas. That Honda Pilot is amazing because it fit everything with room to spare.

We look tired.

Christmas morning princesses. Love the bedhead.

Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to get up early with the kids.

Whew... I am sure there is more that I am forgetting, but I'll stop there. We had such a great time!