Christmas evening, afternoon, and morning

This is my aunt Nancy with Zachary over at my Grandma's. I accidentally erased it while editing but thought it was too cute to exclude so its just a little out of order.
Christmas evening and our last stop for the day.

The kids were loving the rattlesnake eggs Grandpa gave them. They were outside throwing them up and trying to catch them.
Baby Elyse, only three days old, so beautiful.

Zachary trying out Jaden's new doll bed that Ashley made.

Taylor got a sweet animal bag from Grandma. The little dogs in there he named Kenzie after grandma and grandpa's dog.

Grandpa shows them how to throw the magnets to get it to sound like a rattlesnake.

Beautiful Aunts Ashley and Tristine, holding Kayson and Zachary.

Christmas Afternoon Dinner At my Grandmas

Hangin out having a good time, after stuffing ourselves with a delicious Christmas dinner.

Zachary with Uncle Andy.

Grandma opening her gifts.

It stopped raining for a few minutes so the boys could play on grandma evelyn's swing set, and get pretty muddy.

Christmas Morning.

What is Christmas morning without someone getting a bike. This year Taylor was so cute and excited to open the closet and find a bike for him, Today he called it his Santa Bike.

Daddy opening Ella's gift for him.

Caden cutie and his new art set.

Jeremy is checking out his new quilt.

Zachary in his new bumbo seat.

I had to add this one just because I was able to catch Taylor in a moment of excitement so cute.

Taylor and Zach weren't as eager to wake up as Ella and Caden. As it is they let us sleep in till 8 and were able to get me rollin out of bed by 8:30.

Bridal Shower Time

Two of my beautiful sisters got married over the holidays so we were also busy with bridal showers and wedding stuff along with the holidays this year. Above is my sister Valerie with her cutie Gavin. For Shirley's shower she made a super cute and incredibly durable pinata. It was so fun watching all of these ladies bat at this pinata that would not budge open. What a fun idea this was Val.

Shirley one of the brides' to be.

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Shirley's shower was in my brother Joe and Maryann's backyard. It was so pretty I had to take a picture of the food table. Julie thanks for all the cute decorations.

This is Julia's Bridal shower at my house the day after Thanksgiving. Ella was our big helper with the games, she loves being a part of all these things.
Julia with one of the only gifts that wasn't lingerie. Sorry ju you were just too easy of a target to tease.

The other beautiful bride to be. Thanks Katie for all your help with the food. It was so yummy even though we thought we were feeding our huge family instead of a small group of women.

This was us kicking off the holidays

So the pictures are a little out of order, this was our first Christmas party with Jeremy's extended family on Dec. 6th. There was a talent show the kids and the adults in the fam both did an act it was so fun, wish I had some video footage. Maybe next time.
This was from Thanksgiving.

The kids had so much fun playing at Ryan and Julie's, after our Thanksgiving feast. They also loved feeding the cows.

Tatum, Chloe, Haylee and Ella, what cuties!

The little cousins exchanged gifts with each other at our Christmas eve party they had so much fun shopping for each other picking out the gifts and wanting it for themselves until the exchange. Ella and Caden even wrapped what their gifts for their person was, pretty impressive but they used almost a whole roll of scotch tape.

This was our first annual hay ride and caroling. Jeremy is holding on to the kids tight so they don't fall off, we turned on to one busy street in Mesa, pretty scary and funny at the same time. we were all laughing about it. The trailer was so full with all of us you almost can't see the hay. It was such a fun Christmas eve party.

Zachary is 2 months old and such a little blessing.

At Jeremy's work party Santa came and played Christmas carols on a soprano saxophone and the kids all told him what they wanted for Christmas. I didn't think Taylor would sit on Santa's lap, but he did and when Santa asked what he wanted Ella whispered loudly in his ear 'a dog'. So that is what he told Santa, but not what he got this year, maybe next year.

Mouse Turd and Public Urination (Dec 2008)

Before Christmas we went to look at Christmas lights. Taylor was really crying in the back seat of the truck. Apparently he needed to take a wiz. I found a suitable side street, pulled over and took him out of his seat. He ran to the side of the road, pulled his pants down to his ankles and enjoyed a nice long pee. When he was done he gave a long satisfied sigh. When he pulled up his pants and walked back around the truck he said, "Thanks Dad'.

Jill discovered a ton of mouse droppings in our van sunday before Christmas. Even in a water bottle so the mouse had to be kind of small. Not sure how long it was in there. The kids wanted to trap it with some cheese. I told them absolutely no. We didn't even have a trap. About a half hour later Ella runs in the house telling us Caden put cheese all over the van. All we had was grated cheese so the goofball spread it all over inside to "trick" the mouse. There is a compartment at the back where the jack goes. I said,"Caden did you put cheese down there too?" "yes". "How much?" "I don't know, I didn't count it" Meaning the pieces of graded cheese. (Jill gave me some perspective when she assured me we would laugh about it later). Jill put out traps the day after we found it ( I was on call). Well it walked all over the sticky traps and ate the peanut butter. The next night snap traps were put in there and again it ate all of the peanut butter. It even started pulling up all of the old Mike and Ikes from the bowels of the van that my scouts had dropped through a vent years ago. I was really starting to get spooked that we were dealing with some sort of super species of mouse ( supercharged with all that PB). I was half expecting the rodent to leap for my face when I opened the door. The ever enlarging turds didn't make me feel any better about the situation. On day number five of the nightly trap saga we finally ended it with some sensitive snap traps. I ran in the house on the 26th yelling, "It's a Christmas miracle" (and meaning every word of it). Jill cleaned up the van really well so now we are back to two cars again.

We blessed Zachary today. I had to ask the Bishop two minutes before start time if we could wait and do the blessing after the sacrament. Only had one brother in law there. Ended up with at least ten in the circle but the only thing later than Mormon standard time is Bingham standard time.

I was in the NICU all December. Had a good experience my last week. Got called to the OR for a 31 week expected delivery, a transfer from a nearby hospital. They were attempting a vag delivery. After reading in the chart I realized I knew the couple from our last ward. They delivered a healthy down syndrome boy with duodenal atresia (problem with the gut). I had the boy on my service so was able to help care for him. On day three of life he was to have surgery to correct his atresia. After doing my exam and writing a note the dad asked if I would help to give him a blessing. It was a pretty choice experience being able to participate in a blessing for one of my patients.

We had a wedding reception yesterday for one of Jill's sisters. It was a backyard reception. I was signing the register book and I turned around and Taylor had his pants around his ankles taking a leak by the decorative arch. I need to keep a closer eye on that kid. He's really getting a liking for public urination.