Family Fun

All of Kelly's siblings came down for a week or two at the end of December. Bryan and his Family and Jodie and her kids were down for Christmas and Becky and her family came down a few days after Christmas. It was fun talking and hanging out. Here are a few pictures of the fun.

Kelci holding Skylar.

Great-Grandpa with 9 of his 12 great-Grandkids.

Christmas 2011

We had a very nice Christmas this year. We spent the morning at our house and the evening at Kelly's parents house. We spent Christmas Eve with my family this year. The story the kids loved to tell this year was that Kelly had made a mistake. Because he made a mistake it made Santa make a mistake. Kelly accidentally told Santa that the kids wanted small toys...not big toys. Hunter wanted a Powered Up Optimus Prime, Kora wanted a Hoola Hoop and Mylie wanted a Tinker Bell. When the kids woke up Christmas morning and opened up their presents from Santa, Hunter got a tiny little Optimus Prime, Kora got some metal bracelets and Mylie got a small Tinkerbell. After the kids opened the rest of their presents Kelly noticed a letter that was on the Christmas tree. Apparently Santa remembered last minute that Kelly called to tell them that they really wanted the big toys but by that time Kelly had already closed the glass to the fireplace and locked things up. Santa had to get creative and apparently climbed through the downstairs bathroom window and put their big presents in our bathroom. The kids really got a kick out of that.

This last picture is the kids with their cousins Preston, Mason and Taylor in their Christmas Pajamas. They came over to our house on Christmas Eve to play and hang out. We all had a great time with them. The kids love all of their cousins and it's fun to see them play together. It's too bad all the families don't live closer together.

Santa's Cookies

You can't let Christmas come and go without making at least one batch of sugar cookies. This has become a tradition of ours. Although, I usually do a lot of baking in the month of December this year was quite different. I was unable to eat sweets so I didn't bake so I could avoid having them in the house. If it was in the house I would eat it. After I had Skylar I couldn't do too much and Santa still needed some homemade cookies. Kelly made the dough and cut them out and the kids decorated them. Each child made Santa 1 cookie and I think it was Kora that made a cookie for Skylar to give to Santa. They turned out really cute and really yummy. I think Kelly should be on sugar cookie duty every year. Especially when he was able to get them rolled out and cut out faster than I usually do. I'm still amazed at how fast he was.

Hunter and Kora's Christmas Program

I didn't get a chance to post about Hunter and Kora's School Christmas program before I posted Skylar's birth but wanted to include it.

Hunter and Kora had their annual school Christmas program. They did it according to grade. Kora was first because she was a kindergartner. Each program lasted about 20 minutes long. Even though there were a ton of kids I was able to pick out Kora's voice. She loves to sing and she has a very loud voice. At least there is a positive to that loud voice of hers. It's generally so unappreciated at home but when she's in a big group singing for all to hear it was a nice to actually be able to hear her. Don't get me wrong, she didn't stick out. You could just tell that she was singing.

Hunter was actually really nervous about his program this year because he was asked to do a dance. He danced with the little girl standing next to him in red. It was just a short little dance but it was just long enough to make him nervous. Hunter and Kora did really well.