Christmas Eve...after the kiddos go to bed

I love Christmas. I love the magic and the Spirit and every bit of it.  I love the giving and the loving and the selflessness that comes with doing for others.  

As a parent, Christmas is even better than I ever thought as a kid. 

We spent the evening listening to music, putting toys together. And wrapping. And wrapping. I kind of procrastinated that part! It was awesome, and I loved it. Although, next year I WILL wrap before hand so we can watch a Christmas flick and go to bed early!

Because winters are so snowy and cold and we are stuck inside for so long, we decided to get the boys a trampoline.  My dad and bros helped Jeff put it together and then we had some fun on it...as much as we could considering we had a ceiling to watch out for!

All wrapped up:

The tree:

The stockings:

Our little family:

 So excited for the a.m.!

Halloween!

The boys decided months ago what they wanted to be for Halloween. Since they had picked Avengers characters, and there were now 6 of us, I figured it'd be easy to form the whole team.   We had so much fun at our old neighborhood trick or treat lane.  It was so fun to see our friends. 

Black Widow & Hawkeye

I didn't want to buy or sew mine and Jeff's costumes, so it was all about the accessories.  You can't see behind him, but he has on a pretty sweet quiver of arrows I made out of a mail tube. I also painted the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on his shirt.  I spray painted some of the boys toy guns for me and made a bracelet of bullets and then also my black widow belt buckle. Oh, and I've been wanting to go a little red for awhile, so I saved it for now.  I'm liking how it turned out. The boys love it and Weston asked me to keep it awhile. I think I will. :)  

Weston, aka, Captain America & his buddy!

Tave or HULK

Ryder:  Iron Man!

West had so much fun with his friend, Jaron. They sure miss hanging out daily!

Since the boys have missed each other, my friend, Rachel came trick or treating with us in our neighborhood. It was such a GORGEOUS day and the boys had a blast. I'm so glad we all hung out!

I love these kids!  

The two babies are missing from this pic, I can't believe we have 8 boys between the two of us!

Cute Callen hung out in his seat while the boys ran door to door.  He was so happy to talk to us, and have his Thor stuff off!

Happy Haunting everyone!

Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter. 

It was so good to spend time together.

Since we were going up to Roy, UT to spend time with Jeff's grandparents who were in town

 we woke up early to go to a 9 am Sacrament Meeting before we left. 

We talked to the boys before Church about what Easter really is about: our Savior, resurrection, and new life. We gave them some New Testament finger puppets and their own picture book about Jesus that Jeff and I had put together the night before.  They really loved it and it was great to start Easter off in the right spirit.

The sacrament we attended was a beautiful meeting full of music and the spirit. I love how music can lift and heal us. It was perfect way to celebrate the Savior.  (afterwards we had a hard time getting out because so many people thought we were new to the ward!  They were so friendly, what a great example of how we all should welcome newcomers.)

We tried to get a few pics of the boys in their Easter best...Ryder would have none of it, he kept trying to run away. Tave &  West were such good sports and helped as much as they could!

I sure love these boys:

After the craziness of trying to take one all together (I have about 20 more failed pics) I decided to take individuals on the stairs. That's when Ryder decided to go stand right next to the boys...so we grabbed an adorable group one. So much for planned pictures!

Our wild little Ryder:

Hilarious Tave:

Sweet, sweet West:

We had lunch and then went upstairs for quiet time. While we were there the Easter Bunny decided to visit. (He usually comes on Sat. to our house, but Jeff was gone all day so he came on Sun)

He left fun buckets and had hidden eggs all over. 

It was tons of fun:

We had a fantastic afternoon with Grandpa & Grandma Dean (who were visiting from Texas for the weekend).  We went to Bob & Susie's first and got to visit and hang out. Then we all headed over to the Butcher's for a fun bbq with the cousins.  I didn't take any pics, but it was so fun to see family that we haven't visited in way too long!  Grandpa & Dean always give us a good excuse to see everyone up north!!  

The kids had an absolute BLAST in Randy & Linda's incredible backyard. There were bikes to ride, treats to eat, an Easter egg hunt, and the best of all:  a trampoline!!  We had so much fun!

Grandpa spoiling the boys with treats!

It truly was a beautiful day that made us so thankful for our family.

We love our Savior and are incredibly grateful to have Him in our lives, and to know that because of Him, we can be a family forever. 

Christmas Celebration in UT

Since most of us would be in CA for Christmas, we had an early celebration with Chelsea & the kiddos!  

We had a delicious brunch at Shawn & Abby's, the kids played, exchanged gifts, and had a great time. 

We don't see Chels near enough, the boys were so sad to say goodbye to their cousins!  

Uncle Shawn is always a hit, the kids sure love wrestling:

Sweet Tanneah, she wasn't too pleased with my camera flash:

Aydrien, Tave, West, & Syanne reading to open gifts:

Ryder & Jeff

Chelsea & Tanneah:

Reverie:

The kids were all so thrilled with their new toys! Gift giving success:

Shawn & Abby

My beautiful sisters:  

(we missed you Shar!!)

What a great way to kick off the holiday season!!  

I sure love family. It is such a blessing to live by siblings.

I want to make sure to soak up as much time as I can with them before they move on to another place!!  

We definitely miss those who are already gone and the ones we haven't gotten to live by yet. 

In my perfect world, we will ALL live close enough to visit each other often, help out when needed, and share in all the fun memories of family. :)  Someday.