I could go for some chinese food right about NOW.

For the past few years we've gone to my mom's for Christmas Eve.. BUT, she decided to ditch us this year. For warmer weather, and a brand new, itty bitty baby, in Florida. Sure, my sister Traci went and moved hundreds of miles away from us, and then decides to have a baby. I mean, WHO DOES THAT?

In all seriousness, CONGRATULATIONS TRACI!! I can't wait to meet baby Jude!!

Anyhoo.. we still got together with my family, well, the few stragglers that were left. (My brother and his family had gone to Wyoming, and my sister Kristi's family didn't come up from Price.) When we were contemplating what to do for dinner a few weeks earlier, we decided that we did NOT want to spend all of our time preparing and cleaning up dinner. Enter Panda Express. I'm telling you, I think its a new tradition. It was delicious, and the best part is, we just threw away the empty boxes and were ready for PRESENTS!!!

We draw names in our family, for the adults and the kids. I'm tellin' ya, its a life saver. Our family is GINORMOUS.. unless you compare it to the Duggars... which, seriously, who has 19 kids and is STILL COUNTING?? Stop already.

Me and Cody had Jalynn and Shawn. Shawn was blessed with a Utes hoodie.. lucky him. He was excited.. just look at his face.



We gave Jalynn a Pioneer Woman cookbook. Don't know who she is?? Just take a gander here at her website.. but I'm warnin' ya.. she's fab and you might just become best friends with her. Or wish you were anyway.

Jalynn said she was THIS close to buying the same thing for me... this picture caught her mid-sentence.

Shawn and Jalynn had us. They gave Cody a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt (he was happy, like a five year old on Christmas) and a big old thing of fancy beer (he was in double HEAVEN).

I got a freakishly cute maternity cardigan and shirt AND a wallet. I felt mighty spoiled.


(I don't have pictures of the kid's present exchange.. since they weren't there. Traci's kids gave Kapri an amazing scooter.. she's scoots around the house daily. I can't wait until its warm enough for her to use it outside.)

Then we opened Christmas PJ's!!! This is seriously one of my FAVORITE traditions for Christmas.


We all got changed into our pajamas and lounged around for a bit. We kept checkin' up on the Santa radar.. and I think we headed home when he was in New York. That was probably cutting it a little close.

Once we got home, I realized, in all my dumbness.. that I had forgotten my camera at Jalynn's!! Who does that? (I do, I do.) Of course I had to go back and get it.. there was NO way I was usin' our dumb one for all of the Christmas morning goodness.

When I picked up the camera.. this is what I found.




These are all four of my sister Jalynn's kids..

Taelor.


Kelby.


Ashlyn.


and Cadence.


First of all, they're hilarious.. I giggled through all 857 pictures that they took. Secondly.. they almost NEVER get along. These pictures document that it is possible.. and they actually do have fun together!!! (Even if that fun does include "farting" on Kelby.)



Oh yes, Moose was even involved. We mustn't forget him.


Don't worry... we didn't forget to leave out cookies and milk for good ol' St. Nick. I'm pretty sure he loved them. Proof of that to come.

Hockey pucks and MAGIC.

Thanks to this boy...



who happens to be the boyfriend of my niece...

...we got to go to a Grizzley Hockey game for free!!

Get that? FREE!!!






(From left to right...) This is, of course, Trevor, the maker of magic. Taelor, the girlfriend of the maker of magic. Shawn, the father of the girfriend of the maker of magic. And Jalynn, the wife of the father of the girlfriend of the maker of the magic. And there you have it.

Not only was it free.. but we got to sit in a box.. I felt cool, if only for a short while.

We invited along our friends..

Emily and Ryan



And Mike and Denise.



In true hockey fashion, there were punches thrown. We would have been disappointed if the players took pity on eachother.




I swear they were fighting.. NOT hugging.



Please pay no attention to the blurry, HORRIBLE pictures.

Random Festivities...

December was a crazy month, full of CHRISTMAS activies. Here is a sneak peak into a few of them.

Kapri put the topper on the tree.. again. I do believe we've started a tradition. She's pretty darn good at it, she must've gotten her tree topping skills from your's truly. (It seems she got everything else from her father.)

Here's the finished tree.. in its protected corner. Safe from dog's flailing tails and Kapri's chubby fingers... well, almost. She actually did MUCH better than I thought she'd do. She was fascinated (literally OBSESSED) with the big silver ball that was in the front, down at her level. She was singing/dancing/admiring herself daily in this ball. It was her own, personal mirror.

Half way through the month Jalynn came over. When Jalynn is around, ideas turn into reality. She's a doer... not a thinker. I like that about her. That, and her toe nails. Right now they're green with white polka dots.

Anyway.. Jalynn came over. I had been fussing over my family room for quite some time.. its super small and angled funny.. so there's not much you can do with the furniture. But, after moving the couches about six times, and eventually moving the tree across the room (after it fell apart into three pieces).. we ended up with a nice little cozy set up. So, among a million other things to thank her for.. THANKS JALYNN!!!

Moving on...

One day, when it was freezing cold, seriously windy and snowing like crazy... Shonni and I decided to take pictures for Christmas cards. Cause that's how we roll. It would've been much too convenient and easy for us to do it on a warmer, non-blizzard-like day.

Did I mention it was COLD?? Well, it was.

It went something like this.... We met there in our cars. Cody and Kapri stayed in the car, while Shonni, Josh and Addison jumped out to get their pictures taken. The wind blew, we took twenty pictures as fast we could, the snow came down, Josh and Addison got back in the car. (At some point, Cody had let Kapri out of her carseat and rolled down the window. She was crying at the top of her lungs because she wanted to be outside in the cold with us. Some things I'll never understand. )

Then, Cody and Kapri got out. The wind blew, we took twenty pictures, I ate my hair and soaked up a gallon of water in my boots, Kapri said CHEESE, we ran and got back in the car.. and went home.

That story might help explain our Christmas card a little bit, atleast for the ten of you that actually received one this year.. I was a bit of a slacker.

Oh yeah, it was pretty much dark outside by the time we got there. So, we had about twenty things working against us.

The snot in this picture helps prove my point.

Is it really over??

We just got home after a long day full of fun, family and tons of delicious food!! I'll eventually get around to posting about it, but until then......

Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Cody, Tawnya and Kapri

.. and the weee little bebe in my belly.

Squeaky shoes and sugar cookies..

Those are the makings for a fun holiday party. Atleast, in our neck of the woods. My friend Bree had a few of us over to have a party/playdate for the kidlets. These outings are always welcome on our end.

Stella was there...


Reese made an appearance.. but then had to go to school.



Addison attended, in all of her CHEESY glory.


Kapri came, of course.



AND.. we even had Ethan there. Yay for a little testosterone!!



The kids decorated (ate) sugar cookies..





They had a jumping party in the crib.. until they were stopped because the squeaking/creaking began getting louder and LOUDER. (Ethan wanted NO part of it.)




They gave us one amazing CHEESE for the camera.



Stella and Reese (Bree) gave the kids squeaker shoes. I'm not sure if thats the technical name or not.. but thats the best way to describe them. Shoes that squeak. Now, if you know Kapri, you know that she is RARELY walking. Its always a run/skip/jump kind of trot, to wherever she's headed at the moment. These shoes are a dream come true for her!! Squeak, squeak, SQUEAK!!!

At the end, when the kids were tired, the adults were worn out.. and the house was a mess.. we posed for one group picture. It was quite the success.. given the circumstances.



Thanks for hosting Bree!!

**A few days after the party, we were at Leatherby's, (the BEST ice cream shop in Utah)and Kapri was running to the front of the store (squeak, squeak, SQUEAK) and this lady looked her up and down.. turned to her husband (while I was standing directly behind her) and said "Ugh.. that is SOOOO annoying." Seriously? It took everything in me not to punch her in the back of the head. Is that wrong??

Healthy snacks.. bwah ha ha.

Kapri was BEGGING me to make cookies. I kept telling her that I need to be healthy, and that cookies aren't good for my bootylicious body right now. She insisted... so, we made cookies. (If you believed, or atleast PRETENDED to believe that bull crap story, thank you.) But not just ANY cookies...

The BEST Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, like EVER.



By the end, we were covered in flour.. along with all of the silverware in the drawer, thanks to one minor mishap.


We ate some (okay, ALOT)of the delicious dough.. don't you judge me.


Then I baked late into the night to get them done. We were going to a party the next day, and I thought I'd bring some to share. UNFORTUNATELY, Spanky had other plans. Plans that included EATING my all of my cookies. Seriously.

As a little side note, I'd like to share this last picture with you. This is one of Kapri's famous looks. I'll happily give you an example: I say "Kapri, come right back here and give me back those bacon bits that I've taken away from you twelve times today." She says nothing, just gives me this look. As if to say "I don't know what you're talking about, you big dumb idiot." Or in the actual case of this picture.. when I repremanded her for putting her entire spoon of cookie dough into her milk.

December B to the UNKO...

We switch it up a little in December. Instead of giving our normal ten dollars for gifts, we each bring a ten dollar (ish) gift to give. We make sure they're wrapped, so no one can see the goodness inside. We eat a delicious dinner, (which was EXTRA delicious this time, thanks to our hostess, Jalynn, and all her awesome-ness) play a few rows of the game, and then start on the gifts.



So.. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not even going to sugar coat it a little. This year's gift exchange was not nearly as exciting as last year's. You can read about the excitement in 2009 here. It was full of hootin' and hollerin', stealin' and trickin'. This year it was more like squeaks and squeals.



I took pictures (WOW), some people cooperated...















Others, not so much...







Big, absent-minded, prego me, forgot to take a group picture... so, dust off your imagination, and USE IT.



Make sure to imagine me skinny...