Christmas Day 2008 Video

Ok, so if you were there, you may be interested in seeing this... we got some of everyone. It is very long, though, about 25 minutes! so... enter if you dare!

The Christmas pictures are here at last!

Mikayla and Jaden on Christmas Eve in their new jammies...

Jaxson and Tyler (born 4 weeks apart and destined to be best buds)


Jaden playing little people with his cousin Allison

Three pretty princesses playing house with the play kitchen and their baby dolls

Mikayla, Allison and Ellie

The motley crew... all the older cousins sitting down for dinner... There were so many of us, we had to eat in shifts!!

Mikayla, Jaden and Jaxson on Christmas morning, getting ready to open presents...

Christmas 2009

We had the best Christmas! We got to go to Rexburg Idaho to spend the holidays with all of Brian's family... and I mean ALL! We all stayed at his brothers home... 23 people in a 4 bedroom house (and 13 of them were children... the oldest is 8!) I have never seen so many people and kids in one house! And I have never seen so much snow! Now I have lived in Utah for almost 15 years, and I was amazed at how much colder and how much more snow there was in Rexburg! The guys were outside shoveling the driveway every couple hours so we wouldn't get buried inside! The kids had a blast going out to play in all the fresh new snow, except Kayla... she played for a bit then came in and said she was never going out in the snow again!! Too bad, kiddo! There is no escaping it! I think what made it so bad, was that I went off and forgot their snow pants, so my kids just had their jeans on, and they got cold... FAST! Jaden just ignored the cold and kept going... he was one of the last to come in!! His fingers were icy cold and he had the cutest little red nose! For Christmas eve, we ended up having to put all the presents downstairs instead of up by the tree, because there is no way we would have fit 5 families worth of presents under one tree! It was pandemonium on Christmas morning, seeing 13 kids screaming and going for their presents!!! Wrapping paper was flying, presents were being glanced at and tossed aside for the next one... it was great! The kids had soo much fun playing with their cousins... it was wonderful to have everyone there to celebrate the holidays! Thanks Todd and Tiff for having us!

P.S. Can you believe that we were there for A WHOLE WEEK and I never took my camera out of the diaper bag?? So, sorry no pictures as of yet... Thanks to my great MIL Sara, SHE took lots of pics and I have ordered them and they are on the way, so look back tomorrow night for Christmas 2009 pics!! But I did get a video camera from a Santa that looks a lot like Brian, so look forward to lots more videos in the near future!!

The 1st Grade Christmas Concert

Just before Christmas Break, Mikayla's class had their annual Christmas Concert... I could NOT believe how many kids there were! No wonder they have to have 4 1st grade classes! It was so much fun to watch all the kids come in wearing their pretty Christmas clothes and seeing the cute props they had... Some were Santas, some were elfs, some were snowmen, some were dolls, some (Kayla) were Christmas trees and the rest were reindeer... As I was sitting in the audience waiting for the program to start, I was talking to a lady sitting behind me, and she asked which was my daughter... so I told her Kayla was the cute little tree with glasses. And she asked me "The one chewing the star off her tree?" I turn around to look, and YEP! there she is gnawing on her prop!! So I smile at the lady and say "Yep! That's my girl!" Sooo Kayla!

The concert was really cute. They sang all the usual Christmas songs... naturally Kayla didn't sing... and if the kids were doing motions with their arms, Kayla was still as a statue, and if the other kids were being still, she was yawning and stretching... but it was still very cute, and I was proud of my little girl!

Our Ward Christmas Party

We have such a fun ward!! I bundled all the kids into the car and off we went to the church to see Santa. The kids were so excited, but as soon as we got there, and they saw Santa sitting in a big chair across the gym, they all froze! Jaden did the best, but that is just because at the grocery store earlier he'd had a chance to go sit by Santa. It was pretty funny to see him march up there (after begging me for 10 minutes!) and once her got up there, he absolutely refused to get anywhere near the jolly old soul!! It was cute to watch Santa trying soo hard to get Jaden to come over and sit on his lap and Jaden just kept saying No... No... he was so nervous he couldn't even remember what he wanted for Christmas!! Needless to say that by the time we got to the ward party, Jaden and I had had a long talk about how Santa is nice and he should go sit by him or Santa won't know what to bring for Christmas presents! As you can imagine, he sat there naming off all the things that he could think to ask for! It was cute...

Then I put Jax up there... maybe he is a little like his Mom... does that pic of Jax remind any of my Turley siblings of a certain family picture with Santa?? Mouth wide open, just like his Mom!! And everywhere we went around the cultural hall, Jaxson's little head swung around, trying to keep an eye on the big fella... making sure he wasn't sneaking up on us. He didn't relax until Santa made his departure!

Then there was Kayla... good ole Kayla! We can always count on her to do the OPPOSITE of what any other child would do... she flatly refused to go over there... said she didn't care how much candy he had, she was NOT going to sit by him!! so I finally got her to agree to just stand by him and get her bag of candy... that was OK to her and we got a quick snapshot!!

After dinner, the Primary kids went up to the stage to perform the Nativity...Now most of you know the special circumstances of our ward... lots of babies and about 6 primary kids, so we took much pride in rewriting the Nativity. There was ONE wiseman, ONE shepherd (Jaden, who decided he didn't like his costume and took it off mid program!) and about 13 angels... My little Kayla was an angel and I was so proud of her... she was ballet dancing all over the stage throughout the entire program!

All in all it was a fun party, I am glad I took the effort to drag the kids out and have some Christmas cheer!

Jax is ONE!!

I can't believe it has been a year since I gave birth to this amazing little boy! He is such a delight... and SO EASY GOING! Never did I think that I could have such a sweet tempered little guy! With all the noise and shouting going on around him (We are a really loud bunch!) he just sits and watches the circus!! (He must take after his Daddy! Not a drop of drama queen in him!) We had a fun time opening presents, and playing with his new toys... though Jaden had more fun with them than Jax, I think!!

HappyBirthday Baby Jax... WE LOVE YOU!

The Reign of The Slacker is OVER!

OK, people... I'm back! and I mean business!! Can we all just say that I am a slacker?? I can't believe that the last time I posted on MY OWN BLOG is 3 MONTHS AGO in November!! WOW! I have alot of catching up to do, so bear with me through old birthdays and Christmas etc... til we get caught up with the present...