Saturday, January 7, 2012

New Years Eve 2011

Joe and Kelly Johannessen were so kind to have a party at their home this year.  A kid friendly party that was awesome. 
The night started out with pizza and snacks.  And while the kids played, the adults chatted and relaxed.  Joe and Kelly have a nifty toy room in their basement where most of the kids hung out. 
It was someones (good) idea to celebrate New Years Eastern time for the kids and then get them to bed.   
They then passed out a bunch of blowers and hats for the kids.  Das had bought the boys confetti guns from the dollar store.  It was pretty cool, and messy. 

I love Ellie!  She is gonna come live with me if I don't ever get a girl.:)  After the celebration for the kids, the dads took them outside for fireworks. 
Before settling the kids down for the night, we took some pictures. 
The Kids!
The group!  Joe and Frank, Kristi and Jeff, Joe and Kelly, Das and me, Leesa and Kevin 
The Boys! 
The Women! 
Thanks Joe and Kelly for daring to host the chaos!  Your home is beautiful and the company was great as always.  Hopefully you guys will want to do it again next year.:)  Maybe one day when we have a bigger home, we will host one. Most everyone was staying the night. They had a couple of rooms set up and those who could brought sleeping bags. We had my nephews homecoming to be to early Sunday morning, so we weren't able to sleep over this year.  When we got home, the boys were out real quick. It was only 15 minutes until midnight, but I was beat.  I told Das to come give me a kiss at the New Year.  He almost fell asleep himself.lol  but I got my New Years kiss.  All was bliss...until the fireworks started going off.  Logan woke up and I had to put him into bed with us.  I am sure if I wasn't pregnant and so tired all the time.....we would have been letting off our own fireworks.  Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas morning 2011

Santa was good to us this year.  Christmas morning the boys woke up at their un-regular hour and laid on our bed until Logan woke up.  We then had them each walk out to see how good Santa thought they had been this year.  Tristan had been really worried about it the night before. 
Everyone was very happy with what they got.  The boys got lots of fun stuff.  Bay blades, Lego's, wii games, air hogs, remote control cars, Dr Dreadful Zombie Lab and lots more.   
We bought Logan a little piano and drum with other instruments inside.  And a little talking ladybug.  And each of them got an outfit to wear.  Oh, and don't forget the underwear Santa always leaves in their stockings.  Das got me a gift card to Nordstrom, a 90 minute massage, and my favorite candy...penuche (that was gone fast.)  I bought Das a racquetball racquet, balls, a gift card to Cabella's, and 4 UofU football tickets and 2 Jazz tickets for next season.  Our big gift was a new mattress.  It has been wonderful!  I have gotten the best nights sleep.  I didn't realize how bad our other mattress was until now.  And Das also purchased us a smoker/fryer that I cannot wait to try out! (really he will be doing the cooking with it)
We didn't get very many pictures Christmas day.  My oldest sister Lynette and her husband stopped by in the afternoon for a visit.  Last year she gave me a recipe for her sausage egg casserole that we have made a tradition to eat for breakfast.  And then I stuck a roast in the crock pot to make french dip sandwiches for dinner.  We had Das's brother Rama join us in the evening for dinner and to visit (and to watch the Bears lose to the Packers).
It was a wonderful Christmas spent with family and friends!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Christmas Eve continued...

 My parents have such energy to have everyone over on Christmas Eve.  We are so thankful for all they do for us.
 You would never guess that my parents are in their seventies.  They still are so full of love and life.  I look forward to every minute spent with them.

After we ate, the kids got dressed up to act out the Nativity.  Ashton was Joseph this year. 


After the Nativity, all the kids opened up their PJ's.   
Every year we take a sister picture with my mother.  I love having sisters! 
This year we decided to add all the nieces to the photo.  It is so wonderful having a large family. 
And then we thought, why stop there?  We got all the men together for a group shot.  We all then headed home to get ready for Santa.  When we got home, we pulled up the Internet to track Santa.  He was getting close, so we had the boys hurry to bed.  It was a very long and exhausting day, but so wonderful spending it with family.  I am so thankful for our Saviour and for his atonement.   Christmas is my favorite time of year.  All though I get stressed and overwhelmed, it is still such a special time.  We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!