Christmas Catch-Up

Now that the New Year has come and gone, and before that Christmas and Asher's birthday, I am finally catching up on blogging all the festivities. It was definitely a busy season, visiting with both sides of the family, and filled with lots of fun, and TOO MUCH food.

Corey's parents were in town for Christmas, and we spent Christmas Eve and Day with them. We had dinner at our place, then braved the night and the insane traffic to see the 'Luminarias.' It is a unique tradition in a downtown neighborhood, and nearly every single home lines the streets, and everything in luminarias. It was beautiful to see all those lights, minus the bumper to bumper traffic. You see, it's not exactly a secret.

Happy Christmas Baby!

Asher gave his Daddy a signed original titled, "Elephant with Boot."

Christmas morning was wonderful. It is an absolute joy to watch my boys experience it all. Asher was very much into the whole thing this year, and Beckett actually enjoyed it more than I thought he would (his hands-down favorite was playing with the wrapping paper). Santa brought Asher a bike this year, and he's now tasting real live freedom as he rides up and down the street with his trusty training wheels. He loves it, and keeps telling us how fast he is. Speed demon!
We had a nice Christmas Day with Corey's family, it was a treat to have some visitors in town.

New wheels!

The day after Christmas, we flew to Utah for some more holiday festivities. My brother Ryan, his wife Danna and their cutie pie Adalee were visiting too, which made it extra fun. We hadn't even met their daughter until this trip! We spent lots of time hanging out, playing games, talking and eating with everyone...every single member of my family was around, and it was great getting together like that. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen too often with some of us living in different places. It's so amazing to see all of us, grown up with families of our own, and I LOVE to see all the cousins running around. Since I'm combining so much, I will hit the highlights:

• It was great hanging out with both of my parents the whole time...my dad even had the entire time off!
• Beckett learned to crawl up the stairs. At home I keep him away from them, but at Grandma's house he saw his cousins doing it (particularly Adalee who is 3 weeks older) and thought he'd better do it too. Good job little buddy!

• Asher built his first snowman! Not a big deal to many, but here in NM, our snow is nowhere near snowman quality, so we took advantage of the chance to build the real deal with some real snow. Thankfully, Laurie happened to have enough snow gear to outfit a whole family in her car!

My boys in the snow...

Beckett wanted in on the action and watched from the glass door.

The snowman crew with the finished product.

• Cousins. Cousins. Cousins. Love watching them all play, cry, laugh, and fight.
  

• New Year's Eve. Lots of food. Ryan took it upon himself to sautee shrimp and scallops for everyone, and I thought I hated scallops! MMMMmmmm, thanks Ry. The guys spent the night playing a Wii tourney, the girls crafted. Yes, you read right...crafted. Unconventional, I know, but Danna showed us all how to make these really cute bead-y watches...and it was fun! We laughed a lot, and were near delerium by around 1:30 when we all started to crash. Wish I had pictures of our watches!

• Learning how to crochet cute little flowers. Again, Danna passed on some of her expertise to us. I was a nightmare to teach (Me, crochet? Scary!), and somehow she stuck it out. Thanks again! They really are so cute! Again, no pictures, but here's Kayla making one!
  

• New Year's Day my parents took us all to Tucano's for lunch. Yum. Who knew they had tables that big?
• Kangaroo Zoo. Asher had a blast running and jumping around that place, and best of all we were practically the only people there!

• Taking pictures of all the kiddos in their matching pajamas. Pure madness. Imagine 8 kids ages 4 and under, 3 of which are crawlers, trying to stay still for one perfect shot. Impossible! My mom had a great idea, but the reality was scary. I so wish we'd had a video camera going to capture it. It would be funny now, even though it wasn't then. The two stalwart children were Asher and Allyssum who sat there waiting patiently and fairly content watching the mayhem around them. Funny.

So, that is our Christmas holiday in a rather large "nutshell." It was so fun to see everyone this holiday (except for Shawntel, Jared and family....we miss you guys!). We love you all and thanks for all the fun and memories!

Did I mention this poor guy had an ice cream cone for a nose and walnuts for eyes and mouth? We couldn't find carrots, etc. anywhere in my mom's house! We had to get creative.