christmas day 2015

There are few things in life as fun as Christmas morning in a house full of kids!  I loved getting my five sweet babies out of bed to first have a short family devotional and remember why the day is so special (yes, we are those mean parents) and then watch the crazy fury of the kids as they go crazy waiting for their turn to find and open a present.

Some of the big winners from the day were all of the books, a shopping cart, and toy vacuum that Santa re gifted from my neighbors house, to ours.  

Porter and Pratt also got an old school NES Nintendo, power pad and Duck Hunt gun.  We had a blast taking turns running the Olympics.  Chad also dropped Dr. Mario in my stocking!

Uncle Macer made and sent 5 crocheted stocking hats with crocheted beards to attach!

It was basically a perfect day!

christmas festivities

Christmas 2015 came with some old traditions and some new.  One new thing we tried was making our own ornaments.  They were made mostly of cinnamon and Elmer's Glue, cut into shapes and baked.  My house smelled awesome!  Once they were cooled, we let the kids go crazy painting them.  We had several ornament casualties, but it was a fun project.

 We made the usual candies and cookies to share with friends.

 Canon was the perfect Baby Jesus in our family Christmas Eve nativity production!

 We had a great time at the Kids Christmas party at the hospital, as well

We had lots of fun at Christmas parties and activities that never even got photographed.  Mostly we just enjoyed the blessings of family and friends at the season when when we celebrate our Savior, Jesus Christ who has filled our hearts and home with peace and love.

o christmas tree

Boots, coats, hats, and even a few of us had gloves!  This years Christmas tree hunting adventure was cool and wet!  We ran into the barn to meet Mike and Saundra, and to warm up by the fire while we worked out a game plan.  Chad and Mike went out did an initial scout out.  They found a few options for good spots and trees to look at and then we took our crew (including my newborn baby Canon who was strapped to my chest) out into the rain to pick out a tree!

 It really didn't take us long to find a perfect tree, and one that nearly all of us could agree on

 Chad had the kids get in on the action.  They didn't mind one bit getting wet down on grass.  I think Porter, especially felt he had claimed a piece of manhood pushing and pulling the saw!

The only down side of this tree was human error.  We had a heck of a time getting it to stand straight.  In the end we decided leaning a little gave it a little bit of Williams flare!

 And since Christmas trees and Santa go hand in hand, here are couple of three happy kids, one who is just happy to be part of the action, and one that was more than okay with getting away from this very life-like Santa at our annual Breakfast with Santa.

cow skills

Some people are great pianists,  computer wizards, or surgeons.  I make milk!  This was a pumping I did at the end of a day so that I could sleep.  This go around nursing I got to share my milk with friends having surgery, those who couldn't make enough, and even a friend who had tiny premature triplets.  That milk was packaged at an ice cream shipping store and shipped out overnight.  I'm just glad my talent gets used!

free chinese

Chad had a work meeting that had lots of extra food.  Since he has so many mouths to feed, and because we are probably the only residents who jump at free left overs, Chad brought it home, and we made an event of dinner.  

Aimee loved it so much she has decided that she wants to go to a Chinese restaurant for her birthday date!

cousin time

With me being a little more preoccupied, May and Kamry capitalized on opportunities to try new things.  Most of them were not things I was thrilled about.  Luckily, mischief+time=funny memories. 

holding turns

It quickly became a habit for the oldest four kiddos to hold Canon before very much progress for the morning could be made.  This made getting kids out the door for school a little tricky, but mostly I just loved how much love this little guy brought into our home.

I love that this is such a perfect depiction of Aimee.

What the kids did when Chad and I took a turn holding Canon!

I literally had to stop myself from adding any more pictures.  I could go on and on with these.  It is a problem that I am so grateful I've had! I've got to hand it to Canon, he puts up with his popularity well!