It's the end of January and I'm still posting about Christmas. Yowzers!
I have to prove to my children that we actually let them play in the snow at one time or another, so I always take lots of pictures to document it. Rachel was happy to play in it, and Andrew was a little too cold. Thank goodness for a white Christmas, because it's the only snow my kids get to see all year! These are the same coats/hats from last year - we make them last since they only wear them one week out of the whole year.
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| Pretty much sums up Andrew's snow experience. |
Kendall was thrilled whenever I let her go outside and let her explore in/around the snow. It's so fun to experience the "firsts" with your own kids!
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| Found this gem of a picture at my mom's house - it's ME right around Kendall's age - she looks just like me when I was a baby! |
THIS happened. It really did. We got together with the Worthen's and Packer's (friends from law school) with all 9 of our kids. We chatted like it was yesterday and our kids played like they'd known each other forever. Thank you to Brock and Nicole for sacrificing their clean house so that this party could happen. Holy smokes, it was seriously so fun.
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| Paisley, Henry, Lily, Drew, Kate, Rachel, Ethan & Andrew |
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| These are our little 5 & 6 year olds with all their electronics! We are in trouble! |
The Grandma sleepover was a big success as always! Now there are 11 grandkids and they are such great friends. I didn't grow up with very many cousins, and I really didn't understand how special cousins are! So glad all these kids have each other.
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| Love this little niece of mine - Ellie |
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| COUSINS! Mason (6), Ellie (7 months), Miles (2), Brynn (4), Andrew (3), Kendall (1), Rachel Faye (5), Cole (11 months), Kennedy (6), Chase (3), Cannon (8) |
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| The whole Hale family clan - 2013 |
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| What Chris & Brandon showed up wearing for the family picture just to tease their mom! |
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| Aunt Rachel Gonzalez - love the Hale's "Rachel" tradition! And their mint julep is pretty good too! |
With the Parker family, we made gingerbread houses, visited Santa, saw the lights at Thanksgiving Point, went to Jump On It and saw Frozen. And Kendall finally warmed up to Papa!
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| Kendall was thrilled that Nana gave her piggy tails. Yikes! |
Christmas Eve we party hopped as usual between the Hale family Christmas dinner and then over to the Parker's for the annual "talent" show. Rachel sang, "What does the fox say?" and mom and dad helped with the backup dancing, Andrew sang his potty word song that he made up, "We only say potty words in the bathroom." So proud. Brandon had video proof of his and Kyle's wedding crash. And I did the limbo.
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| Christmas Eve |
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| Kendall, the shepherd |
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| Christmas Jammies |
Christmas Morning -
Santa brought Kendall a new car toy, Rachel a leap pad, and Andrew a new bike (although he may have been more thrilled about all the candy in his stocking).
We also got to talk to Elder Cade Parker on Skype and it was so fun to have everyone there talking with him! He already ready had the "missionary accent" and mom had some hilarious questions/comments for him that we all made fun of her for.
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| Hailey, Cindy & Chad |
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| Merry Christmas, Papa! He got one of those motorized cars that the grandkids can drive, and it's a red Shelby Cobra! |
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| Elder Parker via Skype! |
Brandon found his Grandpa Hale's old basketball uniform and glasses. When I told him I wanted a picture of him wearing it outside, he just walked right out into the snow barefoot! Weirdo! He also wore this "outfit" to my family's nerf gun war at an empty chuch cultural hall. ha ha!
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| Our car was packed to the brim! This is what bringing home an entire Christmas looks like. Poor Andrew! |
We also had a fun night away while Nancy & Val watched the kids, and we saw Catching Fire (so good!) and went out to dinner with my parents. I didn't get a picture, but we always sneak in a play date with Morgan & Leslie & family and it's always fun to catch up with them. It was a fun-filled and packed 10 day Christmas Vacation that was pretty uneventful and the kids even stayed healthy! Wa hoo!
