Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, we all met at Rodney and Julie's church house. We are just getting to big! We love all the family. I've got the pictures backwards, and I don't want to swap them. So Backwards!

Before we called it a night, we exchanged cousin gifts. Usually we do this in July during the family reunion, but with so many cousins together, we did a second exchange this year.

Kylee received make up and still loves it! Karla got a recorder, and she has been asking for one since her last one broke. Can you tell she is hugging it? Kaylyn has the biggest sweet tooth in our family--and she too loved the candy. We enjoyed giving dress ups to Arrianne, a cape to Kevin, and books to Trevor. It was chaos, but it was good chaos.

We then had the annual pinata. This year we did something new though. They made one for the kids and one for the grown up kids. I think the grown up kids enjoyed it more than the little kids. And I'm sure it brought back a lot of memories. In the first few pictures you can see them lining up.

Todd Rodney Anthony setting up fo Janices turn ToddEmily Mom--even with her broken arm.Grandma and Grandpa Cook even got in on the fun.

They put chicken wire in the adult one. Which made it fun and challenging for us. This was what was left after we pulverized it. And I think in the end we finally dumped out the candy--still intact even.


Here is the kids pinata.

Kevin or Kyle. I'm still working on it. Kaylyn. Aunt Trudy holds Alice. Karla

Kylee. Karla. Kylee. Kaylyn.
Aunt Trudy finished painting it because Grandma K broke her arm and wasn't up to finishing the job. THanks Aunt Trudy.

Here the boys are trying to get it set up. Nef boys are monkeys. And Spencer fits right in with the rest.

We also had our tradition Christmas Eve breakfast. But with mom's arm broken--instead of having pancakes we had doughnuts and cinnamon rolls. It was fun!!

And we started the night playing games. It was fun to have that nice big gym for kids to run their energy out while we attempted to play games. I think the favorite of our group was monopoly card game.

And here is the only video I got, because my camera was trying to run out of batteries. This is me. And Trent seemed surprised at my arm. Although my aim was completely off. I think it had to do with the blind fold. And the coaching only made it worse. :)

Also while Skiing

While the Nef's were skiing. Aunt Emily read Christmas stories to the kids. And throughout our Christmas break, the cartoon, the last air bender was very popular. They watch almost the entire season--or so it seemed to me.

Kaylyn talks

I am not done blogging about our trip to Idaho and Christmas, but I have to say a few things before I forget too!!

Kaylyn is growing up on us. This week she has started talking. It started with finally saying Kylee. She has been saying Karla for months now. Kylee was tickled pink. She also has said love you, yep, bath, apple, drink, juice, eat (more specifically Karla eat), help and a plethera of other words that won't come to me now. She is saying an average of 5 new words a day. It is exciting to see what she will say next.
The girls have learned, if they put the bag of diapers in Kaylyn's crib, she can climb out and onto her dresser. They are then able to pull Kaylyn to the floor. When Kaylyn was in her port-a-crib, they could pull her out easily. Kaylyn, after Christmas, upgraded to a full size crib. They look at this as a challange.
She is becoming quite the grown up girl. She has brought so much joy and happiness to our family. Now if she'd quit waking her sisters at 6:30 am life would be better. :) But we are so glad to have her.

I also have to mention Tuesday afternoon. I had a Mary K party so atleast the front half of my house was clean. So I decided to just relax and play with my family. Todd and I choose to watch Dispicable Me-- which he loves and I hadn't seen yet. Instead of folding laundry, which is what I do when I watch TV at home, I choose to just cuddle with Todd. As soon as I stretched out on the couch it was dog pile time. I had Karla and Kylee vieing for a spot on momma. I felt like a stuffed animal with my head poking out of a stuffed animal pile. I felt so loved. I dozed off and missed 20 minutes of the movie, but it was just what I needed. I still feel so pampered and so loved.

Skiing

Todd's family grew up skiing. The last time Todd had gone skiing was before his mission. He really misses it, but I having been skiing only for 4 hours, am not the one to take him. So he admitted this is what he'd really like to do this Christmas while visiting his family. So for his birthday, Todd received a couple of lift tickets to Kelly's canyon. We would have gone for night skiing, but it isn't cheaper anymore. And all day tickets were only $7 more than half day. So since it has been so long, we thought it was worth the $7. Mom, all of Todd's siblings who were there, and Todd went. They had so much fun. They ran all the runs together.
The rest of us left at home made snow men. The little kids made this one first. Then the uncles came and helped more: Can you tell they were mostly boys? I know it's hard to see the canon and canon balls against the white snow, so I caught a video thinking it might be easier to see.


It was lunch time before I realized there wasn't a single orginal Nef there. It wasn't uncomforable hanging out as in-laws. They are as much my family as my own sisters. But it was amazing to watch this group--we got along great, but none of us would have been friends if it had not been the Nef that we love.


Grandpa enjoyed holding Adelle. And Adelle enjoyed being held.

Later, we let the kids play with balloons. You know, visiting Grandma K's house is very different in the winter. Usually they spend half the day outside running around. When it's 0 degrees, the outside trips stay to 30 minutes.

All in all it was a fun day. As Kelly called for last time, the Nef's called it a day. But Trevor wanted to go one more time. So Mom took him down the easiest run of the day. As I heard it, she fell and then she screamed. The arm she had broke last April in the waves broke again--although differently. In the remaining pictures you will see.
We were very blessed that it was the last run of the day. At first they were talking surgery, and in the end they decided it was best to let it heal itself. Which meant that Grandma was coherant and doing well by Christmas. Mom had a great attitude about all of it. It was frusterating being back in a sling, but she also knew how to do most things in the sling already. Mom we love you, and we are sorry. Both Todd and Trevor mopped for a day feeling guilty. But we got playing again and the whole break wasn't ruined.