A Friendly Christmas

We had a Christmas dinner with our besties; the Wachs and Humpherys.  It included, ham, rolls, potatoes, green beans, cheese cake and apple pie.  But don't forget we also had a live nativity (which was awesomely chaos).  Then when the kids went to bed we played games, ate more pie, and sat in the hot tub.  We're totally loving the Wach's new house with a swimming pool!

Here's some pictures...

 
Merry Christmas!!

A Tately Christmas

We spent the weekend after Christmas in California with the Tates.  Where we ate too much, played too many games, and enjoyed good company.

And the boys slept on the floor... 

       

 
Did you spy Winston here?

We Skyped with Nathan and Shirley for our hunts...

Nathan and Shirley attempted to put together a 3D puzzle while instructing dad what to do with the pieces...

And we spent an afternoon at the beach... wonderful.

     

A Family Christmas

We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day with our little family.  It was wonderful and bright.

We got Christmas PJs, and then attempted at a good family picture.  (ignore our blurry Wintston).

The stockings we hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicolas soon would be there;  The children nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.

Santa Visited!

Christmas morning the boys slept in... which NEVER happens.  So we sat around waiting for them to get up!

When the boys finally got up, the Christmas activities finally commenced!

We enjoyed hunts!!!

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas!!

Gobble Gobble

Since I'm still tired, and because Mom really says it best, I'm not going to write this blog post.  Instead I am going to copy and paste Mom's family letter for this month.  I will include some pictures too.  I hope everyone's Thanksgivings were a whirlwind of fun, like ours was!!

Dear family,

We have just returned from celebrating Thanksgiving Tate style in Las Vegas. Most of us converged on Monday night. Natalie and Miranda drove down from Provo. Nathan, Shirley and I flew in. We all arrived at Bethany’s within about a half hour. Adam and Dad, who don’t have the luxury of time that the rest of us have (Nathan brought his work with him) arrived Thursday morning around 10.

We played a lot of games. We ate a lot of food. We watched a couple of movies. We went hiking at Red Rock Canyon and I can’t even tell you how amazing that was. The hike involved more rock climbing than we expected, making it challenging for who ever happened to be carrying Sterling on their back in a pack and for our dogs. Schnauzers and Westies have little legs—and my Schnauzer is particularly whimpy. Winston, Bethany’s dog, did great. Grendel did too, except that she spent the next few days limping and snarling whenever Winston got too close to her. 

And we played at a park with a Frisbee and a soccer ball. Best of all, we got to Skype with Jared in China. So we were all together, sort of. We talked about going to see a Vegas show, but in the end decided that we would rather stay at home and play games.

I love how my family continues to grow, even if we are not all still under one roof. Larry and I started with one child, had five more, and now we have 10 (11 if you count Nathan and Shirley’s baby due in May.) And it’s so fun to think that the party starts again in a few weeks when we celebrate Christmas. (Although Nathan and Shirley will be in Logan. It’s okay though, Nathan has a business trip to Provo in January so he will still get to meet Jared’s girlfriend.)

I hope all of your holidays are merry and bright. We love the holidays and all of you.

Kristy

Halloween with the Peltons and the Barnettes

It was Brandon's mom's turn for Christmas this year.  It was going to cost over $2,000 for us to go to Portland for a few days for Christmas.  So instead we went in July (and it was fabulous), and we suggested that his mom come here for Christmas.  Then, Brandon's brother wanted to come (double fabulous!), but they didn't want to drive at Christmas because of weather.  So all that added up to "Christmas" in October.  It wasn't Christmas at all, but it was a wonderful family gathering of sorts.  (I'm still sad you guys couldn't make it: Dustin and Becky and girls!)

We went to the Shelby car museum, and failed at getting a good family picture...

We visited the pumpkin patch and rode the hay ride...

 ....and had apple cider doughnuts again.  I am already sad that I have to wait another year to eat them again.. 

Chandler had a baseball game, and got to play catcher... so cute!

And we went to the, always wonderful, ward Halloween party...

It was wonderful.  :-)

Gilcrease Pumpkin Patch

We had playgroup at the pumpkin patch this last week!

Um, the cutest picture ever.............

"Mom, I like Chandler... [pause] I like it when he holds my hand." -Scarlett (to Julie)

 

August being a stud muffin....

   

Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary

We went to the Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary for playgroup a couple of weeks ago.  It's a pretty fun place, but it has A LOT of birds and bird poop.  They also have quite a few other animals.  For four bucks (or something like that) it's totally worth it.

This chicken totally let Sterling pet him...

Sterling wasn't scared of any of the animals and wanted to pet everything.. so fun!  These goats bombarded us when we opened the gate... like they're seriously trying to escape.

This hilarious llama just sat up on top of the hill.  The sensei llama.

Playgroup is the best!!