New Years Eve

For New Year's Eve we ended up hanging out with Nick and Kesha and their 2 boys, Boston and Easton. Our kids LOVE playing together so it's always fun to get together. Here is what our evening consisted of:

TGIFridays:

Too many snacks and candy:

 Kids playing and watching movies:



 Adults playing doubles Ping Pong:

 Fireworks at 10 so I could put the girls to bed, then fireworks again at midnight.

 Happy New Year!

Train Table

 Yes, the kids are enjoying the train table. Yeah!

And The Festivities Continue...

Since Ryon and Jana were in town, we wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. So we headed over to my parent's church on Monday morning. We had a lot of fun playing b-ball:

The kids loved being able to run around. Thank goodness I ended up throwing in that Little Tykes car last minute. The kids loved it!

And thank you, uncle Jacob, for getting the kids scooters. We took both of the new scooters as well as the one we already had to the church and they were a hit!

We ordered turkey sandwhiches from Walmart and they were delicious! The twins were really cute sharing their food and feeding each other:

Brynlee slept for most of the fun, but she did end up having plenty of time to play. She loved sitting in the car while Simon pushed her around the gym:

Later that night we headed to Josh's dad's extended family Christmas party. We ate yummy soup and breadsticks then did the traditional white elephant game. Here are the girls with grandma:

This was a good end to an exhausting week and a half. 

Christmas

The past week and a half has been extremely stressful and emotional as Josh's grandfather passed away. The funeral was on Wednesday, so that only gave me 2-3 days to finish up Christmas. And on top of all that, I am the choir director in our ward and was in charge of the Christmas program at church. Normally, that wouldn't be that big of a deal. But we did the Christmas program that I wrote while I was on my mission. 6 choir numbers that I directed, 1 yw/primary number, 1 solo, 1 duet, and 1 quartet that I accompanied for, a narrator, and a shepherd family. I think I lost @ 5 lbs not being able to eat for the entire week. Having the program on Christmas was really neat, but extra stressful. We decided to get up at 7 since church was at 9(which NEVER happens) to open presents. Here is the before, during, and after:

Josh and I got a nice 3D TV as our Christmas present. We LOVE it. It is quite the dramatic story of how we got it, but it was all worth it!

Not sure why the picture was blurry, but the kids were SO excited!

Brayden got a DS lite from Santa. He is in heaven!

Brooklyn LOVES her Tinkerbell doll. Santa brought her a karaoke machine and a Game Boy Advanced.

Josh won the train table at work. So eventhough our kids aren't really into cars, it will be fun to finally have one.

Because of the crazy day, we let Brynlee sleep and miss all the fun. After we got ready, however, the kids happily helped her open up her presents.

All ready for church. We made it 10 min early to church so I could finish getting everything ready. The Ericsons came and helped with the kids and watched the program. It went really well, eventhough my soloist had laryngitis. It was a really neat for me to have shared my program, "Come Unto Christ" with this choir (who are amazing, btw) and share it with the congregation. I was overcome with emotion for most of the program, remembering the sacred experiences I had while writing it and performing it in Brazil. I shared some of the experiences with the choir, so they were also very emotional throughout. It was the perfect way to start out our Christmas day and remember what the holiday is all about.

After church we headed to the Ericsons for a yummy brunch and exchange presents with them. Here we all are:

We gave Mckinsley and Brynlee these strollers and babies. They are so fun to watch as they are starting to play together more:

We put the kids down for naps early while there, then took off for my parent's house. Ryon and Jana came down with their family so it was fun to be with them all night.

The clan:

Our little family:

We celebrated my dad's bday, which is the 29th.

After my parent's we stopped at my grandma's house on the way home. It was fun to see her and Fred and spend some time with them.

My grandma gave Brynlee a pillow pet, and she LOVES it!

Although it was the most stressful week I've had in a while, it will always be one of the most special weeks. Josh's grandfather passing was a good reminder of those things that are most important in this life. We are so grateful that we live close to all of our family so that we can visit them and spend time with them. I am grateful for such a special Christmas we had to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and ponder on all the He did for us.

Christmas Eve

We normally have Christmas Eve at Josh's grandma's house, but since his grandpa past away this week it was too much stress for her to have everyone over. So instead we headed to the Ericson's house. Brayden was apparently a little tired and fell asleep on the way:

We had a yummy turkey dinner. The kids love their kid table:

Brynlee doesn't let people hold her very often, so when she does we always try and get a picture:

Josh invited Marcello and his girlfriend and their little 6 month old (who is 4 lbs bigger than Brynlee) over for dinner. We got them some Christmas gifts:

And of course the kids loved it when the doorbell rang and I told them it was for them. Eventhough they were with me when we picked out their pj's, they still couldn't believe that Santa knew where they were!

So cute!

Girly Girl?

Brooklyn is definitely into girl stuff, but never really cared for it until lately. Of course that could be because she only had an older brother so we didn't have a lot of girl stuff. Brynlee, however, is all about girly stuff. She found one of Brooklyn's tutus the other day and brought it to me to put on her. She loves necklaces, sparkles, and everything else she can get her hands on. Let's hope she gets into princesses! Brooklyn loves Tinkerbell, but has never taken to the Disney princesses. We'll see!

Letters

I finished these letters during the summer, but finally got around to giving them to my friend. They are for her little boy and girl. We did a trade, so I made her the letters and she is going to take our family pictures in the spring.

Picnic in December

Since we have been hosting a couple of parties, we've had kid tables set up. Naturally, the kids have wanted to have "picnics" on the kids table all week. I ended up leaving this table in the kitchen and I put away the high chair since all Brynlee wants to do is climb out of it and get on the counter. 

Pendleton Family Christmas Party

My mom and aunt asked if they could have the Pendleton Christmas party at our house since we have toys and stuff for all the little kids to do. Luckily the house was clean for my Bunko party so it wasn't too big a deal. We had a yummy breakfast, donated toys to Toys for Tots, then played a fun candy bar game. It was good to see everyone and hang out all morning.