We had the most special Christmas this year! Not only
was it little miss Tessa's first Christmas but also
the newest brother-in-law's too! We all
traveled up to Woodscross Utah to my sisters!
All of us were able to make it this
year but my brother and his family.

Lukey, his cousin Bryn and Grandma.

Caleb opening a Bakugan!

Aubrey opening the cutest tea set ever!

Lukey playing on the stairs, loving his new toy!

Tessa and one of her new babies!

Caleb sporting one of his new shirts. A few things
didn't make it all the way up to Utah so here's a few
pictures of the kiddos today playing!

Aubrey & Luke cooking up something yummy!

Luke was so cute on his trike! He was just circling
the kitchen island! So fun!

Parking his trike in the "garage"!

And this is what we came home to last night!
A courtyard full of boxes! Mike gets deliveries
from work a couple times a week - this is what
is welcoming us home just about every time
we leave for a couple of days! Hehe!
We had such a blast over this past week, celebrating
birthdays over going out to dinner and seeing
Sherlock Holmes (such a great movie!), a soccer game,
lots of yummy food, shopping, and lots of Wii!
We also got a tour of The Church History
Library where my parents are serving their mission.
We got to go through some of the secret
tunnels to the JSB! {Shh!};)

This picture just explains Lukey's personality to a "T"!
They were all so good to pose for me!

Tessa was just not happy with her toys on her playmat
the other day, so I brought her in to where
the boys were playing
with their cars - that did the trick! She was
so interested in the cars!! Funny girl!

When my sister Ali & I were little girls we would
always write our Christmas wish lists - there
were no limits on these lists. So here's mine.
Dear Santa, please bring me this darling playhouse
for my kiddos.

And, I'll take this Steinway too, please.
If this is too much then just a PPB touring tote!
I've dropped all the hints I can think of. All
but told him the directions of the store that carries
this bag, so if Mike doesn't "pick up" on the
fact that I really want one for Christmas, then
the only hope I have left is Santa!;)

You can't see it, but it was snowing! The kiddos thought
it was the most fun! There's always 1 kid who's
making a face! (Caleb) :)

Aubrey & I making silly faces!

Day 1 of our sweet bread making!! Isn't she a
good braider?

Those little ones are Aubrey's.

This one's Caleb's. Growing up we always had sweet
bread Christmas morning and always delivered
it to family friend's when we would go caroling. They make
such great Home Teaching/Visiting Teaching & school
teacher gifts!! Plus, my house has smelled
so good for the last couple of days!

I Got It!!

I finally got a picture of Miss Tessa smiling!! She
scooted herself right off the rug & under the couch!

Now I just need to film her scooting! Crazy, but
true. She gets her knees under herself and
pushes forward with her feet! Caleb was our earliest
to do this at 5 months, she has him beat by just a
few weeks! It balances out their verbal skills - they
all haven't talked until they're around 2 1/2!;)

Miss Aubrey was helping me wrap gifts this afternoon.

She wanted to wrap up Tessa too!

Aubrey & Luke playing they were babies the
other morning. Good grief!
They were having a great time!

These two put on a "show" before Church yesterday!

This was their audience!
The lion right to the right of Lukey scares the
dickens out of him. The orange tiger 4 steps up
was won by their Daddy for me when we
were at an Amusement Park in Missouri,
before we were married!

Love it!! (I don't think they ever put on
the show - I guess it was jut fun enough to
set the whole thing up!)

Yup - I'm a big fat loser! I had a house
full of people I love and no pictures! I didn't
take out the camera once! Shame on me! In my
defense there were 14 kids in my house. A 13-year-old,
11, 9,8,7, two 6 year-olds, 5, two 4-year-olds, 3,
two 2-year-olds and 4 month old Tessa. It
was a total blast! We had a yummy Thanksgiving
dinner, successful shopping on Black Friday, a yummy
dinner out, playing at the park, visiting Santa and the aquarium,
going to hear the "Messiah" concert at UNLV -
fun stuff! My house is back in order, my
Christmas tree is up & I am so ready to do it all over again
up at my sister's house for Christmas!!
**I vow not to ignore the camera this time around!!**

Little missy just woke up! She cracks me up - it's
like she's reminding me that she still has no
intention of smiling for pictures! We tried our first bites of
cereal this morning! She did pretty well!

Lukey giving his "permission" for Tessa to sit
in the bumbo. He is still convinced it's his!

Of course she has an audience, just like everything
else she does. Aubrey laughed just about the whole
time she was eating!
**Tessa had her 4 month check up yesterday. She
weighs 17 lbs & is 26 inches long. She is our
shortest and fattest baby by a long shot!**

love notes, spikes & the tree of life

This is a little "love note" that Aubrey gave me!
She told me it was a love note because it said I love you!

Lukey bear has his spikes back! Little cutie!
Oh, I have to share this story - bear w/me!
Caleb ate it on his bike and has two big scabs on his face.
The next day he couldn't get Tessa to laugh or smile at him.
He turned to me and told me that she was too scared of his face!
I reassured him that his face was not scary and Tessa just
wasn't in the smiley mood! Then, we were headed to the store
and he didn't want to go in because he didn't want to scare
people in the store! I told him he should be proud of his face!
His "battle wounds" are proof of how tough he is!
We went to the store and later that afternoon, while riding
his bike, he told me w/a huge smile on his face, "Mom, I'm
proud of my face!" It was really an eye opener to me of
just how young kids' self esteem can falter. I'm so impressed
by Caleb's ability to asses situations and get positive solutions
out of them! He is an awesome kid - I learn so much from him.

So what inspired me to blog this morning was hearing
these two in Aubrey's room playing - I heard something
about a tree of life, so I went in to see what they
were doing - Caleb had built this "tree of life" out of legos!
Our FHE this week was about Lehi's vision! Yeah!
They were paying attention after all!

We made some sugar cookies the morning!! The
kiddos are showing off their aprons! Too fun!

Here they are cutting them out!!

Lukey Bear has had a bit of a rough morning - okay
he's been a monster! So I put in "clues, clues" aka Blues Clues,
while we made our cookies!

It seemed to have worked! He's a bit happier - especially
after eating a few cookies!!;)

So sad! Caleb crashed on his bike! He landed right
on his cheek and skid! He thought his cheekbone was
broken for sure! Poor kid! He was so good
to let me clean it up!

Some more battle wounds!

He's happy this morning and his face looks so much better!
(It helped him a ton that his Daddy brought him some egg nog &
we planned some fun things to do when his cousins come for Thanksgiving!)

Tessa has been in such a smiley mood this morning I thought
I could finally get a picture of her smiling - she's on to me though.
She gets one glimpse of the camera and she's dead pan from there
on out! Lukey cooperated though - this never happens!
(scroll down and take a look at him the halloween group shot!)

Rollie Pollie

Why is it that when you want your baby to smile she'll
have nothing to do with it - but the second you put the camera
away she's all smiles? She's been rolling over for about
a week now - where does the time go?

Such cute little chubby cheeks!

Love the chubby legs!!

Our weekend in Cali!!

We got to spend the weekend in California visiting
with family!! We had a ton of fun!

Here are all of the kiddos ready to for "trick-or-treat"!!

We went to Bishops Pumpkin patch!
So fun! Here are some of the kiddos on the hay ride!

We also got to hang out with Mike's brother Matt, my
sister-in-law Virginia and their kiddos too!

Lukey loving his Daddy!

On the train ride!!

Miss Tessa spent most of the day like this!

Aubrey & her cousin Caitlyn!

Caleb & his cousin Dallin!

Aubrey and her cousins, Caitlyn, Dallin, Bryn and
my super hot sister Val!

Caitlyn, Dallin & Aubrey. Can you spot Bryn in the back window? Hehe!

Luke & his cousin Alana!

What cute kiddos!!

Love this pic of Aubrey!!

So cute!!

A huge thanks to Jen for all the cute pictures!!
It was such a huge coincidence that

I saw my friend Sally there! It was so fun to see her
and her cutie pie little baby boy!!
It was also so fun to see Mike's brothers and to
be able to spend time with them & their families!!