Christmas!

Only a month late...but better than never! We had a great Christmas. On Christmas Eve Eve (so the 23rd!) my sister Stacy and her family came over for a fondue party. YUMMY! The kids loved it. That night the kids slept under the Christmas tree like they do every Christmas Eve Eve. It's a Haymond family tradition. Christmas Eve we did a little house cleaning cause Santa can't come to a dirty house! And then we did out traditional Christmas Eve dinner at Pizza Hut- dine in! This is something we've been doing for the past 3 years or so with Bryan's sister Jen and her family. The sad this is that I don't have pictures of any of those traditions! Next year I'll have to remember to get out the camera! We opened one present on Christmas eve- jammies, left some cookies for Santa, read The Night Before Christmas and the story of Christ's birth, and went to bed.Here are the kiddos waiting to head downstairs to see what goods Santa brought them!
Kate got a kitchen, Tyler got Cars Race-o-rama for the Wii, Ellie got an Our Generation doll, and Anna got a docking station for her iPod.

When all the presents were opened and everyone was happy, we brought out some cards for them to open. Inside was a photo card with a picture of all 4 kids and a little poem that said "You kids are the greatest, you're really number 1. So go pack your bags becasue DISNEYLAND here we come." That was their main gift form us this year. A surprise family trip to Disneyland. They were all really excited. This was our first time going. So stay tuned for a post all about our trip.

Almost there-

Yes, I'm still catching up. But I'm almost there.
The Monday and Tuesday before Christmas I went up to Logan with the kids to visit my family. My sister just happened to have her baby girl the day we got there. Lucky me! Welcome Miss Eli Jane-We also made cookies and decorated some gingerbread houses (but those just don't compare to a darling new baby girl!)
Here's before-And here's after-

Fun times with some cute kids!

A Logan Thanksgiving

I know- Thanksgiving was a month and a half ago- but I'm still trying to catch up on all I've missed. We spent Thanksgiving in Logan this year. My sister Bailey (and her family) were in town from Texas, so we were all together this year. It was also the first year in many that my dad didn't have to get up a 2am to go to work. He was the store manager at the Logan JCPenney until this summer when he retired!

We all enjoyed a great Todd family style Thanksgiving dinner-
We took some pictures of all the grand kids together. It's hard to get 10 kids to all look at one time-
















And watched a wonderful talent show that included lots of dancing kids (including these cute little boys!)- Even though we had to sleep on the floor in the family room, we still had a good time. With all there is to be Thankful for, I think the one thing at the top of my list is family.

More from Virginia: Part 2

So I never finished posting about my trip back east. Here's a few pictures to sum it all up some of the sight-seeing and fun things we did.














We went on a Ghost tour (notice the spooky pose) of Old Town Alexandria, pretty fun even with a lame guide.














We went to the American History, Natural History, and Air and Space Museums.














And we went to see some monuments at night (which I highly recommend if you ever go to DC, smaller crowds & cooler temps!). The one in the picture is the FDR memorial, we also saw the Tomas Jefferson one.

If was fun spending so much time with extended family. There were 2 sets of parents and 9 of us cousins all crammed into our Granny's house (18 of us all together counting the kids and one spouse). It was a good trip, but I'm not sure when I'll be back that way again.

Catching Up!

I know I have an impossible task of catching up on all the posts I've missed over the past few months. Now that the Holidays are over I'll have more time- I hope! So here's a few pictures from our Christmas surprise to the kids to hold you over.

We loaded up the car (and our new rooftop carrier)-













And drove to the happiest place on earth- Disneyland!













So- stay tuned for more on our surprise California vacation!