A week of Christmas!

One of our favorite traditions is Christmas breakfast with all of our grandparents. Ty and I started this tradition when Jayden and Dallin were born. We cook breakfast for all of the grandparents and "hoard" them all for ourselves for a couple of hours. They love to visit with each other. The kids love that they get the attention of so many grandparents at one time. The grandparents love to see what Santa brought to each of the kids. We are so blessed to have such awesome parents and grandparents.

Ty and my mom (Grandma Hopes)

Grandpa Hopes, Grandpa Taylor, Grandpa Jensen

Grandma Taylor and Grandma Jensen

Grandma and Grandpa Gerber

We were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa Hopes come to stay at our house for the whole week before Christmas. We had so much fun sledding, shopping, baking goodies and visiting. Christmas eve, the kids opened the gifts that grandma and grandpa brought for them. The boys all recieved the funnest remote control helicoptors, whoa!! They sure looked fun until they started flying everywhere around the house bouncing off the ceiling and walls. My first thought was to take cover before they wrapped up in the girls hair! Ty had to set up a helicopter fix it shop right away when pieces started busting off of them from crashing. It was great entertainment to say the least.

Jayden and Dallin were pretty excited about getting IPods for Christmas, but I know that they enjoyed all the activity and family parties more than any electronic gadget.

As you can see they made off like "bandits".

Sadie got a doll house and furniture for her room. Aubrie loved her Nintendo DS and a cute organizer for her room. Thank goodness Ty had his tools ready because Santa brought furniture for each one of the kids rooms, he had 3 desks, 3 chairs, 2 organizers, 1 doll house, and 1 night stand to put together!

What Fun!

What a busy time of year! I have enjoyed all of the activity, even though it keeps me running. The kids were excited for school to be out and it seemed that the last week of school was extremely busy. Aubrie's 4th grade class did a Christmas play called Surfin Santa. It was so much fun to watch. Sadie and Halen's class had a party and I volunteered to be in charge of the game. I was also anxious for school to be out, this meant that we could all sleep in and not worry about what homework needed to be done. School letting out for winter break made the kids that much more excited about seeing their grandparents.

Lots of silly elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elves at the Taylor house

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Steele family Christmas Party

The Steele family Christmas party is something our family looks forward to each year. This is the one time that we see our aunts and uncles and cousins. The kids love to see Santa.

Friends

We had some friends over Saturday night for dinner and just to hang out. It was fun to see everyone again and let the kids play. Travis had been talking about his famous smoked ribs that he cooks over cherry wood in a smokebox and we finally got to taste some. It took him all day but we appreciated them, they were mouthwatering!

Travis and (oops I didn't catch Natasha's picture,

she must have been playing the Wii with the kids)
Kristen & Mike

Angie & Mark

Halen's first basketball season

Halen recently finished up his first basketball season. He has loved it and I think it was too short of a season for him. I had to encourage him to try basketball, and now he loves it.