Do you enjoy your food this much???

Yep, didn't think so! Andrew's first taste of an oreo cookie was a hit! He just started giggling the second he got a taste of if. He ate that cookie with pure delight...and afterwards was delighted again with a much needed bath!

11 Inches shorter

Many of you who know me knew that I had been growing my hair out to donate. I've been dragging my feet alittle in getting it cut since I started to really like my hair long.....I've NEVER liked having long hair, so this was big for me. The last week or so at our house has been me asking Chris and the kids every second, "so should I cut it or just leave it long?" I just couldn't decide so I got online and researched the different places to donate and after that I was convinced it was what I wanted to do. There isn't much I can do for women with cancer, but this was something I could do. I was going to donate it to Locks for Love, but after reading what Pantene with do with it, I decided to go with them. They take the donated hair and make wigs for women who have lost their hair due to cancer.



Here are the pictures when I was deciding to cut or not to cut. It got SO long! And.....

The New Me!!!

This is the lock of hair I donated. My kids were fancinated by it. 11 inches!!

The Eve of Christmas and all day before...

Long last, Christmas Eve drew near, and not one minute of the day was going to be wasted. No sir! First order of business after breakfast: sledding!

Ben loved being pulled behing the snowmobile... and this "seatbelt" type harness worked well too. In fact he even stayed in when the tube flipped upside down and Grandpa didn't know it for a little while... don't worry the plastic surgery was nearly flawless. Alex didn't want to bother with snow clothes... or boots. Not surprising given his mental state, but there are now legends of the Yeti in Timberlakes.

You'd think, "two little girls bundled to awkwardness on a tiny inflatable pad... surely they won't make it down the hill with both of them on that thing," and you'd be wrong, 5 times over. (Double sided duck tape IS twice as useful as the original!)

Kallie actually started sledding all by herself this year! It was a pretty big hill for a 3 year old.

Grandpa never loses a moment to spend with both his snowmobile and his grandchildren.

After we fed Andrew the flourescent green cookies he sprouted these... we don't trust those neighbors anymore.

The second event of the day: gingerbread cookies. Oh yes, we can catch the gingerbread man and he took a dunking in a tall glass of milk.

It was hard to tell if Kallie's gingerbread man was accumulating frosting as fast as he was disapearing...

Ben's gingerbread man is now the official logo for the American Association for the Colorblind.

Mom's racy gingerbread man is actually a member of Chipendales, as you might tell from his tie with no shirt... his pants didn't last long either.

Dad's was a gingerbread mummy... he didn't have to be fast because he carried a curse.

After gingerbread men..... gingerbread houses. You know it!

This is the first house Katie and I have laid the foundation for ourselves.

Even though it had a red door, Katie said she would never live in it.

After that we ate dinner, and then came the pinnacle event of the evening (besides 5 people trying to remember the words to "The Night Before Christmas" in tandem): The Nativity. This year Amy and Alex got to be Mary and Joseph.

The three little angels... if only.

Mary breaks it to Joseph that she's not just fat...

The baby arrived incredibly quickly. The Nativity was followed by new Christmas Jammies, which this year were hand made by Grandma!

All the girls in their new jammies.

All the boys in their new jammies.Andrew and Caden wondering why everybody is acting so silly.

The coolest family in attendance.

Grandma and Papa and all the damage they've created thus far...

Our Little Family Christmas

Since we spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at the Cabin with the whole family (Christopher's side) we like to have our own little Christmas at home before we go up. Santa is very kind and comes to our home early (he also gets extra yummy cookies that the kids made for him). We had such a fun Christmas, complete with a wonderful storm that carpeted Utah with SNOW! It was such a fun day!

Kids Christmas morning in front of the tree.
Our attempt at a family shot...the couch did a pretty good job huh?

Presents!

More presents!

Almost done with presents!

Kallie rockin the house with her very own guitar complete with microphone. This was such a fun toy to play with!

The storm that hit Utah. We were supposed to drive up to the cabin after our Christmas morning, but we couldn't get out. In fact Chris's sister, Ana, came and spent the night at our house since she couldn't make it back home. Did I mention I just LOVE the snow!

Our BBQ covered in snow!

Andrew Trains to Follow Bens Footsteps in the Candycane Classic

New developments.... that aren't so new anymore. But since we don't call you to just chat, you have to wait until I bother to post it on the blog. Benjamin had his last tumbling exercises of the forseeable future. He has been complaining for a little while now that he doesn't want to do tumbling anymore so we let him quit after his big show - The Candycane Classic. Sadly he hasn't even mentioned it since then, and he really was quite talented.

Anyway, in preparation for the big event, he inspired Andrew to do some tumbling of his own.... on our stairs. That's right. Little Man can now climb the stairs, and strangely enough, he figured out how to do it without figuring out how to come back down. So far he has only come down once (Unless Katie has sworn the kids to secrecy on a couple of stories. Knowing Kallie, if she had, I would know immediately). He can also pull himself up to standing with any nearby object and walk along it if inspired to do so by anything he's not allowed to touch. His favorite game is figure out what it is we don't want him to touch/do/explore/experience, pretend to not be interested in it, and then race for it when we shift our attention to something else. You might ask, "how fast can a crawling baby be?" Well, pretty dam fast. (See, I didn't swear, and if you've ever seen how fast things can go when you let out a damn you know what I'm talking about). Stay tuned for holiday festivities and other fun stories.

Andrew, pretending to NOT be interested in going up the stairs... Ben had the best form in his class. That girl thinks he's hot.

His teacher, the really nice lady who really acts mean if you don't point your toes. I do believe Ben's trophy was a little bit taller than all the other kid's identical trophies.

Hilton's Come to Town!

We were lucky enough to be right in the path of Dan and Emily as they drove in from Vegas, so they stopped and spent the night at our house! The kids had so much fun being together again, and the adults had fun eatting snickerdoodles and playing Wii Fit. Since they only stayed one night we really had to pack it in....so this is what we did....

Kallie, Caden, and Andrew playing on the floor
Andrew just got such a kick out of Caden!... And Caden got a few kicks from Andrew...

Two silly girls....being two silly girls! Lets just say their bodily fluids are slowly turning the color of gogurts.

After candles, Chris read "How the Grinch stole Christmas" to a captive audiance. Unfortunately, they were only captive for about 1/3 the story... and then they were held captive until it was over.

Still completely capitvated! (seconds after the first photo)

Dan and Emily finding the story pretty funny... at least someone was listening...

Ben snuggled up all ready to watch the movie of choice...Clifford the Big Red Dog. (I bet somewhere, somehow, there is a graduate English thesis on Clifford being a symbol for the communist movement.)

The two little girls...so excited they can't even lay down!