Our Last Two Weeks in Photos

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this post is going to be about 43,000 words long. I hope these pictures will give you a glimpse into our busy lives during the last two weeks:

First, Harry turned seven. We celebrated by taking him out of school early and having a family lunch. In the evening, Joe's bank had a huge party for him...where all the employees and their families came to celebrate Harry turning seven (or Christmas, depending on your perspective).






Two days later we made a VERY last minute decision and put the kids in the car for an Oregon Christmas. We had so much fun...

Staying up late and drinking diet coke,


Making treats and toffee bars,


Decorating Chrismtas Sugar Cookies with cousins,




Going to the mountain to play in the snow. Some of my kids had never even SEEN snow before!




Throwing snowballs at Cousin Jake (what a good sport he was)





Joe humored me and "sled" down a small hill so I could take his picture:


Charlie after a long day of sledding....A Christmas Story anyone?


Aunt Chelsea was a good sport the entire time...she put up with 11 kids the whole week and never once lost it with them (more than I can say!)


Some more shots enjoying the snow...because we seem to see it only once every six or seven years,




Back at home, Dad and Chelsea got serious one evening,


And my kids got to spend some time with their Great-Grandparents...not every kid can say that!


Of course, we had to have a turn on the famous elephants!


And a group shot with everyone.


We had fun making some last minute Christmas Decor.


Learned to play Shang with Grandma LaRue,


Enjoyed Grandma Lark and Grandpa Steve,




The Christmas Eve Guest list prepared by Harry...all 26 of us showed up!


Acted out the nativity,


And had a great time with the cousins on Christmas eve, listening to stories and opening the traditional Christmas Eve Jammies,










Christmas Morning came a bit too early for our late riser John, but we weren't about to let him miss it,


He wasn't quite awake for the trational hallway family shot,


Or the traditional "sit in front of the presents" shot,


But he figured it out pretty quickly,


Saturday we made the trek back to California, and met Uncle Nate and Aunt Kate in Sacramento for a late lunch. John and Will became instant friends,


These guys are pretty good friends too,


And finally, we made it back to California in time to celebrate another Chrismtas with the Brundage family,




It's just not Christmas without a puzzle,


Well, that's all I got, folks!

We're excited to start a new year and a new decade, and looking forward to all the things our family will accomplish. In the next decade, I will hopefully see four of my boys recieve the priesthood, four of my children be baptized, one of my boys go on a mission,three of my children graduate from high school and go off to college, and five of my children become teenagers. Uh-Oh....I'd better go back to bed for a while!