2011 Here We Come!

We had a fun family party for New Years Eve at a friends home. Each family came prepared with a performance. We entertained with a wet and wild version of "Splish Splash!" Trent did the lip synching and the ladies did the dancing.

We only practiced at home once before!

We like to perform can you tell?

The Christensen's also did a dance and lip synch number.

The Garrard's and Kanzler's did a magic act. We're talking tricks of all kinds--rabbits out of hats and turning a boy's head around 360 degrees! Impressive stuff.

The Stephensen family led us in 7 verses of "She'll be coming round the mountain" and all the kids got to accompany us with musical instruments--quite the din.

Then, the real fun began! It was our first time to play Rock Band, and we had a blast!

Trent, of course, loved the singing the most.

The ladies then worked up a sweat with Wii's "Just Dance." A must-have! It was so much fun!

The hubbies then tried to beat our score, but let's be honest--we looked better doing it!

During a round of dancing, someone noticed it was 2 minutes till midnight! We dropped the controllers, grabbed the kids and the sparklers and headed outside. We came in from the chilly midnight air for some sparkling cider and then headed home. We had such a blast and I still cannot believe the girls made it til midnight! We left Kendra at home with Grandpa so she could get her beauty sleep, but this is the first time we've let the girls stay up to ring in the New Year. And we rang it in loudly and with great company.

At church, Megan took 2 pieces of bread from the sacrament tray. Later, I said to her, "Megan, we're supposed to just take one piece of bread and then sit and think about Jesus during the sacrament."

She looked at me and said, "I know, Mom. I took 2 so I could think A LOT about Jesus today."

Okay, got me there. I see your logic. Dang.

Family, Friends, Food, and Frivolity

That about sums up our trip to Canada. We drove 20 hours up there and made it in time for a breakfast with Trent's mom's side of the family. All the cousins, nieces, nephews, grandparents, aunts, uncles...a great family reunion. This was the first time for our girls to meet their pateral great-grandparents as well. Here they are with Grandpa Harmen.

Kendra with Great-Grandma Nancy.

We woke up early again the next morning to go to church with family. It cracks me up how tired we look in all our vacation pictures!

We tried to get a pic of the girls before church, but they were not having it! Little Presley does not love the camera, quite obviously!

Megan and Paytin. They are 1 year apart and played together really well.

All bundled up to face that Canadian cold.

We drove up to Grandma and Grandpa Dudley's house in Ponoka for a few days. The girls loved making a gingerbread house with Grandma, going to the movies, and out to dinner.

The finished product!

We got to go out to dinner with Great Grandma Prive and had fun getting to know her better.

Mikayla and Paytin playing. Can you tell which one was the Queen and the servant girl? hahaha

Bottle time! Presley and Kendra are only 6 months apart.

We went to see the Christmas lights display in Airdrie where the girls took a fake sleigh ride.

Look who just so happened to stop by!

Our bundled up family.

Mikayla's school teacher made her this scarf for Christmas and wanted her to have it for her trip to Canada. So sweet of her!

My little snow bunnies, not once did they complain about the cold--unlike their mother!

Good thing the girls have such a nice Uncle Mark to let them ALL pile on top at the same time! So fun! It really did my heart good to see the girls playing with their cousins and aunts and uncles and having so much fun with them.

Christmas Eve and Day

Gotta decorate those cookies for Santa!

The kids painted ornaments for Grandma and Grandpa's tree.

more cookie decorating...

On Christmas Eve, the kids each opened a gift from a cousin and new pajamas. Kendra was content just sitting on her gift. It's a fun grocery cart/walker that she's played with everyday since Christmas.

All the kids(minus a sleeping Presley) in their matching jammies.

Auntie Terra got these 4 cute girls personalized aprons with cooking utensils. The girls have been "making" a lot of food around here lately.

Auntie Terra holding Kendra and Baylee, who are 9 days apart and just as close in size.

After cousin presents, the cousins(minus the babies) all slept in the family room with blankets and cushions everywhere and even a canopy above them. Surprisingly, they all fell asleep watching The Polar Express and stayed that way until shortly after 5am.

While they were sleeping, Santa got busy! Quite amazing how many gifts there are for 26 people, 14 of them being children.

Kendra tried climbing the present mountain.

One shot of the present mayhem and wrapping paper-palooza! I never could get a shot with everyone in it at the same time!

Little Kendra girl was pretty tired on Christmas morning and just wanted some Mommy snuggles.

Mikayla asked the man in red for a Zhu Zhu pet town and boy did he deliver! She's got tunnels and a wheel, an elevator, a salon-- what more could a fake hamster want?!

Kendra was pretty excited to open her Tickle Me Elmo, she has no clue who Elmo is, but hey, Santa got it on clearance for 5 bucks!

Another happy moment, was hen Santa found a bunch of Halloween costumes on mega-clearance after Halloween at Wal-Mart. I mean, really, Santa brought lots of joy to a 3yr old Super Megan with this and several other costumes for $4 a piece.

Later on that day, Kendra plopped down in Bailey's new doll stroller and Baylee followed suit and pushed her across the floor.

Then, they traded places! So cute!

I had to take a picture of this. I never realized the fascination that Canadians have with Dill Pickles until this trip. For snacks, we had dill pickle chips, dill pickle dips, dill pickles in garlic and regular flavors, and other dill pickle oddities. They love it all. I assume it's because I didn't grow up with it, but I really don't. I'm not gonna lie, the ketchup chips are good though!

Trent with the cute 14 month olds.

We really had a great Christmas. Everything about our trip to Canada went better than we'd hoped for. The kids were GREAT on the drive there and back, they played well with their cousins, we loved playing games and staying up talking with siblings, and just enjoyed being all together. We haven't had a Christmas with Trent's whole family together in 7 years and it was really, wholly, wonderful.