Trip to Philly part 1

We were SO excited to take our first trip to Phili to visit the Lopez family. It was a BLAST! Food, presents, entertainment, shopping, historical site seeing...it was incredible!

 Valley Forge. This is where Meri got married.

 Didn't take them long to become BEST friends.

 "Mom, we must go shopping now."

 Nikki the cougher! Hehe

 Ali we love!

 Making legendary MOJO

 

To be continued...

Christmas Day 2012

Santa came! Good for him.

 

He also took some time to write the kids a letter! He told them to remember the true meaning of Christmas. He also thanked them for the cookies and carrots...especially since Rudolf was extra hungry that night.

For breakfast we got to use our new pancake pen from the Bringhursts! SO fun. Lots of giggles.

For dinner, we went to the Westover's. They live around the corner from us. Joseph is finishing Dental school. They have 5 kids. They made ham and a bunch of other stuff, and we made a turkey and a bunch of other stuff. The Stephensons came too! It was one big Christmas party! I loved it!

 

      Of note: although I did not turn it in, I wrote out our check for tithing.

Christmas Eve 2012

A few days before Christmas, the girls and I made a whole bunch of glittery star ornaments. We painted our hearts out!

On Christmas Eve, we all went and visited the local mental health hospital (I didn't know that until we got there...I thought it was a regular nursing home). There we handed out the handmade ornaments. The girls couldn't stop talking about it. It was a wonderful family activity.

(I know this is off the subject, but notice how the girls are both wearing stripes. They wanted to look like candy canes for Christmas! SO cute.)

Afterward, we went to a large Nativity Scene in the heart of Downtown Pittsburgh. It was beautiful! It reminded me of the feeling at temple square. Very peaceful. We were pretty much the only ones there.

Ammon's nose turned really red. That was our cue to go home. :)

Once we got home we made gingerbread houses from the kits Grandma Cindy sent us. Ammon didn't actually make one...he stomped around the house in Brenna's pink boots! (As usual) We also decorated gingerbread men and had hot chocolate. For dinner, grilled cheese and tomato soup! Perfect for a very cold Christmas Eve. Even though there wasn't an ounce of snow.

Then we read the Nativity story from Luke. The girls were giggling non-stop at the pretend pregnant belly!

Afterward we Skyped the Grandparents. LOTS of gifts to open! The tree looked bare when we were done!

Here's Kaylee with the book that has an audio recording of Grandma and Grandpa B. reading to them!

Here's a pile of all of our precious crap that we got.

Cindy made red nightgowns for all the girls with zebra robes! The guys got zebra pants. Too bad Ammon's pants wouldn't stay on!

Here's Nate playing with his Christmas present for the next 2 years...his Iphone 4! Hehehe just kidding Nate!

What a beautiful mess. I love Christmas!