Christmas Day

Christmas morning unwrapping the gifts! Drew's parents bought a car earlier this fall and received a couple season ski passes, one of which they gave to Drew. So for Christmas this year we bought ski passes for the rest of the family to all go together. You can see that some of what the kids got for Christmas was gear so that they would be comfortable on the mountain. Pretty fun!

So we opened gifts, then had breakfast of fruit, juice, milk and cinnamon rolls (made by Aunt Nikkie, as a Christmas gift). It was yummy! The kids just played around with their new stuff until G&G B got there to see all of what they received. Shortly after that G&G C arrived to start making food for the Christmas dinner. We ate at about 1:30 with my mom and dad, Will, Diana and Colton, and James and Tara, with their new baby Gibson. Again, very yummy food. Will let us share his Christmas bonus, a honey-baked ham for the dinner.

Right after we ate, our family got dressed and ready to head up to the mountain to use our passes for the first time. We skied with all the kids and Aunt Brenda and it was a little crazy! Brenda probably doesn't want to go with us again because it was so crazy. But, we did have three brand new skiers on the slope. Masha will kill me, but she was the babiest of all the kids. She cried and cried and took 15 minutes to stand back up onto her skis after falling. :) She'll be a little embarrassed that I shared that, but we can laugh about it now because she has gotten so much better already.

We went again the next Monday and Tuesday. By then Anastasia and Masha could both go down the slope without falling and Bryce was skiing on his own without the harness. They are all doing really well! It should end up being a fun season!

New pants for Bryce.

Opening the pants.

Tyler and new pants...get the theme this year...we bought what they were in dire need of!

Goggles for skiing. PINK

New black skirt for Masha. It looked very nice on her the next day at church.

New umbrella for JR.

Masha in her new helmet, mouth cover and goggles.

Christmas Eve with Grandma B's Side

We usually always go to this family Christmas Eve get together before or after getting together with the Benson's. This year it was after. We all packed up our stuff and headed to the church near our home and ate a yummy dinner of soup, rolls and salads. It was delicious! I am really starting to love soups. They make you feel so warm and fuzzy inside after you eat them.

Then of course Santa came and gave each of the good boys and girls gifts! Here are pictures of all of them on Santa's lap.

Tyler

JR

Masha, her first!

Me, a picture taken by our other photographer in the family, Tyler.

Bryce and Tyler with big cousin Jake.

Anastasia.

Bryce

Bryce with his best cousin buddy, Ashton. Those two are two peas in a pod. Ashton's dad says when those two are together they are double trouble. It's true, but I do believe with four daughters, they're not quite used to how rowdy boys can get! :) As I'm not used to how emotional girls can get. I'm still learning to deal a little better with this...

Christmas Pajamas

After all of the Eve parties we came home and.......

For Christmas this year I attempted something I've never done before. I made pajamas for the whole family that match. Our basement flooded the Thursday before Christmas, which happened to be the day I was making the pajamas and trying to bake bread, etc., etc., for Christmas. So, thanks to my mom, I got all of the pajamas done. I cut out 95% of the fabric and sewed 3 or 4pairs of pajama pants, under my moms tutolage. My mom sewed the rest. Thank you for your help! The kids loved the pajamas and everyone is still wearing them! Yeahoo! I think it made all the family feel good to have something that everyone else had. A bonding thing, you know...

Anyway, it was an accomplishment for me. I'm proud!

We even got dad to put on the pajamas...he's not usually a pajamas kind of guy.

Bryce

Now for a few pictures of the kids being silly in their new jammies.

Masha

Tyler

Anastasia

Masha wearing JR's glasses.

Christmas Eve

Every Christmas Eve we get together with the Benson side of the family and exchange gifts. We've started having cousins draw names for another cousin and the adult couples always exchange gifts to one another. Pics from that get together:

JR opening his gift from Grandma and Grandpa, it was a bop-it that he has pulled out for endless hours since Christmas. He is almost to the master level. He's wanted one for so long and was really excited.

Drew got a set of tire changing thingies, I can't remember the name of them right now, from his parents.

Bryce with Anut Kim and Uncle Jeff. He's holding his dragon egg from his cousin Mara.

Masha got new earrings from her cousin Ashton. Ashton's teenage sister helped pick them out.

Tyler with his new cherished hot wheels!

Anastasia got a crocheted head band from Calle. Very cute!

The clan. Miranda, Lexi, Anastasia, JR, Baylie, JayDale, Sharleen, Rachel, Jarom and Madeline.

Brenda, Kelsie, Mike, Todd, Jerry and Drew.

Michelle with Mara on her lap, then, Ashton, Nikkie, Jason. Tyler, Grandma, Bryce, Kim, Jeff, Hallie, Brenda and Kelsie. Big Family!

Temple Square

Our annual trip to Temple Square! My parents were in town and Will and Diana joined us as well. I always love going and seeing the lights. It was a first for Masha, she seemed to like them. My mom hurt her leg and needed to be pushed in a wheelchair. A fun tradition!

The kids in the Joseph Smith Building. We toured that building a little, it is beautiful.

Anastasia and grandma.

JR with temple in back and near the carved lights. I love these lights.

Bryce! What a sweet smile.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Both Grandma's and Grandpa's were able to be here, Aunt Diana, Uncle Will and cousin Colton and the Grandinetti's were able to come and share Strawberry Shortcake with us for Tyler's birthday. It was fun and what a super birthday he had! Nerf gun for G&G C.

Zhu Zhu pet from G&G B and Star Wars sticker books from the Grandinetti's. Tyler actually gave the Grandinetti's quite the invitation to his birthday. It was one of the type that they say, "Come to my birthday and this is what I want for a present! :)" Thank goodness the Grandinetti's are really wonderful and forgiving people! Tyler loved having them there.

Gluten-Free (doesn't taste GF) angel food cake at Tyler's request.

Happy Birthday bud! We sure love you and are so happy to have your smiling face in our family!

Christmas Piano Recital

JR, Masha, Anastasia, and Tyler all took part in the recital. It was very fun to hear them all and to see the faces of people around us as we have FOUR kids get up to play! :) They all did a great job. My parents were able to be there and hear the kids in a recital for the first time. Drew's parents also attended.

JR played Joy to the World and Silent Night.

Masha's first recital.

Anastasia played Jingle Bells and a Halloween song.

Tyler played Jolly Old St. Nicholas and a Halloween song, Cat Calls.