We discovered that Noah can do stairs


And I received the "Mother of the Year" award

I should note that I was in the process of saying " Hyrum, you don't need to help him, sweetie. Noah's got this all figured out!" Well apparently not!

Hyrum made cookies with Mema


(It was exactly what he could handle)

We couldn't find anywhere to get a real tree two days before Christmas so we put up the nine foot artificial tree in my parents basement, which does not have nine foot ceilings.


Hyrum went sledding with his cousins


My sister lost her voice from being sick and had to whisper for four days. Seven of the seventeen people in my family were sick by the time we all left. Somehow Derek, Hyrum, Noah and I were spared.


We went caroling, all over, in five mini vans


Santa came to our Christmas eve party ( as he always does )



Hyrum hid from him ( just like his dad did when he was little) but he said that he was just hiding in order to jump out and surprise Santa. But I saw no jumping.


Noah was coerced into saying "more" and "cookie" on Christmas eve while being fed a sugar cookie he was begging for.


The boys were up too late on Christmas eve


Hyrum "wrote" his first letter to Santa. (He really just said "heart, heart, heart!" insistently as his cousin Kobe wrote the note.)



We showered and got ready for the day waiting for our boys to wake up on Christmas morning. ( they didn't wake up until after 9am )



The first thing Hyrum wanted to do on Christmas morning was go to his cousins house. Presents? Who needs presents! But we did convince him to open some.


Noah let his brother open his gifts.


Hyrum played the Wii on a big projection screen at the Avery's with his cousins


and dueled with his cousin Kobe.

We discovered how adorable Noah looks with a bow on his head


At the third family Christmas party in three days Noah discovered a love for pull back and go cars


I played a replica of the Husker Du game my grandma Nellie had when we were kids. We loved that game and it was so fun to play it with my sister again.


We had informal family pictures taken ( and later formal family pictures)



We also had a sisters picture taken


And I got a Holly original of Noah at last. :) Do you think she should retire?


My parents took ALL of the grandkids to the botanical gardens


We celebrated New Years eve on the 27th of December so we could do it together.


We nearly smothered my great grand aunt Byrdie taking a picture with her


After hugs and goodbyes we had a marathon day of flights, layovers and delays as we flew back to Salt Lake. But we had adventures along the way.


(Noah is a very determined crawler)


(Noah is crawling circles around Hyrum. They were both giggling.)

We rang in the real new year wiping a foot of snow off the car and braved the post new years party drivers arriving home a little after 1 am. We got the boys in the house and in bed then headed out to dig a place for our car in the driveway then went to bed.

( This was taken a week after we got home and the snow had melted a bit but you get the picture- It was bright out there too. :)

The boys got a surprise extra visit from the big man when they got home.


Noah is scantily clad because I'd just changed his diaper after not having changed it the night before and he woke up SOAKED, clothes, snowsuit and all. It's just my mother of the year award shining through. Poor little guy.

Merry (fun and crazy) Christmas ( and new years ) to all and to all a GOODNIGHT!!

P.S. All of the big pictures were taken by my sister Holly.


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