New Years

Cortney was feeling a little better by new years eve...and I talked Cali and Joey into getting back from Phoenix in time for a little celebration.  I made meatballs and brought a cheese ball and pepper jelly with cream cheese. Cali got drinks and sandwich stuff.  We also invited Linh (Isaac had already moved to Charleston South Carolina for a new job) and she brought delicious roasted broccoli and stuffed mushrooms.  Oh and I made brown butter shortbread cookies too.  It was ALL delicious.  

We let the kids be awake this time so we started at 6 and were supposed to end at 10...however we ended up going home closer to 11:30 because we were having so much fun.  

The adults played Ticket to ride Europe.  (I won...holla) Then we played scatagories.  It was a fun night. Henry was driving me crazy but that is par for the course.  

We took our traditional new years eve pictures...

Trains

I have to overload this post with the same picture because I love them all...13 pictures for 2013  Hilarious. 

I love that Cali and Joe look like this was sooooooo funny. 

 bootie shot

 Love this one of Cort.  Also I love how I am wearing HUGE MENS socks.  

Looooook at my socks.  Haha.  Plus What is Cortney doing???  I might have been doing gangnam style here.  

Mean Cali. 

 Kisses.  I was glad Linh had someone to kiss. 

I don't know when I got to heavy for Cortney to dip. 

We tried to do 13 with our fingers....looks like Joe is the only one smart enough.  Who knows what number Cort thought he was doing. 

 I love the nice 10 from Cali. 

the rest of Christmas...the sick part.

The day after Christmas I got pretty sick.  Then Cortney got sick...real sick.  He slept in the recliner all day.  Bob and Roberta took my big boys to Life of Pi (which they LOVED).  It was really special for them to be at a grown up movie with their grandparents.  I was thankful for the chance for them to get out a little.  Thursday (the 28th) at night Cortney and I were talking in bed one minute and then the next minute he was running to the bathroom.  He threw up a couple of times and then decided he would sleep in a different room so we could sleep.  Around 5 in the morning I heard him calling for help.  I went into the room and he was shaking violently.  He told me he needed his dad to give him a blessing.  I went upstairs but wasn't brave enough to get his dad.  I went back downstairs and grabbed a hair dryer and heated up his covers.  He was already covered with a blanket and a down comforter but he was freezing. I climbed in next to him so my body could help warm him up.  I have seen him shaking like this one other time when we were first dating...that time he ended up in the hospital with pneumonia.  It was scary.  The next morning around 8 I went up and got his dad to come give him a blessing.  We were all pretty worried.  Cortney told me later once he could talk that when he called me in during the night he thought he was having either a stroke or a heart attack.  He said he was trying to get enough strength to call for me in the night for a long time.  It was crazy.  It was scary.  He was completely out of it.  I started getting our stuff packed up so we could get him home (I was worried he needed to go to the doctor but he has to go in to the doctor in Utah).

 I packed up the car all alone, and got on the road to get us home.  We met Bob and Roberta in Rigby for dinner at Wendy's (they were out of town for the day...it was their anniversary).  They bought us dinner yum.  I drove us all the way home and Cortney and I both brought our stuff in.  We had tons of new snow too so I shoveled the deck and the stairs.

It was great to be home.  Cort had an antibiotic for sinus infection and it took about a week for him to get better.  It was a typical ending to the holiday.

christmas

We stayed again this year at the Christmas Cabin in St. Anthony.  Man I love this place.  It is amaaaaazing.  We had to wake up and go early Monday morning because we were in charge of Christmas Eve dinner with Kandee.  The meat I was doing needed 9 hours to cook so we had to get there as early as possible to get it in the oven.  It was just us for a couple of hours and even then it was so fun the boys ran around like crazy.  The cabin is special and makes the holiday so much more magical for the kids.  They hardly even played with any of their presents because the place is so amazing.   

After a couple of hours Heather brought by her kiddos while she ran some errands.  Kandee came by shortly thereafter too and we started getting ready for dinner.  Morgan was helping too which was so nice ( I can only imagine having a daughter but Morgan showed me it could be pretty awesome).  Then we just sat around and vegged.  It was really nice.  

Cam and Ty came by a little later with lunch, and Bob and Roberta and Alice followed.  We had pizza.  

 I love this picture because it just goes to show cousins are fast friends even if they aren't the same age and haven't seen each other in a year. 

 The cabin has all sorts of toys and this awesome bunk room.  They would build forts with these blocks for hours. (henry's in there)

 So much fun

 

The cabin is on 100 acres. 

(kandee taking a nice nap by the fire) (notice my rolls rising in front of the fire)

We relaxed all of Christmas Eve.  It was nice.

There are two slides to the downstairs in this room but they are elevated so babies can't fall down them. Notice me and morgan and Leah playing monopoly in the back...it took forever...I won. :)

Whitney and Schuyler and kids made it just in time for dinner. 

Roberta, Cooper, Heather, Brian and Cort. 

Dinner was delicious.  Kandee and I made Roast beef, ham, delicious gravy, mashed potatoes, broccoli, salad and rolls.  Everything was really good and we weren't totally stressed out because we prepared most of it at lunch time.  Also that kitchen is a dream I would love one that big and functional.  

 I love this of Morgan helping me with the meat because my hands were full. 

There are 4 tables like this in the kitchen.  Seating for all of us. 

After dinner we had peach and apple coblers with ice cream. YUM. 

After dinner we had a white elephant (which is always fun yet, ALWAYS brings tears to at least one child's eyes...it is super confusing to have a present taken away from you!)...then we opened up our Christmas pajamas.  I loved them this year but I am pretty sure it is the last year that we have tight stretchy pj's...my big boys were not fans of them. 

 

I love this picture...it makes me so happy.  What wonderful boys. 

Crazy faces.  I love them all.  

Love my family. 

At bedtime we went into our room and I read the kids the poem Jest fer Christmas, that my mom always read to us.  Then we read about the nativity and read a couple of stories from the friend.  My kids fell asleep pretty fast and then I went upstairs to sit in front of the fire for a while. 

I snuck a peak of the presents before the boys woke up! Santa came!!

 Darling aspen. 

(grandma Alice kept wondering if someone was going to do something about her hair...haha, I love this little girl)

Stockings  (oli got a head scratcher and it was a hit, everyone there loved it)

Side note...Grandma was feeling horrible the whole time.  Her knee was hurting so bad.  She was a real trooper and tried really hard to not complain but you could really tell that she was hurt. 

we didn't wake Theo up for the excitement (he only had 1 present anyways)

BUZZ!

Oliver 

My kids asked for BOONDOGLES I thought it was crazy but they have been making so pretty cool keychains. 

spoiled. 

Tyler, shade, kandee, and Morgan. (Shade got a letter saying his license  was suspended...merry Christmas!)

 

Oliver had a great Christmas BYU hat, sweatshirt and headphones. 

I got this hat for him customized with his nickname "Vert"...it was a HUGE hit.  Plus I got it on a black friday sale so it was a great deal. 

(he had wanted it for a while and I happened to check on black friday to just see if they were having a special and they were!! score!)

Henry dressed as woody with Woody. LOOOVE.

We spent the day relaxing and playing with toys.  Cameron gave all the big kids a remote control helicopter which was so fun and they loved flying them.

Grandma Alice and Grandma Berta made a delicious breakfast of egg casseroles, cinnamon rolls, coffee cake, and orange juice. 

At night we played games which included egg roulette...there were boiled eggs and fresh eggs and you picked and then cracked it on your head.  It was pretty funny and Roberta got it pretty bad. (i of course didn't play)

Pretty Leah. 

Christmas day dinner we had awesome Spaghetti and meatballs made by the Arensberg's and the William's/ 

We played a lot of ping pong, air hockey, and pool.  

I had been wanting a nice pair of moccasins for a looooonnngg time.  Cortney got me these beauties.  They are moosehide and so soft.  It was a wonderful present. 

A couple of days after Christmas Theo pulled the xbox down on top of his head.  POOR baby. 

I love to have a list of my kids presents just for record keeping.  I love reading back what I got when I was little.  

Henry...

Buzz Lightyear

Woody

Cardboard spaceship

Mini Piano

Nerf gun

Woody and buzz pajamas

Wooden train set 

Watercolors 

Rob...

Butterfly kit 

Just Dance 4

Stuffie

Sweatshirt

Bow and Arrow

Journal

Melty beads that you iron into stuff

Sweatsuit 

Boondoggles

Oliver

BYU hat

Skate 2  xbox

shaun white snowboarding xbox

car game xbox

BYU sweatshirt

Pants

minecraft for computer

scooter

Diary of a wimpy kid Journal

Lego ninjago encyclopedia

BYU head phones

We bought Ike's old xbox and gave that to the kids too.  They were thrilled!!  Plus we also got a couple of wii controllers.  

Theo

Keys

Cortney

Solar powered wireless keyboard

headphones

Ashley

Mocassins 

Cortney got me a bunch of utensils from the dollar store.  

From Bob and Roberta (and alice)we got an awesome 72 hour kit for 2 from shelf reliance and a great set of silverware, The boys all got blankets and books.

From my parents we got a book and some $$

oli got a ornament that is a radio that counts down to christmas, Rob got a hamster ornament that sings, Henry got a woody guitar ornament and Theo got a Rudolph ornament. 

I got a family picture ornament from my grandma earl.

From grandma Aha Oli and Rob got walkie talkies, Henry got monster trucks, and Theo got this great baby toy.  I got the reader's digest and HICKORY farms...yum!

Cali and I gave each other the same thing...wrinkle cream!!

Pheww that was a lot to type and I am sure I have left things off...Man we were really spoiled.