my blessed little one

Today we blessed little Henry. What a great day I had. My in laws (plus grandma Alice) showed up early this morning as we left for church. I was SO happy to see them. I was glad they made the drive up here even if it was just for a short visit.

Cali and Joey also blessed baby Fiona. So everyone came to my church first and they we hurried over to Cali's. It really was the best of days. Henry didn't cry once during his blessing (surprise).

People that attended: Mom and Dad, Bob and Roberta, Alice Ward, Cameron, Leah, Morgan, Jason, KaeLynn and kids, Justin, Angelique, Dougie, Mike, and Isaac.

henry getting some Grandma love from grandma Berta. It was so nice to have someone else hold him today.

We played wii after Cali's sacrament while we waited for the luncheon to start.

It was awesome to see the two grandma's play each other in a game of tennis.

Just a handsome picture of Bob.

My nieces Morgan and Leah came too they are so good with Henry.

I got in on a little tennis action myself.

Cortney trying to get the wii mote from Rob so he can put him in time out...

Here he goes...

Gotta love that face.

the three of us...

yummm....my dad made some dang good food.

the kids eating.

Henry and Fiona...the stars of the day.

Me and Hens.

Roberta and Bob and Hens.

mom and dad and the babies.

It was a great day...thanks to our families for being there.

I just did 3 posts(just so you know) on Christmas...That was a lot of work. Pheww...

las vegas

For Christmas my dad rented a "Christmas Cabin" for us in Las Vegas. When Mom and Dad found out that they were going on another mission they decided we had to go somewhere together for Christmas...one last hurrah before they left. It is really hard to find somewhere that fits 30 people, that is close by, and a little warmer then Orem. This home in Vegas fit the bill perfectly. And it turned out the "christmas cabin" was a Christmas mansion. This place was INSANE.

It was such a beautiful house. 9 huge bedrooms 10 bathrooms. The craziest part of the house was how quiet the house was. It had such good insulation or something. It really helped with all of the loud kids running around. It also had an awesome theater, the kids (and adults) played beatles rock band all day. We also had the pool heated to around 90 degrees. I swam one night (well if you can call sitting in the water swimming) but Cortney swam tons and said it was the best part. The kids loved it and were in there all day.

The house.

The entry way

The pool...duh.

The hall way to all of the bedrooms.


Game room with bar.

One of the Master suites.

We left for Vegas Monday after work. We followed Joey and Cali down in their car and got to Vegas around 11:00 p.m. We got a couple of rooms at the Circus Circus, along with our friend Shane for 23 dollars a room. Man...that is so cheap. You can't beat that. Then Tuesday morning we headed over to meet my parents at the house. We hung around the house and then around 3 most of the boys left to the BYU bowl game. What a fun game, the perfect end to a great season.

It was FREEZING that night. Super windy. These boys are hardcore.

Everyone that I see says "man Cortney really has a beard right now" I hardly notice until I see a picture like this where he has it all fanned out like that. That is a big beard. He looks like Bluto.
from the movie popeye. Well...I guess he needs a unibrow...but his beard is definitely Bluto worthy.

A blurry but awesome photo of the boys rushing the field when BYU won. Tyson is wearing the blue puff coat, he is the ultimate BYU fan.

Ty again...so stoaked.

Justin went up to the cameras when espn was interviewing Bronco M. and held Tyson up...all of us watching the game at home saw him on TV for a long time. First we saw Justin and then up came Tyson. It was awesome.

Just a note...Joey and Shane are missing from the picture because Joey had surgery on his ankle and is a gimp right now. Isaac and Linh were also there but were in the car because it as SO cold.
Max hall holding up the trophy.

Finally a picture that Cortney is in.

Mom and I drove all around town Tuesday night looking for a Christmas tree (not just any Christmas tree but one that was on sale...we weren't willing to spend over 20 dollars for it). We found one and I am glad we did...it really brought the Christmas feel to the place.

christmas eve

Christmas Eve my dad took all of the kids to see The Chipmunk movie. Then they swam and swam and swam. Special Thanks to Jason and Cortney...they swam the whole time so we didn't have to be out there with our kids.

I love to see the cousins playing together.

Rob just chillin' in his unitard.

Cali and I spent a lot of time just like this. Babies are a lot of work.


we played a lot of games.

We also had a ton of little crafts and projects for the kids to do. Cali put together teams for a nativity building activity. Here is my team.

The final products. How cute is that?

I made gingerbread men for the kids to decorate for Santa. I was surprised at how much they liked it. Plus they were delicious.

cute Kate.

Oliver

Then we all sat down and my Mom passed out this years Christmas pj's. The kids thought it was awesome to be all matching.

Gg opening her pj's.


Our family getting ready for the big night.


Man...get a look of all those kids. It was crazy. We usually have the kids act out the nativity but we didn't have any costumes or time so we did it with some really cute puppets that KaeLynn had. It was cute.


The kids with the puppets.

It is tradition in the Earl family to do a little talent show/christmas program, on Christmas eve. It is one of my favorite things...

Here Cali is singing along with Carolina singing.

Jack did a head stand.

My boys sang Happiest Christmas tree. It was a song Oliver learned in school and taught it to Rob in bed at night. They sang so loud I couldn't believe it. It was awesome. I was so proud.

Henry's talent was his amazing toot abilities.

Afterwards all of the kids went to bed and the sisters wrapped and wrapped presents. I can't believe how long it takes to wrap. Then it was off to bed (after some late night talking with all of the adults)...