It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Part 4)

We spent Christmas afternoon and evening with my family, and we really enjoyed all being together. It's pretty much Christmas Central at the Miller's every year. :)

Relaxing and enjoying the great company -Zeb was content with his trains that he got ... so cute.

Krystal and Hanna had pretty much identical gifts. VERY smart. ;) ;)!

Christmas presents are FUN!! Thanks Mom and Dad.


Keepin' busy ...

Mom got pj's with robes for all the boys. They look awesome, don't they?

I love lil' Mort Mort. He's such a good boy. He gets tuckered out with all the going-ons.

M got a Nintendo DS for Christmas. We all ROCKED between ages 30 and 70 (hahahahaha) at Brain Age. No worries ... we all have MUCH younger brains now. Anyway - it was a big hit for Christmas afternoon activities.

This post has had so many parts, I know - it is just ridiculous! But ... I'm done posting Christmas pictures now. Still have many holiday activities to go though. :)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Part 3)

On Christmas day, Tyler got to make the Swedish pancakes with his dad for his first year (his brother, Ryan, usually does it). He did a great job - and the traditional brunch was just as heavenly as ever. He DID say that it was a lot harder than he thought. I am so glad he has learned ... this is a tradition that needs to continue in our family always.

Here are the cute kiddos taking some chill time before Swedish pancakes.

Thanks to Teener - my kids decided they wanted Webkinz for Christmas. And ... Tina - you did NOT disappoint Christmas day as you walked Miss through the set up. She is pretty much obsessed with it now (which means it's a great incentive for her to get her work done :))!

Here's the kitchen crew Christmas morning. It's a lot of work to get everything ready ... but sure worth it!

We're missing most of the gang ... but here we are enjoying the yummy brunch. The Ryan and Lori clan made it later, but we sure missed Jers and Plonns!

We (well, okay - Tina) put together a scrap book of each grandchild (the kids filled out a questionaire - and wrote down their favorite memory with gma and gpa - we provided pics) for Grover and DeAnn for Christmas. It was a big hit. We ALL enjoyed it! Brandon and Tina surprised us all by putting pics of the ultra sound of their baby at the end ... Amy (it's a girl!!).

Aaron had a transformer year - and is loving it. He got transformers from both sets of grandparents (here he is after opening a transformer from gma and gpa Jenson). He has them proudly displayed on his dresser as I type. :)

Whew! Just a few more parts to our holiday adventures to go! :) hahaha.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Part 2)

Christmas Eve and Christmas day are so much fun. Mom got most of the pics of Christmas Eve. I need you to e-mail them to me, if that's okay. I can't copy and save the ones from your blog for some reason. We had a yummy dinner and a cute Christmas program. Afterwards we surprised Mom and Dad with a new ping-pong table for Christmas. Very exciting. I also got this funny picture of Mom sitting in Ethan's carseat. Mom and Dad took Grandma and Grandpa home - and used Kristy and James' car. That carseat is pretty much in there permanently ... but, the awesomest thing is that Mom actually fits EASILY in the dang thing!

I love Christmas morning. I always have - and I still do. I love my kids sleepy eyes, bed heads, and excited-ness! For some reason Krystal has always has amazing morning hair. I don't know how she gets so lucky? hahaha!

Krystal took forever to go through her stuff ... perhaps because she had to put it all in a pile one by one. Marissa and Aaron's stuff was everywhere!

Aaron had time to run into the family room to play his new Batman Wii game while Krystal finished making her pile before we opened family presents.

Marissa will be working hard the rest of the year to try to stay on her new ripstick.

Princess Krystal.

I love the holidays. I need to get pictures of our fun 4-wheeling day ... and the rest of Christmas Eve, and I'll be posting those soon too. ;)

Denial

My Christmas decorations are still up.

My usual routine for Monday includes catching up on laundry (putting everything away and bedding), taking the kids to the library, emptying all garbages, preparing FHE, and making dinner.

My sink is still full of dishes from this weekend! Krytal is quite dependent on me due to her broken wrist (still need to post about that) ...

New Year's Resolutions .... wha ...? huh?

My. Christmas. decorations. are. still. up!!!

Regular life is crashing in on me fast!

haha. :)

Happy Monday.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Part 1)

We were so excited to be all together (FINALLY) this year for Christmas now that Brandon and Tina are back in Utah. Of course, Jeremy and Plonnie spent most of the holiday in California this year ... but, we got a FEW nights together before they left. O man - I love the Jensons - we have so much fun together ...

Julia drew Krystal's name in the cousin exchange - and couldn't have done better! The tongue says it all :)! And, seriously - I canNOT believe how fast these girls are growing up. We don't see each other nearly as much as we did when we lived a block away. One more year and Marie will be driving - GOOD GREIF - but, then - maybe they can get together more. I know Marissa would absolutely LOVE that!


Aaron and Kev are such good buds - and he's so happy to have AJ here for his bud too! They sure have fun together.

Oh - the people we love - good lookin' too!


We are quite the group. Thanks Grove and DeAnn for the great get-togethers! We sure love ya!

This is the Way We ...

... Have a crazy fun week!

1. Making Snowflakes ... wishin' for real snow (kids only) ... and boy, did it come!

2. Making Daddy's yummy fudge ...

3. Decorating ginger bread houses with some of our favorite people ...


4. Shoveling snow ... I must have a problem, because in the time it took me to shovel our driveway ... some Fieldstone dude shoveled the entire walkways AND drive-ways of 3 houses that have not been moved into yet.


I DID have this cute and funny thing as a distraction, though ...


And we finally finished ...


5. Attending the Pre-school program ...


6. Being with family. Not many pictures taken - perhaps I'll be able to track some down.

Merry December!!

Taylor Family Annual Christmas Celebration

When: Saturday, December 20th at 5:00 pm
Where: Lakeview Treatment Center: 1175 E. 300 N. Provo, Utah
Assignments:
Larry and Cindy: 6 dozen rolls and butter
Angie and Tracy: 1 (9x13) cheesy potatoes with serving utensil
Lenny and Amanda: 1 dessert
Tiff and Kent: 1 dessert
Lindsay and Michael: 1 dessert

Pat and Brent: 2 turkey breasts cooked and sliced
Michelle and Tyler: 2 (9x13) green bean casseroles with serving utensil
Kristy and James: 1 (9x13) cheesy potatoes with serving utensil
Melynda: 1 (9x13) cheesy potatoes with serving utensil
Kent and Leisy: We'll miss you!! But, we're excited to see you the 21st!

Pam and Randy: 2 turkey breasts cooked and sliced
Mandi and Paul: Desserts (36 servings-ish)
Jaime and Jed: 1 (9x13) cheesy potatoes with serving utensil
Heidi and Gary: We'll miss you guys!! We'll be thinking of you.
Ike and Jen: 1 (9x13) cheesy potatoes with serving utensil
Zak and Tiffanie: 1 dessert

Ron and Soni and family: We'll miss you guys!! We'll be envious of your cruising!

Ed and Julie: If you can work it out to come (we hope!) - 1 or 2 desserts
Katy and Brandon: 2 (9x13) green bean casseroles with serving utensil
Becky: 1 dessert

Grandma and Grandpa: plates and cups and utensils

Miscellaneous: ICE = Brent and Randy - haha!

We are so excited to all get together for our big Christmas dinner and white elephant exchange. Good tradition - good food - good memories - GREAT company!!!! I would like to send everyone an e-mail invite, but don't have many email addresses. My e-mail is mbjenson@msn.com ... please e-mail me with WHATEVER e-mails you have from the above list. Thanks!! Hope to see you all on the 20th. Merry Christmas!

Some days ya just have to give in ...

Krystal is truly a homebody. She is so excited when I tell her we're just staying home. Nowhere to go ... AT ALL. She loves wearing whatever as much as she loves dressing up ... and she is just as picky about leaving her hair "blonde" (down and not fixed) as she is about the details of me fixing it. When we're just home - she entertains me with song and dance ... and endless make-believe. Oh - to freeze time. Here she is in some of her "improv" moments ...

Days of Christmas Festivities

Decorating Christmas cupcakes was a fun and yummy hit ...

These girls are so silly - this pic was the most wiggle free of about 6 takes ... :)

Cute buds ... Abbie Pie and Missy Dee ...

Kryssie helped me get everything set up while we waited for "the kids" (that's what Krystal calls Marissa and Aaron) to get home from school. She's my cute lil' helper/poser ...

Aar-Bears Masterpiece ...

Marissa devours her cupcakes ... while the littles finished decorating pretty quick and then played on the stairs for 30 minutes straight. Oh, the joys of being a kid ... pretty easy to find good entertainment!

CHRISTMAS PUZZLE:

M helped us finish it up ...

December is such a fun month!

On the First Day of Christmas ...

Today we began our 4th annual tradition of "The 24 Days of Christmas". We hang stockings/gloves ... 1 for each day of December ... for the kids to take down (and then use - haha) - inside is written what we will do together that day. Today we decorated the Christmas tree ...



I forgot to post about this super fun FHE the Mendonsa's invited us to. We made "Thankful Trees". It was very fun and inspiring. I want to do it every year. The idea is to make the "tree" grow the whole week of Thanksgiving. We didn't do too hot at that. BUT ... we WILL next year! :)


AND .... here's me and Miss hangin' out on Black Friday morning! I love my sweet girl. It's so fun now that she's getting older to do these kinds of things together. Thanks for a great time, MissyDee!

Happy December, all!