Daddy Dinner Debacle

Every night at dinner I ALWAYS hear the same sentence -  "I wanna sit by Daddy!"  It's usually followed by an argument discussing who sat by Daddy last night, etc.  The really funny thing is, whoever actually ends up with the glorious, coveted spot by Daddy always ends up getting scooted by Savanna once she carries her plate over and plops down on Daddy's lap.  Yes, she still does this almost every night.  Randall's just glad that she's started to bring her own plate instead of just eating his food.  You can see that Lydia is thrilled...

Naked Baby

This is my view every time I let go of Emma for even a second during a diaper change.  I don't know if it's because she loves to be naked or just that she can't stand to hold still at all. Ever.  For any reason.

 Fortunately, she always comes back to me eventually.  Can't let the babies stay naked too long, even if they have the cutest little roly poly chubby wubby body in the whole wide world.

Mo Tab's Christmas Concert

 A few years ago, I put our names into the drawing to get tickets to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas performance at the Conference Center.  I was THRILLED when I received the tickets in the mail, and we decided to take Bob and Jill with us.  The day arrived, and we carpooled with them downtown.  We left in what we considered to be plenty of time, but we grossly miscalculated how HORRENDOUS the traffic would be.  Especially because there was also a Jazz game that night.  We FINALLY parked and Bob wheeled Jill in as I waddled my 8 1/2 months pregnant body through the parking lot just as fast as I could (without peeing my pants, of course).  Unfortunately, we arrived to the Conference Center just after they allowed the standby people to fill in the remaining seats.  Needless to say, Jill and I were extremely disappointed (there may have even been a few tears shed... but remember I WAS pregnant at the time.)  Since then, I have never put my name in for tickets again. However, this year Randall was offered tickets from one of his co-workers.  I was moderately excited to go with him (Remember how TERRIBLE it turned out last time?!) but due to sick kids Randall ended up having a Daddy Daugther date with Lydia. 

They left RIDICULOUSLY early this time, and still only made it into their seats with a few minutes to spare.  I was SO relieved when Randall texted me that they had made it!  They had a great time, and although I was admittedly a little bit jealous of Lydia, I was thrilled that she got to have some one on one time with her Dad.  Her favorite part was "a funny song that the lady sang, getting treats at Mcdonalds after, and staying up WAY past bedtime on a SCHOOLNIGHT!" 

Christmas!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas season filled with all of our favorite family traditions...
Making turkeys -

Technically that was for Thanksgiving but since it's a cute picture and I never blogged about it...
Decorating the Christmas Tree -

We have a weird tree that just stays decorated and is raised and lowered via remote control, so there's not a whole lot of decorating to be done.  Just a little fluffing and then posing for pictures of course. 
Making "Gingerbread" houses -

Maybe someday I'll get Jill's pattern and make real gingerbread houses like Randall did when he was growing up...but not this year.  However, Carter did make his without the added support of a milk carton.  We were all very impressed!  ;)

Decorating cookies -

 First attempts at "selfies."  I think they need a little more practice.

 For some reason, Meleah didn't want me to put this picture on the blog...but I couldn't resist! -

Seeing Santa at Jana's work Christmas party -

This year Randall's work also did a Christmas movie, on the same day as Jana's party.  So, we saw The Grinch at Jordan Commons in the morning with Jana, and then went to the Gateway to watch Frozen and eat pizza with Randall's work that afternoon.  It was an exhausting, slightly sickening (seriously ate WAY too much popcorn) and yet fun-filled day. 
Wearing Christmas dresses -

Playing with boxes -

 Our longest box train EVER -

Brown side for Christmas Eve -

The kids watching a Nativity video that Taryn made for their ward party.

I LOVE watching these two little cuties.  It reminds me of the good ol' days when Alexis and I would play together in this very house -

Opening gifts Christmas morning -

Emma's first Christmas!  She was so adorable and happy even though we went to bed late and woke her up pretty early (7:45) to open presents with us. 

For the first 30 minutes of gift-unwrapping time Savanna was only interested in unwrapping all the treats in her stocking.  Not eating them.  Just unwrapping them, and laying them out on the floor. 

My favorite Christmas present was Randall cleaning up every single toy, box, stupid little wire thingy, scrap of paper, candy wrapper, etc. while I made breakfast.  It was such a big job that I think it wore him out a little bit. -

Stewart side for Christmas Dinner-

I'm mad that I didn't get a picture of all the kids with their gifts.  Bob and Jill got them little suitcases that they've been filling with toys and pulling all over the house.  I also should have snapped a pic of Jill WALKING!  She's had both of her knees replaced within the last couple of months and she's doing SO GREAT! 

 ...and now they're TRIPLETS!  ;)

After seeing all these blurry pictures covered with strange bubble-looking thingy's, I'm kinda wishing I would have asked for a new camera for Christmas! 

 

Favorite Gifts

Carter:  "My helicopter and Lego Harry Potter 5-7."

Lydia:  "All of them!  But especially Barbie a Diamond Castle and my puppy!"

Meleah: "My kitty and my Brave Barbie."

Cameron: "Sully, Mike Mizowsky, and my video game."

Savanna: "My baby!"

Emma:  Hasn't really played with any of her toys.  She prefers to rummage around and attempt to eat all the candy wrappers and pistachio shells that the kids keep leaving all over the floor.  (Even with my cool new battery operated garbage can, they STILL leave their trash on the floor.  Ugh!)

 

We are so grateful for the birth of Christ!  We LOVE our families so much, and are thankful we have the holidays to bring us together and remind us how blessed we are to have each other for eternity.  Merry Chrismas Everybody!  

SNOW!

My kids are thrilled that we finally have enough snow to play in this year.  I personally have enjoyed the warm weather, but I guess it can't last forever. 

Unfortunately, it was FREEZING, and the snow was too powdery to make anything with, so the kids only played for about 15 minutes before coming in for...

Hot Chocolate!