i'm neglectful

poor bloggy hasn't been written in for a while. the holiday's and all it as definetly taken a back seat.

i'll just do a quick recap :)


i ate way too many of these, if that's possible:

got some time with this guy, but not nearly enough:

put up and took down displays like this:

watched some of my favorite people perform:

and hung out with some local crazies:

it was a fun holiday. weather was warm, parties were fun, food was delish and presents and family were awesome. there is no better way to spend the end of a year!

christmas carol

i can't wait to show you what i made this for!!!

thanksgiving

doesn't this picture just describe what thanksgiving seems to be?

we hung out with my brother (temporarily back from afghanistan) and friends at my parent's house. it's always been my favorite holiday.
the kids had a great time with 2 cousins spending two nights with them. it was the greatest thing ever for them.
now......to get on the treadmill to walk off those 13,000 calories....ugh

family pictures

we got our first family pictures taken this weekend......
you heard that right....our first.
we have tons of pics of the kids and have even taken them to have pro pics done, but we've never been in a picture together.
we're pathetic that way.
since i'm fairly cheap i conned my girlfriend into pointing and clicking our pictures.
she did a great job, my kids.....not so much.
it was an extremely painful experience. you'd think with older kids it would get easier. THAT'S A LIE! the oldest child was causing all sorts of problems. (good thing we love him so much.)
for better or worse here are two shots we love that will not make the christmas card cut.

halloween - a bit delayed

princess grace was tinkerbell. it was cold here. we even had snow 2 days before halloween, a first for as long as i can remember. i bought green adult socks cut the toes off and made leg warmers and arms bands for little tink.....

baby e was a SWAT officer. he even had a grenade and handcuffs (which he used on tink earlier during the day).....

now for the creative child. JP is dressed as Shawn Spencer from the tv show Psych. if you haven't watched the show...it's a must see...

and of course mom and dad got into the act with their classic 80's necklace costume.

even cousin hannah got into trick or treating with her gryffindor get-up

we had so much fun this year, and i think i have gained 5 pounds from the candy, which is still weighing in at 10 pounds to go......oy

jack o lanterns

we were able to do FHE with a sweet family from our ward. each child chose their own idea for their pumpkin:
jp chose pac-man:

baby e chose an angry bird:

princess grace chose hello kitty:

i think they done good!

belated christmas

sorting the lego loot

gangsta nerf boys

princess grace in her true form

more july 4th fun

after james's baptism we had dinner and fun at the parent's house. we celebrated hammy's 1st birthday with cake and fireworks. it is so much fun to have more family around. the more the merrier!

the whole nation celebrates this boy's birthday. how lucky!

sol getting crazy with sparklers.

i had to post a picture of a pants-less princess grace. on the way to james's baptism she spilled chocolate milk all over her dress. she walked around the church skirt/dress-less until grandma could bring a beautiful fancy "spinny" dress she could wear. the "spinny-dress" was not firework safe :)

christmas break

because of this.....

we had a full 2 week break from school during christmas. it was fabulous. we did a lot of this......





and even some of this.....




add a lot of this....


and far too much of this.....



overall.....perfection!!!

my favorite christmas letter

we all get lovely heartwarming christmas cards from friends and loved ones, dont we? well my favorite one happens to be from a fabulous seven year old boy to santa on christmas eve night.
it reads:

dear santa.
i beleave in you. please dont wake jack he will ruin your suit. please give us good presents!
signiture_____________


santa did oblige and initialed his note and stayed away from jack, the dog, to avoid any doggy drool on his expensive suit.
btw - did you know santa prefers silk?

yearly ornaments

the princess and her princess ornament

baby e with his indiana jones and the temple of doom ornament. it's musical.....oh joy

jp with his tom and jerry ornament

psycho was right

you were right "psycho". look for a post all about you in the coming days when i can scan, hopefully an embarrassing, picture of you. i will also explain why i call my girlfriend "psycho" :)



when the hubsters and i started dating over 15 years ago i brought back this piece from the department 54 heritage collection "a christmas story". for years he got one piece of the collection until he completed it. we dont always get it put up for the holidays because of sticky fingered children, but this year we seemed to have passed that phase of our lives and we have it displayed within arms reach.
i love how he carefully sets it up in a specific way and gets so excited to have it out. it's a great piece of family history for us. a display of our "christmas history".

their tree

i'm sort of a mean mom. my kids are not allowed to decorate my christmas tree. so in order to create harmony in our home they have their own tree. i do think that this is the last year we will be able to have a small tree.

every year the kids get to pick out a new ornament from the store. we have an ornament for every child for each year of their life. it's a fun tradition, started by accident. don't you love those kinds of traditions! i will post pictures of this years picks later.

cox farms

cox farms may be a little pricey, but so much fun, and so worth it. a halloween themed hayride around the farm, 10 giant slides, free pumpkins, a corn maze, animals to feed, rope swings and kettle corn followed up with mom ordering pizza for dinner makes for 3 very tired kids and 1 very very tired mom!
*you can click on the picture to view a larger version of the collage.

gratitude turkey

this is tom, our gratitude turkey. we each get a colored "feather" to say what we are most grateful for every week on monday night. the boys cut the feathers out and hubs and i did the freehanded the rest. it took about 15 minutes, but hearing things the kids are grateful for is so much fun.
can you guess which color belongs each member of the family?

thank you

we salute the presidents.
we give thanks for time they spent
holding high, and passing on
our country’s freedom song.

george washington, our first president,
helped us win the revolution.
abe Lincoln, sixteenth president,
through the civil War, kept us one.


all the presidents lead our country,
giving words of hope to everyone.
all the presidents, we do honor,
thanking them for what they’ve done.

my food for thought....
experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession. - george washington

merry christmas

A diamond shines no brighter
than that lovely Christmas star.
It shines in all its brilliance;
it's seen from near or far.
A symbol of the Christ child
as He lay upon the hay,
It tells to all the waiting world
a King was born that day.

O Bethlehem Star keep shining -
give us faith and hope and love.
Keep our thoughts forever turning
to the Savior up above.
Give us strength and hope and courage
to do our best by far
And never falter in our faith
as we watch that Christmas star.

alright....now thanksgiving

i have no pictures of us staying in the middle of nowhere, besides getting my camera lost there are only so many pictures you can take of dead grass and mini ranches.

let's get to the crazy stuff.....and i do mean crazy. we got to lehi on wednesday night and were greeted by 4 of my sibling and there collective 16 kids. holy cow! as the grinch would say (who i seem to have been channeling this week) oh the noise, noise, noise, noise. my boys were in hog heaven when they found the 2 ginormous buckets of legos', and i was happy that my patron saint tom found my cell phone. hallelujah!
sarah got to play with the baby cousins closest to her in age



now.....thanksgiving dinner.
19 / 22 grandchildren
10 / 12 children / spouses
4 adopted hoskings
gramps & pat
gladys & leeann
did i forget anyone?

here's where we ate



we all got harry potter names. well, james was thomas the tank engine, i was gilderoy lockhart,todd was grawp and sarah was dobby. funny!



the grandkids put on 2 seperate plays during the recovery period, and games, fun and pie was had by all! some male spouses went "home" and rested some hung out. it was so much fun, and it was a great thanksgiving!

hopping easter

our Easter was a little different this year than previous ones. we parties like it was 1999! we had a party with 50+ people at our house and had a fabulous egg hunt in both the front and back yards. what a blast! however you will note the lack of pictures. can you believe it 50 people and not one camera or picture taken. we realized this only after clean up.

we took a night with the kids and talked about what Easter meant. we told the children about Christ's birth life and resurrection. we talked about the symbols of Easter and how everything has a reason. spring and Easter are about newness and rebirth for animals, plants and hopefully for us.

that being said our boys were more interested in biting the heads off their chocolate bunnies than understanding the reason they got them. a love of chocolate is a chain in their DNA.