Although our blog shows that we have done nothing since Mason's birthday, we have been very busy! We had our camera die (completely this time), so I was without pictures from his birthday until Christmas (when we gave in and bought the same camera!)

For the past 5 years, we have had Christmas at our house. I love being around family, but there is something to be said about having a small Christmas with your family, and then going to visit with the larger family later. My sister is moving to Florida soon, so we decided to have one last Christmas together. We drove down to St. George, and spent a crazy (but very fun) Christmas with my family.

We started off Christmas Eve with our tradition of 

opening pajamas from Grandma. It doesn't seem like such a big deal, but when you throw in 14 adults and 15 grandchildren, it adds up!

My baby is 2! We celebrated with a little family party for the younger cousins.

Mason was born 6 hours before his cousin Presley, so we decided to have a joint party.

Thankfully, they both love Elmo (who doesn't?), so it made things really easy.

We got to play pin the nose on Elmo,

I made them both Elmo cakes,

Yes, I'm playing catch up again!This year for Halloween, we had a wonderful foreign exchange student from Japan. Takuto was only with us for 1 week, but we had a blast! They don't celebrate Halloween in Japan (or really anywhere else but here), so he had never carved a pumpkin or dressed up in a costume.

We also got to spend this Halloween with my brother and his family. They moved up north a few weeks earlier. It was wonderful, and the weather couldn't have been better. Here is our Halloween in pictures.

I don't think I have mentioned how lucky I am in contests. I'm not talking drawing, cooking, or singing (nothing that takes much skill). I am a radio contest magnet! While I worked as an office manager, I managed to win all kinds of things, 4th row concert tickets, free cds, money, etc. If there was a call in contest, I was going to win it!

This lucky streak subsided when I quit my job to stay home with my kids. (Let's face it, who really has time to even listen to the radio when you are chasing 5 kids around?) Now that 4 of the 5 kids are in school, I have a little more free time during the day. I decided that Mason and I would meet Dave for a lunch out. I just happened to turn on my radio (oh, how I've missed music!) and heard the announcement to be caller 10 to win 4 tickets to the circus. It was good to see I haven't lost my lucky radio touch! :)

I attempted to take my kids to the circus a few years ago. It was a miserable failure! We left at intermission, but that was a little circus. These tickets were for Ringling Brothers circus. Needless to say, we were not disappointed this time! (Sadly, I only had my phone with me to take pictures).
We got to see the elephants.
We got to see the tigers,

the zebras,
and the tight rope walkers.

They had it all, and my kids gladly sat through the whole thing....well, technically, they didn't. If you know my kids, you know that when they get excited about things (especially Caleb) they jump up and down and flap their arms. So, let's just say they stood close to their seats. :) It was a wonderful night!


I'm keeping my fingers crossed that next time I turn on the radio, the prize will be just as good as this one, if not better!

Dave had a work convention at Snowbird ski resort. We decided to make a little getaway out of the weekend. We split the kids up and had Dave's sisters and dad take a few. (thank you guys!) I have lived in Utah all of my life, but I have never been to Snowbird. It is beautiful! I had every good intention of taking my camera, but I forgot. Thankfully, I got a few with my phone.
Aside from eating good food and actually having quiet time to myself, my favorite part was taking the tram to the top of the mountain. 11,000 feet above sea level. (Thank you tram tour guide!)We really do live in such a beautiful place! I know I take it for granted most days.
Can you imagine it in the winter? I have never actually been skiing, and the thought of flying down this petrifies me!

We decided to hike down a bit and take the ski lift back down the mountain. We were able to go through the 600 foot ski tunnel. It is the only one in North America (It is amazing what you can learn if you actually listen to the tour guide!) Who knew we had such amazing things basically right in our backyard?

Although it was a really quick trip, we were very thankful for the relaxing mini vacation. It was so beautiful! I can't wait to go back!

Preschool has started!! As mentioned above, the girls were very sad when school started for Caleb and Ava, but they had to stay home. They had to wait 2 weeks for it to start.

It is only 2 days a week, but that is enough time for them to feel like they are going to "big kid school". We asked them what their favorite part of school was. Kate loves "playing" and Olivia loves "eating" (can you tell she's my child??)

So far, it has been wonderful! They are making new friends and learning new things, and I get to spend some time with Mason. We love when school starts!!

I've slacked a little on the blogging, so I will quickly catch us up. School started on the 22nd for Caleb and Ava.
Although they were both excited for school to start, I don't think anyone was more excited than Ava. She was really happy to get to eat lunch at school.
These two were sad they didn't get to start school as early as Caleb and Ava did, but they will start school after Labor Day. We can't wait! :)
My really good reason for not blogging is that we've had family visiting. Dave's cousin's daughter came to visit us from France. We had a wonderful time with Marie Louise! We took her to Salt Lake to see the temple and the Beehive house.
I have lived in Utah my whole life, and I have never been in the Beehive house. It was really neat. Even the kids had a great time!
We also got to take her to the family cabin. (On our way to the cabin)

It is always so nice to get away from our crazy schedules and relax. We made a baby blanket for Marie Louise new nephew, Raphael. We got to picnic play in the wild flowers,

roast marshmallows,
and have a shooting contest.
(Dave won this time, but I was close!)


We were not ready to come home, but we had to take Marie Louise to Las Vegas to fly home. :(

The positive side of that trip was that we got to visit with our family in Las Vegas. Dave's nephew is in the Beatles Love by cirque du soleil. (my drowned camera is acting up again, but I still liked this!)

We have always wanted to go see him, and we finally got the chance. We even got our "back of the theater" tickets upgraded to 2nd row. I've got to say Love is an AMAZING show! If you ever have the opportunity, go!!We were lucky enough to go on a night when Jake had the lead role. We even got to go backstage. It was so much fun!! We had such a wonderful time. It's going to be hard going back to "real life" now!