Christmas Eve is my brother's birthday.  This year we all headed to the local bowling alley for some Christmas Eve fun.  Everyone played a round of laser tag while Nate and I waited for Huddy to nap and eat.  Even little Cooper got to play!  He was so excited to have his first laser tag experience, and even got a few hits.

Then it was off to the arcades.  Nate took a spin on the ticket wheel, and won 100 tickets, which I thought was pretty amazing.

The ticket king--a little embarrassed by the size of his ticket winnings (which, by the way, Santa found very helpful with a lot of stocking stuffers!).

Cooper liked playing the kid-friendly skee-ball.

And he and Calvin raced some cars.

Jaisie was excited to bowl.

Bryt staring down the ball.

Go Katie!

Cassady was clearly having fun, as was Poulson in the background.

Anna was ready for a strike.

Ellie had lots of fun.

Cooper enjoyed taking anyone's turn and/or ball that he could find: "What?!  This isn't my ball, or my lane?  No problem.  I'll just roll it for you anyway."

Huddy was a good sport, being passed from person to person as we bowled.  Tyler was a good little babysitter.

Camyll and I were a little batty, apparently.  Well, maybe that is our norm as mothers of young-uns.

Bryt and Huddy did some bonding.  Huddy thought he was pretty funny.

That night we had steaks for the birthday boy's dinner, and then opened presents.  Ellie's gifts to her Dad were priceless:  hillbilly teeth and silly glasses!!

Monday ended up being our day for fun in the snow.  I'd been promising Cooper since we'd arrived Saturday night that we'd get out and play in it.  So we took an hour or so and had some fun in Grammie's backyard...

Snowball fight!  Poor Cal didn't even see it coming.

Nate was in on it too.

Bryt was in on the snowballs.  Poor Kate was cold and sad in the corner, and just wanted to go inside.

(By the way, look at that beautiful sunset over the rooftop!)

Smugly eating snow

Ellie was excited to help me make a snowman.  Cooper was helping too, but his attention span lasted just long enough to make the bottom ball.  Ellie is holding grapes; the ground was too frozen to pry any rocks out, so we used grapes for the eyes and mouth instead, figuring when they fell out, the birds or squirrels or whatever would eat them.

Kater-tot saying, "Please just take me inside."

Such a fun little sledding hill!

Weeeeee!

Oh yeah!

Ready to go again...

Snow slide!

Splat.

Our quick little snowman (just so Cooper could have the experience of making one).  Ended up having a lot of fun making this with Ellie.

Cal was out having fun with us too, as was Poulson.

Such a a fun hour in the backyard snow!

Tyler (10), Cooper (4)

Keslee (5)

Shelisa and Chrystal--too old to mention.

Tonee, Oakley, and Aaron

Cheryl and Chrystal

Uncle Boyd and Bryt

Ben and my Mom (Terry) holding her namesake grandbaby, Terra, who was hiding under blankets to keep away from all the sickness floating around the family.

Stettsen

Oakley, Ben and Aunt Kaylene

Ellie lost a tooth and was excited for the tooth fairy to visit at Grammie's house!

George and Cassady

Cooper (4) and Jayden (4)

Cooper and his wrestling buddy, Tyler

Tickle time with Ellie

Kate didn't want tickles.  She wanted to share her Chex Party Mix with her mommy, Liz.

The two biggest party animals

Jayson and Anna

Aspen, Jayson, Ellie and Anna