Winter Weather

January might be around the corner & many people around the world might be freezing right now. But while everyone is in the midst of snow & frost, we are just entering "Fall"...a few months late, but it is here nevertheless!

And my boys are LOVING it!!!

Happy Fall...I mean Winter!!!

Love

LOVE these boys...
a LOT.

Kinda makes me want another one.
Kinda makes me want to be done.
I've got 2 cute ones
why press my luck for more?
Hmmm...I think I will rethink it in about a year.
They are cute...but exhausting.

I started yesterday with long hair...ok...maybe not LONG, but it was long for ME!

Is "long" even a word? I just typed it 3 times & now saying it out loud, I'm 2nd guessing myself??? It just sounds WEIRD right now. I think I will go look it up...

And ended the day with SHORT hair & bangs.
Thanks Ames, I love it...

...BUT love my boys A LOT more!

Christmas Day

Christmas was so FUN, as always!

1pm-My parent's house for presents.
Ryler was SO TIRED since he had not had a nap yet, but was trooper & loved his presents!

Parker's 1st gift was a wheelbarrow with some shovels & these green gardening gloves.
He wanted them on immediately...

and was in the backyard seconds later...

while the rest of the grandkids continued opening gifts...

Aunt Julie gave Ry this cuddly penguin with a matching blue sweater & he LOVES this thing. Every time he sees it, he goes & lays his head on it:) I think it is so cute, because it has an oversized head, just like Ryler!

2pm-Brian(Julie's brother that lived with my parents)was calling from Brazil soon, so we had to HURRY & do our adult gift exchange. It is always fun & I got a cute red magazine rack.
2:30pm-As soon as the last gift was opened, we ran over to Matt's family's house for more gift exchanges...that was supposed to start at 2pm. (Sorry we were late!)
We missed Brian's call:(

Matt's 2 sisters had us for Christmas this year & since everyone did a HOMEMADE gift this year, they made us STOCKINGS...which I LOVE SO MUCH!!!!!!
They also made one for Ryler & Parker AND made me some of the cutest headbands in the world! I posted all the cute homemade gifts on my craft blog...

My mother-in-law made EVERYONE a GORGEOUS quilt! I can't imagine how many hours she spent making 5 incredible quilts over the past year, but I love it & appreciate all the work she did for us!
Hanging out at the Allen's...

Matt's dad brought out Marshmellow guns he made for everyone & it reminded me of a few years ago when he gave us all nerf guns & a war immeidately broke out:)
They covered the backyard in marshmellows in NO TIME at all!

3:45pm-After presents, I quickly ran back to my parent's to talk to my brother Tate, who was calling home from his mission in Honduras! He gets home in July, which is CRAZY! He is doing great & it was soooo good to talk to him. I only got to hear 1/2 his phone call, by the time I had to leave...but he sounded great!

5:25pm-Hurried back to the Allen's for family dinner. Grandma & Grandpa Haws & Uncle Tom came too!

After dinner, I finally felt like I was able to relax! I felt like both sides of our family were doing things at the same time this year, which was hard...but I know it is so hard to schedule around so many different families! And I am SO grateful our families live SO CLOSE, so when we run back and forth, it is SUPER EASY since they live about 30 seconds from each other! But next year, I'm crossing my fingers one family does MORNING & one family does AFTERNOON!!:) It was such a wonderful day & I loved spending every minute with my family. I'm so grateful for my Savior & for the opportunity we have to celebrate His birth & all He has done for us!

I hope you all had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is kind of low key in our family. Neither of our families do anything that night, so we started our own little family tradition & it is nice to be able to relax & be with our family.
Matt got off work early on Christmas Eve & we were able to enjoy time as a family & then for dinner we made Homemade Pizza...

Parker, adding some olives to his pizza...
or the entire can...

Ry is allergic to dairy:( so he has not had pizza in a LONG time, so when I made him his own little pizza without cheese, he was in HEAVEN!

Eating his yummy pizza...

The kids were a mess after pizza, so we gave them baths & got them in their pj's & headed off to the temple...with plans for them to fall asleep on the way home:)

The lights were beautiful as always & it was fun to go as a family.
Parker is finally old enough to start learning what Christmas is all about & going to the temple was a great opportunity to teach him a little more...

Christmas Caroling

Monday was our annual Phelps' Christmas party/dinner & every year there are more and more kids & they can get kind of WILD...
so this year, my aunt planned entertainment & the kids(& parents) LOVED it!

Some of the cute Brinton Grandkids by the stage:)

Santa Claus showed up at the end & my kids weren't loving it...

My uncle borrows these PERFECT trailers for caroling every year & decks them out with lights & there is plenty of room for everyone...

And hot chocolate & doughnuts topped off a wonderful night!I love this holiday tradition & hope we are able to keep it up, as our family continues to grow & grow!

"I DON'T WANT TO...

sit on Santa's lap!"

(guess he wasn't kidding )

Dead Meat

Whichever one of my sibling's left this toy magazine at my house after our family dinner on Sunday is DEAD MEAT!

Parker is still pretty young for the whole "Santa" thing, so we figured we could get away with not giving him anything for another year...
but this magazine was left at our house & now all I hear is
"Mom, I want...."
"and this..."
&
"I would LOVE ..."

honestly!?!?

He came up to me Monday morning with the page folded back to an Ipod & said,
"Mom, I want an ipod like daddy"

Seriously. Life has been fairly good for the past (almost) 3 years. He never really asks for anything, because he has never really seen any commercials(he only watches channel 8 & they don't have commercials) & I RARELY go shopping with him, because well..he is TWO! We don't get the newspaper, so he doesn't see the ads. So we have somehow managed to avoid the "I WANT" business...

but not anymore!

Thanks a lot...whichever one of your kids brought it over!
They are in BIG TROUBLE!!! :)

Progressive Dinner

We had our annual family progressive dinner on Sunday...starting off at Kylie & David's for Chips & Salsa & Bean Dip...

Then we came to our house for the main dish...chicken enchiladas...

And then to Matt & Amy's house for dessert, cookies & brownies
AND
the nativity acted out by the 9 cutest kids around...

We did this last year & liked it so much, we have decided to do it every year!

It was getting late by the time we got to Matt & Amy's, so this boy crashed on the way & missed out on the nativity(We decided he made a good Baby Jesus)

Family Picture by our tree...

It was such a fun night! We missed Rob & Julie's house this year...I think we are going to start rotating houses, because it takes quite awhile to get around to everyone's houses. And next year we are going to have 5 married couples! :) I love that we all live so close & are able to do fun traditions like this!

Christmas Sunday

We LOVE living around the corner from our church building...so that we can walk to church.
Parker INSISTS on pushing Ryler all by himself & will NOT let us help him & is actually really good at staying on the sidewalk.

We got these cute black suits for all the boys for my brother's wedding coming up in a couple of weeks, so I decided to let them wear them for Christmas Sunday.

Parker REFUSED to wear the vest or the jacket...but he still looked adorable:)We have a great climbing tree in our front yard & while Parker is too young to actually climb in it, he LOVES for us to put him up in it to sit...

We stuck Ryler up there too...

And tried to get a cute shot of the 2 of them together, but instead Ryler thought it would be hilarious to wack his brother in the back of the head.

It was.

There are moments where I want to pull my hair out with these 2...like Thursday, when I needed to go to the post office & got both kids all ready to go & then let them play outside while I got things in the car & then I went to get them & Parker had PAINTED...yes PAINTED Ryler(& he happened to be in a brand new birthday outfit)...AND part of our planter/back wall...not to mention the trail of black...FROM the paint can across the cement back porch...across a couple of chairs...and across the table I had set up to work on my clocks...BLACK...all BLACK.


But MOST days...I look at these 2 & can't do anything but SMILE.
I love my boys!!!

Allen Party

We got together with all of Matt's relatives on his dad's side on Friday night & it was so FUN!
We don't get to his cousins/aunts/uncles too often, so it is always nice to have a reason to get together! Aunt Pat did an INCREDIBLE job of putting it all together & everyone had a great time.

They had this FUN family game where you have to try to "feed Santa" by throwing Marshmellows in Santa's mouth(Aunt Marlene painted this big board with Santa on it & it was SO stinkin' cute!)
The kids ended up going crazy & everyone started throwing them at once, but I think this was the highlight of the night with the kids!(and the adults, who ended up throwing them at eachother)

My AMAZING in-laws...seriously be jealous...they are the BEST!

Crazy Parker shaking his bells to Jingle Bells:)

Tanner, Chaya, Ryler & Aimee

Need a closer look at Ryler's 1st shiner???

Who needs to sit on Santa's lap?
These 2 boys were happy with a picture of Santa...

Then they had a pinata for all the kids...they did a GREAT JOB of keeping the kids entertained!!!

Parker with his candy from the pinata, tucked away in his shirt:)

Cousin Talia showed up & Parker was SO HAPPY!!!

It turned out great, I think we need to do it every year!
It was fun to see everyone!