Fa LA LA LA LA, lights, and leaks

I just made it! I told myself that if I get my Christmas pics posted before the end of January then I wouldn't be a total loser. December started with the requisite church party which did not disappoint. The primary kids put on a great show with music from around the world. I kind of felt like I was on the Christmas version of It's a small World ride at Disneyland. Luke was the star of Feliz Navidad Tryg was not a fan. And....he didn't like Santa too much either. Dylan and Luke however did not shy away. At the top of their lists...Lego building sets and Criss Cross Crash. Next up was a Family Home Evening visit to the San Diego Temple to see the lights, sip on hot chocolate and munch on homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Did I tell you that I really like having a girl? ....just waiting for that hair to come in so I can put my french braiding techniques to use!

Cold San Diego air (not to be confused with cold Utah air) and warm coco = good times! Yummmmm....

Then...a couple of chocolate chip cookies later, I began to wonder if bringing the sugar along was the wisest choice. It was definitely hard to keep these boys in a "reverent" frame of mind.

Especially Tryg. Although keeping the kids in check was the usual chore it was still great to be on the temple grounds as a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.

I think we will definitely be keeping it as a family tradition. Then...it rained for about a week straight and we got a lovely surprise on December 23rd. Just as all the presents were wrapped and we were ready to head to Grandma Olson's, I heard the dreaded DRIP DRIP DRIP! NOOOOO!!! Yep, the leaking started in our office and then a few days later...the bedroom. Of course I panicked thinking we were going to need a whole new roof which would cost a fortune but I decided to kick my attitude of gratitude into gear...Grateful for a husband that knows how to deal with stuff like this, a father- in-law that is always so helpful, a roof (in general) over our heads, etc... It worked pretty well. We still have a dry wall hole in our ceiling that my handy husband will be repairing but the roof is fixed and it didn't cost nearly as much as I thought it would. Merry Christmas to us!

It was off to Grandma's we go for the Christmas Eve festivities. This year we spent the holiday at the Olson's. We've added a few grand kids and spouses over the last couple years and I think we all kind of realized that it may be the last time the Olson clan is all together on the big day which definitely made for a special time.

Mary managed to figure out sleeping arrangements for 12 adults and 10 kiddos without making anyone sleep outside. I personally thought the tent idea in the backyard for the kids was a good one :). It wasn't that cold! Mark and his Dad got a little creative with blowing up the air matresses...

We got a few songs on the guitar from Grandpa.

Presents wrapped: CHECK

Stockings hung: CHECK

cookies and milk out: CHECK

Night before Christmas story: CHECK

Santa's whereabouts checked on the Internet: CHECK (didn't have that one when I was a kid)

As you can imagine 22 people made for a bit of chaos but surprisingly there were no kids crying over toys that didn't belong to them, maybe a little screaming, and lots of smiles.

I think I got about 17 of them (at least in part) in this picture.

I had every intention of getting a Christmas Card out in 2010 complete with a family picture and believe me....getting all my kids to look in the same direction let alone smile is quite the challenge these days. Well...I wasn't able to pull it off in time so consider this our belated holiday greeting:

Hope you had a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR from our family to yours!

(Does this count for 2011 too?)

A little catch up

Yea...I'm playing catch up. What can I say except....I have 4 kids now (3 under the age of 4) and they don't leave much time for blogging. By the time they go to bed and I actually have some time to do something that doesn't require feeding or diapering I'm pretty pooped. We had Molly's blessing on HALLOWEEN of all days which is of course the best day to do something like this. I thought about dressing her in black and orange but decided it probably wasn't the best idea. One of the things I used to day dream about before I had a girl was the idea of my imaginary daughter wearing the blessing dress that I wore when I was a baby. My mother has kept it in mint condition for years and this year I actually got to put it to use.

Me and my sisters. First born....but last to have a girl. A few weeks later for Thanksgiving we made the trek to Alpine, UT to my parent's house (or the MANSION as we like to call it). It's over 5,000 square feet of pure fun for the grandkids complete with trampoline, sand volleyball court, pool table, 50's style diner, movie theatre size screen, and lots of space to run wild.

lots and lots of cousins to play with.... I didn't get many pictures for Thanksgiving for some reason but 7 of the 9 Cox kids were there which equaled about 23 grandkids all under one roof. POOR MOM! It was the usual pure chaos but.... a good kind of chaos. Saturday was the infmaous BYU-UTAH football game and there's no better way to watch it (besides in person) than on Dad's giant screen.

Not sure how Susi ended up with the best seat in the house. And Jane....c'mon a little BLUE at least? :)

Dad doing his best to send positive vibes their way. We won't talk about how things ended up that day :(. These guys didn't care....they had free reign of the chips, candy and soda! Of course on the day we were leaving, Utah decided to dump a good amount of snow that the kids would have loved to play in. BUMMER! Instead of playing in it we had to drive in it. Dad putting his toy to good use. Everyone had a great time. The usual madness insued but we had lots of laughs, minimal fighting (except maybe between Mark and Susi in the football game :)), and no barfing! The only bad part...the drive home which took 17 HOURS!!!! Yes, that's right....17 hours with 4 kids! Between the snow and the traffic out of Vegas I thought it was never going to end. Note to self: NEVER DRIVE ON THE SUNDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING! One of Luke's favorite things to say now is "It takes a long, long, long, long, long, long, time to get to Grandma Cox's house!"

I figured I'd end this post with this picture. Pretty sure it doesn't get much cuter than that!

Harry Potter, a fire fighter, and a UPS man

Even though we are now into the Christmas decorations in Costco phase of the calendar, I had to post some pics from our Halloween Festivities. We started off with a little pumpkin carving 101.

Dylan, who has previously had issues with the whole touching the gooey stuff...has since overcome that fear.

Each boy did a great job designing their own pumpkin face.

This was Molly's pumpkin :)Tryg was a little confused when he got all the goo out of his pumpkin and then looked into the now hollow abyss and said "where's my candy?" He had been carrying his plastic trick or treating pumpkin bucket thing around all day and was under the impression that all pumpkins are for the sole purpose of carrying candy and treats in them. He was a little disappointed to say the least! I think Luke won the prize of which jack o' lantern now looks most like it's owner?

The boys in their true crazy form....

All done! Unfortunately... a heat wave came in the next day and our pumpkins lasted about 2 days before they were shriveled up and coated in yucky black stuff. They didn't even make it to Halloween :(

Next up....Halloween and some trunk or treating! This year we had a Harry Potter, fireman, UPS man, and a hodge podge of a halloween decorated little girl.

Our Harry Potter. Dylan has read all 7 books (some of them more than once) and is a huge fan. I don't get it but have been roped into seeing the upcoming movie with him that I'm sure will be at least 3 hours long. Ughh! I love my smokey little fireman.

This one usually draws the most "oh how cute!" comments. Special thanks to Uncle Brandon and his UPS connections.

Molly's first halloween sporting her totally awesome leg warmers! We headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's TRUNK or TREAT extravaganza. This was quite the event with tons of yummy food, impressive carnival games, and way too much candy! Molly had a good time facing forward (a new milestone in her 9 weeks of life) checking out all the ghosts and goblins in mommy's kangaroo pouch as I like to call it.

This one's not ours. He belongs to Brandon and Melanie. I'm pretty sure this is not what he had in mind when his parents said they were going to the annual TRUNK or TREAT :)

Finally! Ready for some CANDY! The great thing about TRUNK or TREAT....tons of candy in a very small radius equals more bang for your buck! After a successful night of obtaining enough treats to last them at least until Christmas the boys hung out with their cousins and began to sort and trade their treats with eachother.

Luke - "Must eat more chocolate!" And..... a few hundred empty calories and a sugar rush later... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Summertime Favorites

This is just my random post of a few summertime favorite pics that I didn't want to go to waste...

No, she's not mine :). This is Gracie (our niece). I really liked this picture, her blue eyes and the angle it was taken at. Mark gets props for this one.

Tryg and Dad..

My boys :)

Love his eyes in this one...

Miss Molly J.

Our little Miss Molly J. just past her 1 month birthday this week. I can't believe it's already been 4 weeks since she joined our brewd of boys. So far she's survived the loud squeals, screaming, fighting, and wrestling that seem to fill our home most days...

And....I think they've decided to keep her.