Sadie's Christmas recital '09

Sadie with her cute dance teacher Kylie.
We must have had our camera on the wrong setting and I'm so bummed about the quality of these pics but, whatever, Sadie did a darling job, as always. She LOVES dance and we love to watch her do it :))

Pretty little girl of mine!

Disneyland '09!

Maddy made a build-a-bear, bunny :)
Cousins group hug!
Sadie and Teagan were in heaven tracking down characters to visit with :)
Teagans Hero!
Maddy couldn't get enough of Maliboomer! Alex missed the height by an inch :(
Maddy finally got over her fear of characters!
Teagan has a serious crush on Jessie!

THE man himself!
Looking at bugs in "Bugs Life"
Sadie was meant to LIVE at Disneyland! Cute cousin Hanna :)
I sat down to rest and these two couldn't wait to hop in my lap, I'm running out of lap space!

Janeen braved the rapids with Maddy, Jonah and Alex on a cool day. What a champ :)
Kickin' it with grandpa.
Sadies fave was the jellyfish drop at California Adventure.


I told you, he has a serious crush on that redhead!
Fun times in Disneyland! Can't wait to go back :)

Ginger bread houses!

Helping Teagan construct his train. Hot glue is the way to go for sure!
Maddy picked a tree this year and then gave up on it! Not feeling super creative I guess...
Poor Susan stayed busy whipping up icing all night. She puts so much work into this fun tradition!
Sadie loved, loved, loved creating her house.
The boys both needed a little help from dad. That icing is tough stuff!

The Cabin

Hangin' with uncle Justin
The kitchen, our favorite hangout spot!
Baby Oliver is under there somewhere! The kids were relentless with him!
fun in the snow!
He climbed on me to give me a hug and ten seconds later he was sound asleep :)
Pulling out the D.S.'s
Grandpa taught Teagan to play ping-pong. They were besties after that!
Cute girlies!
Sadie loves little Oliver soooo much! We all do:)

After Thanksgiving we always go to my Father-in-laws' cabin for the rest of the weekend. there was enough snow for some snowmobiling and sledding. I always eat waaay too much when I go there and I spent as much time sitting around doing NOTHING as I could! I'm so glad that Josh loves to go out and play with the kids because this year I just didn't have the steam to even try. I love that place so much, mostly for the time that we spend as a family and that the kids get to just relax, play and have fun with their cousins.

Thanksgiving

Pool fun at the hotel.

Making a glitter snowman with cousin Abby
Sadie eating some yummy pie!
Alex getting ready to launch his bottle rocket
Grandpa Staples, the one responsible for this huge group of people :)
Crafting with Grandma Pam. she put so much work into this fun day! Thanks Mom!!!

Thanksgiving with my side of the family is always a HUGE affair! We have to have it at a church because of all the people. This year we celebrated with my moms side of the family. I think we had somewhere between 70-80 people! Lots of food, fun crafts, a brilliant "coupon" clinique and fun games. My brother Todd rigged up a bottle rocket station outside that kept all the kids and kids at heart entertained ALL day and I heard that they brought the house down with Rockband later that night but, sadly, we were not able to stay for that.

It was held in the Richfield area so Josh and I decided to stay at the local Marriott so we wouldn't have such a chaotic day of commuting. And then we headed up to the my in-laws cabin for the rest of the weekend. Fun times!