Anyway, I will tell all who are interested about our wonderfully long trip back home. Well, to my home anyway. We got there in the afternoon on Wednesday the 23rd, I would highly recommend afternoon flights, I loved it! Cody and I got to play with the kids most of the day. They were really excited to have us finally right there, and we were just as excited to see them! Little Porter has grown SOO much in just that short time since we had seen him; Rhett had as well. We thought they might be a little put off at us since they weren't that familiar to them, but they realized really quickly that they knew us, and suddenly it was like we had always been there. It was great!
Christmas Eve we helped my mom finish things up for the family. And we played some more with the kids. For the evening our Christmas Eve tradition is going over to my sister Kelly's house for homemade soup and reading the Christmas story. The kids really enjoy it, and the adults will take any excuse to get together. One more thing we do on Christmas eve is opening a brand new pair of jammies. Kelly made all of the kids matching pants this year, they turned out really cute.
Here are Porter and Rhett after they got changed into their cute new pjs.
And all of the kids together next to Auntie Kelly's Christmas tree. Rhett, Emery, Fallon and Porter. They have such a blast together, and we love them SO much!
The next morning wasn't too exciting for us. Cody and I got to take our time doing whatever we wanted in the morning. We slept in until about 9:30am and hung out as we waited for the kids and my siblings to arrive and open presents. Santa spoils these ones, he visits each of them at their home, and then again at Noni & Papa's house. Watching them get into it was a lot of fun. Their excitement is something else, it brings back a lot of fond memories. The kids made out like bandits once again.
Santa brought Rhett this really cool train. Kelly is helping him push the foot petals to get it to go around the track. Cody was way jealous. He would have loved to have one of these growing up. Rhett hasn't quite gotten the hang of pushing the petals to go, so we duct taped it down for him and he went around that track for like 30 minutes straight as content as can be.
Santa brought both of the girls some rollerblades this year, among other things. Their faces lit up as they peeled off the paper. I think I heard some squeals of excitement as well. They had to get outside and try them out right away. Though this picture does not depict it, Emery was pretty quick to get the hang of it. Jeff had to do a little bit of catching though.
Fallon was a natural. Though her speed wasn't quite as fast as Emery, she got the hang of it pretty quick. Pretty much the rest of the time we were there, they would take any chance they got to go outside and skate. Cody was nice enough to take them quite a ways a couple of times. I think he won some MAJOR points with that.
Rhett likes to see what the girls are up to. He loves his cousins so much. Here he is taking a break from his toys with his Papa. He has made up his own language, so he is probably telling Papa everything that is going on in his own special words. :)
We spent a lot of time with the family. I think I saw Porter, Emery, Fallon and Erin every single day I was home, which was nice. Randy and Kelly were home with sick little Rhett from New Years day. So we still saw a lot of them, but not as much as we would have liked to, but its more than we usually see, so we are very grateful.
I am so glad we were married here in "my temple". So beautiful isn't it? The palm trees don't hurt either ;)
Here is Uncle Cody hangin out with Porter as they walk the temple grounds. Cody had a lot of fun helping with the kids. It seemed pretty dang easy to him to keep track of 4 little ones instead of the 15 in his awesome fam. Porter was a big fan of Codes, liked to watch every move he made, as well as mine. It was super cute!
Here is my new buddy Porter and I hanging out! This kid is so loving and calm, its wonderful. But with two crazy sisters that are loud and fun, you would have to be. This kid's face lights up if he recognizes any of the people around him, its priceless. Love this boy!
The kids got a bit tired after the drive to LA, and all of the walking, as you can see. So naturally we stopped at Yogurtland and got some yummy frozen yogurt!
Santa brought Rhett this really cool train. Kelly is helping him push the foot petals to get it to go around the track. Cody was way jealous. He would have loved to have one of these growing up. Rhett hasn't quite gotten the hang of pushing the petals to go, so we duct taped it down for him and he went around that track for like 30 minutes straight as content as can be.
Santa brought both of the girls some rollerblades this year, among other things. Their faces lit up as they peeled off the paper. I think I heard some squeals of excitement as well. They had to get outside and try them out right away. Though this picture does not depict it, Emery was pretty quick to get the hang of it. Jeff had to do a little bit of catching though.
Fallon was a natural. Though her speed wasn't quite as fast as Emery, she got the hang of it pretty quick. Pretty much the rest of the time we were there, they would take any chance they got to go outside and skate. Cody was nice enough to take them quite a ways a couple of times. I think he won some MAJOR points with that.
Rhett likes to see what the girls are up to. He loves his cousins so much. Here he is taking a break from his toys with his Papa. He has made up his own language, so he is probably telling Papa everything that is going on in his own special words. :)
We spent a lot of time with the family. I think I saw Porter, Emery, Fallon and Erin every single day I was home, which was nice. Randy and Kelly were home with sick little Rhett from New Years day. So we still saw a lot of them, but not as much as we would have liked to, but its more than we usually see, so we are very grateful.During most of our trip we were able to take the kids to the park, hit the awesome Camarillo Outlets right in my hometown (reminded me of a lot of things I used to do, and stupid things I used to buy, haha ), take warm drives with the windows down, get REAL Mexican food, yummy salsa, go to DISNEYLAND, the wonderful possibilities were endless...Yes, I do miss living there, especially when its cold and snowing here in good ol Utah, ugh...
New Years was fun. We went to an adult party over at Randy's sisters house with some friends and a few family members as well. The kids were all hidden watching a movie and falling asleep in Nick & Heather's room, so we didn't see much of them. We just played games and ate some really good food, and wait to ring in the new year. It was nice to see a lot of people I had not seen in quite a while. Happy 2010!
Before we left we went to see the Christmas lights at the Los Angeles temple. It reminded me of being in the youth program, because we used to decorate the grounds every year in November as youth. It makes you appreciate all of the work that goes into it. :) But we go to enjoy it with our family this year. It was the first time we had been able to walk the grounds there since we had been married, so that was quite special as well. And it was nice that it was not too long after to our anniversary.
I am so glad we were married here in "my temple". So beautiful isn't it? The palm trees don't hurt either ;)
Here is Uncle Cody hangin out with Porter as they walk the temple grounds. Cody had a lot of fun helping with the kids. It seemed pretty dang easy to him to keep track of 4 little ones instead of the 15 in his awesome fam. Porter was a big fan of Codes, liked to watch every move he made, as well as mine. It was super cute!
Here is my new buddy Porter and I hanging out! This kid is so loving and calm, its wonderful. But with two crazy sisters that are loud and fun, you would have to be. This kid's face lights up if he recognizes any of the people around him, its priceless. Love this boy!
The kids got a bit tired after the drive to LA, and all of the walking, as you can see. So naturally we stopped at Yogurtland and got some yummy frozen yogurt! It was an awesome, fun filled trip, with so many things going on its hard to mention it all. To all of those we did not see, we hope to see you on an upcoming trip, which we are hoping might become more often and longer, and you are always welcome to come visit us up here in snow country! Hope everyone's 2010 is going great!
ps. Cody and I suck at documenting things with pictures. So that is one thing we have decided to do better at this year. I stole all of these from my sister! ;) Love you Erin!
