weekend in Chicago

we took a short trip to Chicago for the weekend a couple of weeks ago - it was nice to do something fun, seeing as how i find January to be a horribly boring month.

we stayed in a hotel, swam, went to the temple and ate at the rain forest cafe. :)

our kids were completely calm the whole time as you can see in the following photos

(for some reason i was really bad about taking pictures...these in the hotel are all i took).

Crazy Kids

Maggie found the Bible in the drawer between the two beds and insisted that Lia read it to her. To which Lia responded "You want me to read you the Bible?"

Maggie replied " Yeah.......it's a God one."

What can I say? She melts my HEART :)

sweet kitty

a sweet picture of Oz keeping ty company while studying :) just thought it was cute.

child of God

Maggie received a darling "I am a Child of God" crown in her nursery class a few weeks ago.

She wore it proudly the rest of the day....so cute.

some sweet pics..

and the real attitude showing :)

a few more...

i realized i forgot a few pictures that i wanted to include...

so here are the last of the Christmas photos

my dad took us all out to eat at Wild Truffle the day after Christmas....

minus the insane amount of salt and pepper on a few items it was tasty

i love this picture of the three boys at the restaurant! :)....boys....what can you do

x-mas morning mayhem
tanner trying to shepherd Oz...it didn't really work out for him :)

straight up G(randma)..hat placement by Tanner

Maggie sporting her new "fancy hat" made by Grandma Lynn

(and baby doll from her cousin Cami)

me and my cute dad :)

playing some games

Maggie loving LuLu

my mom made all the girls a hat and scarf....look how cute they turned out :)

love them mom - thanks :)

Christmas Day

Here are some pictures of Christmas day...
cute cousins

up and at 'em...waiting to go downstairs and see what Santa brought

girlie stocking stuffers for lia

a pony for maggie

grandma giving a good reaction to the stocking goodies

hey...m&ms what could be better?

look mom :)

cute lauren making some mini cakes with her new cake maker

audrey and tanner

checking out some of their presents maggie insisting we put princess tattoos on every square inch of her body

some girl gourmet cake making

audrey taking a picture of the "microwave safe" cookie tray that burst into flames in the microwave ....good times

me...seriously struggling to understand the directions to this toy...

thank heavens Tanner was there to help me out

i think everyone felt like a nap by the end of the day....

audrey had one on the couch :)

Christmas Eve

*our Christmas season was fun and busy this year*

We had my parents and my sisters' family join us for the festivities, it was great to have everyone in the same place! Here are some pictures of our day Christmas Eve. We swam at Jenn and Gary's hotel during the day, which the kids loved. Then in the evening we went to our stake Christmas devotional, came home and ate, acted out the nativity (while Grandpa Steve read the Christmas story), opened pajamas from G&G....and of course frosted a few cookies for the man in red.

these pictures are out of order, but i don't have the energy to fix them...oh well

jax, ethan, annie, lia, lauren, and maggie enjoying some ham

swimming at the halversens hotel

maggie gives grandpa a high five as she goes down the frog slide for the 900th time

somehow this picture of Ethan being a wise man ended up among the swimming photos....

cute though isn't he

more swimming...

jan and ethan are such good friends - ethan is so nice to jaxon even though he is a bit older. jaxon could hardly wait for him to come stay!

here we are at night busting open some jammies from grandma and grandpa

they went over well...as you can see

all the kids in their jammies

jax man looking good in his transformer jams

tanner and Oz watching the goings on

my baby girl

silly boys

and the nativity..

jax was joseph

here's Mary, Joseph...and what would our humble play be without Tyler as the donkey.....awesome

baby Jesus was played by a teddy bear this year...i'm not sure who's idea that was...one of the kids i'm guessing

gar.lia.audrey

i'm loving this picture of Gary.....oxen ears, crazy jammie pants...and Christmas dress socks...nice

more play

Tanner (the shepherd) is amazed at the news from the angel

love this boy

lulu...cutest camel around

and finally...frosting cookies before bed