Merry Christmas!

We had a very, Merry Christmas. One funny thing that happened was on Christmas Eve the girls decided they wanted to sleep in their closet, so they would not see Santa...not really sure but they wanted to do it. Surprisingly, they actually slept and didn't mess around all night, and even went to bed very easily. They each moved back to their bed sometime during the night.



They didn't wake up too early, which was nice. It was about 8:15. We were going to just open our presents from Santa before church and wait to open the rest after we got home, but we couldn't resist. It was a little difficult pulling them away from all their fun toys, but we did it. They were happy to play with the rest of their toys when they got home.








Oh, yea, Brooke got some coal in her stocking...hehehe...She was being mean to her sister and parents the few days after we got back from Utah, and apparently Santa decided she needed to learn a lesson. She knew exactly why she got that coal, and I think she learned her lesson :-)

We had no plans to go anywhere else, but then we got a call from Bishop of our ward. Their family was planning on going caroling with the Sister Missionaries after dinner and had heard that we had been wanting to go. So the kids were very excited to finally be able to go. It was a wonderful treat. We went to several houses, but only actually sang to three families. Nobody else answered their door...must have heard us singing ;-)

Monday was a marathon day of Christmas. First my family in the afternoon, then Nate's in the evening. The girls were spoiled rotten by grandparents, aunts, and uncles, oh my! Thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts.





So...my dad duct taped one of his slippers...he really needed new ones.

Utah...Continued

Is anybody still reading? I believe we left off on Monday night. Tuesday was the funeral for my grandpa. It was good to see all of my aunts and so many of my cousins. I wish it didn't take a funeral to see everyone. You all know, the road runs both ways, right?

Anyway, so many sweet things were said at the funeral by my dad, brother, and cousins. They talked of his love for his grandkids, his generosity, and his love for Grandma Asay. We're so glad they are reunited once again.

We had to take a few pictures. One of my parents and siblings. You never know when you'll get that chance again.



Then one with all the cousins. Only two weren't there. Not too shabby. Oh, and you thought, I was short? Apparently it runs in the family.


Apparently, someone got a hold of my camera when it was left unattended. :-)


Tuesday night we headed to Temple Square to see all the lights. I haven't been in 12 years and the rest of my little family had never been, so it was a must see. We couldn't believe how crowded it was though! It was worse than shopping on Black Friday. But it was worth it to see all the amazing lights and displays.







We also went inside the Tabernacle. A lot of people were in there, just trying to stay warm, I think.




The next day we left. It was sad to have to be together because of a funeral, but happy to get to see everyone again and to play with cousins, even if for 24 hours.

We made it home again in record time, with Nathan doing all the driving on the way home. The first day I was sick, and laid in the back and slept most of the time. The next day, I guess I just never offered to drive, and he seemed to be doing such a good job of it. I was happy to read my books.

Speaking of Nathan, I really should give him a proper shout out. I am so lucky to have a guy that is willing to drive all the way to Utah, at Christmas time no less, to attend the funeral of my grandpa with me. And the funeral was on his birthday, but he didn't want any big fuss on the day of the funeral. Oh, I guess I forgot to mention we did get away without the kids Tuesday night to eat dinner of his choosing...steak. At a place called Squatters. Anybody heard of it? It was pretty good. So to him, his birthday was a success.

Bittersweet

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As many of you know by now, we had to leave town last weekend to attend the funeral of my dear, sweet Grandpa Asay. He was going to be 92 on the 20th. We knew it was going to be the end soon, so we were just waiting. I got the call from my dad last Wednesday, and I was more emotional than I thought, even though I knew it was coming.
Nathan and I had talked about it, and knew we would probably drive out again like we did for my grandma in 2008. Thankfully, the funeral wasn't going to be held until this past Tuesday(the 20th, his bday, also Nathan's). So we had a few days to wrap up things at home and get packed and ready to go.
We decided to open a few Christmas presents early. Mostly because these gifts would help us all on a road trip 24 hours each way. :-) Brooke recieved her most prized possession to date and I have never seen such excitement on the face of that girl. It is a Nintendo 3DS, with a couple games to play, of course.







Charlotte got a movie she had been wanting. She was excited, just not as much as Brooke :-)



I got Nathan the new Toby Keith cd with the song, Red Solo Cup. I think we only listened to it 5 or 6 times on the whole trip. That beat my New Kids on the Block cd that we only listened to twice.


So anyway, our drive out went great and we made it to SLC in record time. We stopped Saturday night in North Platte, Nebraska and met up with Cam and Aliy and their cute boys Sunday in Cheyenne. They were nice enough to drive an hour out of their way just to see us. We visited with them for a couple hours at McDonald's before making the rest of our journey. We checked into our hotel around 7 p.m. Sunday night. After picking up dinner, we were pretty tired and just went to bed.

Monday morning we picked Robin up at the airport. We ate lunch at In n Out, a first for everyone. Not really that impressed, we're glad we didn't get a taxi in Vegas just to go there. Don't get me wrong, it was ok, just nothing to write home about. :-)

Next, we went on a tour of the Conference Center. I was excited for my kids to see where General Conference is and how big it is.






They did surprisingly well, considering the tour guide said it would only take 45 minutes, but instead ended up being more like 2 hours. We were pretty beat after that, so we decided to go back to the hotel to rest until the rest of the family came to town.

We didn't have to wait too long until the Asay cousins from Arizona arrived. Everyone was so excited to see each other, after 6 long months. Everyone needed to get some energy out, so to the pool we went. After swimming for a little bit, dinner was on the mind. After much driving around, we decided on Cafe Rio!! I'm not sure why that wasn't our first choice to begin with! So good! That will be a must visit any time we visit any state that has a Cafe Rio.

Not too much later after arriving back at the hotel, the rest of the family arrived. First the Hall's from Twin Falls, and then the G.P.'s and Lauren from Indy. The kids got jammies on and we loved that Taylor and Charlotte were twins :)


This was pretty much how it was for two days. Kids running up and down the halls, making lots of noise. We had 5 rooms, all grouped together. As far as I know, we didn't get any complaints.



Taylor and Brooke had a sleepover, and this is what they did first thing in the morning when they woke up :)


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To be continued...

A few more fun Holiday pics

Charlotte's sweet kindergarten teacher sent this picture to everyone last week. Apparently Santa came for a visit. What's funny is, as we were driving into the carpool lane, we looked in Brooke's classroom (like we do everyday) and saw Santa! Charlotte was so excited and wanted to go see him. I figured he would show up in her class too.
Notice all the boys? There's like 15 boys in her class and 6 girls...feel so sorry for the teachers because those boys are all handfuls! Charlotte is in the bottom right corner.

A few weeks ago we went to Muncie for our Stake Nativity Exhibit. I was emailed this picture a few days ago.


Here's a couple pics from Conner Prairie that were on my phone. Nathan was having too much fun building a Rapunzel tower.


This was Charlotte's favorite gingerbread house...probably because it was pink. There were several other AMAZING gingerbread houses.

Santa's House

Yesterday we visited Santa on the square. We didn't have to wait too long and they had free hot chocolate for us.





Brooke asked for an "I can be Barbie" and Charlotte asked for a barbie airplane.

After seeing Santa, we made a quick trip to Conner Prairie. They had some Christmas activities going on, including a gingerbread village. Those pictures are on my phone, I'll have to upload them later. There were some pretty amazing gingerbread houses.

The girls had fun building with lincoln logs that were supposed to be gingerbread houses??? Not really sure, but they had a good time.

They were trying to build Rapunzel's castle, I think.


They had more activities going on outside, but we didn't make it to those. I don't think anyone wanted to go back out in the cold. :)