Happy Birthday, Bless You and Merry Christmas

So many fun things this time of year! On December 4, we went to Stansbury for Trey's baby blessing. What a sweet boy and isn't his mom gorgeous? Melinda was trying to lean out of the picture but why would I want to crop her out? She is an amazing mom and I love them all to death.


My girls love can't get enough of this little guy.

{ben} {jer} {trevor} {brady}

These boys are impossible to get a picture of. This was after several attempts and Brady is breastfeeding his two year olds baby doll and Jer is grabbing Trevors butt (which Ben thinks is pretty funny). What can I say? At least none of them are flipping the bird. They look like coffee drinkers. Mmm ... a hot chocolate from Starbucks sure does sound yummy right now.

{front row: Cameron, Erin, Collin, Livy, Sadie

back row: Emma, Trey, Elliot, Josh, Seth, Hanah, Aiden, Noah}

This little clan keeps multiplying and becoming more and more difficult to photograph. They are a cute little group though, aren't they?

The next Saturday, December 11, we had a little Luao Birthday party for Erin. My baby is 6. I'm not sure which is worse... her being six or Jer being thirty-seven. Ouch. We decided to change things up a little this year and make it feel like summer in our home for a day.

{Tally, Aislyn, Ashly, Cambree, Erin, Avery, Hana, Hanah, Noah}

How many kids can you fit into one hula hoop?

As soon as the birthday party was over, we started cooking ham and green beans for the ward party. Jer was released from the Activities committee a while back, but since he is such a good sport, he helped out in the kitchen again. It was probably the best Ward party we've had in a long time. The food was great, the program was well done and the live Nativity was a really neat way to start the night off.

My parents came over to see Josh dressed as a wiseman in the Nativity. He's so funny. They were allowing the kids to pet the animals and have pictures taken all night so Josh did a good job of keeping his head down. Pictures are not his thing.

He is the wiseman in the purple bathrobe. Isn't this a cool scene? I loved the idea of having a live nativity. At 6:00, they moved everyone inside and had dinner and the program. Emma was part of the angelic choir and was thrilled to be a part of it. She is so funny lately. She loves being in the spotlight. Fortuneatley, her white dress still fit from her baptism that was nearly 2 years ago.

On Monday, December 13, it was Erin's "real" birthday. We decided to ditch out on dance and actually spent our Monday night together as a family. We road trax downtown to see Temple Square and ran into Jer's bff from work (okay so that was planned). It was fun to actually hang with other adults while chasing all the kids around. We ate dinner at the Garden Resteraunt at the Joseph Smith bldg. TIt couldn't have gone better. The kids were great, the food was great, the company was great and the weather was great.

{Haley, Emma, Kaetlyn, Max, Erin, Karly, Stuart, Jonah, Josh}