Holiday FUN

Look at those cute (and COLD) faces! Aubrey and I were crazy enough to sign our girls up for ski lessons New Years DAY! Seriously?!? First off, we were exhausted and second it was 8 below up on the mountain. But, it was the only day we could make it work and the girls were super excited! Well, Savanna was excited until she got up there and found out I couldn't stay with her! First half of the day wasn't a total success... lots of tears but the second half was much better. By the time I picked her up, she was doing great... going up the magic carpet and going down the hill. When I asked her if she wanted to ski again she said "yeah I totally want to ski again, just not for a while mom, okay"?!? We will try again next year. Hopefully we will be able to buy her like 4 or 6 sessions instead of just 1!

Girls after a nice warm and relaxing bath... after all they were "freezing" all day!

A few days later we decided to venture out in the cold for some more fun... this time just in my parents back yard. We played on the 4 wheelers, roasted some marshmallows, played in the snow and had a lot of fun!

Oaklee, Kelsi and Savanna

Makades hat kept turning in front of he eyes but he wasn't too concerned. He was too busy having fun! Dakota and Makade

The saying is usually "like mother like daughter" but in this case it's totally "like daddy like Savy"!

Jaxon was loving the BIG HUGE marshmallow! WOW!

The night before the Ewing's had to fly back Kelsi took the girls to get their nails painted then all the kids to see Tangled (my personal new favorite). After, my mom brought out some puzzles to play with the girls... we all wanted to stay up all night so we could have as much time possible with each other but the fun holiday break had to come to an end! But I am very EXCITED to announce that after 5 years,my sweet sister and her family are finally moving home. YAY!!!! No more Tennessee! BEST. NEWS. EVER!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! Always have, always will! Now that I have kids, I love it even more! Their faces when they open their gifts, just brings a smile to my face! Savanna ran down the stairs and saw her big main gift and she yelled "OH MY HECK, THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED"! Made me (and Santa, I'm sure) VERY HAPPY! Makade just kept oo-ing and ah-ing over everything... Even his clothes. Both kids just kept running back and forth from things, not sure what to play with first. I got Josh a new wedding ring, which is beautiful... oh i mean it is really good looking! He got me an ipad. I was so shocked I literally started screaming! LOVE IT! A couple years ago, we kind of started a fun tradition where everyone came to our house Christmas morning to open presents and have breakfast. This was mostly because the Ewing's moved away so it was just us with my parents and little sister. Well, Ewing's were in town this year and we decided what the heck, lets still do it! We crammed 13 people and lots of presents into our little humble abode and it was GREAT! We had such a great Christmas... little bit of family, little bit (okay A LOT) of spoiling, lots of fun and time spend together! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

For memory sake here is a list of favorite gifts

Savanna

-barbie vet station

-barbie skates

-art supplies

-Uno Moo

-CLOTHES

Makade

-train set

-car tower

-tool set

-blanket

-CANDY

After all the fun at our house, we ran over to the in laws for our annual gathering. I have gone over to Jim and Kayes every Christmas morning for years... since Josh and I dated in high school. We never miss it and we love it! Unfortunately Makade was not being a very nice boy. All of the Mitchell kids have to put their nose to the wall when they get in trouble... I thought it was kind of weird until I tried it... WORKS LIKE A CHARM! The kids HATE IT!!! Drives them crazy when they have to sit and stare and wall, not being able to see what's going on. This would be Makades first time having to participate in this disciplinary action... Classic!

Well here comes the fun part... 4 hours after all the chaos of Christmas we packed our bags, left the toys and headed to my parents house where we stayed for the next 10 days. We do this every time the Ewing's are in town. We want to spend as much time together as possible. And the kids LOVE it.

New Years Eve we had a close family friend come and watch the kids while the adults went out to dinner. Ah, I love my kids but being able to sit through a dinner without having to do damage control, or fight them to eat... just a peaceful meal.. NICE! We then headed back and had a great night of games. We played pool, ping pong, air hockey, catch a phrase, the new dance game on xbox and then toasted sparkling cider at midnight! I was amazed Savanna made it until midnight! She was a die hard! Kade on the other hand was passed out by 8:30!

Breven and Makade are 4 months a part and although their smiles are cute, they are nothing but TROUBLE! Pure JOY to know they will grow up together ... best buds!!!

Okay, so my mom wanted to get a picture of her 3 girls... never knew taking a ONE picture of 3 adult woman could be so hard. Every picture some one was like "that's not a good one", "my smile is weird", or best yet "my face looks fat". Finally after like the 5th one we all just busted up laughing at how ridiculous we were being. Then we just couldn't stop laughing. My mom kept snapping pictures and I think these ones are the cutest of all! I LOVE my sisters... they are without a doubt (along with the BEST MOM EVER) my best friends!

Thankfully, we finally got one!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

Christmas Eve

Normally, we hang at my parents house for Christmas eve, but this year we wanted to do something different... change it up a bit! We had yet to have a Kimball family party, so we decided to throw one together and the best night for everyone was Christmas eve! YAY! I know the parties and events during the holiday season can be A LOT but to me, it wouldn't be Christmas without all the chaos! We all met at my grandparents house for some yummy food and to put together packages for the women's shelter. We had scarfs, hats, gloves, socks and some candy. The Kimball side is SO into giving and doing for people who may be a little less fortunate than us. And it was so rewarding to spend our night preparing some essential items for others! After we dropped off the packages we headed over to Temple Square. We waited for the Ewings to get here to see the lights so this was our first time at Temple Square this year. The kids were mesmerized! They loved it and we loved seeing their faces light up! Savanna is finally old enough to talk about the true meaning of Christmas. Teaching her about Christ and his birth has been great. She is so sweet and listens so intently! She has always loved the temple and sings "I love to see the Temple" every single night! I couldn't think of a better way to spend our Christmas eve! After all the fun and COLD we went back to my parent's house to do our annual tradition. We always open up our cute Christmas PJ's, read the story of Christ's birth, light our candles and head to bed (or in our case home to go to bed)! I personally look forward to this all season long and I am so grateful my parents started this amazing tradition ... hopefully my kids will love it as much as I do!

Hello... BEAUTIFUL!

Oaklee, Cassidy and Savanna... seriously one of my FAVORITE photos!!!!

He wanted to get in the water... seriously?!?

The Kimball Clan

Jaxon, Makade, Oaklee, Savanna, Dakota and Breven... MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here comes Santa Claus

So many family parties... and so much fun! This was the Casper family party(my mom's side) and we were lucky to have a special visitor. This year we saw Santa Claus maybe 3 times, none of which we stood in line. Lucky us! We were so happy that the Ewings were in town for this fun party too... YAY! Good food, good friends and family, good times!

Santa is telling all the little kids a story

Makade wanted in on the action, he just wanted to be within arms reach of mom!

This would be Makades "I'm up here on Santa's lap because mom wants a picture, but I'm not thrilled about it" face!

Miss Savanna telling Santa she is a big 4 year old!

And then she is thinking very hard about which of MANY items she wants to ask for... oh the list was endless!

Playing games with everyone

Mitchell Family

Since I have been married to Josh we have NEVER had a family picture with EVERYONE in it... sad to say. Last time we attempted a family picture I was unable to be in it... it was 1 day after Savanna was born (need I say more as to why I wasn't there? I didn't think so!) So, 4 years later, we attempted it again. And by attempted I mean we gathered together at a family party and snapped a picture. This was the BEST we could do! Unfortunately TWO people were missing... Jen's husband works out of state and only comes home every 6 weeks or so and one of Monica's daughters was at her dad's. Rich and Meggan, we are sad you were not there... maybe some day we will be able to capture a picture with every member of the family. Until then, this will have to do!

Monica, Josh Mindy, Kaye, Jim, Jen and Vickie

The cousins... Savanna, Kylee, Canyon, Kempton, Makade, McKenna, Spencer, Echo, Brookly, Gage, Chelsea, Kira, Josie, Mason, Zander, River and Sage

The gang