Sunday, December 13, 2009

Thanksgiving and Christmas Parties

Several events have transpired since my last post. I will attempt to chronicle them with pictures. For Thanksgiving, Curt and I went to Cashelle and A.J.'s house. Cashelle had a grand idea that we should create a "thankful" window with her window markers. We each took turns and wrote what we were thankful for. More of our "thankful" window.
Look at how much fun the kids had writing on the kitchen window.

Four hungry little souls. Thanksgiving is so much fun!
What a cute little face! Spencer, we love you!
The table is all set and we're ready to eat!
A.J. cooked most of the meal by himself. Look at the feast we were waiting for! Thank you, A.J. It was delicious! The night before Thanksgiving, Curt and I went to "Old Dogs" with Cashelle, A.J., Madalynn, and Audrey. The boys stayed home since we went to the 9:30 show. It was so funny! I highly recommend that movie.
Now we are at the Duncan Christmas party in Manti. Spencer thought if he ignored Santa, he could worry about his present.
Jayleigh's first visit with Santa. She did pretty good. She only puckered for a second.
Madalynn telling Santa what she would like for Christmas.
Audrey having her turn. Those two girls absolutely LOVE Santa--and they are definitely NOT afraid of him!
Thomas having his chat with Santa.
Granny even got a turn. I didn't get it on camera, but Santa gave her a great big kiss--on the lips! "I saw Granny kissing Santa Claus . . . "
When BYU played Utah this year in football, BYU won. We had several Ute fans at Granny's house so after the game, us girls dressed in our BYU attire and went over to rub it in a little. Curt and A.J. went to the game with A.J.'s dad.
Now we are in St. George. Last year for Christmas, Curt and I got rooms for the whole family in Salt Lake. This year, we got rooms for two nights in St. George. We had a wonderful time! The weather didn't want to cooperate but we had a grand time anyway. Here are the kids getting ready to go swimming. Landon and Lacey had a Christmas party and didn't get there until a little later.
The three amigos getting ready to take a dip in the pool. I have to tell you a funny story about Cody--the one on the right. He is absolutely terrified of Santa. We saw him at the mall, but Cody would NOT get anywhere near him. On Saturday night, I was walking down the hall with him to go to the pool, and there was Santa in the hallway waiting to go into a party in one of the conference rooms at the hotel. Cody stopped dead in his tracks. I told him he didn't have to talk to Santa. I said, "Tell Santa bye-bye." Cody smiled and waved and said "Bye, Tanta!" Santa asked Cody what he wanted for Christmas as we hurried past. I told him to tell Santa he wanted a 4-wheeler--which is what he really wants. Cody said, "I no want no 4-wheewer." And then he said "Bye Santa" and waved as we scurried down the hall. It was hiliarious.
Two happy, sweet girls in their new swim outfits. In August or so, they were having a big sale on swimming suits at K-Mart so I bought all the kids swimming suits. There weren't any the girls' size so I got them a little short outfit to wear over their suits. Don't they look cute!
Down at the pool. We stayed at the Holiday Inn at St. George. It is an indoor pool, but it has a doorway to go to the outside pool. You can see it if you look closely. They all had a blast swimming. Thomas is a brave little stinker. He only had to be saved about six times. Here he is ready to jump in again.
The hot tub was a big hit.
Look at this humongous room. Somehow, Curt and I and Cashelle and A.J. ended up with family suites. We could have all stayed in this one room almost. If you notice the beds, they pull out of the wall so you have more living space. There was a closet area with a mirror in the center of the picture; a little kitchen with microwave, fridge, and sink; a table with four chairs; a couch that folded into a bed; and the bathroom, of course. And it had a big jetted tub.
More of the room . . . .
There was a space between the bed and the window that the kids had a fun time playing and hiding in.
This is the view from outside in the hallway. While we were there, we ran into Tammy's husband, Jeff. We chatted with both of them Friday night and Jeff again on Saturday. We didn't get a chance to see Mary Ann. She is head of housekeeping there.
The girls with Santa at the Tuacahn Theater. We went there for a Festival of Lights and a Live Nativity. But guess what? It was all canceled because of the stupid weather. I was disappointed because I was so looking forward to seeing the Live Nativity there. Oh well, maybe another time. By the way, Cody was asleep in the stroller so Amanda took the stroller over to get a picture of Cody with Santa since he is so scared of him. When she showed him the picture later, she said, "Look! I got a picture of you with Santa!" Cody just shook his head no. He was in denial that he had been that close to him.
At the Tuacahn Theater, they had one of those cutouts that you could put your head through. So, we made our own live nativity.
Another shot of our "live nativity" with Madalynn standing in front.
Madalynn and Audrey in front of the huge Christmas tree there.
I only got one family picture there. Here's Cashelle and A.J.'s family.
We told Curt to pull a face--he did.
Little Jayleigh being a sheep.
Spencer got his turn, too.
One more . . . .
Jayleigh really didn't like Santa very well.
Jayleigh and Lacey swimming Saturday night.
We had such a great time. We're going to try again next year. Maybe if we went to Phoenix it wouldn't snow!?!?!?

2 comments:

Cashelle said...

We've had so much fun lately, haven't we? Thanks again for everything. We love you guys.

Twitchell Family said...

Thank you guys so much for everything you do for us! We had so much fun! Can't wait to see you guys again!