Bits of Heaven: Party til we DROP!

It gets kind of crazy around our house when the holidays come. Not only do we celebrate Christmas and New Year's, we celebrate 2 birthdays. Braydon's birthday is on December 27 and Austin's is on January 2. We now have a 10 year old and a 12 year old. That seems so weird to me!

We usually spend the 26th taking all of our Christmas down so that when we wake up on the 27th, it's not still Christmas, it's Braydon's Birthday. Things were a little different this year though. We got up early on the 26th (4AM) and traveled to Kuna to be to a baptism that morning. Our good friend Tami was baptized and we were not going to miss that. After the baptism, we stayed for a yummy lunch at their house and then headed into Meridian. We visited with Heidi and got to see her beautiful wedding dress. She will be a beautiful bride. Then we headed to Nampa to spend time with Aunt Amber and Uncle Brad. They celebrated Christmas with Brad's parents and we knew we weren't going to get to see them for awhile. We played some games with them and had dinner. Then we headed over to the Halladay's in Kuna to visit and play games. We dropped Austin off at Grant's house to play first and we got in some great fun until about 10:30 pm. The kids didn't want to leave. They had fun playing with their friends. We did bring Grant home with us though. That's what Austin wanted for his birthday. We got home about 4 AM and YES- we were tired!!!! Especially after being up early the day before with excited kids!

Sunday was Braydon's birthday and we all overslept and didn't make it to church. We spent most of the day playing games and just chillin'. It wasn't the most exciting birthday since it was on a Sunday. He did get exactly what he wanted though...

A pretty heavy duty knife. Almost like a leatherman. He was just excited that he now has more knives than his dad!

Monday night we decided to take the kids bowling. The excitement was building all day long and they were so anxious to get to the bowling alley! We went to Rigby to bowl- someone had told us that it was a family friendly place. When we got there, there was not a soul there. We were the only ones except the guy running the place. Notice the smile on Braydon's face. One of these days, I'll figure out how to get that kid to give me a real smile when we take a picture.

The girls wanted to know why they couldn't just wear their own shoes. These shoes were all fairly new though. I thought they looked so good on the kids! Mayci did a good job watching us all bowl. I think Justin and I just barely broke 100 for our score. The kids didn't care about the scores though. They just wanted their own treat. They wanted a licorice rope. It was a fun night!

This was one of those toys that I refuse to put money in but Justin thought it would be funny to put Mayci in and turn it on. She was ok in it if it wasn't moving. Once it started to move, she freaked out and wanted out of it! We pulled her out and the other 2 girls jumped in! Then the boys wanted a try. I told them they were too big and they didn't need to be in it!

Austin's birthday. We had my mom and dad, my little brother Chris, my sister Brittany and her family all at our house. We spent the day playing in the snow outside- we got a couple of inches. We played games and watched movies. All the adults decided to go to the temple and do sealings. That was a neat experience. What a great way to start the New Year! Friday night though, Mayci spent the entire night throwing up. I was up with her until 4:30 am. She slept until 7 am. It was a rough night. She still wasn't doing good on Saturday. We were invited to my Grandma Edstrom's house in Rexburg for dinner on Saturday night. We had a yummy potato bar. Some of my cousins and my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mike were there too! It was a great party!

Mayci wanted to be held the entire day! That was ok with me. I like when she cuddles with me. Especially when I don't have anything that needs to be done!

And I wonder where Braydon gets his pulling faces when his picture is taken! Great tongue Justin!

My dad, Kerry, and Braydon. Right after this picture was taken, Braydon smiled really big! What a tease!

We didn't stay long at Grandma's house. Matt and Nat were staying in a hotel in Idaho Falls and we all wanted to go swimming. We hurried over so we could get lots of playing time in the pool. We were the only ones in the pool and the kids loved it! All I wanted to do was sit in the hot tub and soak. I was running on empty at this point. My all night up with Mayci was catching up to me. We still had Sunday to make it through too!

Marisa, Matt (my brother), Nick (my brother-in-law), Nat (sister-in-law) and her little one, Hallie. Britt took this picture. We spent almost the entire time in this. It was pretty hot though. They had it a toasty 104 degrees.

What's a pool party without Chicken Fights?! The kids loved this. The grown up kids were a little tired when it was over though. Poor Chris had tender jaws when he was done. He had his wisdom teeth pulled on Monday and he was doing ok until the kids started kicking his jaw. It was fun to see the kids laugh and play though.