flashlights, a snowman, and a tea party

One of the nights we stayed with my family my mom gave all the kids flashlights and they went searching for a "treasure" in the dark basement.  I think Declan was more excited about the flashlights than anything else!

 The treasures were these Sing a ma jigs!  

We decided to build a snowman one day in my parent's front yard.  My mom even came out to help!  I don't remember the last time I saw my mom play in the snow...so I took advantage and through a few snow balls at her!  What a mean daughter...don't worry, she got me back.  Declan doesn't like walking in snow when his feet sink so he doesn't look very happy in any of these pictures!

Then we decided to go sledding across the street.  Even though it wasn't a huge hill, it was so much fun!

Another day while we were at my parent's house, Mike and Tara went to Idaho Falls and the boys were down for their naps so my mom, Bella, and I had a tea party.  Princess Bella even gave my mom and I Princess names - Princess Grandma and Princess Aunt Nikky!  ha ha.  We got to drink chocolate milk, strawberries with whip cream, Danish cookies, and caramel covered marshmallows.  It was delicious!

 Bella waiting patiently for the tea party to start.

One more cute picture of all the grandkids.  Zach was pushing Bella around in the laundry basket and the boys decided they wanted in on the fun!

a break from Christmas posts

I have about 5 more Christmas posts to do but I wanted to take a break from those for a minute.  Last Saturday we were at the Landry's house and Whitney got some funny pictures of Declan and Luke hugging each other...

Well the hugging turned into dancing and then pulling each other and they both ended up falling on the hard tile in the kitchen.  Declan's head hit the tile really hard and as soon as I picked him up the left side of his head was swollen and blue already.  He cried for a minute and then went back to playing.  We tried to ice it but he of course wouldn't let us keep the ice on his head for longer than 5 seconds.  A little later that night Whitney got out the camera again and he decided to do his "cheesy grin" for her.  (Jana, this little face totally reminds me of what Addie would do!)

Can you see his bruise?  Poor kid, good thing the swelling went down pretty fast and it actually doesn't look too bad now.  Just a green circle on his head!

Christmas Vacation #2

Right after my family's party in Utah we drove up to Idaho Falls and stayed with Zach's family for a few days.  We got to spend time with both sets of Zach's grandparents.  Here are some cute pictures of Declan with Zach's Grandma and Grandpa Pilkington.  He wouldn't stop giving them loves.  It was really cute.

In between giving Grandma and Grandpa hugs and kisses he was running around with his aunts and riding on Zach's back.  

This is our super cute niece, Paige.  Paige loves having Declan around and this trip Declan actually loved having Paige around.  Even as I am posting this he keeps pointing to her picture and saying, "Paaage!!"  

One of the coolest things we got to do on our trip home was attend the temple with ALL of Zach's siblings.  Hilary, Hailey, Sara, and Brody all went through the temple for the first time on December 21st.  Both sets of grandparent's were there also and a couple of Zach's aunts.  It was really neat.  Since all three girls were going through at the same time I was able to be Hailey's escort, Aunt Jen was Hilary's, and Sara had her mom.  Also, the day before they were supposed to go through Brody found out his brother wouldn't be able to come to be his escort so Zach was Brody's escort.  It was a really neat experience.  

 The newlyweds...although, at this time they were still just the cute engaged couple. 

Our last long Christmas break.

I think that one of the main perks about going to school for so long is we get to have LONG Christmas breaks!  Unfortunately this is Zach's last year in school so this was our last long break...it's okay, I think I'd rather have a steady income anyway.  :)  We started off our vacation by attending my family's Christmas party in Utah.  It was fun to be able to go since we haven't been in a couple years.  We went a little early to the party because my mom wanted my cousin to take some family pictures of us since we get together basically once a year.

 Yes, this is Declan eating snow...don't worry though, we told him not to eat yellow snow.  I guess now we need to teach him his colors.

 Mike, Tara, Gavin and Bella

 Pictures with kids are great, aren't they?!

 The great grandkids acted out the Nativity and when they were done and changing out of their costumes  Declan decided he wanted to try some of the clothes on.  My mom brought him back into the gym dressed like this...cute huh?

 He likes to growl. :)

Don't worry I'll be posting more pictures of our Christmas vacation but I decided to break up the trip a bit  into a few posts.  So to you avid readers (all 4 of you...), there will be more.