Our Holidays

Okay, so I am really behind so be ready for the longest post yet! The Holidays seem to get so crazy, and there is so much I need to update. This is more for journaling than anything else so sorry for the length.

This is at the semi-final state football game (St. Johns vs. Valley Christian). The cousins sat like this most of the time.

We were able to come home through Flagstaff and stop and see my Grandparents. This is great Grandma Palmer's first time to see Sara.

Alan's brother Darrin came home from his mission Dec. 5th. He was able to fly into ShowLow...it was so nice not to have to travel too far :)

JoAnn loves her class and most the boys love her :) I haven't heard of one girl from her class that she plays with yet. This is just after her Christmas music program and these are the friends she always plays with. (Brady Overson, JoAnn, Gage Tricky, and Byron Bradshaw)

The cousins got to make Christmas Trees out of sugar cones, frosting, and candy. It was a simplified version of a gingerbread house and they loved it.

It snowed the Tuesday night before Christmas. I thought it was a little ironic that we drove away from the a white Christmas, but it was so great to get to play in it for a day.

We were able to be in Thatcher this year for Christmas with 9 out of the 10 kids. My family has made it a tradition for dad to read the Christmas story from Luke and let the grandkids act it out. Dad always used to just read the story to us every Christmas Eve. It was so good to hear dad read that story again.

It is our tradition to let the kids hang their stockings on Christmas Eve so Santa can find them. We had my parents, my grandparents, my little brothers, Steven and his family, and our family all there for Christmas morning.

Another tradition is that Christmas morning everyone starts downstairs and eats an orange. Then we run up the stairs youngest to oldest. The kids could hardly stand having to wait.


On my side of the family there were 5 kids born in 3 1/2 months. This is the first time that all five were together. It starts with oldest on the left and goes down to Sara. It was no fun while I was pregnant to be the last one but now I love that Sara is the smallest.

And finally...New Year's Day. We went to up to Lakeside to have diner with family. The kids were so excited there was so much snow and loved playing in all their new snow clothes.