Happy Birthday Grandma Ardes!

Matt's Grandma turned 98 this December. every year we have a big mcqueen party to celebrate--we've usually had these at her home, but the past few years (because she is finally getting too old!) we've gone up to rog and jill's. mary and her family always come after christmas as well, so we get plenty of playing with the mcqueen's.
Here's our kids with grandma and their 2..count them 2!... mcqueen cousins. (quite a difference between matt's family parties and mine with 24 crazy cousins running around.) grandma, at 98, is still all there. she know all of her 15 or so grandchildren and her 25 or so great-grandchildren and loves to have them around. she dotes on them all and is genuinely interested and concerned with each one. she truly amazes me at the number of lives she's touched in 98 years. another wonderful plus about being home is getting to be around ardes in the twilight of her life. watching my children love her and interact with her is a priceless memory for both them and me. of all of ardes' great-grandkids, these 5 stick together. they only see each other 2x a year so when they do get together they are inseparable. they can spend weeks at a time together without getting sick of each other and needing a break. it's really fun to watch them enjoy the time they have together so much.

just thought i'd throw in the new darker me. a little darker than planned...but, we're going to go with it for a while.

Christmas Morning Faves

isaac and his bakugans

eli and his "cars" undies

megs in her ute track jacket, hat, and new boots

mall and her "mallory doll" (notice she is in her gymnastics leotard--she drives me nuts!!!)

you already know my fave and matt's was a Ripstick to share with isaac. he is tired of borrowing the kid's down the street.

my parents braved the blizzard and joined us with jared and dana and taylor and laney (home from NY) for christmas dinner. it was the first year in a long while we didn't have to split the day between our families. we lounged all day watching movies and the snow pile up before heading the block or two over to jared's. just what christmas should be. no craziness, no hustle and bustle, just being together.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent in our home this year. With my family party over with and Matt's not until next week, we had a "silent night" with just us and Grandma and Grandpa. We started with dinner and then had our little program: the girls doing their Symbols of Christmas talk and Isaac doing his talk on the white cloths in Jesus' life. Eli just hopped from adult to adult trying to be reverent. Not a chance with this one.
then the kids opened their christmas jammies and Oh joy!!! Matching Utes PJs!! just in time for the big game! they love them and getting them to the laudry has proven to be difficult. with a quick kiss the gramma and grandpa they were off to bed--too excited to sleep.

ok, no camera, but HELLO...

new washer and dryer. so, we left our set in colorado a year ago, and my brother gave us his old set when we moved here and (not to kick a gift horse in the mouth) but said hand-me-down has been really leaking for the past two months and i could only wash a medium load (gasp!, i know). that said, i have detested laundry and the wet floor aftermath for a while and matt caught on to my complaining and VIOLA! merry christmas to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! see, whining really does pay off. now, i {heart} laundry. the clothes come out of the washer almost dry and the dryer is so quiet. i don't even know when it's on. i've been renewed, refreshed even, as a mother, and all my mothering duties.

the only thing i'm waiting for now is an automatic folding machine;)