Stilson Family

Christmas Eve

When we got home from Jay's parents house the kid got to open their Christmas Eve present from us, which was new PJ's too. As you can see they were all tired and didn't really care about it.

They did look pretty cute in their new PJ's though.

This year for Christmas Eve we were with Jay's family. We had dinner and then the kids sang a song for Jay's dad, "I want a Hippo for Christmas." My boys listened to that song in the car for a couple of weeks and they would sing it in the car, but Mason wouldn't sing it when other people were watching him. Tyler sang a little but not to much. Elly just played with her cousins.

These are Tyler and Mason's cousins that sang the song with them.

After the kids acted out the Nativity while Jay's dad read it. I thought that Mason was a pretty cute little shepherd.

Tyler was a Wise man and he was pretty cute too. Elly wasn't in it but she did crawl up there to see what was going on. The kids all looked really cute.

After the kids got to open a present from Grandpa and Grandma. They all got new PJ's so we had to have pictures of that. We are missing one Grandchild who was sleeping during this.

Last the kids got to open their present from their cousin. Elly got a push toy that she loved once we got it together. She would scream at any of the kids that would touch it. Yes, she can be a stinker.

Mason and Tyler got a Transformer, which is all they have talked about for weeks, so they loved it.

Last minute trip

Since Tyler didn't have school on Tuesday we went with Jay down to where he works on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We brought my sister home with us, so she came with us too. While we were waiting to check into the hotel we took Brittny to see the sights down there. It was a snowy day, but the kids had fun. The boys hiked with Brittny while I stayed in the car with Elly,

The boys are taking Brittny to see the Indian writings. They aer still in ther PJ's because we had to get up early so Jay could be to work on time and I didn't want to dig in the trunk to get their clothes out until we were at the hotel.

While we were waiting Tyler played outside and the rest of us sat in the car. I had plenty of time to do some word searches, I love those. Mason looked at books and Elly climbed all over me.

Tyler had to show me his finished product. He sat outside and played for atleast an hour. The finished product is the hole that he dug in the dirt.

This hotel has the best pool. The water is always warm so the kids will play in it for hours. I love it because then I will even dare to get in. We had a lot of fun.

We had to take Brittny to our favorite place to eat too. This place has old video games. They boys love to play them. It was funny to watch Brittny play these games because she would make the same sounds that Tyler makes while he playes them too. It was pretty funny. If my camera recorded sound then you could see for yourselves how funny it was.

Sledding

We had to get the kids out and go sledding while the snow last here. We took the kids cousins with us. We had a lot of fun. We brought hot chocholate to have when we got cold. The kids lasted for a couple of hours.

Tyler and Mason are in the blue coats and their cousins are the other two.

While their cousins were getting some hot chocholate Jay took our kids and I for a ride. The boys loved it. Mason loved falling out. Elly was happy to be out with us. Her favorite part was riding on the four wheeler with Jay. Tyler could ride forever, he wants to ride even if he is cold.

Jay and Elly

This was just a pretty picture of the place where we were sledding.

The kids had a great time. We went out sledding again on Christmas Eve day too.

Seeing Santa

At our ward Christmas party Santa was there. I didn't take the kids to Santa last year because kids always cry when they see Santa. I figured they were old enough not to cry this year. The boys were good.

Elly wanted nothing to do with sitting on Santa's lap. She sat there long enough for me to get this picture of her crying and trying to get away.

I am pretty sure that I am not the only parent that has these kind of pictures of their kids with Santa.

11 Months old

Elly is eleven months old now. The time has gone by so fast. She is walking alongthe furniture and getting in to everything. She loves that she can follow her brothers when they try to get away from her. It takes her a minute to get to them but she finds them. She is getting better about Mason tackling her. She doesn't cry as easy any more and she has learned how to defend herself. She now knows, thanks to her brothers, how to scratch, bite, hit and pull hair. All the things that I wanted her to learn. She is funny and has learned how to be as weird as her brothers. We sure love this kid.

I just don't think she could be any pretier. She is such a happy baby.

She loves dolls

Elly loves dolls. I really didn't think that this would happen this early. She is really funny to watch with them. She hugs them upside down most of the time though.

It is pretty cute to see her hold both of the dolls.

She was funny when we went Christmas shopping because I would show her all these toys that make noise and she didn't care. She didn't even want to play with it. When I came to the isle with the dolls on it she went crazy. She wanted to hold all of them. It was pretty funny. So I guess you can figure out what she is getting for Christmas.

Crazy about blankets

Elly is so funny about her blankets. She has to have a blanket in her hand so she can suck her thumb. It can't just be any blanket either. She has a few of her favorite ones. She can find them too, even if they are dirty and in the laundry. The other day I had gone down to start some laundry and when I came back this is where I found Elly. She had climbed in the basket to hold her blanket and suck her thumb. She is pretty funny.

December Activities

We started off the Christmas season with getting the house decorated and making cains for the boys to cut each day. I didn't know where else to hang it so it hung from the chandeler.

Next we put the lights up on the house. It was a good thing we did it when we did because it snowed two days later.

The next day we put the tree up and decorated it.

I tried to do something fun each day but we missed a few. We made some sugar cookies and other treats and got them to some of our neighbors. I ran out of time though and didn't get everything done that and all the treats to everyone that I wanted to so I am sorry about that.

Thanksgiving

At school Tyler made these things for Thanksgiving that he is wearing. He looked so cute that he wanted me to take his picture, four inside and four outside, that is what he told me.

After Tyler finished school we headed to my parents house for Thanksgiving. My sister's family came from Nebraska and my sister that lives by my parents were all there for Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner we went to the church to play. The kids loved having the space to run around. While the kids entertained themselves the adults played lighting. It was pretty fun.

Elly loved that Tiffany brought this push toy for Leah to play with. Leah rode and Elly pushed. They switched around some, but this is what they did most of the time.

This is all the Grandkids that were with us on Thanksginving day. Both my brothers families were with their wifes family.

The next day the adults went to the gym and played volleyball and then some dodge ball. My younger brothers wer kind enough to watch the kids for us. After that we headed for the mountains to get some Christmas trees. I will have to say that I think ours turned out very pretty. The kids loved going and getting the tree, Elly doesn't look like she loved it here, but she was mad that she had to sit for a picture.

Here we are hauling the trees down the hill to the truck.

We all had a pretty good time other than Tiffany's kids. They did have fun until there feet got cold.

Elly loved being outside with us.

The next day Jay and I went out looking for some deer. We saw some good ones but couldn't get a good picture of one. This little one was right by the road.