Springville Time

We loved our time in Springville. It was great catching up with my parents, my grandma, and siblings, and my nieces and nephews. Unfortunately, we didn't take very many pictures of our time together. We did, however take a bunch (and a lot of video) of our time all together at Power Tumbling. Our family rented out this gymnastics tumbling gym for a few hours one night, and had a blast.
Owen, trying out the trampolines. These were the bounciest trampolines I have encountered.

Owen showing Dad some of his power tumbling moves.

Eva crawling around in the foam pit which bore strange resemblance to quick sand.

Here is Marc, hoop jumping.


Did I tell you I have a very limber sister Mary.....


and Ana......

and Doreen....


and Angie?

Everyone else in the family: you are limber too, I just don't have video of it :)

But I do have footage of Mom and Dad taking the plunge:

Logan Time

We split up our time on our trip to UT between Logan and Springville. The first half of our trip was spent in Logan with Marc's family. The kids LOVED seeing their cousins, and grandparents and Aunts and Uncles. Here are some photos of our week together:

Owen was soooo excited to open these football pjs on Christmas Eve, as evidenced by this photo.Here are all of the kids together in their Christmas Eve pajamas.

Madeline loved playing the part of Mary (complete with baby Zoe!) as the cousins reenacted the Nativity.
She even got to ride the "donkey" Anika.
Eva, the (somewhat psychadelic) Shepherd.

Christmas Morning!! Eva opening her presents with Mason.

Madeline delighted with her Ear Muffs from Santa. She wrote him asking for Ear Muffs and a Snow suit, luckily he delivered! I am hoping that her Santa requests are always this practical every year.

Owen intently opening his new toy crocodile. He loves crocodiles, but he was a little leery of this one for a few seconds after opening it.
Maddy and Eva in their dresses from Great Grandma Chenn.
One of the rare moments Owen played nicely with cousin Kai. Had to document it.
A picture of some of the older cousins together. This is one of Eva's best.

Winter Fun in Logan

Previous to our arrival in Logan, the kids had only really experienced one (short-lived) snowfall in NYC this season. They were delighted to find out that Logan had received oodles and oodles of snow. We arrived to a winter wonderland. It snowed almost every day during our Logan visit as well. Sledding, snow fort making, snow angels and marshmallow roasting were enjoyed by all.

The girls loved making smores. Owen loved watching his mom panic each time he tried touch the flames.

Roasting Santa, Frosty the Snowman, and Ms. Claus, and Santa's Elves.

Snow Angels. Finally, enough snow to make one.

Eva and Uncle Mason on her first sledding run of the afternoon.

Unfortunately, they managed to find the one-and-only sledding jump on the hill. Eva (and her very sore bottom) were done for the day.

Marc and Owen shared the pink sled. Andrew showed us all up with his snowboarding skills.

Someone is absolutely delighted to be in the snow.

This picture makes me laugh. Marc, his brothers, and his dad set out to create a sledding luge "for the children" on the large hill in Gma and Gpa Chenn's backyard. This was a two day engineering feat. When they were finished, no mother in her right mind would let her child near it. In the end, the "big boys" all took a turn, resulting in a bloodied tongue (Mason) and some sore ribs (Casey).

Great Grandmas

Another highlight of our trip to UT, was the fact that the kids were able to see their Great Grandparents. I grew up knowing only one of my Great Grandmothers- and I cherish those memories of Grandma Angie. I feel blessed to know that my children will have memories of three Great Grandmothers: Grandma Dill, Grandma Chenn and Grandma Braithwaite.

Breakfast at Mimi's

There were many highlights to our trip back to UT for the holidays. This was one of them. The sisters (all of us but Sherie and Julie- who were missed) and mom went out to breakfast at Mimi's Cafe in Orem. Matt and Marc graciously agreed to watch all of the children we left behind. I feel so lucky to have the family that I do. 8 sisters, 3 brothers + me = 12, all under one roof growing up.

Of course, with 9 girls you can bet that there were clothing squabbles, bedroom territory issues, and even an occasional death threat. But, there were also some great memories created in those years we had together. Many of which make me laugh out loud when I think about them. I love these 8 sisters of mine. It was great to see you.

Piano Recital

Eva started taking Piano lessons in September, and she has been eager to participate in a recital ever since. She and Maddy both performed in this Winter Concert on the 21st of December. First, Madeline played a duet with her teacher entitled the German Dance.

Afterward, the girls played together. Eva had a series of 5 short songs that she played, and Madeline accompanied her. I think Eva really enjoyed having her big sister up there with her for her piano debut. The girls duet songs ended up getting split into two videos.

The volume is really low on these, so you will have to turn your volume way up to really hear anything.

We're Baaaack!

Oh, I have missed my home. Don't get me wrong, I have loved spending our holiday with family, but it is nice to be back. In my own time zone. In my own bed. Even if my fridge is entirely empty and I don't have a Fresh Direct order coming until tomorrow morning.
Our family had a great time in Utah, the children especially. Both Maddy and Eva have voiced their desire to move to UT about 100 times in the last 16 hours. Of course, their view of UT is a place where eternal parties (attended by cousins) take place, because basically that is what we did for the entirety of our vacation. I think they would be a little disappointed with what life ended up being like if a move back ever occurred.
I will post pictures when life gets a little more orderly around here (aka suitcases all unpacked) but for now, here is a glimpse of what our flight to Utah was like. After wrestling a 2-year-old for the 5 hour span of our non-stop flight to Salt Lake, I did not think things could get scarier.....but, they did.
Marc and I are both pretty certain that if it were not for the 5 missionaries on board, we would all be toast :).