Christmas Vacation

Ok so I realize that this post would have been better if I had broken into parts like Julie did for their vacation. Although by the time I realized this, I was like 9/10ths of the way done with it and all the pictures were uploaded and wasn't about to take the time to do that again. So you all just get to deal with a super long post!

The holidays seemed to come up really fast this year for whatever reason. We had the opportunity to go to Disneyland during the holidays so we got to see everything all decorated. We had my first ever fake Christmas tree because we were in Colorado this Christmas but I had to have a tree up. It was a little weird but it was still pretty and I found some Christmas Scentsy that I liked to make up for it. We had our Ward Christmas party where Daniel got to meet Santa and he told him that he wanted a Woody and Buzz. (this was after he managed to pee on me at the party. That was awesome.)

Since it was a Brinkerhoff Colorado Christmas this year which meant we had 3 Christmases. On the 18th we got together with all the kids at Jeff's house to do Christmas with my dad. We spent a few hours over there eating, talking, watching some tv, and opening presents. It was a fun time and the boys were crazy as ever. I thought all their toys were going to get ruined that night!
The next day we got together with my mom, Rick, and the girls for Christmas. My mom said that I asked for boring gifts but she got them anyways (what I needed a kitchen funnel). Daniel was not interested in opening presents because he was too busy watching a movie on TV. What a frickin spaz. I'm retarded and don't have any pictures from then. Heck I even stole the ones from Jeff's house from my sister's facebook page.

Then Colorado. We went up there on the 20th and stayed until January 1st. It was nice to have all the time we did. We had some time to go see Taylor play basketball, and spend time with just the boys, Ali, and To and Lo before all the chaos enused. Plus we also got to see Neil, Jessica, and Ellie which was a lot of fun. Let me just say that between how good looking Daniel is and how gorgeous Ellie is, I'm going to have the cutest grandkids ever! The Smiths got into town late Wednesday night before Christmas and Daniel got to play with Brooklyn before there were a million kids there! On Christmas Eve, the kids made sugar cookies for Santa. Daniel soon found out that it was much more fun to just eat the dough. So he ate a lot of it. Seriously I think he ate more dough than finished product. Although he did make a very excellect blob cookie that he seemed to be very proud of as he plopped it on the pan. Then as tradition, we all sat around and watched the classic Grinch and read the Christmas story in Luke 2. Then while the adults finished wrapping each other's presents we watched Christmas Vacation. Way to end a thought provoking and spiritual account of the holidays. right?

The blob cookie being eaten.

Yes, that's Matt with his sister Lindsay. Most people might think brother and sister in matching shirts is a little weird. I thought nothing of it. Her husband Colton said it was a little creepy. So he took a picture of it. Yep, that's us Brinkerhoffs.

Then came Christmas morning. Daniel did get a Woody and a Buzz from Santa and he liked them but didn't seem to care about playing with them. Mostly he was excited about getting into his stocking with some more Cars and of course the candy. He's gotten more excited about his presents as time has gone on.

Daniel loves him Savannah. He wanted to play with her and hold her and be near those who were holding her. He is definitely ready to be a big brother. Hopefully soon...not soon enough but we got our fingers crossed. In family additions though, Ali and Phil are pregnant! Yay for another niece or nephew coming in August!

The Brinks 2 came the day after Christmas. The same day that we had the first of boys time/girls time. Torrey, Colton, Matt, Phil, and Neil all went to the Broncos game, which was a pretty awesome comeback where we won, and the girls and kids hung out at the house and Jessica and Ellie came over. Daniel also loves him some Uncle TJ, the tickle monster. It was one crowded house but we loved every minute of that craziness. There was a lot of movie watching, home movie watching (very different things by the way), nertz playing, laughing, and all around silliness.

For Natalie's birthday, we all went bowling which was pretty fun. We haven't been bowling in forever and Daniel's never been. He got soooo excited about it! Although once we got popcorn, he cared less about the bowling for sure.

The Thursday before New Years, we were sitting in the living room watching a bunch of squirrels attack each other in the tree in front and then it started to snow. Daniel wanted to go out in it soooo bad so we got the kids bundled up and out they went. Daniel kept sticking out his tongue and then spitting the snow out, the turkey. He didn't want to come in either, which was weird considering his first time out in the snow over Thanksgiving where he didn't want to touch it! Jackson actually went out in the snow on a bet and rolled around on the ground without a shirt on. And he was the winner of the grand prize of about $6. Brave kid. Or crazy kid, your choice. Then Josh went out and did it too. They're both a little nuts.

See I know deep down these 3 actually like each other.

That night, the boys ages 11 and up went and met with Uncle John to go see Tron in the theaters. Super glad they did cuz I didn't want to see it! So we turned it into a whole movie night. Us girls hung out at the house and chatted and watched the Holiday while we set up the kids downstairs with popcorn and juice and Despicable Me. The kiddos loved that they got their own movie night.
And finally, I have one last picture that I'd like you to look at and guess what happened...

For those of you who weren't there or can only think about how crappy this picture turned out, I came upstairs one morning because I hadn't heard or seen Daniel in a while and the fact that he was quiet was a little concerning. I found a 2 year old with chocolate all over his face and a floor full of hershey kisses wrappers. He ate the entire little candy cane tube full. That'll teach me to leave his stocking where he can reach... Well, until next time!

Thanksgiving 2010

So I know that I'm a few months behind. I could give a million excuses but they're pretty much the same so pick one I've used before and insert here. This year all the kids on my side of the family thought it would be nice to go up to my Grandma Judie's and Grandpa Peanut's house for Thanksgiving. To be honest, we kind of invited ourselves and then checked with everyone! But it was a blast. It was a super easy drive up there the Wednesday before, even with the kids, and even though it had just snowed the few days before, highways were dry and we didn't get any snow fall while we were there.

We spent Wednesday afternoon and evening there and left Saturday morning so it wasn't a long trip but it was a ton of fun. There was still snow on the ground so the boys got to go outside and play. Daniel was a little bit of a pansy about the snow at first so Matt thought the best way to get him into it was to throw snowballs - at Daniel's head. It actually took Clayton running around in it to get Daniel to even touch it. Us adult kids also had a good time outside throwing snowballs at each other. It was cold but super nice. There was one point where Becca and I went out to the "garage fridge" to get a Pepsi and we stood outside and I was in a t-shirt while Becca was all bundled up and I told her I felt a little redneck white trash outside in a t-shirt, drinking my can on the porch.

It was also nice because it proved to be the last time that I would see my dad's aunt Pam, as she had a stroke and passed away right before Christmas. We had Pam and her husband and my grandma's quilting friend over for a big Thanksgiving dinner and then there was a lot of shopping to be done on Friday, along with breakfast casserole.

But some of the most fun that we had was the night time when we played games. My grandparents wouldn't participate because they thought there were too many people at the table and my dad stayed at his aunt Pam's so he had to leave a little eariler and cut his game short but the rest of us stayed up late, sometimes past 1 in the morning playing Apples to Apples and Taboo. It was a blast! I think because we all live near each other, any time we get together it's for an event and there's not a ton of down time. Because we were forced to live in the same house for a while, we just got to hang like we do with the Brinkerhoffs. It was a ton of fun! There was even one time where it was Maddie's turn to pick and she led her answer with "I'm gonna jump off a bridge here and go with..." so now it's a fun little saying we use now. Here are some pictures of the boys in the snow. I'm awful about taking pictures so I'll have to hit up Becca, Shannon, and my dad for more..