We had Jen Williams take a family picture for us to send out with our Christmas cards this year.
This was on Thanksgiving at their house. Here we are!
Jeremy and Jen came to join us at our ward party this year. It's always fun to have cousins around!
Jeremy, Conner, Maren, Jen and Keaton
Bump and Corban
Gabby and Corban wishing all these presents were for them.
Here are the kids Christmas outfits for church. Don't they look festive?
Christmas Reunion in Nauvoo
For Christmas this year all of my siblings made the long trek to Nauvoo to spend Christmas with my parents. We had a Christmas Reunion and boy was it fun! To save $$ we invited Jared and Casi to join us in our Honda Pilot for the drive. We have 8 seatbelts, so everyone fit perfectly, except for being a little squished. Corban, Gabby and Mallory were all in the back seat. Jared, Casi and Lily were in the middle and Bump and I were up front. Lily had a tough time on the long drive and so Casi was a bit stressed so she didn't have as much fun as the rest of us did. The drive out was pretty easy and uneventful. We left really early in the morning and got there in a very long day.
The drive back to Utah was another story. These are pictures from the drive back. We had some really nasty weather and lots of icy roads. We caravanned with Lee and Tricia for safety and were glad that we did. We helped a few cars off the road along the way. The roads were really icy and we decided to stop for the night to give ourselves a break from the stressful driving.
One funny story happened on the drive home. Lee was so tired that Bump went up to drive their Suburban and Jared drove our car. Lee fell asleep in the front seat while Bump was driving. Bump noticed that Lee was pretty into his dreams and decided to be alert in case he tried something. Well, he did try something. Lee thought he had fallen asleep at the wheel and woke up and wildly tried to reach over and grab the wheel from Bump. Bump was ready enough and started smacking Lee's hands to keep him from grabbing the wheel and causing an accident. Lee eventually realized what was going on and they had a good laugh together.
One funny story happened on the drive home. Lee was so tired that Bump went up to drive their Suburban and Jared drove our car. Lee fell asleep in the front seat while Bump was driving. Bump noticed that Lee was pretty into his dreams and decided to be alert in case he tried something. Well, he did try something. Lee thought he had fallen asleep at the wheel and woke up and wildly tried to reach over and grab the wheel from Bump. Bump was ready enough and started smacking Lee's hands to keep him from grabbing the wheel and causing an accident. Lee eventually realized what was going on and they had a good laugh together.
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve wouldn't be complete without a Christmas pageant. Grandpa gave everyone assignments and with so many people it was a nice large pageant.
Conner and Andrew were shepherds and the little girls were sheep (Madison, Gabby and Bailey)
Lacey was Mary, I can't tell if that's Steve or Dallin as Joseph. Abby was baby Jesus.
The angel Kaylea on her way to bring glad tidings of great joy to the shepherds.
And. . . Corban picking a good one.
McKenna the donkey holding an upset Gabby sheep.
Our 3 wise men - Joey, Emi, and Lauren with the narrator, Lee.
Bump and Erin being good spectators.
Grandma and Grandpa bought the grandkids new pj's. Here is Gabby sporting hers.
And here's all the little girls together again!
Mallory, Bailey, Maddison, Parlee, Gabby and Mia
And the next set of babies:
Conlan, Corban, Peter, Lily, TJ and Abby
Christmas Morning
Christmas morning was fun and chaotic all at the same time. Here's Corban with his nerf basketball.
And Gabby opening her presents.
Lacey got a new puppy for Christmas. His name is Bentley.
Corban was more interested in Grandma Wright's big fluffy puppy. He loved cuddling with it.
Corban's First Haircut
After Christmas we asked Grandpa to give Corban his first haircut. Corban was not happy about getting his hair cut, but Grandpa was a good sport about it.
He got a good one even with all the wiggling and crying.
We ended the time in Nauvoo on a high note with Gabby coloring all over Grandma's carpet with black permanent marker. That was a fun one to clean up. Luckily Jamie came to the rescue and made the floor as good as new.
