Friday, December 28, 2012

Malone Family Pictures




Whenever we can get everyone all together in the same place at the same time, it means it's picture time!
We had great plans of taking the pictures outside this time, but the weather got crazy so we made the church stage work. This is not a group that likes taking pictures so we were happy to get most everyone looking the same direction...12 grandkids make things tricky too! 
It's amazing to see how the family has grown over the years though.
Love you all!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas!!!

The much anticipated Christmas time is here! The kids were thrilled with their Christmas eve jammies. The boys were so excited to have matching Angry Bird pj pants with Daddy and I just wish I could have found some Dora's to match Sydney. We all had so much fun with Sydney walking during the holiday season. She's made us wait a long time before she was finally ready to brave life on her feet but now that she is, she's loving it! 



 The highlight of our night as parents was setting up the kids big surprise of Christmas! With the generous gift from Grandma Markert ,we decided to get the kids a trampoline. We knew they wouldn't be expecting it at all so we staged a fun surprise with the help of their amazing uncles. All of Chris's brothers and best friend came over right after the kids went to bed to start setting up. From the horrible picture below you can see they were even working through the drizzling rain. We were so grateful for their help and couldn't have made it happen without them!
 Santa left perfect Christmas surprises for everyone!
 Tanner has been talking all month about "The Big Fire Truck" he asked Santa for. I love how specific he is with the things he asks for and even more that he would have been perfectly happy if that was all he got. Lucky for him, he has more fun in store.
 Ethan requested a new hot wheel track so he got a new wall track to add to his collection. He's also been talking about getting a belt so he was thrilled to get one to wear to church.
 Sydney absolutely loved these instruments whenever we went to Sam's Club so she got lucky that the elves know how to make them as well. :)

 Ethan has the most amazing way of being grateful for every little thing he receives. Here he is showing his excitement for some extra darts for his nerf guns.



 Sydney spent most of the day putting on and taking off necklaces and bracelets. She was in girly heaven!
 A fun new play kitchen from Grandpa Joe!
 From the moment they found their surprise the kids have absolutely loved their new trampoline! They can spend hours out there no matter the weather. I love all the fun and creativity they have making up games, tricks, and just enjoying being brothers and sister!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

A Preschool Christmas

Joy School has been going great and I feel like Tanner has been making great strides in feeling more comfortable at school. He started out the year really timid and scared and it's amazing how much more he's willing to participate in activities.
During the Christmas season, the kids enjoyed making and decorating sugar cookies with Emily and he loved bringing cookies home for each member of the family. Then the next week we had a joint joy school party with both groups at our house where we acted out the Christmas Story and made some fun ice cream cone Christmas trees that were delicious! 




 Apparently pirates were part of the Christmas story...




Saturday, December 15, 2012

Ugly Sweater Party

Bring on the UGLY!!!
This holiday season our friends, the Ayres decided to host an adult only Christmas party with a strict dress requirement...ugly sweaters! We had a great time laughing at each other's great Goodwill finds, enjoying some adult conversation and of course delicious food! 
After some fun and food we ended the night with some funny couple photo ops (in front of the tree of course) and then a great Guys vs. Girls Family Feud game! Girls won by a landslide! :)













Funny what adults will do when the kids aren't around!
Guess we all have a little kid left inside!

Saturday, December 8, 2012

A Weekend in DC







We had a wonderful family weekend in Washington DC. We enjoyed the beautiful temple lights and the kids loved looking around the visitor's center, which had been recently renovated and riding the camel. It was a wonderful addition to our Christmas season to feel the spirit on the temple grounds.