First christmas party of the season :)

 The kids watching grandma barbara open her gift, we gave them a frosty the snowman book that the kids recorded themselves reading, while recording the book I have to say we have never laughed so hard in our lives!!! crazy fun. my kids are all such goofballs.

 mmmm, zach is so happy, he loves dingdongs! (and gift cards)

 joey looks pretty happy himself!

 and our cousin Sean opening his present, he is so cute! But he was a little shy around my wild monkeys, the motorcycles that him and jason both got helped get him up and playing though!

 Alli's cute shirt! she loves it, of course she is a girl, she loves clothes :)

 Abby got a new coat, which I have to say, is perfect timing, she was starting to outgrow her old one!

 Jason even though he has a funny look on his face, was so hyper,and so crazy, he had a blast, he cannot wait till the next christmas party. He is a total party animal.

 Tommy, Andrew, and Sean hanging out, watching all the crazieness. We had a blast at this christmas party! It really put us in the christmas mood.

 Andrew is always so generous with our family, and we love all he does for us!

daddy opening our present, looks like the girls are curious. Even though there is no snow, having christmas parties sure helps with the christmas mood.
I think everyone who reads my blog anyway, knows what an extremely hard year this has been, it has not gotten easier, but we are sure working on it. first finding out we are expecting a surprise baby, it took a while to get use to that idea, in fact I am not sure I am still use to it.But we only have 9 more weeks! then having to move back to utah, and leaving our beautiful home, and all of our friends, that was hard, but having brian home everynight has made such a difference in our lives, the kids have changed so much they are maturing and happy! Not that they are perfect, close, but they are awesome! Zach is changing so much 9th grade is a major leap for my little boy. Not only is he more social than I have ever seen him, he is doing better in school, and just plain happy.I am sure starting to get facial hair has helped him with his happiness and my stress.  Joey who has never really had a problem being  social, has taken it over the top. He is so happy, school we will not talk about, but I will say he is one happy kid! Alli is loving 6th grade, she has a great teacher, and is making some really great friends, she is so helpful to me, and can't wait for this baby to get here. Abby is doing so great in first grade, she loves school, and is doing great in it. We have discovered with abby that party of her sleeping problem (most of you know about it) is linked to sugar. we have taken most of the sugar out of  her diet, and she is finally sleeping!! she is so much happier. Jason is doing awesome. kindergarten was so hard for him, but he  is LOVING first grade, and his teacher is the best ever. I couldn't ask for a better teacher for jj. He is growing taller every day, he just may catch up with big brother joey! As for me and brian, we are doing pretty good, he loves it here, and is loving acutally being a daddy! I am still homesick for my downey, and I miss being surrounded by my friends, pregnancy  and settling in a new house is hard without any friends, but I still talk to most of them, and the computer is so helpful keeping me up to date on what is going on back home! Like I said before, we only have 9 weeks for this little one to get here, I now have to take it "easy" and I am trying, but with 5 kids already, taking it easy is a little hard. And I am hoping that with the holidays the time will fly by! I wanted to say thanks to all my family and friends who read my blog, and comment, love you all!! And merry chirstmas :)