Christmas!

We had a really great Christmas...we didn't get much, but had more fun just being around family. We started at my parents house and let my brothers open all of their gifts from Santa, then we headed to Grandma Vicki's, to Grandma & Grandpa Frei's, and back to my parents house to eat breakfast. It was fun to see the kids unwrap their presents and fun to play around all day long. It was pretty exhausting for me...I had to take nap in the middle of the day just to regain some energy. Later in the day Grandma Virginia and Grandpa Fred came over to visit as well and the rest of the day we played the Wii and Rock Band which ended up being pretty hilarious! The best part of Christmas was the day after Christmas! Grandma Vicki's present to everyone was a ticket to the Jazz game! we left around noon, drove through a bit of snow but made it safely into Salt Lake just in time for the game. We had a blast watching the Jazz, especially since they won. The following day we woke up and did a little shopping and then my parents too us to see "Savior of the World." It was incredible and the spirit was so strong. It was another great reminder of why we really celebrate Christmas, as well as, how tender and gracious our Savior is. It's going to be a remarkable day when we get to see Him again and how humbled I am that we are so fortunate to have Christ in our lives. What an amazing season it is to reflect on what life is really all about!
A big thanks to my family for making this Christmas one of the best!

Christmas Eve

This Christmas our family was in charge of the annual Christmas Eve program held here in Santa Clara. It was a lot of work but ended up being a lot of fun. Mykelle and I were in charge of the 10 year olds group and we taught them the song "Light up the Tree." They did a great job but I'm glad we don't have to practice anymore. I also got scammed into being Mary for the nativity part...and poor Dalton was the Joseph. All the kids had a blast getting their presents from Santa couldn't wait to go to sleep!

After the Christmas Eve program we went and ate at Grandma and Grandpa Frei's, then headed back home where we opened our pajama's. All 7 of us kids and 2 spouses slept in my parents theater room..how we all fit I don't know because we had 4 mattress' in the room. The kids woke up after 6 o'clock and we didn't go down stairs until about 6:40 the next morning!

this is Kameron's group singing the Marshmellow song...

Jadon had a solo. He sang "Mary Did You Know"

Me and Dalton the incredible Mary and Joseph

At my parents house opening the pajama's!

Jadon's Play & Thanksgiving

Monday the 24th of November we got to go and watch Jadon's play Beauty and the Beast...it was so much fun. They did such a great job, and of course Jadon was amazing. Britton also did a super job at being Chip...it was fun to see him sing and play a fun part!

What a crazy Thanksgiving!! The Whipples came to our house this year--which meant we had a house full! I think they counted about 35-40 people including the kids. Early Thanksgiving morning the boys had there annual Turkey Bowl. It was quite hilarious to say the least. Me, Mykelle, and my Mom went and watched for a little bit...it was a cold morning but that didn't stop anyone from playing!

We ended up eating dinner around 130, and had TONS of food. This pic /\ is part of the fam eating dinner. There was also a table full and all the kids at the bar. There was so much food that we pretty much made ourselves sick!

Later that evening, after everyone had rested, there was a crazy game of basketball across the street from our house at the church. Our family is so competivtive, and I was a little upset I couldn't play, but it was lots of fun to sit around and watch!!

How lucky we are to have such an awesome family. Everyday we feel more and more blessed! We missed Misi's family this year and wish we could have seen them!!

Long Trip Home

We left Texas November 21 around 930 in the morning and headed for Utah. Misi and I both had to drive cars, I drove mine and Misi drove a rental car. We did it that way because we had too much stuff that our one car wasn't going to hold everything. We drove all the way to Albuquerque that night and made it around 1130pm. It was a very long and tiring day; we both thought we were going to die by the time we made it to Albuquerque. We stopped and stayed the night at a Hampton, and then got up the next morning to finish our trip home. We met Sue and Randy (my aunt and uncle) in Flagstaff, which was really nice because I got to ride with my aunt, and poor misi still had to drive but had Callum to ride with him which kept him awake. We were very happy to make it home and extrememly tired, but at the same time felt very blessed to have arrived safely.