{spreading the holiday cheer...}

what a fantabulous christmas we had!

it came and went with just the twinkling of these three little sets of eye's.

so before i forget just how magical it was, i better document it all... 

a christmas eve visit from santa claus.

  dinner and a show with kenny's family

the highlight of the season and the night... 

the sweetest little nativity you have ever seen with all the grand babies

 all nine of gramma sue and papa's grand kids

in their matching jammie's

 jude, ashton, tate, alex, lu-lu, ellie, crew, ryder & haws

leaving hot cocoa and carrot's for santa and his reindeer

christmas day

  we woke up to a room full of beautifully wrapped gifts from santa.

these little's were apparently very good this year.

i love when christmas falls on a sunday.

being able to go to church on the day we celebrate the birth of our savior was wonderful.

i spoke in sacrament meeting (3rd time in 6 months...ayi-yi-yi)

it caused me to really reflect on that first christmas night, long ago in a tiny stable.

 the reason for the season. amazing.

and to top off the perfect day, we were able to talk to our missionary brother.

his sweet spirit was beaming through the receiver of our phone. love him.

can't believe he will be home in 6 weeks. quickest 2 years ever!

 some classic children's quotes this christmas:

tate, upon returning home from a party on the 23rd at 10:30 pm:

um, mom...i need to make some changes on my list...

crew, christmas morning after opening his gifts:

so...i got a new xbox game for jesus' birthday?

crew 3, tate 5 1/2, haws 19 months

we hope your merry...was very!

xoxo



{let's look at the bright side...}

maybe he'll be an artist...???

i own one tube of lipstick, one. and now i own none. this is what i get for taking a shower while this one is on the loose. i have never had a child quite so, um...lets say, destructive.  if ever there are a few minutes of quiet with this one, it usually means something is goin down.

when i asked haws what happened he so proudly reenacted the event with a lego and a big cheesy grin.  sure makes it hard to be mad at that little face. love you little boy, but please, throw your mom a bone once in a while...

{making a list & checking it twice}

 this year i have tried extra hard to get all of the crazy out of the way so i can focus on the sweet spirit that this season brings. maybe in my next thirty years ill have it down,but probably not.

first on my list:
get these three little knuckleheads to hold still long enough for a christmas card pic.
lots of blood, sweat and tears, smarties and tootsie rolls and then of course changing my mind...sigh.

 second, finding the perfect tree with our cousins...family tradition.

third,

doing and seeing everything there is to do and see at thanksgiving point!

some stuff SO fun, and some stuff not so fun.

either way, i just love this season and wish it could last all year long!



{breaking dawn part one...part two}

the premiere!!!

a twelve hour drive, standing in endless lines, camping out for 4 days,

it all came down to this...

the night before.

since it took the crew two days to set up for this event, we thought we would capture the moment. it was spectacular! i have never been to a movie premiere before. i can't believe all that it takes to pull it off. all the crazies at TENT CITY told us this was the hugest thing they had ever seen.(and i believe them, for most of the people there, this was their fourth time coming. they are all camping out for hunger games too...aye-yi-yi.)

here we are waiting for the stars to arrive. we had to be there at 2:45, and the peeps didn't start comin till 5 or 6. my back was killing me...

one thing we were not expecting was all the other celebs that showed up. the darling guy from 17 again, the kardashian little sisters, cody simpson

the girl from step up, heather locklear, HGTV guy, "fox face" from hunger games

ron artest and the 1 foot tall, bruno mars.

apparently, there is a new 90210? well, they were there.

some "american idol" alums. lauren alaina could not have been sweeter.

the cast of "revenge."

and then THE cast...

i'm not sure of all their names so well just refer to them as their character names.

(much to the twi-moms dismay, they say they don't like it. really, twi-moms?)

tanya and kate from the denali coven. 

eric & alec

mike newton.

billy, renee, stephanie meyer, and darling little renesme.

leah from the wolf pack.

the rest of the wolves.

in my opinion, best dressed of the night...

alice. she was stunning.

esme.

rosealie, carlisle and jasper.

we knew the second the "BIG THREE" arrived.

we were pushed and shoved in every which way, and the screaming was deafening.

BUT, it was sooooo worth it!

there they were, standing right in front of us.

i was so impressed with the way all three of them handled themselves. they spent a few moments with the media and then blew them off for the fans.

they went around to every section took pics, signed autographs and chatted.

wow! i now know what it means to be "starstruck."

i do know these names,

and they need no introduction...

R. PATTS.

even better in real life. serious.

he was the hardest to get to hold still. his body guards were right there

ready to smack away any hand that tried to touch him...

(ahem...paige:)

              kristen stewart.

      the surprise of the evening. she was so sweet. i thanked her for signing my arm, she looked right at me and said, "no problem!" awkward in interviews, very nice in person.

       and in my opinion, beautiful!

           the couple then posed for a few pics.

                       my sister paige found this middle pic online in the washington post.

     look who it is...the 3rd wheel in this relationship...;)

         not together in real life my eye...

    

         although i am NO jacob fan, i am a taylor lautner fan. he was so darling! amazing skin.

the idea of the evening was to get pics with our faves, but when we realized that was going to be next to impossible, instinct took over. i got ALL THREE to sign my arms.

ALL THREE!

just when we thought it couldn't get any better,

IT DID!

we all got tickets to go inside the NOKIA theater and watch the world wide premiere

of "breaking dawn-part one" with all the cast.

incredible.

what an experience this turned out to be!

favorite moment: (besides r. patts holding my hand while signing my arm...)

being with my 4 best friends, my sisters.

i never laugh harder then when i'm with these girlies. love all of you forever.

to all the tent city crazies: thanks for the killer entertainment. memories to last a lifetime.

to my AMAZING husband: (who supports the addiction with a smile on his face)

thank you for being you. taking a week off work to watch the banchies while your crazy wife is off in cali being, well, um...crazy is medal worthy. i don't deserve you. loves.

and to the cast of "breaking dawn-part two"...

see you next year!

{BREAKING DAWN part one...part one}

Since i'm fairly confident that blogger would crash if i posted ALL the pic's i have from my little trip, i've decided to break it up into two posts.

the first being

TENT CITY

the happiest place on earth

(no, seriously)

As i said in my previous post, my sisters and i showed up in LA,

 (in the middle of the night thanks to our little detour we took in vegas at the H&M...love it!)

not really knowing what to expect. we knew they were handing out wristbands at 6am, but that was pretty much the extent of our knowledge. however, we were ready for anything! i had my running shoes on, my eyes on the prize, the rocky anthem playing in my mind and i wasn't going to take any prisoners.  after hours of scouting out the competition and worrying about EVERYTHING, we finally got the wristbands that guaranteed us a spot at the premiere. and no one even got hurt in the process...:)

SUMMITT closed down what seemed to be all of downtown LA to create this little universe in which the very bravest and most dedicated twilight fans were to reside for the next 4 days. this is TENT CITY... 

after we set up camp, (took a while because the tent we brought was too big, so we had to run and buy a new one. actually our new friend beverly ran all over town to find one for us. love ya bev.) we came to the conclusion, we didn't hold a candle to our fellow campers. i mean, we thought we were twihards.  we LOVE the books and have read them a million times. we LOVE the movies and have been at every midnight showing and then waited in the nasty walmart lines in the middle of the night to be the first to OWN the new release on DVD. for heavens sake, we left our husbands and children to drive from utah to attend the world wide premiere of the second to last movie. that should count for something right? wrong. we are definitely not twihards, we are but mere fans in comparison. these people live, eat, and breath twilight. some a little too much.


check it...

So, not to be completely outdone, we got to work.
made t-shirts, check.

made posters, check.

decorated our tent, check.
embraced the crazy, double check.

we soon realized that tent city was as much for publicity as it was anything else.

we, along with all the other campers, became local celebrities being interviewed by all

the local media. and who wouldn't want to be on camera after camping for four days?

   

once we got home the most frequently asked questions were, what did you do all day and did you ever get to take a shower?

 response: 

this is the twi-fi lounge, hosted by YAHOO movies.

all day every day there were games, contests, prizes, loud music and dancing. SO fun! so much fun, we didn't want to miss out on anything. yes, we had a hotel, but it was only used for a quick shower and a quick cell phone charge. we didn't even sleep there. we did not want to miss out on anything. all this, plus you never knew who was coming to visit...

you could even marry cardboard edward.
and um, no. we had to draw the line somewhere:)

we partied all night.

every night they would show one of the three twilight movies. we became deef from the screaming...
one of the nights they had five of the bands that are featured on the soundtrack put on a concert for us. it was awesome!  it was emceed by "demetri" from the volturi.
better stick to acting...love ya charlie.

as i said before, you never knew who was coming to visit us at tent city.

here we are waiting for some surprise guests...

stephanie meyer came and handed out autographed books.

the oh-so handsome, "carlisle".

one of the denali vampires..."kate".

here is one of the most darling werewolves you will ever meet..."seth".

 note to self, never trust the sixty year old "twi-gram" with feathers in her hair standing behind you to take your picture. this is half of me, completely cut out sister brynne the rest of the sisters and another beautiful werewolf, "emily".

this guy quickly became one of our favorites. he brought us doughnuts, and totally stayed and hung out..."emmett". i know, right?

so next up,
grab a snack and a bev, maybe even a little brown sack to breathe heavy into because the premiere was off the hook!
stay tuned...