Merry Christmas one and all!

Christmas Eve Jammies

Poor little William was so tired but I made him stay up to open his Christmas Eve jammies. He is so cute I can't even stand it.
Hen Hen was so excited for his McQueen slippers, after he put them on he was scooting around the house like he was racing on his wheels.
P.J. thinks he wants to be a snowboarder now because that is what is on his jammies, we'll see what he really chooses when he learns how to ski.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

We love you!

House Pics

Just one of the awesome curtain patterns in our house. We will be changing those as soon as we have the money.
The baby's room, it is the same size as the boys room but it looks so huge with the little furniture he has in it.


This is the only room that is still not unpacked, but considering the lack of book shelf storage I'm afraid that it will be like this for a while.

The other awesome curtain pattern in our house, it's my personal favorite and it just so happens that they are 12 feet long in our family room.

View from the front door.

View from the top of the stairs.

Another view from the top of the stairs.

I am so glad to be in our new home and all ready for Christmas. Even I though I miss my family in Utah I am so grateful to have my little family here with me.

The boys' bathroom. We have it decorated in a monster motif which I think is fitting.

The boys' room. P.J. told my Mom that his new room was tight, like cool and tiny.

All of the boys' stuff fits perfectly in their room, they have a huge closet that we put most of their toys in.

Our master Bathroom, it is cool to be able to say that I have a master bathroom.

Last but not least, our master bedroom. I really do love our house, other than the curtains.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Last night we had a party with some of the friends in our ward who also don't have family around. Since it was a special affair I let the boys open their Christmas sweaters from Nana and Papa early, so they would have something to wear. Just a side note, William is wearing a 12 month sweater and 12-18 month pants, what is this kid?

We had a great time, ate soup, and later we did a reenactment of the first Christmas.
Henry told me earlier in the day that he wanted to be the man that helped Mary, so Joseph he was. P.J. and his new friend Isaac were Shepard's.

The whole crew, we had angels, Shepard's, two wise men, Joseph, Mary and a Baby Jesus. The kids did great and they were so excited to be able to do this. I'm glad we were able to help them all remember what Christmas is really all about.

My little Hen as Joseph with his much older wife Layca as Mary.

It's hard to say goodbye-

Nana and Papa saying their goodbyes-

We are in our new house now in California. My Mom and Dad came with us on our trip to help drive and unpack and boy what a help they were. It's almost been a week since we got here and we are almost all the way unpacked. We would probably be unpacked all the way if the tile grout and the kitchen and bathroom floors weren't so gross, but no worries I just have to finish a little bit of the kitchen floor and the floor in our bathroom. Scrubbing on my hands and knees with a toothbrush is no walk in the park.

So far the transition has been surprisingly smooth, it seems that even after living with my parents for a year and having help from not only them but Pete and my Grandma Judy, I still know how to take care of y family. Imagine that. We were very welcomed at church yesterday and the kids felt right at home, I'm sure we will be getting callings in no time. P.J. will be able to start school after the break and a couple of us Moms are thinking of doing joy school for our toddlers. I am so grateful for all of the help we had and for everyone already making us feel so at home, our new neighbors even brought us over some cake tonight. I've always wanted neighbors like that, hopefully we will still like each other after they hear P.J. screaming about one thing or another. Stay tuned for some pictures of the house in the next couple of days.

Taylor Family Christmas Party

I couldn't get a good enough shot of all the kids in one picture so here are two.

Jake, Weston, Henry, P.J., Max, Zeke, Izzy, Sally, William, Calvin, Tonio and Chloe-

All of the bigger kids are so cute with the little kids, Weston and Sally especially. They are just at that age where it is fun to play with the babies.

Izzybella, as Henry likes to call her, was the funniest kid when it came to Santa that night. The first thing out of her mouth when Santa sat down was, "I'm a good girl", in her little voice. She sat so patiently waiting her turn wringing her hands, sitting on the edge of her seat. She ended up being very last.

Now we know that Zeke does not like getting his picture taken or Santa Clause.

Tonio

Chloe was not so impressed with the big guy either.

I have about four pictures of Will sitting on Santa's lap and they all look like this.

P.J. was so excited to ask for Lego Star Wars stuff.

When Santa asked Henry what he wanted for Christmas he gave his typical answer of ,"I don't know". Leave it to Henry to not know what he wants for Christmas.

(FYI, he wants a McQueen bike.)

Chloe with Papa, she likes him a little more than Santa.

We all sang a little with Santa before he left and he reminded us all to be good little boys and......

Girls.

Sleepy Boy

Henry always falls asleep on the way home from Grandma and Grandpas house and he is always too tired to make it to his bed, he has curled up on the grass outside, on the floor under the pool table, and this night he made it all the way to the stairs. What a sweet Hen.

Zoo Lights & Bennett Family Christmas Party

Pete & P.J. before entering the cat house

If you have never been to the Zoo Lights @ Hogle Zoo before I say you should go, just not on the coldest night of the year. Well it probably wasn't the coldest night but pretty dang close.
Proof that Will was in fact there, although he slept the whole way through.

The Fam in front of a ginger bread house.

Tonio and his toothless smile

We also did a gift exchange with all of the cousins, even though we had a limit of just $5 the kids still loved shopping for the cousins and opening their gifts.

P.J. and his toothy uncle Jamie

Henry was so excited to get this watch from Chloe, I had to pry it off of him at bath time the first couple of days he had it.

Miss Izzy got some marvelous dress up stuff from Zeke, speaking of Zeke somehow I happened to get no pictures of him. Just to prove how much he hates getting his picture taken I guess.

We gave Chloe one of our favorite books, "Pajama Time", I highly recommend it.

Two Dot

William got to open his first ever present and to no surprise just wanted to play with the paper. It was a great party and I'm glad we were able to do it before we had to leave.