Christmas Break

 This winter has been very snowy so far. The kids were very excited to get out and play in it.  Here are two cute snow kids and their snowman.

 On my birthday, I chose to go roller skating.  For most of the kids, this was their first time.  Some, (mostly Mallory) would rather watch the roller skating than participate.  We had a couple of rough falls but no major injuries.  I thought it ended up being pretty fun.  After skating we took the kids to Bombay House to try Indian food.  Everyone ended up finding something they liked, even if it was just the naan.

 Tyce lasted only one time around the rink in skates.  Then he opted for the scooter.

 Jaren was a skating maniac.  He fell A LOT, but it didn't deter him from speeding around the rink the whole time we were there.

 Christmas Eve is just always such a magical day.  We started off our evening of fun with some icy sledding at a park near Caleb's and Marci's house.  Most of our kids were chickens and only took a couple turns on the sleds.  Jaren and Tyce however could have lasted hours I think.  Tyce kept telling me, "You stay here." Meaning he wanted to zip down the hill all by himself while I stood at the top. I did eventually let him fly solo.  Thankfully he wasn't injured. :)

 Caleb and Finn

 Dad and Tyce

The thrill-seekers

 Marci and Gavin

 After sledding we went back to Marci's house for a hot chocolate bar. Yummy.

 And then decorated cookies for Santa (and ourselves).

 After some playing and chatting and a soup dinner, it was time to open pjs.

 Awww, hugs

 This is a wild bunch.  Libbie and Mia aren't sure how to act silly anymore. Sad.

 The kids had us up at 6:30 or so to see what Santa brought.  Tyce got a Paw Patrol semi.

 Santa brought Claire and Mallory iPod Nanos.

 Mia got this cute Polaroid.

 Libbie decided to let Santa pick her gift this year, and he reluctantly surprised her with a cell phone.

Jaren got a Wild Kratt's Tortuga.

 We definitely ended up with a white Christmas.  We had my family coming to help us celebrate the day so we had a lot of shoveling to conquer.

 Claire didn't seem to mind.

 All the Oylers joined us for the day.  It was fun to visit and eat and visit and eat.  Clover and Tyce sat by Grandpa and Clover just talked his ear off for quite some time.

 Mallory using many of her gifts at the same time the day after Christmas.

 Dad teaching the girls a game he played as a child, Tego. I found it on Ebay for him for Christmas.

 All dressed for church in their new Sunday clothes.

One of the nights we got to hang out with Caleb and Marci this kids played this game that was given to us by the Roblyers.  It was a big ball of saran wrap with candy wrapped into the layers.  The kids passed the dice around, rolling until they got doubles.  If you ended up with doubles, it was your turn to put on some gloves and try to get as much candy unwrapped from the ball as you could. It was loud but very entertaining to watch. Those kids are very passionate about their candy!

 New Years Eve we went to Park City with Donald and Amy for some tubing.  The kids thought it was great fun and we stayed mostly warm despite the 3 degrees it was.

 Over the holiday Tyce discovered the dress-up bin.  He was particularly fond of the princess clothes. Hey, it's for his posterity I "had" to record these moments. He was all about striking a fancy pose too.

 Fairy Wings.

Catching some zzzss and watching a movie by the fire.  It was a fantastic break and oh so hard to go back to real life.