Christmas Day

Christmas 2009

Our family on Christmas day... ... I saw this picture and for the first time was like,
WOW, we look like a big family. Though I have been plenty tired for months now to FEEL like a big family.

For Christmas Bruce got me a new camera. I was SO thankful. (I had not had one since October, when mine was taken from the primary room at the church)

Here are some pictures of the day:
Ashlin and Sophie...
...Ashlin is our oldest daughter, and I didn't even know it, nor asked her to do this, but I found out later that this Christmas morning as well as the past few years... while the kids all wait to wake us up, Ashlin reads them the Christmas story from the Bible. How sweet is that?

...how happy was Dallin to find Santa really did bring him an electric guitar for Christmas, Santa is an old softy.

...it may look like Bruce isn't doing anything here, but don't you worry... his shirt is detecting the nereby wi-fi signal strenth, it really lights up.


Y My sister Chrissy has been sleeping at our house Christmas Eve for 10 years now. This Christmas was a little sad to think it was her last... because she is engaged and will have her own family in Idaho. She has been such a wonderful aunt and gets all the kids great gifts. They love her and will miss her tons. Y

We love having my sister Carrie and her kids come over, as well as my parents in the afternoon for more presents and Christmas dinner. (and this year to play the new Beatles Rockband all night)
I LOVED the big box of homemade flower clips Chrissy gave me for my FOUR girls and I... probably not suppose to wear them all at the same time... I don't know, what do you think, a new fashion trend?? ha ha


Merry Christmas!

December

December 2009

And another stocking is added to the mantle....

Although Sophie is such a blessing to our life... I have to admit for the first time I think ever, I never got around to putting all my Christmas decorations up. But some got up, so hooray for that... luckily the stockings, the tree and lights on the house were those that got done.

Thanks to Dallin's nifty lego skills... we had "Two Reindeer pulling Santa's Sleigh" to add to our Christmas decor. I thought it was so cute, had to get a picture!

The Staten Family

Vernons + Statens = CRAZY FUN

YYYYYY

Introducing The Staten Family:These are our "trailer park" friends, our favorite friends to hang out with. We go back to the days when we were all in Vet school, living in a trailer park... We met when our now freshman children were nursing babies and we were neighbors in Vet school for FOUR years. They live in Tucson now and we all barely breathe in between each time we are able to get together!

The day after Thanksgiving we packed up and drove down to Tucson for the night... and what big event happens every year the saturday after Thanksgiving:VERSUS Oh yes, the ASU vs UofA football game. Above is Sydney and Bruce in their respective football team shirts. We really just went to hang out with them, but coincidentally our 2 rival schools were gonna be playing. They decorated the room we were staying in at their house ENTIRELY in U of A/Wildcat propoganda. It was so funny!

Reasons why we love the Statens: They are so fun, we've known them for years AND....

We all have a friend! Below you will meet each of our friends... This is Christine, my friend. She is MY ONLY friend who I can sit next to while we both nurse our babies AND visit with our freshman in highschool children. I love that they are in the exact same stage of life as us. It is so fun to sit and laugh about parenthood with people who parent like us and are crazy enough to STILL BE HAVING BABIES!

Below is Neil, him and Bruce have both been saying for years, and since the first couple children, that they were DONE having babies... but Christine and I just laugh and trick our way in to more. ha ha
Zach and Ashlin have been friends since she was 4 months old and he was 12 months... Sydney is the same age as our Dallin...
Morgan is the same age and has the same brain as our Emma...
Griffin and our Logan...

Now I said everyone has a friend, but they have 5 and we have 6 children, so poor Lily doesn't have a friend... but there are so many kids they all play and lucky for Lily this trip the Statens had BUNNIES... the kids played with them the whole trip!
And even Christine and I AGAIN had babies within 8 months of eachother and her little Paige is the same age as our little Sophie!
How fun is that?! Both our lives are so busy, that when we are able to get together we clear the calendar and just lay around and do nothing but visit and the kids all play. I overheard Logan adamently arguing to Emma that they are our cousins.. they're not, but it feels like it because we love them like family! So even though it was crazy to have Thanksgiving at our house all day, then turn around and leave the next day for Tuscon, it was the only day that fit both our schedules, so it was worth it!

(Zach and Sydney)

Vernons Y Statens

Ashlin's Thanksgiving

(turkey by Dallin)

Thanksgiving-November 26

We ended up having Thanksgiving at my house this year. We had The Bradys, Chrissy and Rich, My parents, The Jone's family, Pearl, Ray and Anita, Grandma & Grandpa Blake...

all together 28 of us.

Since my camera was stolen from the church in October, I had no camera for Thanksgiving, so we are going to have to rely on the pictures that Ashlin took that day... her perspective of Thanksgiving is a lot different then mine would have been and revolves mostly around her and her cousin Macy...

If you notice above and below, you can kind of make out the Thanksgiving food in the background, and the face of my Aunt Jeni...

Below you can see my dad...

And look, below here you can even see some of my tables set up in the entry way

cousin Amber...

Below you can make out to the side Uncle Dick and Pearl

This picture below Ashlin calls "Ashlin wearing a 'Rich' hat" because the top half of my sisters fiance's head, Rich, looks like its a hat on Ashlins head...
Ashlin says Chrissy and Rich should use the above picture for their wedding announcements since with so much of Rich's head in it, they're both technically in the picture. ha ha

Lucky cousin Robert got a whole picture of himself without the girls

Since it was the FIRST Blake family Thanksgiving meal not all together, because the family is getting so big, we invited any who wanted to come later in the day for the traditional Football at the park, Blake family style...

Ashlin and Macy's feet above, ofcourse

Luckily Ashlin was feeling charitable enough to take a picture of something besides her and Macy and below there is one shot of the football playing in the background...

Then Lily playing her own version of football with a rock...

Besides my cousin Casey dislocating his shoulder during the football game (we all felt horrible) it was a great day... and many cousins came over after the big meal for football and to hang out through the evening.

Though we all enjoyed the 30+ people at our house that day, I think Ashlin and Macy would have had just as much fun with only them two.

Here is one that Macy took of Ashlin, Ashlin swears she is just getting sugar down for Macy's mom who was making Whipped Cream.... sure looks suspicious though

Happy Thanksgiving!

(turkey-lurkey by Emma)

Lily was so funny, and I kept telling her we were going to eat "turkey-lurkey" on Thanksgiving, just making a funny rhyme... but I think somehow it made her picture some cute turkey cartoon character and she was adament that she didn't WANT to eat "turkey-lurkey" for Thanksgiving, and told me she didn't think Cooper (her 4 yer old cousin) would want to eat "turkey-lurkey" either. She was true to her word, and wouldn't eat any turkey.

Porta Potties

November 11-Veterans Day
While Bruce was out of town my sister Carrie and I took our kids to Freestone park for a picnic and to do some summer sledding. We ended up staying there for FIVE HOURS... that is a long time. And did we ever walk around the park... oh no.... five hours in the same spot at the back of the park on a blanket while the kids ran around like crazy people. Both of our husbands were out of town, and we needed a BREAK!!

The only pictures we have of the day are the ones her 7 year old son Calvin took when he stole off with her camera. So here is a look at our day from his perspective:

Our picnic spot, you can kinda see the side of me nursing Sophie:

The kids literally spent HOURS trying to climb this tree, while we watched other people iceblock... after these people left... LUCKY US... they left behind their iceblocks... and our kids iceblocked for hours too!

And ofcourse we brought our sweet summer sleds... Go Logan Go!

We were right by the train track....

... so obviously we wooped it up for the people on the train and waved to them whenever they went by!

Don't we LOVE a day of FREE ENTERTAINMENT... but that wasn't the best part of the day.

Probably a one time event happend in mine and her childrens lives.... we let them play in porta potties for one full hour. This is no lie, nor was it gross... don't judge us. We laughed so hard. There was some kind of event happening at the park the next day, so we watched the big truck come and drop off like 10 porta potties right by where we were at the back of the park. They were brand new, un-used, and the perfect little line up of play houses. They obviously didn't touch the toilet area, just ran around knocking on all the doors and pretended it was their own suburban neighborhood. It was so funny.

And then seriously 2 girls from a choir group came around passing out flyers for their event, and my sister says, give us a preview... and they really sang to us, our own private concert. After they sang, we begged them to go get the rest of their group and come back and sing more. So THEY DID. It was so cute, they were mostly african american, like a gospel group, and were so good. They waited for us to call all our kids over from the porta potties, to take a seat for our free personal concert, and the group sung us up some rockin gospel tunes with such great messages about their Savior and mine, I teared up. Beautiful.

What a great day. And heaven knows Carrie and I both needed a good day.

Funny how a day with 11 kids (her 4, my 6 + DJ) could be such a break, but it was.