'Tis the Season . . .

. . . for picking out Christmas trees as a family,

and taking pictures in the evergreens.

For bundling up in the cold night air,

and climbing around in Santa's sleigh. (What, you don't do that?)

For trimming the tree while nostalgia fills the air,

(this ornament was given to me by my mom the Christmas that I was pregnant with the twins- it's one red and one green jingle bell, each with an angel attached. This is the first year that the girls could put it on the tree themselves- very special)

And for staring longingly at your parents . . .

while they force you to sit on the lap of a strange old man dressed in red.

Hope you all are enjoying the season!

It's All About Family

Wow I've never neglected the blog for this long! I've got some catching up to do. We've been able to spend time with both of our immediate families in the last few weeks and it's been great!

We took family pictures with my family while my brother and his family were visiting from Arizona to have their daughter's baptism. (That was neat seeing the first grandchild born into my family being baptized!) Then we celebrated Thanksgiving the day before Thanksgiving with my family in San Diego where I got to help my mom a lot with the meal. I made several pies and 3 pumpkin cheesecakes (1 for Russell's family and 1 for his partner at work) and I made the rolls. It was fun being a big part of the cooking this year. But like I said, we took family pictures

Here is the Hatch family picture 2009

Nathan got to meet his cousin Tyson who is exactly 3 months older then him (Nathan was trying to impress him by putting his whole fist in his mouth- Tyson doesn't look too impressed)

The girls loved playing with their cousins and here they all are.

(grandchildren from l-r: Nathan, Kaleb, Aubrey, Tyson, Madylin, Brandon, Emily, Morgan, Sara) What's kind of funny about the grandkids in my family is that you can totally tell which kids go together by hair and eye color. The 2 brown eyed, brown-haired kids are Matt's, the 4 light-blue eyed, blond kids are Spencer's, and the 3 blue-eyed, auburn-haired kids are mine! (You can also tell my kids by their inability to look at the camera for a picture, let alone smile! Grrr)

We were able to spend Thankgiving with Russell's immediate family which was a lot of fun. Ironically, Russell's sister Jennifer and her family were visiting from Utah to have their oldest son baptized and their youngest blessed in front of all the family.

Here is the Kinser Family Picture 2009 (minus Travis who is on a mission in New Mexico)

Nathan got to meet his cousin Ryan who is less than 2 weeks younger than him

The girls loved playing with yet more cousins (Jennifer has a way of getting the twins to look at the camera for pictures, and sometimes even have some semblance of a smile!)

Here are all the Kinser grandchildren

from l-r: Isaac, Austin, Madylin, Jeremy, Nathan, Stefani, Staci, Ryan, Morgan

We celebrated Jeremy's 8th birthday. Here is Morgan eating cake with Jeremy.

(Why does she look so OLD in this picture?!)

We also had the cousins exchange gifts, because Jennifer's family won't be back for Christmas.

They each got a pair of wings . . .

and a pair of dress-up shoes from Staci and Stefani (they LOVE them!)

It's been a great few weeks, which makes the time FLY by! I can't believe Christmas is NEXT week!!! The best part about having a husband who works for the school district . . . 2 weeks off!! So we'll be enjoying even more family time starting this weekend and I can't wait!