A Southern Christmas

The poor Kotter kids waited for a good hour and a half for the Michel kids to wake up for Christmas! In the end, we only had to wake up two out of the five kids! We still aren't acclimated to the time... One of the best things of the morning was listening to the cousins interact in the morning before we went downstairs. It was like the were ready made best friends. Ammon is with his two cousins that match up to Tyler and Aaron in age. Don't they look related? After we woke up Aaron and Hyrum (look at their expressions, I'm not too sure they were happy about this!) we headed off to the organized chaos. Christmas was simple, pure and beautiful.

Hyrum got his basketball hoop and was lost in it for the rest of the morning. In fact, Dad went to basketball with the Elder's Quorum this morning and after he left, Hyrum looked at me with
these big sad eyes and said, "Basketball? Dad?" He seemed a little crushed that we wasn't invited with the big guys yet but understood at the same time.


Martin gave me a very sweet rose that he made for me. The stem of it had an awesome "gift certificate" for my present. A GPS runner's watch. I'm so excited! I just hope I do enough running to warrant the price! He was surprised about the iPod I gave him and wore it all morning listening to some Rich Dad stuff that was preloaded on our computer. So cute!

There are so many awesome things about Georgia. The trees, the weather, and yards but most of all the cousins! All of my kids are having the time of their lives so much that I never see them! We are so grateful we were able to come. What a blessing! I hope your Christmas's went well. So far so good for us!

The Michel's and the Kotter's finally collide!

Finally! Four out of our five children match up almost to the day with my sister's kids in GA. The sad thing is, they have never met before this trip! We have had a blast just hangin, wrestlin, eatin, and laughin!

All the cousins put on a great nativity on Christmas Eve. If you can believe it, we are still missing one cousin in this picture!

And Martin? Well, he is in dog heaven! I am not much of a dog person, but they do have quite the cute puppers. It's a german shepherd/boxer mix and she is great! Martin keeps giving me the puppy dog eyes for a puppy himself!

I finally have a doll!

After three years having having toy soldiers in our adorable Christmas program put on by our great preschool, I finally got a doll! Em looked so adorable in this great poofy dress. By the time the end of the program came around, the dolls were a little tuckered out! I had a little too much fun getting ready for this one! Woo-hoo for girls!! :)

Thanksgiving...

We went up to Wellington this year where Martin's brother and sister-in-law hosted. It was fabulous! We had awesome food, great kids, and wonderful company. We ended up staying TWO night instead of the original one night. We stayed up till 3:30 am the first night, and then 2:30 am the following night. I think my favorite part of the whole stay was giggling at the dumbest things the second night. Great-Grandma Michel who is 87 years old stayed up till 11:30 pm playing Apples to Apples, eating cheese and crackers, and tea. She is so much fun! Thanks to her, I dethroned the reigning Queen of Apples to Apples... hah Kristy!! :)


Aunt Jan and Great-Grandma were thoughtful enough to think of Ammon and his great love of rocks. They gave him a rock set that had belonged to his Great-Grandfather. What a sweet sight to see this multi-generation enjoying the same love!





Linda also wanted a photo-op with the three granddaughters in their adorable dresses she knitted. Aren't they amazing?! They have these adorable daisys on the pockets.





The highlight of the whole weekend was when Great-Grandma taught the kids how to stand on their heads. She hadn't attempted it herself since her 86th birthday. She was able to show the famouse triangle, and then help Emily finish it. What a woman!!!