Christmas Trip- Part 5 Best Uncles Ever!

There was something about Kendall's brothers, Helaman and Nephi. When they walk into any room with little girls those little girls are instantly by their side pulling on them, chasing them, climbing on them. This is Emma and Nephi.

Just look at all those nieces running around their uncles!

Helaman being tackled as he came out of his room.

 Daniel and Jacob loved playing with their uncles too!

 Never a moments peace!

 

I'm so impressed with these two young men! They were so great with the kids and put up with a lot! They are awesome!

Christmas Trip- Part 4 Christmas Eve/Day

We had the kids act out the nativity story on Christmas Eve. They had so much fun dressing up and playing their parts! 

Christmas Eve wouldn't be the same without the Mary and Joseph dinner. We had meat, bread, figs and dates, yummy!

Christmas morning was crazy with so many people! But it was great to enjoy the gift opening with the family.

Ha, love this picture, I was sick with a fever and you can see Mark laying on the floor having been up all night with the stomach bug that was going around.

Daniel and Emma both asked for model airplanes for Christmas and they were pretty excited to receive them!

Kendall carved a walking stick for his dad. It was really cool, with a carving of the Oakland Temple at the top (that's where his parents were married) along with the names of all 13 kids.

Mark enjoying the Christmas gift opening from the floor.

We had high hopes of taking a family picture with everyone, but with people being sick it just didn't happen. So all the Hepworth kids went to Jenna's house (cause she couldn't go anywhere after having a baby on Christmas Eve) and they got a picture.

Daniel worked really hard with his dad and finished his plane. He has it hanging in his room.

Christmas Trip-Part 3 Fun Things To Do!

There was so much to do while we were there! New cousins to meet and play with, movies to watch.

Ping pong and pool!

Little Miss Jane learned how to crawl!

Cooking and dishes!

Look at all that pink and purple!!

Emma and Bell playing fetch!

Emma enjoyed shooting Grandpa's old 22 rifle.

Daniel got to go out shooting for the 1st time! He was super excited!

He's on cloud nine right now!

I love this picture of Grandpa with some of the grand kids watching some movie preview. It was great to have all the cousins together. We did miss some of the cousins who were not able to come up due to a stomach bug that was going around the house. Everyone except Jane and I got the bug, that's 21 of 23 people! It was horrible to watch everyone go through it. Luckily it only lasted 24 hours.



Christmas Trip- Part 2 Benjamin's blessing

 

 
On Monday the 23rd the whole family gathered together for Benjamin's blessing. He is such a cute baby! He was born premature and is just 2 months younger then Jane. This is Benjamin with his mom Laura.

 Jennifer, Kendall, Israel, Laura, and Benjamin

I love this picture of Kendall's twin brothers Isaac and Israel with their daughters Lucy and Learsiah.

This is the whole family. The only two missing are Kendall's brother, Alma, and his brother in law Ray. 

 

Kendall's sister Jenna. She delivered a huge 10 pound 3 ounce baby on Christmas Eve!

 

 We had a dinner after the blessing. Daniel filled up his plate with cookies! Kendall told him he could have as much cookies as he wanted but that he needed to have as much salad as he had cookies. So he filled his plate with salad and ate it all. And Guess what, he was so full of salad he had no desire to eat all those cookies!

I just love this picture of Jane and Kendall!

Christmas Trip- Part 1

This is us getting loaded into the car for a "9 hour" drive. The snow at our house should have given us some idea of what the roads were going to be like that day. We started out in good spirits though. The Elders were out throwing snow balls at the kids before we left. So the 1st mountain pass wasn't bad. They required traction tires or chains on the big semis. Kendall did an awesome job at driving! We saw several cars slide off the road and stopped and pulled one lady out of a ditch. We just took it slow and steady and didn't have any problems. When we came to the Blue Mountains in Oregon things got a little more crazy! We made it without having to chain up, but I would say the conditions were white out conditions. I have never been in weather like that before and it was a little scary! We almost got hit by a semi who decided to stop and back up in the middle of the highway! Not sure what the guy was thinking but we gave him a good long honk before he stopped (just a couple feet from our car!). We made it to our friend's house after 13 1/2 hours!  They were so kind and had a hot meal for us at 11pm and warm beds to sleep in!

We awoke in the morning to homemade waffles with jam! Seriously, LuJean and Kim are the best! LuJean taught Emma how to make this cute Christmas craft which she then taught to her cousins. We drove last part of the drive on dry roads and made it to Kendall's parent's house in good time!

This is the night's sky overlooking Cedar City!

Kendall's mom (and sisters) had the house beautifully decorated for Christmas. It was so good to see everyone that night!

Early Christmas Festivities

The first half of the month of December was a bit stressful for me (Kendall would say that's an understatement!) which is mostly my own fault for taking on to much! I just can't say "no".  We had parties for church, parties for school co-op, a big trip to Utah to plan and pack for, and all the other things that come with the holidays. We did have fun despite my stress.

 We had our neighbors, Elder Rogers and Elder Young help us decorate our tree this year. The kids are always excited to have them over!

 The kids get kinda wild too!

We gave Elder Young the honor of putting the angel on the tree. He finished his mission on the 18th of December and was able to spend the holidays with his family!

Every year we also decorate "ginger bread" houses. We use graham crackers cause it's easier! The kids look forward to this tradition and put almost as much candy into their mouths as they do on their houses!

Grass hopper food storage

Proof of Noah's grass hopper food storage!