Oh There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays . . .

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas at home with just our little family this year.  The kids were completely spoiled, but we loved every minute of Christmas day.

 We were late to church because of these photos, but I'll be hanged if I'm going to get them ready twice in one day for pictures!

Eleni looks a little sleepy--she has this fear of the camera flash, so she never opens her eyes . . .

Two Harry Potters?!

Speaking of Harry Potter . . . I completely forgot to post my Halloween pictures! This year Jacob decided he wanted to be Harry P., so of course Gabe, who was supposed to be a cute cuddly giraffe, begged to be HP too. Yes, we do believe in homemade, makeshift costumes. The kids aren't old enough to know the difference . . . yet! :) Gabe kept his glasses on the entire night!

And baby-Evie-in-my-tummy was a pumpkin, but you can't see it very well. I'm ever so much larger now--I'm glad you're seeing this picture instead of the current me . . .

Here are my kids with their neighborhood friends. Our ward has a traditional chili & hot dog dinner in a ward member's garage, then everyone starts trick-or-treating from there. The kids collected quite a lot of candy this year--we really need to throw it away because Gabe begs for it all the time. Lydia was a very cute cowgirl, and Eleni was, of course, a princess.

Thank goodness for Thanksgiving!

We had such a wonderful trip for Thanksgiving this year!

(Seth bought me a new camera for my birthday this year and I love it! It takes panoramic shots, which are quite fun when the kids are running around. Notice the floating Lydia head on the left . . . :)

Seth's aunt & uncle in Mapleton opened the doors to their big, beautiful home and let Seth's entire family stay there for a few nights. It was such a nice getaway! The kids got to play in actual snow (only about an inch, and most of it was melted, but to these poor deprived St. Georgean kids it was miraculous!), play with Aunts & Uncles and Grandma Yaya & Grandpa King, and we had our daddy with us for an entire weekend! No homework or anything.

We left early for Mapleton, hoping to beat the big "storm" that never arrived. It had threatened to be such a bad storm that the entire BYU campus was closed! We had planned on touring it and visiting some of the places where I used to work and hang out, as well as a museum or two . . . Luckily we were able to break into the BYU Hall of Fame (the basketball team was having practice and someone had propped open a door), visit the art museum to see the Carl Bloch paintings (incredible! But not something to which you should take kids younger than 7 . . . the three littlest spent the whole time running around and hiding in different rooms, disrupting the peaceful meditations of art admirers . . .), and we found the Creamery on 9th open and enjoyed sitting on bar stools for a tasty lunch.

Later in the week we caught Harry Potter 7 with all the grownups while Grandma & Grandpa watched the little kids--what a blast!--and had fun visiting my Grandma Alma who lives nearby. Thank goodness for vacations once in a while!

King Cousins!

The kids had a great time playing with their little cousin Austin--he has grown like crazy! I'm afraid I caught him squinting at the bright sunshine . . .

Seth & Grandma Yaya enjoying the chilly weather

Sarah & Tyson and beautiful Baby Vinny--I know he's a boy, but there's no way around it--he is beautiful! Such a sweet little guy!

The kids love Seth's cousin Dave--he was a good sport to play with them, and his parents were the gracious hosts who let us stay at their beautiful home.