Doty/Ward Christmas Eve Party



This tradition was around, long before I became part of this family.  Rather than spend Christmas day together. Josh's family have a big Christmas Eve Party with all of the family. It's a fun little tradition, although, I must admit, we fill a house at this point!

 This year it was held at Josh's Uncle's house.  Here are the kids all eating yummy soup and finger foods!

 Poppa and Eva.

 Nikka and Piper.

 Cute Mia.

 Adam's birthday is on Christmas day.  So Maggie made cake balls and put his name on them.  We all sang to him and Mandee held out a candle for him to make a wish.

 This was about the time we were getting ready to read the Nativity and re-inact it.  I didn't include those picture, because it was the most irreverent reading of the Christmas story ever . It was crazy.

 Everyone opens up a present from Grandma and Grandpa.

 Eva and Cheya.

 Me and my twin.

 Mandee and Logan.  Love the bow, Logan!

 This picture is blurry, but I love it.  Eva really wants the root beer.

"Please", she says. Who could refuse those eye's?

Here Comes Santa Claus

We went to the mall this year to see Santa.  Kris, Josh's sister, set it up so that all 13 of the grand kids came on the same day.  That's a lot of Doty kids.  It was crazy fun!

Piper was so enthralled with Santa Claus this year.  She saw him several times and wanted to sit on his lap every time we saw him.  She always asked for Bolt, make-up and a Barbie.

Tyson was super cute.  He wrote Santa a letter and took it to him.  Santa was so cute to open it and read it.  He asked for a web shooter and a metal detector.

J.D. thought he was to cool to sit on Santa's lap this year. 

Santa finally convinced him to sit on the chair beside him.  He was a cute Santa.  J.D. asked for a red wii, (this was 2 days before Christmas) up to this point he had only asked for a Guitar Jam.  Santa told him that if he wanted a wii, that he needed to go find the bathroom.  It was so funny!

And poor Santa had all 13 of them converge on him for a picture.  Poor Santa, I think he needs a raise!

What a crew.  It's amazing that they are all looking at the camera.

And this one is just because I LOVE her and I think she's cute.  Have I mentioned that I want to smother her in chocolate and eat her for dessert?  Babies bring out the cannibal in me :). 

After the pictures, we went to Pretzel Time and had some goodies.  It was a lot of fun.  Piper and Mia are connected at the hip when we all get together.

I loved Pipers face in this picture.  The cheese a little hot.

Josh loves Eva too.  Seriously, chocolate and carmel!!!  I'm just saying, not that I would ever eat another persons baby, but isn't she cute?

Doty - Carter Christmas Party



We love the Carter family.  It doesn't take blood to make you family, that's for sure.  We had everyone out for dinner and some fun the Sunday before Christmas.  Josh didn't get to be here, because he was out helping Varney get his truck unstuck, but that's another story for another post :).

 The kids decorated sugar cookies and wrote letters to Santa.

 We had a huge roll of bubble wrap that Josh had brought home from work.  Tyson had the brilliant idea to tie himself up. Aaron and Ammon were happy to oblige and started wrapping kids up.

 And then the thought, "What if we wrap 2 of them together?" (Insert evil maniacal laughter)

 Aidan and Tyson were strapped together.  They are about the same weight and height.

 And this was what happened when they tried to walk.  They couldn't quite get the concept of work together.

 It was pretty funny.

Then they decided to strap Piper on Tyson's back.  He was all for it, but Piper was not.  Ammon's lucky he didn't get kicked, because she sure was aiming.

Tootsie Rolls With Grandma

When we made our surprise visit, we hung around most of the day afterwards.  That afternoon, my mom had us come over and she taught my kids how to make tootsie-rolls.

 She even made all of the kids aprons to wear and take home.  She's pretty awesome like that.

 Just so you know, tootsie-rolls are pure sugar.  All you need to make them is powdered sugar, cocoa, corn syrup and a little butter.  So not healthy, but so tasty.

 Once we got it all mixed we put it into individual baggies for the kids to knead.  Let me tell ya, it's not pretty.  There was a lot of jokes about poop through the whole process.

The kids had a blast making it and eating it.  It's a project that we may have to do with the cub scouts. 
Thanks Mom for teaching them this fun recipe and making cute aprons for them to keep!  Love ya!

Snow

 When we went to Marysvale, there was no snow down on the ground in town.  But the kids wanted to go and see snow up the canyon.  We did not come equipped for snow, but the kids had to get out and play anyway.

 It always surprises me that Tyson likes to play in the snow, because he doesn't like cold.

 This was an awesome picture.  I caught it just as he threw it.

 Brannigan and I made a snowman. 

 JD and Brannigan made huge snowballs.  We  thought we would make a snowman, but they were way to heavy to lift, even with all of us lifting.

 I got cold and had to go sit in the truck.  After an hour in the snow, we went to Tugs and got hot chocolate. 

Santa, Marysvale Style

I had the chance to make an unexpected trip to Marysvale, the Friday before Christmas.  We had to take Sara half-way to meet her dad. It was a great surprise.  We didn't tell anyone that we were coming, so they were super surprised.  Brannigan saw us through his bedroom window.  They all thought he was lying when he said that we had just pulled up!  The look on Sherry and Austin's face was priceless.

  It just so happened that we showed up about an hour before Santa did!

 It was very different than in years past.  Usually Santa is a very old man, who well, looks like Santa and he comes around on the fire truck.  This year Santa came around in the ambulance and was played by one of the King boys from Antimony.

 Didn't matter that he was the youngest Santa I had ever seen, my kids were super excited.  Especially Piper.  She has been so in love with Santa Clause this year.  It's quite cute.

 Ha, ha, ha!  Look at Santa's boots!  Only in Marysvale!!

The whole crew.  Riyo wasn't sure that she really wanted to be that close to Santa, but Grandma took one for the team and jumped in the picture to make her sit there. 

Polar Express

This was a way cute idea.  Mrs. Kaeding, Tyson's teacher had a Polar Express Christmas party.  Each of the kids had to decorate a box to be a train car.  I let Tyson pick out everything he wanted on his.  It turned out pretty cute.

 It was fun to see how creative some of the kids got with their boxes.  We then had a parade through some of the classrooms and through the lunch room.  The kids loved it.

 And of course it was pj's day so they all looked even cuter than usual!

I ended up helping a poor little girl who was the caboose.  She had this huge box that she couldn't hold up!
We went back to the room for pancakes and hot chocolate.  Of course, we had to watch The Polar Express.  It was pretty simple and the kids had a blast!