Christmas 2011

Santa found our house!  Of course he would with 3 extremely good kiddo's living here!

Piper was so excited to get her Princess Charm School.  I really like this movie.  The headmistresses name is  Mrs. Privett, which I find extremely cool!

Santa actually left a letter for JD telling him how proud he was of him for holding his food drive.

One of Tyson's many obsessions, watches!

Of all the thing that Piper got in her stocking, I think the Pistachios was her favorite thing.

Handsome kid with a gun.

Santa brought his double light saber. How could he not?  The kid has only been talking about it since September!

I'm so excited!

Josh and I gave the boys each an air soft rifle.  They were so excited.

They spent all Christmas afternoon outside shooting each other.

Santa brought Piper her purple bike!

JD got this awesome 4-wheeler.  It was our neighbors.  They said it didn't work, but being married to the resourceful guy that I am, he fixed it up and it runs great!

Another picture of pure happiness and excitement.

It was a very Merry Christmas indeed!

Christmas Jammies 2011

I love these silly kids!

Christmas at the Temple

 Every year the Doty's get together for Christmas Eve. This year we started out by going to the temple to watch the nativity and to see the lights. I took several pictures of the temple, but this is my favorite.

We took family pictures in front of the temple and got some great shots.

The Yunker family! Maggie wanted to take pictures in this spot, because this was the spot that Eric first asked her to be his girlfriend.

 The Graff family! Kasen was not happy to get pictures taken.

 The Leitner family! I had a hard time picking out one of these guys.  Such cute pictures.

 Grandma and Grandpa! Love these guys!  They take such good care of all of us.

 Piper was freezing and not happy to get her picture taken.

 All the grand kids.

Silly kiddo's!  It was a great way to start the evening.  The temple grounds were beautiful and the spirit was so strong.

Breakfast at I-Hop

All of the Doty's got together for Christmas Eve breakfast at I-Hop. Grandma Doty asked that everyone in Illinois, Salt Lake, Oklahoma and St. George, meet up at their local I-Hop at certain times.  That way, all of her family would be in I-Hop at the same exact time eating breakfast.  Pretty cool idea.

What a crew!  There was 24 of us total, I believe.  Josh and Rowland were the only two not in attendance.  Look at crazy Grandpa over there in the corner!

What a crazy bunch of kids.

Kris got stuck on the table with all the little kids.  Don't know how that happened.

Cute Eva and Eric.

My pretty sister, Maggie!

Piper and Mia.  It's a love hate relationship.  It was a lot of fun. I wasn't sure how it was going to work with all of those kids, but it turned out to be a really fun time.  

Live Nativity

 Thursday night we went out to Tuachan to watch the live nativity.  It's a traditions that we love!

 It was bitter cold.  It was enjoyable because it is such a great Christmas tradition, but the kids were freezing the whole time.  I don't know how much they really enjoyed it or got out of it. I still enjoyed it.

 Me and the Pip waiting for it to start.  My proof I do exisst!

 Piper was so excited to see Santa.  She absolutely loves him. She asked once again for her purple bike.

 Tyson stuck to his guns and asked for his double sided light saber.  JD wouldn't sit on his lap. Which is weird because he already has a few times this year.

But this picture is my favorite of the night!  Eva, I love you!

Red Rockin' Hawks

 JD is doing choir again this year.  He loves it!

 They went to sing at the Kolob Care Center for a Christmas program this year.

 They also sang at the Holiday Open House.  They did a great job!

 JD was super excited to get to hold the pinata and to have speaking parts this year.

I love these moments!  My little star!

JD's Christmas Wish

I was cooking dinner a few weeks ago and helping Tyson with homework.  JD came in and wanted to talk to me.  He has been so stressed about what he wanted to ask Santa Claus for.  He told me, "Mom, I know what I want to ask Santa for.  You know how there are hungry people all over the world?  I want to ask Santa to feed a few of those families instead of bringing me a present."  What a teary moment for this mom!  He is such an amazing kid!

We talked about it and he said he wished he could help.  We talked about doing a food drive and decided we would just hold a small one.  We would ask our friends, neighbors and family to help.   I posted it on Facebook and it exploded over night!  Mrs. Perry, who is a 4th grade teacher at our school suggested that we get the 4th grade involved and make it a 4th grade food drive.  AWESOME!

Several other teachers contacted us and asked to be involved. So we made it a school wide food drive.  JD went in and talked to Mrs. Barnum, helped me write up the letters to send home with the kids, he helped me put boxes in the school and load food everyday.  We enlisted a few friends to help us load up the Friday that it ended and even Santa came to help and tell JD that he had heard his wish!


The response was amazing!  We had people from all of St. George donating when they heard what JD was doing.  Even Grandma Ruth and Aunt Sherry brought down some food to help out.  JD himself collected 8 huge boxes from family, friends and ward members.  He told everyone he could about it and made sure that the word was spread far and wide. 

The look on JD's face is priceless!  He kept asking, "Why is Santa here?"

Santa brought along his elf Holly to help!  JD was all business.

He asked a few of his friends (of course Baylee was one)  to come and help him load up the food and take it  to the Dixie Care & Share.

Mr. Campbell's class had 684 items.  The most collected by any class!!

Our whole family helped out! Josh came and helped and so did Grandma Becky.

Had to get a picture of all the kiddo's with Santa and Holly.

This was right after we got to Dixie Care & Share.  It took us 4 vehicles to get it all there.

We brought in 2, 475 lbs of food!  That is amazing considering we only had 1 week to pull it off.

Ah, what a sweet kid!  I sure do love him and his kind heart.

The guys at the Care & Share were great with the kids.  They helped us get it all unloaded quickly.

What a great group of kids.  I have a feeling this could become an annual project.  I don't mind that one bit!