Frontyard

-Neighbors-

One of my FaVoRiTe things about our new house is living across the street from my cousin Emily. I love her, I love her family.  Look how cute they are (in the pic I stole from facebook)...

Its so cute to see their little kiddos playing out front with our little kiddos. And its so cute to look out my front window and occasionally see my cousin snuggling with her husband on their front porch.

Last night my boys were out front playing with sparklers.

(Thats my cousins house behind them)

Then my boys wanted to run across the street and show Beckam & Everett, since Emma was babysitting them. So they did.

(Thats our house behind them)

 Everett said once that Logan was his best friend,
Logan loves him forever now.

Aaaaaand Emily's husband use to be in a boy band. An acapella group, 259.  Their Christmas CD is still our favorite. This month they did a little concert on their front porch, for fun, just for close family members. So we walked out front, set up our chairs and listened to the show.  

♥♥My Neighbors♥♥

Photo Booth

Christmas Party 

The Reynolds family Christmas party was at my sister Chrissy's house this year.  She set up a "photo booth" station with all these props.  

So fun...

 

ha ha ha

Such a cute idea Chrissy!

¡Feliz Navidad!

We didn't send Christmas Cards out this year.

But we did go around singing "Feliz Navidad" to deliver chips & salsa...

(Thank you to Alisa for attempting to photograph our craziness)

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Merry Christmas

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from Los Vernons!

Winter Formal

Saturday night Ashlin had 

WINTER FORMAL

6 darling couples came here for pictures and dinner before the dance.

 It was pouring rain outside, you can see the raindrops on my lens...

 I love this daughter of mine.

Bruce took all our other 5 kiddos to the Ward Christmas Party, so that I could serve these kiddos dinner in an elegantly quiet house.  Lauren's parents Gina and Nate helped me, we had our own party in the kitchen.  So fun.

 I loved Ashlin and Cassidy's little retro thing that they had going on.

I couldn't get enough of Cassidy's sweet shoes and Ashlins darling 50's up-do.

And best part was after she got home at midnight, her and I stayed up until after 1am talking about the night.  She loved it, and she did me proud because her group really danced. Everyone loves someone who gets IN to the fast dancing, wether they can or not.
So whenever my kids leave to a dance I tell them,
"don't be lame... you better dance."

Parties

This last week was our "holiday party week" with multiple events at our house.

Has anybody out there ever had this Nabisco Chocolate Wafer cake??

Because its amazing.

I made it for Bruce's work party, which we host at our house every year.

You layer these hard chocolate wafer cookies with whipping cream, sweetened.  Then let it sit over night, during which it moistens up to pure deliciousness:

After you make all the layers, you spread whipping cream all around the outside too.  And I topped it off with chocolate curls.

 And then I ran out of whipped cream, and had to go buy more.  I forgot to take a picture of it after it was all frosted.  When you slice it, it appears quite the elegant 8 layer dessert.

I also made mini twice baked potatoes, homemade chicken cord on bleu, shrimp... and all kinds of good stuff that I didn't take pictures of.

Then last minute Emma and I decided to invite her friends over for a "Luncheon" saturday.  She had 11 of the cutest girls over for appetizers and homemade potato soup (that her and Peyton helped me make).  They had a white elephant gift exchange, played games, and it turned out wonderful.

 {And of course they made all kinds of crazy trains with blankets down our slide too}

Then as soon as her luncheon was over we had exactly 1 and a half hours to get the house clean again AND make dinner because 6 couples were coming over to take pictures and eat dinner here before 

WINTER FORMAL.

And Lyndy Lee was the sweetest girl ever for offering to come help me get things ready.  And Amber took my little girls to her house to do some kind of darling facials with them.  I was so thankful to them!!

Friday Evening:  Bruce work party

Saturday afternoon: Miss Emma's Christmas Luncheon

Saturday Evening: Winter Formal pictures and Dinner

By the way...
Thats like 50 people I fed full meals at my house in 24 hours.