Our Christmas

We had a pretty eventful Christmas. Although we didn't do any traveling we still got to see a lot of family! All of my siblings were home for at least some point during Christmas break. We were all together for just one day, but that was long enough for us to get some good family pictures. I feel like I never take enough pictures while everyone is around but this post still turned out to be pretty long even with my lack of pictures.

Aunt Jenny and Aunt Sarah came home from BYU for two weeks and so Chelsea and Jessica both came down when they got home too. This was before the boys came, so it was all five girls reuinted again. My dad was in Utah picking taking care of my grandma and picking my grandpa up to bring him back to Oklahoma so it was just Bryce with all the Burkinshaw women!

Spencer really enjoyed having his cousins around. He loved playing with Sabrina, Grace, and Benson and especially loved bossing Jilly around. His bossing did occasionally involve hitting her repeatedly on the head and saying "no Jillian!" but they also had some good moments.

One night we made some sugar cookies and decorated them. Here is Spencer eating his cookie, and you can see Jilly in the back.

Sabrina and Spencer eating lunch together. It was so funny to watch them play together. It was mostly Breeny playing and Spencer just tagging along. One day I was upstairs with them and Sabrina was tucking Spencer into his bed. She left the room and was walking down to the toys and said (in a very exasperated voice!) "Finally, I can get some wrapping done!" They were pretending it was Spencer's birthday and Sabrina was his mom. It was so funny. Spencer also kept getting out of his bed so Sabrina finally closed the door on him so he couldn't get out. After a minute of Spencer pounding on the door I decided to free him.

Boys and electronics...they were like this for at least five minutes, maybe longer. He loved watching Benson play on his leapster or his new nintendo ds that he got for Christmas. Electronics are Spencer's life right now. Well, actually not his life because I don't allow it to be his life. They would be his life if he had a choice. :) He would play on the iTouch, wii, or computer all day if he could. His daddy loves this because it gives him a chance to play on the wii too. The real problem is when you either tell Spencer he can't play games or it's time to stop. He's never very happy about it and it has seriously made me consider never bringing video games into our home.

Spencer on Christmas morning in front of his stocking and presents. He got some great presents. He isn't a real enthusiastic present opener. He would tear a piece off and give it to me to put in the trash before moving on. He's a very clean baby, which is a good thing I would say. It does make for a long Christmas morning though. :)

I am pretty sure in this picture that Spencer had just taken a toy away from Ewan. This was what usually happened anyway, so I'm just assuming. Spencer was so funny with all of the cousins younger than him. Which includes Ewan, Jilly, and Sam. I think he felt like it was his responsibility to take every toy away from them and tell them not to do things. He was nice sometimes though. But it makes me think he's probably going to be a bossy older brother.

Opening his new remote control race car. This toy was Bryce's pick. And I think Bryce has had more fun with it than Spencer. It's a little hard to figure out but he's getting the hang of it.

Uncle Ryan took the kids out to see the horses and llama a few times. The first picture is Olivia riding the horse and Spencer petting it's head. The second picture is Sam and Spencer on the horse.

On Christmas we decided to have a dance party with all the grandkids. The twins and Ewan are great dancers, Spencer usually just runs around in circles, and Sam was a pretty good dancer too except I think he was pretty exhausted at this point. We turned on a little Miley and even grandma got into it.

Somebody also busted out the strobe light. After a few minutes of all the kids stopping and staring right into the light we decided it was time to put it away before one of them had a seizure because of it. :)

The good thing about dance parties is that it really wears the kids out. Spencer was exhausted and was happy to have his new pillow pet from grandma and grandpa to snuggle with as he walked up to his room.

He did try to ride on his pillow pet before the snuggling began. I think it must've been because they had been riding on the horses with Uncle Ryan earlier.

Like I said earlier, Spencer really did love having all of his cousins around. For days after everyone left he was calling for Ewan, Livvy, Sam, and Jillian. Mostly those four I think because he likes saying their names the best. Anyway, Olivia and Aislee are about 6 weeks older than Spencer and it was fun to see them play together. Olivia and Spencer were quite the pair. One day I was going to take them outside so Spencer and Olivia were all ready and I was putting on Aislee's shoes still. I turn around and they are halfway down the street. I try yelling at them to come back, because you know I didn't want to chase them down, but they of course kept going. I'm sure it was quite a site to see a hugely pregnant woman chasing down two 2 years olds. But I did catch them.

One morning the two year olds were trying to get Aunt Sarah (or wah wah as they refer to her) off her lazy bum, I'm pretty sure so that she would chase them around the house. They all loved being chased.

Spencer, Ewan, Olivia, and Aislee watching Kipper on grandma and grandpa's bed while drinking some milk.

Like I said earlier, Spencer and Olivia were quite the pair. One night I noticed Spencer and Olivia were missing and went searching for them. I was having a hard time finding them and they were obviously being quiet because I couldn't hear either of them so I knew there must be trouble. Well, I finally found them in grandma's bathroom with some of her make-up! You'll notice that Spencer's sleeve is wet from sticking his hand in the toilet. I'm pretty sure he was mostly eating the make-up and I also suspect that he may have dipped it in the toilet water before eating. Olivia however went straight for the eyes and lips. She obviously knows how to put on make-up! But still needs a little practice I'd say. Oh, and Spencer is crying in the picture because as I was cleaning make-up off the floor I accidentally elbowed him in the face. Not because he got caught being naughty.

We had a great holiday and enjoyed spending time with family. We did so many fun things with everyone, but I think this post is long enough already so I'll just leave it at that.

We are excited for the new year and the adventures it will bring for our family!