christmas morning with the gregs.

last but not least.... christmas day.

did you know jude got up @ 2:30 am? he also committed the cardinal sin of going downstairs and checking his loot(which next year his door will be locked or at least the stairs blocked). he ran into our room yelling, "mom, santa came and he brought me a pillow pet!". joy. luckily, we were able to get him back to sleep around 4:00 am and he didn't wake again until 8:00 am.

umm, so cute.

p.s. greta has been sick for over 2 weeks... it's sad. poor baby has a weakened immune system and is still trying to get better. we have one good day followed by 2 bad days.

as if santa would not bring my kids the most popular toy of 2010.

duh!

snuggies for kids... genius.

star wars heaven.

bebee world.

trevan's favorite part about christmas (other than it being a miracle that all of it happens without him lifting a finger)? putting together legos and playmobil sets, and i am not joking. he's good that way.

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the rest of christmas day was quite busy.... i guess that's what happens when you are surrounded by family. who is to complain about that? not i, said the pig. we went to brunch at yaya's and the had dinner with my favorite cousins at nannie's. i didn't even take one single picture after our morning, which is sad because it would be nice to see more pictures i am sure. if you are interested check out nannie's blog for better documentation. all and all, it was a long and wonderful day. my kids were tired but so happy that christmas had finally come. i was a little bit glad christmas was finally over.

onto the next project.... baby.

christmas eve with scary santa

i am kind of over christmas. jude thinks its still going on, i mean we are currently in the process of making 50 paper toy soldier chains and its december 29th. i don't know why i give in.... he's so persistent. that and me being 9 months pregnant... well, it's enough to put me over the edge. however, i do need to finish documenting christmas properly and then i think i will break the news to jude that christmas is OVER!

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christmas eve is the same as it is every year, a day full of the gregory family. a movie during the day (tangled... loved) and then dinner at trevan's grandparents with a visit from santa claus and his wife. i honestly LOVE this day and look forward to it every year.

the tradition of santa coming to this christmas eve party is long standing and it has seen a number of santa's. when the last one retired/died trevan's grandma polly found this one and he came with a wife... possibly at the midvale mining cafe. i guess she thinks he's great. i mean, he did legally change his name to santa claus, that must account for something. i'm not so sure, he gives me the creeps, and i can't even get started on his wife. wow. trevan's grandma tells me she is the sweetest soul she has ever met. i can't get past her hair. you are with me, right?

jude whispered in my year when santa walked in that his beard was the wrong color. as soon as santa pulled a toy out of his bag labeled "jude", jude forgot all about that yellow beard and was all to happy to hop on his lap.

star wars NEVER disappoints in my household.

goobs could not believe her eyes when santa came in. she was so excited and when she opened her present the excitement was taken to a whole 'notha level.

(see what i am saying about santa's bride? she's eyeing greta like she's a christmas ham)

"BABEE.. SHOW!" is all greta could get out. rapunzel is a really hard word for a speech delayed 2 year old but she knew who she was and was very well pleased.

da fam.

TOP ROW: chelly, landon, cameron (available), brennan (available), ernie.

MIDDLE SECTION: jude, scary santa, gaga, santa's bride

BOTTOM ROW: ted, momo, polly

and this is my trevan... my own personal santa claus.

yaya, goobers, and rapunzie.

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as soon as the santa left the building jude was ready to go home. we told him we could leave @ 8:30 and he barely made it. jude knew what was in store for the next 12 hours and he was ret to go. we drove around for a bit listening to john denver and karen carpenter looking at lights and then pulled into our own little driveway with our own little lights.

jude has been asking about his christmas jammies since thanksgiving and he was so happy to finally have them in his arms. he and greta are the cutest christmas babies.

speaking of christmas babies....

daddie read stories to the kids while i finished some things up. so glad that they were both borderline sick and i could "help" my little sugarplums fall asleep.

happy christmas to all and to all a good night....

williams family party

if if you have followed my blog for awhile then you already know about the amazingness that is the williams family (my dad's family) christmas party. needless to say, this year did not disappoint, even if the event was a little less attended this year.

jude has been in attendance at this party his whole entire life! can you believe it? well, neither could he.

holley, rebecca, and nannie awaiting the arrival of "the queen's story teller".

and arrive he did.

i love my uncle lee.... he is the one of the kindest people you will ever meet. he loves all of our kids, just as he loved us. i am TRULY blessed to have him in our life. the fact that he goes to this much effort everywhere should win you over entirely.

lee had these girls enthralled from the get go. this year's story was about christmas fairie and obviously with that sort of theme, the girls were hooked. the boys yearned a little more action and were a little less patient.s

where do you even find shoes like this? you can be sure, lee knows.

jude brought his own magic to the party.... he's so damn cute.

and because the longest and most cherished tradtion in our family christmas party is the nativity scene, it is always saved for last. this year, our cast was not the same without the jackson's but we pulled through with baby cash in the lead as jesus.

tears.

jude, being the christmas elf that he is, had the baby jesus stable (ie. nativity scene) cast before we ever got there. he decided this year that he and miss greta would be shepherds. they were perfect in their roles, even if greta was really sick. umm, look at her coloring, its a bit worrisome. oh well, its christmas and we all carry on regardless.

until next year....

christmas sunday best.

my kids may or may not have been on there death beds sunday morning... 103.5 degree temperatures, runny noses, and coughs. usually, i jump on the chance to stay home from church and snuggle sick babies but christmas sunday is kind of special. so i got them up, suffered through cries and screams (and some serious rudeness from trevan on his disgust of me taking kids to church when they are sick) and off we went.

his poses... what more needs to be said?

the kids laid on both of us all through sacrament meeting and as soon as it was finished we were back home and in bed. luckily, my kids love a camera and i was able to snap a few shots of them before their (our) long winters nap.

them are nice kids, even when they are sick.

christmas @ preschool

i have been anxiously awaiting this moment...

the moment where i get to be proud as punch to be a parent at a school function. i was smiling from ear to ear in friday at jude's christmas program, my heart swelling with pride. jude melted my heart, that kid loves an audience.... combine that with singing and christmas and its a match made in heaven.

in a short 15 minute period, jude's preschool class sang 6 songs and recited 2 poems. i could not believe how well jude knew all the songs. you should hear him sing 'the dradle song', i swear you would think he was jewish. turns out they have been working on the songs since the first of november but jude kept most of them to himself to suprise us, or so he says. he is so adorable.

BRAVO sir jude!

as soon as the program was over santa came to see the kids (for $190 bucks a month, santa damn well better be there!). most of the kids shouted out in glee but jude was a little more apprehensive. i think he was trying to gauge the authenticity of santa. after a few seconds of examination, jude determined him fit to be santa and got in line with the rest of his class mates to sit on santa's lap.

it's a good thing jude warmed up to santa because this jolly old santa let jude sit on his lap for a good long time and the two gossiped about christmas doings, pretty sure jude knows more about the holiday than santa himself. jude told me after that we needed to be sure to leave out chocolate chip cookies for santa because those are his favorite. jude also told me santa said that he was in fact on the nice list. duh, jude!

miss pretal.... she wants to go to school with jude with every ounce of her little being. so, as you can imagine, jude's christmas program was more than life changing for her. to say she LOVED it would be an understatement. she and jude are 2 peas in a pod... it helps when you have the best big brother in the world who insists on getting an extra candy cane from santa for his little sister.

miss jennifer and jude.

miss jennifer embodies everything you could possibly want or imagine in a preschool teacher. i love her, and so does jude.

only the grandma's made it out to jude's preschool concert but the love these 2 lovelies bring with them is like having everyone you know and love there with you. i dare say that perhaps they are the best grandma's ever.

last but not least... our family of 4+.

we are cute.

i can't wait for at least 12 more years of christmas programs. being a mom is the cat's pajamas.... most of the time.

temple square.

if you live in northern utah, chances are you will probably have or will be spending some time at temple square this season. here at the gregory household.... we are no different. this year, instead of going the week of christmas like we normally do we decided to go a bit early. trevan had oral surgery on thursday (meaning he was out for a few days) and i took one look at the weather forecast and knew wednesday night was the perfect night for us. normally, this event is done with our families but no one could go that night, it was a abnormal decisions but i decided we were going anyway and off we went.

since trevan works downtown now we road tracks downtown to meet him. it was really probably a sight to be seen.... my pregnant butt pushing a stroller with one hand, carrying greta in the other, and having jude hold on to greta's shoe as we dashed across the parking lot to get on the train in time. thankfully, a nice gentleman (they still exist) saw me and helped me actually get on the train. jude is an old pro by now on tracks and kept pointing out land marks along the way, he remembers the most random things. greta had never been more excited and looked out the window with glee the whole time. i tried to catch my breath long enough to take a picture of my 2 adorable babies.

m.i.n.e.

and i am not good at sharing.

OK... so here is the best part. guess who else had the bright idea of going to temple square wednesday night? our breast friends blake and codi. it was a great surprise and we were glad that they were flying solo too so we could enjoy each others company all night. i mean i needed someone to appreciate fellow light viewers with me and codi gets me, we both saw many christmas wish-list hopefuls and future husbands as well. OH, and my kids lurve a little lucy bug too.

greta's newest love is "beebee gee-us"

BTW, greta can talk, but only says some words really well and some words are used for a lot of different applications (ie. "HI".... hot, hat, hide, and hi). we are working with her speech therapist every other week and she is making huge strides. ANYWAY.... the other day as we were driving a long listening to christmas music we hear greta yelling "baby jesus" at us.... at first i had no idea what she was saying but luckily her translator (jude) told me she was saying "baby jesus" and she hasn't stopped talking about him since. to hear here say "baby jesus" in her little voice is perfection.

bearded men stick together....

not quite sure what our kids were thinking in playing in the water at temple square but since we are really great parents we let them.

i was there... in all my glory but i am glad it was at least documented. my children are going to look back at photos from this pregnancy and wonder where i was. from the looks of it, it looks as if i was too busy eating the whole time to pose for pictures but i assure you was not. this is just how kennan and pregnancy roll.

we dined at the always delicious and nostalgic "little america: coffee shop" after with blake and codi. the food there never disappoints and even if it did, it would not matter to me because of all the memories of growing up eating at little america in cheyenne. i love little america.

but i love christmasing with friends even more.