the HOLIDAYS!

My blogging Style lately is........ Playing catch-up! I guess that could be my New Years resolution.....Do Not Procrastinate. Wait, that has been my New Year's Resolutions since I can remember! We did in fact celebrate Christmas and New Years, and yes I even took some pictures. It was a crazy time of year, as I am sure it was for all of you out there. I took on a big Christmas project (like I do almost every year, and almost always am up into the wee hours of the night trying to get it done) and organized all of the Morzelewski family pictures into several albums. That was pretty time-consuming but worth it, although if I did it again I would NOT have done it for Christmas! Too much going on. We spent our weeks shopping, wrapping, going going going to Christmas Parties, enjoying family and friends, Christmas, New Years! Now I am pretty glad to get back to normal life, but I do love the Holidays!

We had a little Christmas party for the "Big" kids during the week. It was really fun to see how grown up they are getting! Tons of chaos but I live off that! We decorated gingerbread houses, ate jell-o, went on a hunt for Santa's presents and exchanged gifts between the older kids. It was so fun to have Jenny in town from Omaha too!

All the cute kids: Lexi, Kaden, Rylee, Ava, Hadley, Josh, Anna, Bo, Payton and Slade!


Kaden with his half-smile and his long-lost buddy Rylee!



The Bell's were nice enough to invite us for a Christmas Party...no kids (we all need a break sometimes!) Payton lasted about an hour with the baby sitter before she had an extreme meltdown, but that hour was sure great for me :-)

Christmas was so great! It was funny to see what gifts Kaden got excited about, the only thing he asked Santa for was this Diego game for the Wii and when he got around to opening it he couldn't have cared less about it! Pretty much he would of been happy with his $9.00 play dough set and some candy. Payton just sat in the middle of the room and ate wrapping paper the whole time.

Kids by the Christmas Tree

Payton in her new Christmas sweater

Alex Kaden and Braxton cause serious trouble as always. Clark and Christine, if you read this I apologize again for the worlds most annoying toy given to your kids and purchased by James (who else!)

Merry Christmas Hun!

My Grandma Ruth (my mom's mom) passed away a year and a half ago and left my mom with her wedding ring. We were all so close with my Grandma and loved her so much, so my mom decided to take the diamonds from the ring and put them into matching rings for all of us girls so we would all have something special to remember my Grandma. It was so special and meant so much, especially because just a few days after Christmas this year my Grandpa also passed away and that was the ring he had given to my Grandma. We feel lucky to have been so close to both of them and know that they will always be a part of our lives! My Dad also suprised my mom by putting the large diamond into a BEAUTIFUL ring for her to wear.

Us girls and our rings

My parent also surprised Payton with her very own pair of earings that hold the same diamonds from my Grandma's ring. It was so sweet, I am praying that we will never loose them!!!! They have twist-on backs but we already had the back of one fall off and nearly lost the earing.

Ash and Fo

My cute brother Greg who is currently serving a mission in Peru sent home a package with gifts for all the family, included these cute hats for Kaden and Payton. He is so sweet! It was so good to talk to both of my brothers, we are so proud of all they are doing to serve the Lord and can't wait for them to be home in 5 months!!!!!!

Greg also sent my Dad and Tay these jackets, he even picked out shirts for my Mom, Heidi and Amy.

The Cowans invited us to their cabin a few days before the New Year and we had so much fun! Kaden Ava and Josh ran around and went crazy on the bunk beds while Payton, Anna and Slade entertained themselves and each other. Tate was a perfect angel, of course and didn't make a peep the whole time! We snowmobiled, went sledding ate and hung out!

The Boys! James, Kaden and Josh, Mark Lawrence with Slade and Devin (minus Tate)

And the girls! Rachel, Me, Jenny and Kaci.

Happy New Years! We celebrated up at our cabin and it was crazy....to say the least. Imagine 19 adults, 5 babies and 2 kids in 5 bedrooms. All kids up to celebrate the New Year. I actually don't think Payton went to bed until at least 1:00 am. We had a blast, I would do it again any day.

Payton, Reese and Slade.

Todd had to make a toast of course. I can't remember what he said, but I think we are hoping for the opposite. Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2009 is the best year thus far.....with many more great years to come!