Cabin

Every year after Christmas my Dad and his siblings get to pick a couple days to spend at their family cabin. When I was little, we'd all go up together, but now that our families are married and growing, there isn't enough room and we separate off into the Ken Foster family, etc. Unfortunately Cody and my brother in law Dan, had to work while we had the cabin (no pto for the self employed). I drove the kids up Friday morning. The road to the cabin typically gets grated for cars to easily access their cabins. The road hadn't been plowed, but my car is all wheel drive so I drove in anyway. I made it in fine, but my Grandpa went to move my car later and got stuck deep in the snowbank. My uncle and Grandpa broke a tow strap and finally used chains to get my Traverse out of the snow.

 We sat by the fire and warmed our toes, watched movies, played games and hungout with these cute little ones. This is Austin, my sisters baby. He is so fat and cute. I love to pinch his squishy cheeks.

 We snowmobiled a lot in the deep fresh powder. This is Cole all ready to go.

 The cousins did some sledding up and down the hill.

 My Mom made all the grandkids, except the 2 smallest, pajamas for Christmas. We added the babies in for a photo at the end. Trying to get 11 kids to hold still on the stairs is no simple feat.

 I love my little Blake. Isn't that grin contagious. We were only able to spend 24 hours at the cabin, but made memories and had fun. Our family should definitely utilize the cabin more for how close we are to it. It's in Oakley, about 30 minutes away.

Christmas Day

No one wanted to cooperate for my Christmas morning stairs picture. I'm not even sure where Cole is. It looks like him behind Beckham, but I'm pretty sure that's cousin Caeden. The cousins and grandparents slept over so it was chaotic. The kids stayed up late Christmas Eve, so they actually slept in until about 7 am.

 Cole, Aubrey and Blake's Santa piles. Cole received a nerf gun, Aubrey her Target brand, American Girl doll, and Blake a big block lego table, plus toys he plays with that he didn't know make sound. Batteries make old toys seem new. Some of his gifts were opened for the 3rd time on Christmas. (Perks of being the 3rd boy).

 Tucker was so excited about his magnifying glass and Pokeman stickers that he didn't realize that he got a new (from the thrift store) bike for 5-10 minutes.

 Cousins, grandparents, wrapping paper and toys everywhere!

 After opening presents with the Calderwoods, we all ate breakfast and got ready for the day. We spent the afternoon with my Foster family. They have an annual gift and white elephant exchange. This is the only picture of me.

 

Good thing my uncle Brian loves Cody. They get along great in the Foster family.

 After a nice lunch at my Grandpa Foster's we went to my parents house for more presents. My brother is serving his mission in California and thanks to technology, we were able to Skype and talk with him. My Dad rigged the laptop to show up on their bigscreen so that we could all see Uncle Spencer. After 2 hours, we finally opened up cousin gifts and were off.

I have become a worse photographer over the years. Not many "great" snapshots, but photos nonetheless.

Pre Christmas parties

Cody's brother and family flew to Utah for Christmas. They stayed at our house the 23-25th. Carson and Cody have been lifting and had a competition to see who could bench the most. Cody won at 250lbs. It makes him happy because he's the younger brother. Cody has been so dedicated this past year in trying to gain weight and muscle.

 The cousins played lots together. Not that this picture shows it.

 It snowed Christmas Eve and Tucker and Beckham decided to be the men of the house and shovel the walks and driveway for me.

 After they were done with our house they headed next door to work on the neighbors.

 Blake didn't want to be left out and refused to use a little shovel.

 Exhausted little guy took a quick break.

 After shoveling it was snowman time.

 My kids and I have never really built a snowman together. I'm too lazy to get them all dressed up and outside. Beckham was a huge help. Our snowman accessories came from a kit my Mom gave me a couple years ago. He's still standing in our yard, although a pink scarf has been added by Aubrey.

 Beckham wanted twin snowmen and kept building with Cole. It turned out to be more of stacking snow on top of one another.

 We had a Christmas Eve feast at our house with Cody's family. Here are 7 of the 8 kids. We each had 3 boys and 1 girl. Aubrey and Aspen sure love each other. Trevor, on the right is the oldest cousin at 11 years old. His hair is longer than mine. : )

 Cody's Dad, Carson, me, Blake, Marisa's head and Cody's Mom.

We had a huge gathering with all of Cody's Mom's siblings and kids/grandkids on the 23rd. We had 51 people in our house for dinner and a white elephant party. 49 of them are descendants from Cody's Grandma. We missed my extended family Christmas party, but it was great to be with family we don't see very often and that haven't gotten together since their Grandma passed away 10 years ago. We are grateful to live in a house that can accommodate so many crazy people.

Christmas Sunday Photoshoot

 I love dressing my kids up in semi matching outfits for Christmas Sunday. Like most photo sessions, this one wasn't perfect. Blake was crying and as you can see, didn't want to be there. Cole was happy and cute though.

Then, Daddy came in the room and made them all laugh and smile.

 I wanted a picture with my cuties. No one told me I was having a bad hair day. Ugh, that hair flipping out bugs me so bad. And yes, I am wearing a shirt, although it does look like I'm blended into our couch.

 

The love of my life. He indulged me with a normal smiling picture. That "rarely" happens.

Concerts

My sister, Heather and I.

My Dad took his girls, my Mom and sister and I to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert at the conference center. We went to the dress rehearsal, but you never would have known it was a rehearsal. It was wonderful filled with beautiful music, stories and the Spirit of Christmas. Afterward while walking to our car, I saw my cheer coach from high school and a fellow cheerleader that had been at the show as well.

My Mom and Dad and I.

I love the Salt Lake Temple and the square all lit up in lights for the holidays. It's breathtaking.

 My little Santa. Cole walked around the house one day with a garbage bag full of toys saying, Ho, ho ho, Merry Christmas! Too bad the bag got a hole and toys were strewn all over the house. I needed him to turn into a clean up elf for me.

I've always wanted to take Aubrey to the Nutcracker, and we finally had the chance in December. Aubrey was taking clogging for a couple weeks, but then we decided to give ballet a try. Her studio was performing the Nutcracker at the high school, so I thought it would be a fun way to introduce her to that form of dance. She loves it and one of her friends is in the class and they twirl and giggle like little girls should. She received ballet shoes for Christmas and now just needs a cute pink skirt to completer her ensemble. This picture is from after the show with Aubrey and the stars, Clara and the Nutcracker. I loved clogging and miss dancing with all the wonderful girls/friends that I made, but I have always regretted not having a very diverse dance background. Aubrey can go back to clogging if that's what she wants in the future, but for now, we have a little ballerina.

Breaking yet still keeping traditions

This was one of the only years since we've lived in Midway that I didn't participate in Midway's Swiss Christmas. I was a little bummed because I enjoyed doing a booth with my friends, but I did not miss the stress and headaches. It is still bizarre for me to think that a year ago, unbeknownst to me, I had a massive fast growing brain tumor giving me daily headaches. Those tension/stress headaches are now in my past, but my life is not the same. I no longer spend hours sewing hooded towel creations for my customers all over the world. Maybe someday my Etsy shop will get back from vacation. For now, I get to keep readjusting my priorities and focus on the little people in my life. I took the older kids to the Gingerbread House displays and Swiss Christmas to sit on Santa's lap.

Days Market. Our local Heber grocery store.

Aubrey's favorite. The tower from the movie Tangled.

 Cole would not cooperate and put his hands down for a picture. Surprise, surprise.

 I want a nerf gun to shoot my brothers and sister with.

Pokeman, pokeman, pokeman. I thought Pokeman was a thing of the past, my younger brother liked them when I was young. Not so, Tucker has over 100 Pokeman cards and wants me to buy more. 

Aubrey's only wish was for an American Girl doll. Santa told her that lots of girls wished for that this year.

Cody's birthday surprise

I have never really surprised Cody before and wanted to for his birthday this year. I purchased tickets for The Killers concert at UVU on November 30th the day tickets were released. I wanted the best seats I could afford so I was home and on the computer at 10 am ready to buy. All Cody knew was that he needed to be home from work at a certain time so that we could leave. I got our friends the Barkers in on my secret when I found out that they had bought tickets to the concert as well. We were good friends in our Provo ward 9 years ago and have only seen their family a couple times since we moved to dental school. Paul actually designed my www.runningwithlisa.com webpage.

 Part of the surprise was meeting Paul and Ang at Cody's favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse, for dinner before the show. I ended up having to tell Cody about dinner because we left our house late. Paul put the Killers ticket in Cody's napkin and when he sat down he found the tickets. I was proud of my stealth skills and we had a great dinner and fun night at the show.

 I only know a few Killers songs, but the light shows were fun to watch. A couple songs had strobe lights and it's a good thing I'm still on anti seizure medicine otherwise I could see how easy it would be to produce one.

Traffic was a beast in Utah Valley, but thankfully our babysitter had no problem getting home so late. Happy 34th birthday Cody! I made a fun collage on facebook with pictures of Cody each year on his birthday. Paul jokingly called it the evolution of a baldman. If I knew how to put a collage on here I'd show you all, but alas, I'm not that tech savvy.

Cody's Mom's birthday is right before Cody's so we had a celebratory dinner the Sunday after. Blake actually blew out some candles before the song was over. He's never done that before so of course we thought it was super cute.