Happy 30th Cody!

We rushed home from our awesome dinner our last night in Utah to throw Cody a surprise 30th birthday party! Complete with football covered strawberries, cougar tails, cinnamon bears and of course, birthday cake! Thanks for all the help Mom and Katie!

Future Cougars.

Cody loved celebrating with his brothers.

Loving the Birthday Boy. We are a BYU family through and through.

We bleed BLUE!

Horsing around with Chad. Chad is everyone's favorite Uncle.

Another great pic of Caroline! So photogenic and helpful.  Did I mention I am looking to adopt a 6 year old?

This pic makes me sad. We were lucky to be with Chad and Allison for a whole week, they live in Alabama now and we aren't quite sure when the next time we will see them will be. Hoping sooner than later. :) <3 You Allison!

Ra Ra Ra

Caroline reading the card she wrote Cody

Little helpers. Cody is one of the greatest Dad's I know. Londyn adores him.

Horsing around with Grandma!

Happy Birthday Babe! Just think in 30 years we will be in your parents shoes with all of our kids & grand kids around. YIKES!

Dear Faithful Blog Readers,

There is a glitch today in Blogger, due to the large quantity of pictures and posts for some reason the posts are not showing up. When you click older posts at the bottom of the page it takes you past the post I made of our Christmas in Idaho. To remedy this problem please see the Blog Archive located on the right side of our blog. Thank you and Happy Holidays.
Sincerely,
Overwhelmed Blogger

Christmas with the Kartchners Part II

Christmas Eve present! Londyn is a champ now with all the practice she got.

"What is it? What is it?"

Princess Jammies and Slippers! Love the PJ tradition. Always makes for cute pics Christmas morning.

We woke up and did stockings. Londyn found ELMO in hers!

Of all the toys she loved to play with the baby jumper. Elmo enjoyed it too!

Londyn and Sami loved playing with everyone else's presents!

Happy Christmas Day!

We had breakfast, went to church, then finally came home to open presents. Only Londyn had had it and asked Cody for a nap. So we let her sleep while we all took turns opening gifts.

Finally our little Christmas Angel woke up. Only she had no interest in opening her presents, not with everyone else's toys around.

Caught a cute pic of Caroline, outside playing.

Londyn opened a cute doll from Kamm and Holly. She put the doll in the jumper too.

It was like pulling teeth to get her to open her presents.

Grandma snuggling on the couch with her grandkids.

Finally we forced her to open the rest. She did quite well. A BYU shirt, a sound puzzle, books from Aunt AL, a toddler BOM and...

A stoller!!

Daddy and everyone else cheered her on. We aren't quite sure she is our kid anymore- waiting to open your presents is not a trait either of us possess.

Our Traditional Christmas Loot pic, we did well and barely fit it all in the car to come home.

 Kangaroo Zoo
With so many people in one house we decided it was time to take the kiddies out to play.

Londyn loves to jump around and we noticed a few of her cousins enjoyed it as well so we took them all to a bounce house heaven.

Cousin/Sister- Love

Caught these cute girls, Sami and Caroline on the slide.

Londyn loves tables and chairs, and her favorite is to jump off of them.

Weee

1-2-3... (I wish I would have ducked my head)

Big slide action

150 lb weight limit didn't stop Cody!

Love playing with Londyn.We had a great time and a great Christmas with Cody's family.

On our last night we all decided to go out to eat. Thanks to Gram and Pop we all got to splurge a little and try La Jolla Groves (also located in the riverwoods). We all got dressed up for some family pics and went out to eat. We welcomed Kamm and Holly's family back from France and we had to get as many family pics as we could as we don't know when we will all be together again.

Londyn and all the kids were good through dinner which made it very enjoyable.

The restaurant has a lemon grove theme and their specialty is lemon cake.

We went to the Provo Beach Resort to get a family pic and the kids got to ride the carousel. I love this pic of our niece Caroline.

Sami switched half way thru to the elephant!

Londyn loves to ride the carousel.

Rick & Kathy Kartchner Family 2011

 

A Utah Christmas Part I

Next Stop: Utah!

Riverwoods Mall to see Santa

Merry Christmas! Londyn was a little weary of Santa Claus, but she was brave enough to sit with us.

We made several trips to the Riverwoods Mall during our stay up Provo Canyon. It has changed so much!

We all met to go see Santa together. It was freezing cold but we liked it that this Santa let you take your own pics.

Samantha and Londyn had so much fun this Christmas. Allison maintained a great deal of composure :)

Grandma and Grandpa have to take advantage of the chance to have both these girls together. Chad and Allison live in Alabama now ;(

The Discovery Gateway Museum

Chad and Lynn (Allison's Dad) tearing it up on the crane.

Love this museum, perfect for all ages and lots to do.

Giddy-Up

Londyn's favorite, water!

Chad found a couch amidst all the chaos.. Londyn needed a rest too.

They had a blast on this slide. Londyn probably went down it 20+ times.

And a real Life Flight helicopter!

Cousin Love!

Provo River Christmas Cruise

All bundled up!

Kathy arranged a river boat ride to look at the lights. It was fun to get all bundled up and go on a ride.

Waiting for our turn.

Sipping Cocoa

On the boat

Santa came on a canoe!

Kristin & Fam @ Provo Beach Resort

Elijah (3) and Londyn. Wouldn't it be cute if they got married and this was in their wedding video? Elijah is such a cute kid.

Kristin and Nate moved to Utah just after we left :( I was so glad we got to see them for a few hours. We had lunch and explored more of the Riverwoods. It was so fun to see her cute family! One day I hope to live closer.

The kids somehow got us to play. We did the easiest one so we kept passing to the next level.

So we made the boys play.. Then we turned it to expert/crazy so we wouldn't have to play anymore. Londyn and Elijah had a blast tho. Another wedding video pic. :)