Bring it ON 2009!

We ended up staying at our own house for Christmas this year. We had wanted to go up to Salt Lake and attend the traditional Barton Christmas Eve Celebration...but, well, there are so many things that combined to make it just too difficult! :(

-First of all there was a TON of snow, and some really nasty snowstorms brewing and dumping even more snow in Northern Utah

-The kids were still recovering from yet another snarffy virus

-Invading anyones house with four young kids...yeah, not so much fun! I know they would love to have us, but you all KNOW how hard it is to be away from home with a bunch of little ones!

We missed our family alot, but were able to see Uncle Joe and Uncle Jared, so that was nice! This was the first time we have ever had our own Christmas Celebration at home, and honestly it was kinda nice! Fun, relaxing, it was great to just get to hang around our own home and watch the kids on Christmas- there is really nothing like it! :D

On Christmas Eve we opened the one big family gift...an Xbox 360....*sigh* I have always maintained that ALL video game doo-dads/devices are evil. I still think it. So addictive. So silly....

We LOVE IT! :D We have played Lego Indiana Jones for HOURS, and had sooooo much fun all together! Since I never have played anything like this, Amanda totally kicks my butt! Em is learning patience while playing as well, that is a bonus! :D

Amanda and Emily had been just DYING to know what this big honkin' gift was...

Being a Barbie fanatic from my younger days, it was hard to resist this AWESOME pack of all the Disney princesses. :D The girls have had a blast playing with them. They started playing a "Dancing with the Stars" reality type show/game with them. Emily said (this is word for word, I kid you not) "It is just too bad for Mulan, she got voted off this first week. She even made her own dress!".....reality TV has ruined my children!

Sam got cars...what a surprise! :D He got a bunch of the little die-cast car characters from the Disney/Pixar movie Cars...he LOVED it! :D So much fun to watch how excited he was!
He also got his first remote control car, FREAKIN' HYSTERICAL! He followed it around laughing and yelling his head off! It was soooooo funny to watch! I got the tail end of it on video, no pics....too bad for future scrapbooking! At first he didn't connect the controller with the actual movement of the car, and he always liked the blue side up. Silly boy!

This might be my fave pic from that day! :D The kids thought it was just hysterical to stick all the bows on poor Izzy's head. She like playing with the bows more than her gifts...like all babies the world over!

Emily helping Elizabeth to open a gift...actually Izzy needed very little help, we really only had to hand her a present and she would go to town on the wrapping...we just had to get the paper away before she could taste it! :D

Uncle Jared gave the kids this basketball hoop, they had alot of fun- and didn't even break anything in the house...AMAZING! Sam would only slam-dunk the ball...show off!

New Years Eve, the kids...ALL of the kids stayed up to see the fireworks on TV (one of the many perks of the The Strip in Vegas, great fireworks from the comfort of your own living room!) You wouldn't have thought it was so late, they were WIRED!

"SMILE" means something different to us all...I guess!

All in all it was a really fun Holiday season! The girls are back in school as of today, and hopefully over the next week I will be able to help the house recover from being subjected to vacation disaster!!! (aka 6 people living, and messing up the house...with only 1 Mom to clean it up...ugh)

I like to call it HURRICANE BARTON!!!