Christmas

Here it is half way through January and I'm finally getting around to writing about Christmas. It was a great one! We went to my Mom and Dad's house along with all three of my brothers and their wives! With the missionaries that are now living in my parents' basement, we had a full house! Christmas morning was exciting, and chaotic! Imagine 12 adults and 4 kids all ripping into their gifts at once! This is the kids before they saw what Santa brought. This is after.

This is what Christmas for 16 people looks like!

The kids were so excited! Some of their reactions were priceless! Here are some of my favorite that I actually caught on camera.

John got a little jewelry box, and when he opened it up it had a picture of a treadmill in our basement! He's wanted his own treadmill for ages now! It was good for him to finally get one.

We got Ryan and Jocelyn's names for Christmas this year and it was awesome to see they loved what we got them!Thanks Mom and Dad for a great Christmas!

After Christmas weekend, John went back to work, but the kids and I stayed for the week. On one of those days, Grandma taught Erin to sew! She made a baby blanket. It's pretty cute! She was so excited! That's been a big thing lately: "Mom will you teach me to knit?" "Mom will you teach me to sew?" "Mom will you teach me to crochet?" She wants to do it all! Thanks Grandma.

Well, we had a great New Years too. John came back to Mom and Dads and the Moons came too! On new Years Day, we all decided to go sledding. What an adventure!

Devin took to it like a fish to water.

I love this little thumbs up he gives everyone on the hill.

Colin liked it, but not the snow spray he would get in his face at the end. Erin was so excited to go, but after a few short runs decided that she was tired. She stayed up until 12:00 for her first time the night before, and it wiped her out. She was brave enough to take on the really steep hill though!!!

When she hit the bush at the end, she was done sledding for the day. She had a great time hanging out with her cousin Jana though.

Mom was not interested in sledding at all. She wasn't feeling that great, and she just wanted to watch everyone else, but we talked her into going just once. Well, I hope she doesn't kill me, but I couldn't help but post it! It was good to see her dive in and have fun with us.

What a fun day of sledding! We had a blast!

Fun Day Out

This year for Christmas, John's Sister decided to send us on a special family day out! It was so much fun!!!!! First we went out for lunch and shopping, and then we decided to go to the Family fun center. Erin's been to a Birthday Party there before, and we though it would be fun for everyone. They have this place called the Jungle. It's a giant multi-level maze with swings, a big slide, a ball pit and other fun things. We all went in for a great time.

We also went in the Bounce houses.

To say the least the kids had a great time! Actually we all did! John and I got in there too! Thanks Aileen and Rufino for a great Christmas present!

Thanksgiving!!!

Ok, I know it's way past time to blog when my camera's memory card gets full. I've got a little bit of catching up to do!

First of all, We had a great Thanksgiving at my Mom and Dad's house in Delta. While we were there we went to see Santa. Erin asked for a video camera. Devin asked for Wolverine Fingers (It's a wolverine glove with retractable claws)

Colin wanted nothing to do with that strange Man with a big white beard!!!
Ryan and Jocelyn were there too with baby Brad. Richard and Callie came later, and we saw Roger and Tasha part of the time too. We went to see New Moon, decorated a gingerbread house, played guitar hero, and watched the BYU vs. Utah game. My Grandma Sorensen joined us for the BYU game. With half the gang rooting for BYU, and half rooting for Utah, it was an exciting game.

When we got back Erin and John got their blue belts. They are really cruising toward black.

Happy Halloween

Halloween was great for us this year, though hectic. John had the stomach flu that weekend, so I had to do everything without him. Dinner, costumes, trick-or treating, and bedtime. It was a crazy night, and I didn't do everthing I wanted to, but the kids got a ton of candy (our neighbors give out good stuff)! One of our neighbors hosted a hot dog roast in their circle too, and that was fun. Hope everyone had a great halloween!

A week in the life of the Doyles

We have had a really busy week!!! I'll start at the beginning. Last weekend John and I went down to Las Vegas (leaving the kids with my Mom and Dad) to see U2 in concert! It was an amazing concert! The black eyed peas opened for them and played some of their best songs: I got a feeling, Where is the Love, big girls don't cry, Meet me half way etc.

During the intermission while they set up the stage, John went down to buy his Official Souvenir T-shirt. Then U2 came on. They were awesome! They started off slow with a lot of the oldies for the die hard fans. and then the show got better and better! Here is one of our favorites:

They also played With or without you, One, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Beautiful Day, etc. U2 alone played for over 2 hours! John was in heaven! He's an avid fan, as some of you know. We stayed with my brother Ryan that weekend. It was so nice not to have a schedule for kids, or an agenda of things to do. It was a nice relaxing weekend. We slept in, played Guitar Hero (for the first time ever) went out to eat, and went to a home show. Things I normally wouldn't do with kids. What a nice weekend. Thanks to my brother for hosting, and my Mom and Dad for watching the kids.

On Monday we carved our Halloween pumpkins.

Colin loved taking the seeds out of his.

Erin carved her own pumpkin this year! she did a great job!

Devin helped mark the pattern on his. and then John carved it for him. If you can't tell it's a skull with a spider web in it's head. He loved it!

I've seen a lot of snow in my days, but this is the first time I remember it snowing so much so early in the year. On Tuesday we had about 3 inches of snow!!!! Devin thought is was great!

He insisted that we get out the coats and gloves and hats and out he went to play. That snow stuck around too for almost 3 days! It's been so cold!!!!

Tuesday night was our Ward Halloween party. We had a soup potluck, a costume parade, games in the classrooms, and trunk-or-treating (inside, cause it was freezing outside!!!). It was a great party and there were so many people there, they were setting up more tables as people arrived.

On Friday, Erin had a Costume parade at her school at 8:45 and then I had to get Devin to his school in his costume for his class party at 9:15. What a busy morning. We made it to everything though. Costumes, treats and everthing.

Now tonight we get to go trick-or-treating too. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post them soon. Happy Halloween everyone!!!

Las Vegas

Last Sunday we got home from a 5 day trip to Las Vegas. John's Mom and friends, and his Sister all flew in from Ireland to see the sights. And his 2 brothers from drove out from California. It was great to see (almost) everyone again!
We stayed at my Sister-in-law's Parents' house in Vegas. It was a full house, but we had a ton of fun! While we were there we did a bit of sight seeing, did a lot of shopping, stayed up late, and had plenty of treats.

One night when we were there, we had a girls night out. We went to see the Coasters and the Platters. Then we went out for dinner. It was a fun evening out! The concert was fun, the food was good, and the company was great!!! One morning just our family went out for a little bit. We promised the kids we'd take them to the M&M factory, so we did. But before that we met up with my brother Ryan and his wife Jocelyn and baby Brad. We met them at the MGM where we saw the lions. The lions were cool!!!

We were just watching them in front of us at first, and then all of a sudden the male lion jumped up unto the glass above us and started munching on his bone Devin wanted to touch it and if you look close, you can see the lion's tongue.

Next we went to the M&M World. The kids loved it.

We watched a 3d movie, we posed with the M&Ms and we shopped for M&M things. They have any thing and everything M&M that you could ask for. The kids particularly liked picking out their favorite colors of M&Ms from the wall of M&Ms. They had all different colors!

Now if you asked me what my favorite thing we did at Vegas was, I'd have to say it was getting pictures taken. It wasn't a joyful experience (Colin Fought us tooth and Nail), but I am so glad that we took those pictures. I think we're going to cherish these pictures forever!!!
This is all in the family who were there. Top L-R: Patrick, Bianca, Darren, Me, John, and Colin. Bottom L-R: Roisin, Aileen Sr., Aileen Jr., Devin, and Erin. We were just missing Patrick's Wife, Teresa, and Aileen's Husband, Rufino.

I love this one with John, his Brothers, Sister, and Mom.

And last, but not least, we got one of the Grand kids and their Nana. Cute! We were lucky to get this one, cause Colin was not in the best of moods.