Family Festivus

we had james' family Christmas party last saturday! James comes from a LARGE family, so when everyone gets together....it's crazy! and rather entertaining! we drove down the night before to avoid the snow storm and stay with Mary (james' sister) and Skylor. Bowen had a lot of fun playing with his cousins.

this is a picture of bowen last year with jared.

and here they were this year.....

they've grown up so much!

bowen and parker sharing a hug! ahhhh....

james with his SIX older brothers and sisters! Daniel, Amy, James, Holly, Darren, and Mary

we did a little gift exchange. bowen got a ball from JD and was a lil' frustrated with the wrapping....he knew EXACTLY what was in there and wanted it right away!

my camera has this really cool feature called "delayed reaction"! and it decided to kick in when i tried to capture bowen's priceless smile.....

over five years ago, while james was on his mission in Korea (yes! my sexy husband speaks Korean!), he sent his brother a package with this note...

inside the package was this can of larva....

yep his brother waited this long, till he drew his name again, to give it back along with the note! and james being the AWESOME man that he is, even put one in his mouth!! YUCK!

and lastly, we tried to pose some of the cousins for a portrait and this is what we got! now, just imagine all of these kids, and then some more, with a kazoo in their hands!! a tradition i leaned of that night, that james had never told me about (i guess cause he doens't like it!) but the whole family gets a kazoo and they "sing" Christmas songs with them. wow.....makes me think i'm done with just one kid! all in all family parties are just great, aren't they?!