Merry Christmas Everyone!

Here is our first picture ever with all our kids happily sitting on Santa's lap, no one is crying!

This year for Christmas, we tried something different. We went up to Camp Ensign and stayed in a cabin with my family for a few days. We thought it would be a fun way to ensure we all had a white Christmas, turns out we could have had a white Christmas pretty much anywhere in Washington this year.

Here are my kids with their cousins.

There were all sorts of fun activities that I never had my camera around for. We played out in the snow, went sledding, and sang Christmas carols on a hayride.

The cousins had to leave on Christmas Eve, so we had our gift exchange with them before they left. My kids made ornaments for each of their cousins.

Dad got a nerf gun which created pure chaos.

Just look at Jared taking out all his frustrations on those poor innocent kids.

....of course, they were all pretty willing.

We had a yummy ham dinner on Christmas Eve and then enjoyed a nice program. There was a pretty intense white elephant exchange and then we finished off the evening with some dancing.

Everyone got to decorate a Christmas stocking for Santa to fill, my kids were sleeping when this activity took place so Uncle Anthony (my youngest brother) was kind enough to decorate stockings for all of us. Most everyone was thrilled with theirs......

...all but Jared that is. Gotta love all that lace and pink! :)

Everyone got to open one gift before we packed up and went home to see what Santa had left at our house!

We hit a snow storm on the way home and had to put our chains on to get over the pass, but we made it and the kids were excited to dig into the rest of their Christmas.

Emma got some makeup which she quickly tested out, doesn't she look beautiful?

Hunter got a nerf gun of his own so now he can defend himself properly. If you come over, watch out. He keeps it loaded and aimed at the front door. :)

We feel very blessed and are grateful to have such wonderful families to share the holidays with. I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas!

And the ultra sound says.......

It's a BOY!

Cancun, Mexico

Amazing!

Jared and I were able to sneak away to Mexico last week. It was warm and beautiful, and simply amazing. We stayed at the Cancun Palace which was a spoil you rotten all inclusive resort. Seriously, you sat on the beach and people brought you strawberry daiquiris.

The beach was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Here's a picture of the girls....

....and the guys.

Jared even got to jet ski on those ocean waves again!

There's nothing like a late night stroll along the beach.

We went to Chichen Itza and learned all about the ancient Mayan civilization. It was really fascinating and definitely one of the highlights of our trip.


We also visited Xcaret which is a beautiful, natural water park. It was gorgeous, we especially enjoyed the underground rivers.


At the end of the day they did this show where we saw the ancient Mayan ball game and lots of other interesting history. It was a little long at the end, but hey, we were exhausted from all the hard core playing.

We went swimming with the dolphins too. Well, actually Jared did, I watched. They said it wasn't safe for me to be in the water with those playful dolphins being pregnant and all so I sat on the side and took pictures instead. It was still fun, I told Jared it was like sitting on the front row of a dolphin show where my friends were all the stars.

Here Jared is being pushed by a dolphin.

My friend Nannette celebrated her birthday, the big 4-0! Whoa! Doesn't she look great!?!

It was a wonderful week. Relaxing, warm, romantic, and non-stop fun. Someday we'll go back!

Fun Uncle Mike

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun this year. We were especially lucky because at the last minute Jared's youngest brother Mike and Emma surprised us all and bought plane tickets to join the McInelly clan making the family complete, even Great Grandpa Bill was able to come all the way from Canada. We felt fortunate to have Mike and Emma all to ourselves the first day or so of their trip. Boy was that fun!

Uncle Mike has this cool saddle that he straps to his back. It has handles for the kids to hold on to which is a good thing because his rides are pretty wild!



My kids (and the neighbors) love to show off their band, Uncle Mike was a great audience. He even joined in as a fill in drummer.... they are looking for a new drummer these days.

Here are some other fun pictures from our weekend.

A wild crowd watching the BYU game!

We love that chocolate fountain! Yum!

Linsey and her newest cousin, Dylan.

Hope your Thanksgiving was great!