Other People's Children

So Henry and Cory were not the only people at our Christmas celebration in Cedar City. In fact, the entire family was there, missing only my little brother who's off being an amazing missionary in Romania (but we got to video chat with him, so it was like he was there with us for a little while). What that means is that the party included my parents (2), my siblings including me (4), our spouses (4), and our children (8). 18 of us. 19 on Christmas proper, when Eric was there. It was awesome. I love my family. Oh, and there was the beagle. And the cat. Mustn't forget the cat. Though actually she was pretty easy to forget, considering she knows to hide from small children.

This picture was taken when the only child in the house was Henry, and he posed no particular threat.

But back to the subject of this post: the other people who were there! Here are pictures of (some of) them. :)

My sweet 2-year-old niece Brooke

Cory with little nephew Beck

Beck and Brooke on Grandpa's lap. I think one of my dad's favorite moments was when he had these two on his lap and asked if any of their cuteness was rubbing off on them. To which Brooke immediately and innocently replied, "Nooo."

Brooke and nephew Harper going at the piano. Harper's such a character.

There it is. :)

I'm sure Cory is thrilled that I posted this.

Victory!

Henry with Aunt Missy, who is expecting what will be my parents' 9th grandchild in April!

Brooke being sweet again. She does that a lot.

Love Harper's impish grin here

Here he is not feeling well, poor boy. You can see the difference. And that's my brother Thayne's shoulder

Henry on Grandpa's lap (How long have you owned that sweater, Dad?)

These are my sister's kids on their electronics. Megan, Carli, and Kate (left to right) with Brandon on the laptop in the background. What you're not seeing is Cory off to the left with his iPod :)

Remember how there were a lot of people there? The line of stockings was my dad's solution to a woefully inadequate fireplace. And this was taken before all of them were up.

Like I said. Awesome.

We're Back!

(Which, by the way, is the name of a dinosaur movie from when we were kids. Which comment is random and unrelated to anything I'm going to talk about now. So!)

We got back from Christmas vacation in Utah almost two weeks ago now, and it was quite the trip. At the last minute we decided we hate needed to get out of California sooner than planned so we set off in our (still mostly) shiny new car toward Utah and family three days early. Unfortunately, the big storm the weekend before Christmas was blocking our planned route to northern Utah, so we drove south instead. But that was after Henry woke up coughing that morning. He'd been coughing a little now and then for a couple of weeks, but this sounded like a sick cough, so we delayed our setting out and spoke to a nurse on the phone and decided to set off anyway.

Poor boy survived the hours and hours in the car, but he was coughing and his nose was running like crazy, which it continued to do for the next week and a half, until we drove home again.

Henry in his carseat on the way to Utah. Check those painfully adorable, shiny sick-baby eyes :(

This his is sick-boy-but-getting-better smile in Grandma Johnson's arms

We got to my parents' house in Cedar very early in the morning (about 1:30) on the Sunday before Christmas. We went with them to church and got to see their Christmas program. It was lovely, and I say that as a born-and-bred music snob. Really. Lovely. The music was well chosen and well performed, and Henry just lay quietly on the bench beside us most of the time.

But after lunch we packed ourselves and our stuff back in the car so we could make it to Draper in time for the big Petty family Christmas party. And we made it! We were even only 45 minutes late, which allowed us just enough time to eat before the nativity, put on by the great-grandchildren. I didn't get any good pictures of it, but this gives you the idea. Henry was stripped down to his white onesie (and blue socks!) so he could lay on the floor and play a sheep. :) The whole thing was adorable. My personal favorites (after Henry, of course) were the little wise man holding a wrapped present for the baby Jesus and the shepherd who kept wandering around whacking people with his staff as his towel kept falling off.

That's little Jane as Mary holding her doll; poor Joseph (I don't know his real name) sat very patiently and tolerated both the little kids and the staring adults. I was impressed.

That's Cory's Aunt Karrie holding the angel, and you can see the shepherd on the side there trying to escape :)

Then we made it to the Stephens household in time to hang out with everyone after the weekly family dinner, which was really nice. When we lived in Provo/Orem we would drive up to Sunday dinner in Sandy every week. The food is always amazing (this time it was pork loin with cranberry chipotle glaze), prepared by Cory's aunts, and the company is both relaxing and entertaining. It brought back a lot of good memories and was one of the many things over the trip that made us wish we were back in Utah. Sigh.

Cory and Henry hanging on the Stephens' couch with (Great) Grandpa Stephens and Banjo the Beagle

We did more in northern Utah on Monday and Tuesday, including a trip to Nicolitalia Pizzeria in Provo (best pizza in Utah, people. Best pizza in Utah.) and the Carl Bloch exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art. Both were amazing, but I will be leaving Cory to post about them, and will skip next to our time back in southern Utah, where we arrived (again) Tuesday night and where we spent Henry's very first Christmas!