A UTC Kind of Christmas

We gathered with the UTC folks (sans Becca and Brent - we missed you) for Christmas Saturday night at Kristi and Nathan's beautifully decorated house. If you didn't know, Kristi is the next Martha Stewart!!

This year is extra special with the arrival of our little ones and the celebration of their first Christmas. We celebrated with fabulous Manicotti. Kristi and I hear it was wonderful, but we're on restricted diets for our little one's allergies. We did get to enjoy some spaghetti and salad, though. We finally engaged in a cookie swap. We have been talking about doing one of these literally for years. We have decided this was our first annual. We also had a little fun with an ornament swap.

The most fun of the night came with the children's group picture. Trying to sit four little wiggly kiddos on a leather couch came with much effort (and many laughs). Wish we had also had the video camera out. We've decided Ada and Emma will be the trouble makers of the group. Ada is the only "mobile" child right now, so she kept wanting to crawl away. Emma wanted to wiggle down to her back and at times just wanted to cry (we later found in one of the pictures that the crying was due to a love tap from Ada). Owen and Nolan just sat so patiently the entire time, taking everything in and being so photogenic. All the babies are just too cute. We hope to make this picture an annual thing as well, watching these kiddos grow and adding to the group as more little ones arrive!

Dusty and I are so thankful for our friendships with the "UTC Group" and feel so blessed to be able to share in these wonderful memories with each of them. Here are some pictures from the night. (I don't have a group one - will one of you lovelies please send me one!? Thank you!)

Proud daddies - Kevin, Dusty, and Nathan with Owen, Emma, and Nolan

Emma, "Ooh, look! It's Owen. I love Owen." Owen, "Ewww, Emma has cooties."

Auntie Jess with her cuties.

Here's one of the group picture attempts. I think this one is hilarious because Ada's about to get on the move, Emma looks a bit flustered with Ada, and Nolan is getting smushed between Emma and Owen. We did have them in order of age, but as you can see in the next picture, they got moved around a bit.

Emma, 5 months; Ada, 10 months; Nolan, 4 months; Owen 3 months

(I'm framing this one!)

The two good little boys, just hanging out.

Nolan checking out his viewmaster ornament from the swap.

Partying was just too much for Em.