Christmas Eve 2010

My parents and brothers Bryce and Derek joined us for Christmas Eve this year. This is the 5th time in a row that we have had Christmas Eve with them. It is nice to live by family to share these special occasions. They joined us for a pizza dinner (Dominoes pizza--yummy and so easy for me) and then after a few games of kinect we acted out the nativity. Below are our Angels visiting the Shepards in the field. Notice Bryce the Wiseman on the couch trying to hide from the picture as this isn't his scene.
Wismen visit the baby Jesus in the stable.

Joseph and Mary with baby Jesus.

The whole gang. Emily was the innkeeper and the Wisemen are on the right. Nathan wouldn't dressup but did put on his baseball cap for his Wiseman role. I was the narrator and photographer.

After acting out the nativity once we did it again in quick motion so Melissa could have a chance to be Mary too. Megan just couldn't resist joining this picture and Nathan is listening intently to songs on his Uncle's phone.

Next we watched a Christmas music program together as we ate yummy treats. Finally, we laid out presents under the tree and opened one present each. It was a fantastic Christmas Eve.

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We woke up all the kids at 7am and had our traditional breakfast (mini boxes of cereal eaten upstairs on our playtables). This way they have a full tummy before they get candy in their stockings and they don't see their Christmas stuff which is on the way to the kitchen. Here we are mid present opening.

Holly requested no toys or clothes this year. What she really wanted was an IPOD touch and she got it.
Here is a picture of all her Christmas presents.

Nathan was very happy with his ride on motorcycle, construction trucks and lego sets. I have had to be the lego builder however and so far just 3 vehicles has been constructed. In the 1700 piece Megablocks kit everything is packaged together so you have to sort through all 1700 pieces to find the right pieces for each thing. Also Megablocks are not as well made at Legos--live and learn!

Megan got some new Barbies (I think the Barbie total at our house is over 100 by now), a baby alive doll, squinkies, Littest pet shop and some Playmobil toys.

Melissa thought my flash was too bright so she decided to cover her eyes in her picture. She also got a Baby Alive and some squinkies and Barbies.

Emily got lots of playmobil toys and a few petshop toys.

Emily was most excited about getting this Playmobil house and had it put together quickly.

Here is the inside of the house.

At noon on Christmas we webcamed with Scott's parents in Utah. The kids had fun showing off thier new gifts and singing Christmas songs for their grandparents. Then at 2:00 we headed to my parent's house for lunch and visiting with all the cousins. Christmas night we played our new Kinet sports and dance central games as a family. All in all it was a very fun day.

The good and the bad

The good. One of my favorite parts of Christmas is getting Christmas cards. It is so fun to go to the mailbox and find cards and pictures from friends and family. We hang them all up on our closet door to enjoy during the month. We sure know alot of great people! It seems like everyone is doing the photo cards now as they are cheap and cute. I bought 50 photo cards from Costco this year and it wasn't enough. If you didn't get a card from me, I'm sorry and next year I'll order more.
Since moving here 4 years ago I have wanted to attend an event called Snowflake Lane at a mall in Bellevue, Washington. This year I was determined to go and my mom agreed to go with me. My brother Bryce came along too and my big girls came. The word my girls used to describe the experience was "terrible". The drive to Bellevue was speedy but as soon as we tried to exit the freeway we joined a long line of cars (all probably going to Snowflake Lane) that we were in for 30 minutes to go 3 miles. Finally we made it to the mall parking structure and then we were in a long line of cars looking for a parking space. With just 5 minutes to spare we got parked and started running to the Snowflake Lane area. When we got there we could hardly open the doors of the building we were in to get onto the sidewalk where the festivities took place. It was solid people. I kept hold of my girls' coats so I wouldn't lose them. I was anticipating a winter parade but what we got is Christmas music out of a loud speaker and a drummer boy up on a stand dancing and drumming to the music. We all stood there squished looking at him and wondering "Is this it?". At one point bubbles shot out from the top of a nearby building as snow but it never fell far enough down to hit us. Fortunately my mom found a toy soldier walking by handing out peppermint lollipops and got some for the girls. After 10 minutes it was over and we pushed our way back into the mall. This was definitely the bad of the day. We won't be going back.

Fortunately the inside of the mall was not so crowded. I snapped this picture of my brother and mom.

We saw Santa and his reindeer but did not join the 1 hour line to get a photo with him. Santa is on a sleigh over in the lighted area .
After visiting a few stores in the mall and seeing that I could get presents wrapped for just $8-$20 a gift depending on size (How can they charge that much I wondered) we headed back to the parking garage. I guess everyone was heading home at the same time because we got in a very long line of cars exiting. After dropping off my mom and brother we drove by the awesome house in their neighborhood that always has amazing Christmas lights. The girls got out and got their picture taken with the lights. The good.

Today I am thanful that:

*Nathan has been wearing a BYU baseball cap for the past 24 hours--it is just so cute!

*They sell knock off Ugg boots at Target for $20. I saw some real Ugg boots at Nordstorm yesterday for $225.00. Yikes!

*Holly and Emily have wrapped up a lot of their old toys for Megan and Melissa for Christmas.

More holiday fun

Last week Melissa was in her first dance recital. She tap danced with other 4 and 5 yer olds to the song "Sleighride". She looked adorable in her costume and wore tap shoes not the old red shoes she posed in below.
Melissa told me her favorite part of the performance was lining up on stage as seen below (click on the photo to make it larger). The dance was definately not performed perfectly but the girls all had fun, smiled and were so proud of themselves.

We are way behind on making Christmas treats this year. But we did make some cute Santa's on sleighs for a few friends. Our home teacher brought us some of these last year and I thought the idea was so cute I copied it this year. I glued everything together with hot glue.

Santa's with bunny ears.

On Saturday we went to Scott's family work party. As always it was lots of fun complete with tons of food, treats, shows, and balloon animals. They rent the conference center at Microsoft and have different themed rooms with food and activities in each. This is a photo of us waiting for the Bollywood dancing show to start. Each of the kids is holding a frozen treat (which proved to be very messy). Fun times!

Today I am thankful that

*Holly had the opportunity to be in her school dance concert last night. She did a good job and it was so fun to see all 90 kids from her school perform in dance numbers choreographed by themselves. The boys' dances were the best.

*We don't live in a flood plain area. It has been raining alot here and luckily all the excess water hasn't affected us.

*The kids are so excited for Christmas--10 days to go!

Some Christmas Fun

I went to Micheals craft store yesterday and bought this cute Christmas banner for just $1.20.
I ironed the ribbon it came with and in just 2 minutes it was all put together. Simple! I think it looks very cute hanging from our mantle. Click on the picture to see it bigger.

I also went to a fun Christmas store and picked up this cute Elf. I recently read on a blog about the Elf on the shelf and so when I saw this guy I just had to get him.

You can buy an official elf on the shelf book and Elf. This is description that is given for the book;

Year after year, children and adults alike are baffled by the mystery of how Santa really knows who’s been naughty or nice. After much urging by the elves and Mrs. Claus, Santa has allowed his biggest secret to be revealed in The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition . Touted as “The best thing since The Night Before Christmas” this gift set includes a light skin, blue eyed North Pole pixie-elf, hardbound children’s book and keepsake box. Children can register their elf online and receive a special response from Santa.

Here is our elf hanging out on the mantle. My kids know the elf isn't really working for Santa but it sure is fun to find him each day.

We finally got up all of our outdoor decorations. Setting up the snowman is always a challange but we got him up and all the lights working! I assembled him inside where it is warm and then moved him outside.

In anticipation of alot of Christmas presents Melissa has decided to give away some of her old toys. She found lots of things she didn't like anymore and put them into this box. She told me they stink so that is why she is plugging her nose in the picture. Now everytime a friend comes over to play Melissa lets her friends sort through the box and take as much as they like.

I'd think this is a good thing but after a trip to McDonalds where she made me buy her the happy meal to get the hello kitty watch she said "I'm going to put this in my give away when I get home". I think I need to be careful what I buy her now because she might want to give it right away.

Our Advent houses caused too much contention and made me turn into a mean mom so I headed to Bartell drugstore and picked up these advent boxes for the kids. Now they can eat their chocolate whenever and however they want.

Nathan recently did some Christmas painting while

Melissa and I put together this fun foam house from Micheals. Just love that Michaels craft store.

Today I thankful that:

*The little girls have learned to make snowflakes--now what am I supposed to do with 100 of them?

*our combined ward Beehive activity was a success!

*Scott had a good day at work

A darling little girl's visit to Paris (slideshow)

I found this adorable slideshow when I was visiting this fun blog today:
http://www.sarahjanestudios.com/blog/

This second link should take you directly to the slide show.
http://private.stephanierausser.com/kiki_and_coco/

Makes you think about your next trip and what fun toy you can follow around and photograph and then set to music.

How do people come up with such clever things? I'm definitely more of an imitater that's for sure.

Have a wonderful day!

It's all Christmasy at our house

Today is December 1st and our countdown to Christmas begins. A few years ago I found this cute Advent house at Costco. It is part of a three house set (with about 8 doors on each house). Every day in December you open the door with the number of the day on it. Behind the door is a little space where you can put in candy or prizes. I put 5 pieces of candy behind each door, one for each of my kids. The kids each take turns getting to open a door, and they must do it when all the other kids are present. If not, all sorts of dramatics break out (amazing how kids can cry about everything).
Our collection of nativities is one of my favorite Christmas decorations. Each of the kids has their own set and just this year I inherited the cute Precious moments nativity from my Grandma who died earlier this year. I like collecting small nativities because then you can have a lot of them.

I also love gingerbread themed Christmas decorations probably because I am such a fan of cookies. This little scene is up on top of my kitchen cupboard.

I had to include this cute picture of my kids. They each had individual pictures taken at JCPenney in August and I put them together in this fun grouping and frame. We tried to take a group shot but I had two uncooperative children so the picture didn't turn out.

Nathan's favorite Christmas decoration by far is our gingerbread village with a train. The village lights up (with fiber optics), the train goes around at the bottom while Christmas music plays.

Another favorite thing for my kids is our Christmas tree. They each get to purchase a new ornament for the tree each year ($5 or less). The older girls have quite the collection. Plus friends and Grandparents give them ornaments. They each have a bag to keep their ornaments in and they get to put their own ornaments on the tree. Once the tree is decorated it becomes a plaything. They take their ornaments off and have them run around the tree exploring everything. Notice Nathan with his car below.
Even the big girls get into it. I was watching an HGTV show last night called 30 hits and misses with Christmas decorating. They suggested you not collect Christmas ornaments but just use three types of matching ornaments such as orange balls, sparkly stars, and turquoise wooden hearts to decorate a tree. Now that may look pretty but it wouldn't be any fun and not kid friendly at all. I am definitely a fan of ornament collecting.

Today I am thankful that;

*Scott is such a responsible and hardworking husband and father

*The sun is shining--which means I better get out and hang up the outside decorations.

*Playdates for my kids--if they don't have friends over they expect me to play with them. Luckily today is a playdate day. :)

And then there were five

It snowed on Monday and on Thursday (Thanksgiving) I saw a picture on facebook of a snowman that my parents had made. They live just up the street from me and so I thought "that snow must be the right constancy for snowman today". I hurried and got the two little kids in their snow gear. Luckily the three older kids can get ready themselves. And then we all headed out and started rolling snowballs. We started with one snowman and then decided to do a snow couple and then a snow family.
In the end we made 5 snowmen in just one hour. Wow! I thought it would be cute to get a picture with each of the kids in front of a snowman. Cute, right?

Here is a closeup of Megan lifting one of her snowballs. She is one strong kid.

And here is Emily with her snowdog. Every snowman family needs a snowdog right?

Our outdoor adventure ended when Nathan came up to me showing me his hand. I guess his gloves got wet and so he took them off and then his hands were freezing. Silly boy!

Today I am thankful that;

*I got to go to the temple with Scott this morning. We have been taking turns going for the past 12 years but now that the big girls are old enough to babysit and Nathan isn't a screaming momma's boy anymore we can leave him.

*Scott got to go and watch the BYU game with some friends, unfortunately they lost.

*Most of our Christmas decorations are up. The kids begged me put them up the day after Christmas they were so excited. Personally I'm losing steam in terms of decorating. I have too many decorations, it is exhausting to put them all up, and I am one tired momma.

Snow-Finally!

Last winter we didn't get any snow. So when it snowed today our kids were ecstatic. Melissa and Nathan went outside in their PJs they were so excited.
After lunch we put the kids in snow clothes and headed out again. Nathan thought riding in his car in the snow was fun. He liked the snow jump we made (for sleds) and parked his car right on top of it.

Of course when it snows out come the snow clothes and the mess that accompanies that.

By 3:00 in the afternoon enough snow had fallen to build a snowman. I pulled out my handy dandy snowman kit, and we got to work.

Holly rolled the biggest snowball and the neighbor kids helped with the other two. I put in my snowman decos and we had ourselves an awesome snowman. It was a wonderful day. And the best news of all--tomorrow is a snow day, so we can have even more fun in the snow.

Today I am thankful that

*Nathan did a good job without a binky all day, we took them away this morning (for good)

*Scott had a day off work and babysat the kids for a few hours and made dinner.

*We have a warm house to hang out in on a cold day.