Christmas Day

Here are a few pictures of Christmas day. We spent it in Morgan at my parents house. We went Christmas Eve and came home the evening of the 26th. My brother and his family were there too. The girls played so well with their cousins which made it a lot of fun for the adults.

My sweet neighbor, Janet, gave us a gingerbread house kit and a book. She is such a thoughtful neighbor. We put it together Christmas Eve. The girls all loved it.

We acted out the Christmas story on Christmas Eve. Aubree was excited to be Mary even if she thought her costume was a little weird. Syd got to be a shepherd which she was delighted about because she got to carry around Grandma's special sheep. Scott was a wise man and I was the audience and photographer. The kids all did well and actually listened/acted the story as it was read from the scriptures.

Later we called Santa and each of the kids got to talk to him. It was fun to watch the excitement on their faces as Santa talked with them. (Thanks Santa......if you read this, you're a great Santa!)

The girls actually did pretty good going to bed and we got to stay up and play games. Aubree was pretty excited about Santa coming so she woke up at 6 am but we made her stay in bed until 7.

Aubree got exactly what she asked for......a Swimming Doggy. She kept seeing the commercial on tv and told me it really swims and walks. She was pretty excited and took a bath asap to see this dog swim.

Syd got baby accessories for all of her babies. She loves to take care of her babies and she's still playing with it all today so you know that was a successful gift.
The girls got a toy box from Grandpa Stevens that we can use. They really thought it was fun to get inside. Scott got a BYU football book he saw on one of his favorite shows "Cougar Diaries". Just like Aubree, he fell for the commercial. Here his is cuddling his book as he sleeps.
Later in the day we sent the kids out to play in the snow with Grandma and Michael. They had fun and built a really big snowman.

I loved this picture of Michael and Rachel. It really captured the moment.

Here are a few more cute photos in the snow.

....until next year!

Merry Christmas

I've decided one of my favorite things about the Christmas season is the way people treat each other. It just seems everyone is a little friendlier, more helpful and caring towards each other. I noticed this especially in my neighborhood this year.

I wasn't able to make it to the neighborhood Christmas outing for 2 reasons, I was sick and my family was at my house that night but I love the fact that someone organized this and invited the neighborhood. Also a neighbor that I've really never met came and helped me shovel our driveway after one of those storms we had. He was really nice and I felt bad about not getting to know him before. (Scott went the next morning and bought us a new snow blower, I can't believe I can actually see the driveway. I'm not holding my breath, it is only December but it's a good start for us.)

I just love the Christmas spirit.

Tis the Season

Tis the Season for soooo many things. Probably too many things because every year during December I try and do to much and end up getting sick. This week is no exception. I've felt a cold coming on for the past week and it has finally hit. Today I am trying to take things a little easier.....though I still went out shopping at 3 different stores. If I get the change to go alone being sick won't even stop me.

Last Saturday we had our ward Temple Morning/Christmas Breakfast/Primary Activity. Aubree got to be a shepherd as the kids acted out the nativity. She was very proud of her role. She also got to sit on Santa's lap. She actually did it and asked for a dog that swims. She was sooo brave. Sydney on the other hand wasn't so brave. She didn't even want to get close to Santa. I tried to help her get close but as you can see in the picture she was not very happy about it.

Aubree has been bugging me about taking a picture of all of us by our stockings every since we hung them up. We set up the camera and she got to push the button and run. It's actually kinda a cute picture.
We had a nice family bring us the cutest hot chocolate mugs with marshmallows, hot chocolate mix, cookies, etc. Basically it was the works and very thoughtful. We had to have a hot chocolate party in the evening. It was very fun and warmed us right up.This week has been crazy!!!! On Monday during the day I watched 4 different kids throughout the day, had Ann over and we had about 7 kids here, made 2 batches of caramel and dipped 3 bags of pretzel rods in the caramel.....YUMMY! I also did laundry.....everything was folded/hung up and put away, cleaned my house and we had 18 people over for FHE. It was fun but yes, it was crazy.

On Tuesday I made 2 more batches of caramel, dipped 2 more bags of pretzels in caramel and then dipped all 120 pretzel rods in chocolate, 20 marshmallows dipped in caramel and chocolate and drizzled them all with white chocolate. I also did some shopping in the morning and stayed up until 2 am working on this. I should have taken a picture of all the goodies but I was too tired.

Wednesday I tried to work out but felt too sick after being on the treadmill for 20 minutes so I came home. I spent the afternoon and evening working on Primary stuff. I had no idea how much time it takes to be ready for a new year. We had a Presidency meeting that evening and finished up 20+ manuals to be given to Primary Teachers on Sunday. I also made another batch of caramels to be wrapped.

Thursday I put together 45 goodie bags with all the pretzels and caramels I made. I also recleaned the house because it doesn't stay clean for more than an hour or so and Kimmy (Scott's sister) was coming for the night. We went to Temple Square in the evening to leave a car for Kimmy to come home and we visited Temple Square.

It was great to spend some time looking the temple, lights, nativity and Christus on Temple Square. I felt it really helped me remember the reason for Christmas. It was great to talk about that with my girls and help them focus on that. Friday I woke up feeling ill but still had things to do. We drove Kim to the airport and went to Ann's house. After finishing up our quilt blocks, making another batch of caramels for a few more pretzels and marshmallows (because all the others are pretty much packaged up to give away) we decided to make Peanut Butter Truffle Centers. Once again....yummy! I wasn't feeling very good but I kept going. We made a stop at Costco on the way home to buy a dessert for a party Scott and I had later in the evening.

I got home and crashed. I was SICK!!! We decided to call and cancel because I wasn't going to be able to make it.....now I have a huge chocolate cream pie in the fridge to eat. We stayed home and watched a movie but I still stuffed all my Christmas letters and got them ready to go.

I woke up this morning and I'm trying to feel better but still have to do a few things. It just seems like it's impossible to take a day off this time of year. We have 2 different places we're suppose to be to tonight.....I don't know if either of those are going to happen. Hopefully I can be better by tomorrow because I really can't miss church tomorrow. Maybe next year I'll slow down a bit and not get sick.....but probably not.

Pics

I've been trying to update the pictures on my wall of my girls. Aubree is at the point where I can reason with her enough to get her to cooperate but Syd on the other hand isn't to that point yet. It's almost impossible to get a picture of her. This is what I've come up with:

Aubree had to take her turn with the camera. Her latest thing is using the timer. She must think it looks fun to push the button and run into the picture. This is usually what I have to do

to get into a picture. She did pretty good with this one:

After using our wood fence for a backdrop I was actually glad for a few minutes it was wood and not vinyl. That's probably the first time I was happy about the wood. (just a little random bit of info.)

For the record...

I can't believe yesterday was December 1st and I RAKED the leaves outside. This marks 2 monumental occasions....first of all the weather has been amazingly warm outside. I didn't even wear a coat or jacket, just the sweater I had been wearing. It was sooo warm for December.

The second thing is we have lived in our house now for 5 years. I think it was 4 years ago that we planted a tree in the front yard and we now have enough leaves that need to be raked. I didn't think it would ever get bigger than a twig but it's grown like crazy this year.