Christmas 2011

Well, we planned and anticipated all year long and then Christmas was suddenly here. At least, that's what it seemed like happened!

On Christmas Eve we had a nice, beautiful dinner, very similar to a Thanksgiving feast. Afterwards, we acted out the Nativity story (somewhat irreverently) and then forced the kids to bed.

Here is what the living room looked like when Santa's elves finally got to go to bed. I think it looks beautiful and peaceful and Christmasy. :)
We told the kids that they couldn't come down until 4 AM. They were then allowed to come take a peek at what Santa left, but they couldn't touch anything! They weren't allowed to wake us up until 6 AM. Daniel was at our bedside at 06:00:00 MST. Rebekah is usually not a morning person, but she found a way to perk right up this time. Sarah, also not a morning person, was not so easily affected.

This year, Santa wrapped his presents; a deviation from his usual behavior. We didn't want the kids to see what they were getting before we were ready. Santa left us a Wii system and we have been having so much fun with it! Definitely, one of Santa's best gifts.

We had a lot of fun opening presents and helping each other open presents.

Daniel got his first official pocket knife. He's been asking for one for quite a while, but his mother was just not ready for that. (You can see the strap of a Wii remote hanging from his wrist. hehe)

That pocket knife came in handy when we needed a box opened!

Leah's face only gets this happy when horses are involved. (It's a horse barn.)

It may not look like it, but we had less presents this year. That felt really good to me!

We had church at 9 AM, so we saved our stockings until after we got home. The kids were a little fidgety, with thoughts of Christmas running through their heads, but the meeting was very nice and made the day for me.

Daniel is a preteen. That should explain why he's off by himself.

Yes, the Christmas hurricane has been here.

My job was to set up the Wii. We got it up and running and then piled into the van for a last minute trip to Utah to have Christmas dinner with cousins.

We got to play a bit on Monday and then had another trip to spend time with family on Tuesday. The girls had fun playing with their cousin's dress-up clothes. :) Three princesses! (Rebekah is on the left.)

The rest of Christmas vacation went typically...everyone lounged and I tried in vain to keep up with everything.

I hope your Christmas celebrations were meaningful and memorable!

Christmas PJ pictures

I got the pajamas done at a respectable time before Christmas this time. That was a lot of sewing. I like seeing the pictures after I get them loaded on the computer, to see what I missed the first time. I almost titled this post, "Bully Christmas." If you look closely at Sarah's smile in most of these pictures, you'll understand why!

Here are 4 at once, just to keep the amount of pictures to a dull roar.

Daniel won't let me get a normal picture.
Ah...that's more like it! ;)

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. What are we going to do with you?

Sarah had finally had enough "smiling" and tried to retreat under the couch. Too bad she has brothers.

Since we have enough kids, let's make a pyramid!

Sarah really looks up to Joseph.

All together, now! Who's in?

And before all of us are done, someone has had enough. Maybe we can coax one more picture out of him.

Or maybe not.

Merry Christmas to all; and to all, a GOOD NIGHT!

Temple Square 2011

I had a strong urge to take the kids to see the lights at Temple Square this year (last year). I don't know why this urge hits me, since the lights aren't really different from year to year, and the kids don't seem to really be wowed by the experience (not to mention 6+ hours in the car to make the journey).

But we went and I made sure to bring my camera this year! It was a little cold.

This walk behind the Assembly Hall is one of my favorite parts of the lights display...so pretty in pink! (That is a picture of my mom since I obviously can't take a picture of the back of myself walking away.)

The temple through the colored trees was beautiful.

The reason for Christmas is the Nativity (in case you didn't already know) and the Church has a beautiful display on the reflection pool during Christmas time. Oh, now there is a picture of me!

One more shot of the kids, this time with Grandma.

And a family shot on the steps of the temple itself. I love that the gates are open for this. All of the kids touched the wall of the temple (except for Sarah...she didn't really care).

It was cold and crowded, so we only lasted about an hour. Deseret Book had a nice Christmas display and handed out a tiny gingerbread cookie. That was fun. It was a good night.
The next day, we went to Gardner Village and looked for all of the escaped elves. We only got one picture since it was me against 6 kids, and they weren't all happy. Here they are sitting under one of the elves that some how got himself stuck on a trellis! ;)
Yes, Rebekah and Joseph were refusing to look at the camera.

The weather looks fair, but the smog was unbelievable. We could just about chew it. It was a blinding experience to finally emerge from it and see real shadows (just a little north of Tremonton).

And now we're good until at least 2014 before we have to see the lights at Temple Square (I think).

Ward Christmas Party

I looked forward to the Ward Christmas party this year. Mostly because I knew I could just sit and enjoy it this year. I helped set up early in the day, but was "off duty" during the magic hour.

Santa visits the kids before the party. I really like this arrangement, because if we end on a spiritual moment, we don't have screaming kids and jingling bells to kill the spirit. This year, Santa's Helper was a ward member. When he's not being Santa, he's teasing my kids and kicking them in church. That someone should be getting coal for Christmas presents!

Anyway, Daniel recognized his voice. You can see that he is in on the secret. He was 11 years old this year. I wonder if he will sit on Santa's lap next year?

Nathan learned the "magic" of Santa Claus this year (based on a late night conversation between his father and I). I think he knew at this point. But he's really only playing along for the candy cane.

Leah is still a firm believer. But she knows that the real Santa does not have time to make so many public appearances and that he has Helpers to stand in for him.

Rebekah is still so sweet and innocent. Thankfully, this visit with Santa went a lot better than the one before! It helps when Santa knows her name!

Aw, Joseph. He was so timid and cute. And he's got a double-handed grip on that candy cane!

This looks really similar to Sarah's Santa picture from last year, except she's bigger. This would be so sad if it wasn't so cute! She didn't even want to talk about the candy cane. She had only one goal. She probably knows who is under that beard!

Daddy is very un-Santa-like (and not at all scary). It would be safe to accept the candy cane from him. Gotta love that headband that is doing its best to escape as well!

While Santa Claus is a big highlight, he isn't the reason I look forward to the Ward Christmas party. I love the dinner (that I don't have to cook)! We all enjoyed it.

Sarah really enjoyed it. A lot. Obviously.

I tried to enjoy it a little less. I had just started Weight Watchers on the 12th (the day before), and was trying to be good! I was good. I could have been better, but I would have been a lot worse if I wasn't trying to be good. (That's a deep thought, isn't it?)

Gingerbread Houses 2011

*This post contains a personal recommendation of a product for which I received no compensation.*

We didn't make Gingerbread Houses last year (and by that, I mean 2010) because it was in the middle of our "no candy" challenge and I didn't want to deal with the disappointment of loading up a house with candy and then not being able to eat it!

But this year (and by that, I mean 2011), candy was not an issue. ;) And I'd seen an advertisement for this cookie cutter set from Wilton. It cuts out a perfect-sized gingerbread house and it cost me less than $8 at a party store in town. No more templates or bad measuring for me! I made 3 houses and "glued" them together earlier in the day of our event.


Every "team" got a bag of royal icing, which we called glue while we worked. We didn't hold back in our use of glue, just like in real life! Daniel is prepping his work space with glue.


Rebekah and I worked together on a house. She really likes gumdrops and made sure to line the peak of our roof with it. We used Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for the roof shingles.


Nathan, Joseph and Leah were another "team." They also used gumdrops on their roof. It was a popular idea!


Sarah was her own team. She didn't build any houses, she just ate as much construction material as she could. And she stayed in the middle of the table the whole night.


Luckily for her and the rest of us, there were plenty of construction materials to go around.


So how is it that she was running out of something to eat?


Rebekah was dedicated to finishing our house. I took breaks in between snapping pictures to help her. Doesn't it look good enough to eat??


Chad and Daniel were a team and they specialized in using as many M&M's as possible, as well as one other thing.


Chad dedicated his creative skilz to the development of gumdrop/pretzel people. He had even more fun placing them into crazy situations. I had been so tempted to send in a few pictures to his co-workers, but I just never got around to it. (Shucks!)


Here is Nathan, Joseph, and Leah's house. I think it just dripped creativity! Do you see the little car on the right that Nathan engineered?

Rebekah and I had a small zoo in the yard of our house...

...as well as a kid in a large snowsuit riding a sleigh, followed by a reindeer. Rebekah came up with the reindeer after watching Chad make his clumsy people!

What a happy bunch of construction workers! Sarah's face tells the story of her participation.

What a nice contrast to the pictures of December 2008. I had yelled at the kids during most of the activity and you can tell what effect it had the kids. This image has been burned into my mind and conscience and I am happy to say that I have mellowed a bit since then. Maybe they won't need therapy for that night anymore.

So sad. Not one of my better parenting moments!


I've learned that there are a lot of traditions surrounding gingerbread houses. Most traditions seem to not include actually eating the house. What a tragedy! We started eating our houses nearly right away. Here is what they were starting to look like after the kids left for school the next day. They were yummy and we were ready to throw away the left overs when they became too hard to chew.