It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The kids got their one of their Christmas presents early from Gramma. She gave the girls Sunday outfits and they got to wear them on the 23rd. I couldn't get a clear picture;my camera wasn't cooperating and they all came out fuzzy.

We went up to Gramma's house on Sunday, the 23rd, to be there for Christmas. We were planning to go sledding during the day of Christmas Eve & that if we didn't have enough snow we would go bowling. Activities are fun for Christmas Eve day to keep the kids entertained and occupied and not too preoccupied about when Christmas is going to come. BUT...

this happened. The storm came HARD and fast. And it lasted practically all day. There was no let-up. In fact, Ethan was trying to get to my mom's and had to pull off the road till he could see better from the blizzard. And he has a large SUV. So, we occupied our time playing with Gramma's toys. She has a bunch they love to pull out every time we are there but she pulled out some new ones, which was extremely nice. She had these fun remote control cars that were pretty easy to operate.

That night we went over to Damon's for dinner and a small Christmas presentation. We would have enjoyed it more if Ashton wasn't so tired and miserable the entire time. We couldn't get him to eat or even be distracted for long and so we left earlier than we would have for Christmas Eve. But like always, it was fun to be at there house and spend the holiday with them.

CHRISTMAS MORNING started around 9:00. I heard the girls awake and talking to their grandma but they were in her bed, I think, and we were all trying to keep sleeping. Finally we succumbed to their pleas and surrounded the tree for the excitement of Christmas morning. This is such a fun time for us. Christmas, of course, but I mean this time of life with young children who are excited about every thing-big or small. I found Ella so excited about having her own pink chapstick!

I usually videotape the morning but this year I just enjoyed it and enjoyed them. All three of them were so fun to watch and hear.

I caught Livvy playing later on Gramma's piano- kind of a "no no" but Gramma was probably more passive about it on Christmas.

Preparing for Christmas

  On Nov. 23rd, the day after Thanksgiving, we picked out our tree at a local tree lot and brought it home and got out all our Christmas decorations. Olivia was the most involved in helping, the other two mostly carried off ornaments to play with.

We picked up Hyrum from work on Friday, Nov. 30th and headed over to the Christkindlmarkt event at the the Heritage Park in SL. They had live reindeer, Christmas carolers, Christmas vendors, etc. but it was REALLY windy the night we went and we couldn't stay. We quickly peeked at the cool things being sold but because of the weather, it was in fast-forward and we were on our way.

My sister-in-law, Sherie, put together a family collage for my nephew, Elder Brad on his mission in Fort Lauderdale and this is the picture that got taken for him. Almost tempting to send out in our Christmas cards this year... :)

We made gingerbread men this year. We don't usually add that to our festivities but was inspired by Livvy's school. She learned the poem at school and had since talked about it a lot. She had fun making her own for fun.

Ella had fun too. I just let her glob frosting as she wanted on the other one.

Then we made graham cracker houses this year. I switch from those to gingerbread but these were fun this year; to collect our own candies and make our own frosting and structures. I was smarter this year to make the houses the night before so they had time to firm up and we had no problems with them not being sturdy. Daddy teamed up with Livvy and there's is very artistic and creative. I teamed with Ella and ours is a bit more...fun. I don't think this is Ella's fault at all, she should have gotten dad to help.

 On a day that Olivia was home from school we made paper santa hats. I had to make sure that Livvy understood that it wouldn't go on the head after. I used cardstock since I didn't have any red construction paper but I think it was probably better since Liv used a lot of glitter-glue.

Ella got done a lot quicker than Liv at making her hat, so I quickly cut her out a stocking. She's pretty good with glue and glitter pens.

We went to the Spanish Fork Lights on Friday, Dec. 21st, later than we usually do but the kids loved it. We went to City Creek the weekend before, on the 14th. We picked Hyrum up from work and went to the mall and then to Temple Square to see the lights. It was cold but mostly it was hard since it was raining. So we were wet and cold and had to make a quicker trip of it all.

We had some good times with the kids in the days leading up to Christmas. Like every year, I think I could've done more WITH them and FOR them. But here are some of out memories of the season this year.

Kindergarten Christmas Concert

December 7, 2012

I was anticipating Livvy's Christmas concert all day. You think that would've made us get there sooner. There were so many people there, we thought it included more grades than just Kindergarten. They are a loved bunch of kids- lots of grandparents and extended family in the seats. Hyrum's mom and brother met us there and were able to hear all of it. Her cute friend, Abby (in the Santa hat) was standing next to her. She would look at us between songs and smile but when it was time to sing she was focused on the teacher and what she was singing. it was all very cute!

Thanksgiving at our house

I didn't take any pictures of Thanksgiving! Not one! I really should have because it was at my house this year and it was pretty full of people. It was a fun-chaos. My mom came down, Alec and his college friend came over, Ethan, Hyrum's mom and 2 brothers and of course, the 5 of us were there! We had just bought a new table and hadn't set it up yet but it was all in good timing because we defininately benefited from extra seating.

This is where I'd put a picture if I had one.

A few short visits

My mom doesn't live too far away but, most often when she comes, she stays overnight and leaves the following day. She came on the 1st to pick up my nephew, who was getting his wisdom teeth out to prepare for sending in his mission call. I just wanted to post a few pics of the visit.

Here's Alec playing a game with the girls. They adore him!

 My other nephews, Zach and Coleman, whom I rarely see, came over so we could celebrate Zach's birthday with him. They had just experienced a horrible tragedy of loosing everything in a house fire and we are grateful they didn't get hurt.

This was taken Nov 10th. The snow came fast and hard. It left nothing untouched and I like this view from my front window.

Halloween 2012

We went to the Heritage Park on the Saturday before Halloween and it was great. They had little games for small kids and trick-or-treating at the little houses and and stores.



He didn't stay in here long but it's the only picture I got of him with the full orange pumpkin outfit.

You can't see the girls very well but I just wanted to show the cute little train and the ride they took.



This is taken at the little village. Ashton had fun walking around.

We went to the annual Trick or Treat at the family medicine clinic that Hyrum used to work at for several years. It's a warm way to trick or treat and fun for the kids to dress up.

Ella is Jasmin, Ashton a cow and Livvy a cowgirl.

This was of Halloween Day.

Olivia wanted to be a cowgirl at school on Halloween. I found her had- last minute and she was so happy.

Later, on Halloween night.

The kids and I went to the annual neighborhood (tri-ward) trunk or treat. It was huge and fun for the kids. I decided to take the girls to a couple houses afterward or a couple friends.

And this little Lion was worth putting in here.

We went to the Dinosaur museum while we were at my mom's place for a couple days in October. It was sprinkling but it didn't stop us. It was mostly fun cuz Melissa and Lexi came too.

This is so cute of Lexi. Love the glasses.

This is Missy and Lexi. Missy was almost 8 months pregnant in this picture.

9 years for us

Our anniversary kind of got bypassed this year. It sounds sad but I've heard it happens to more couples like us. You may even be surprised how many. It's hard when you have kids, church callings, work and other things interfering with what you do really value in your life- YOUR MARRIAGE. But honestly, Hyrum and I know that our marriage means more to us than what we did on the 24th of October to celebrate our 9th year married. We are okay that nothing really was possible that day (Activity Day night and I'm Activity Day Leader) and Hyrum gets home late from work these days. But, we will be hoping to celebrate us at some point, what ever date it is.

But a little note in here about us. I am amazed at how quickly time does feel mushed together sometimes. Nine years sounds like a lot but it went so quickly. Four kids later and here we are, older and even more in love. Sounds sappy but your love deepens and strengthens through time. I am so grateful to be married to a man who works as hard as Hyrum does- in work, church, at home and on us.

One of my Favorite Books!

Hyrum surprised me with our "blog book". He had it ordered and made and gave it to me before our anniversary. I ended up rereading it and had fun with it. He had it printed from my first post in 2008 to the end of 2011. I really love that it's finally in print and I feel it's more permanent this way. I had written my blog to be a lot like a journal, but because of all the pictures I posted it was a bit like a scrapbook- minus all the embellishments. I seriously LOVE IT!!

 

 

Livvy's Soccer

Olivia started soccer in August and it ran through the end of September with 1, sometimes 2, games a week. They were always on Wednesday evenings and we had fun going to see her play. Depending on the hour of her game, I either could go by myself with Livvy and leave the rest with Dad or I had to bring all of us and hope that the other two could handle holding still, kindof.

Livvy was the only girl on her team but didn't seem to notice that- she just played some ball with friends. She had a couple of the boys in her class at school and that helped. They were seriously cute boys, too.

She liked getting ALL the gear on, not missing a piece. She didn't really know the rules at the beginning of the season, not having played before, but caught on.

They got medals, certificates, and even a dad brought soccer cupcakes for the team.