mischief

look at these cute jammies b got. he is always getting into something. i think he is looking for those clingy window stickers. he likes to bite them.. i however don't like it :)

these two are two peas in a pod. b loves little c. he always gives her kisses and puts his favorite blanket on her. they have such a cute little connection!

christmas spoils.....

ooohhh, Christmas morning! Is there any better feeling? seriously, especially as a kid, nothing better than the anticipation of christmas morning!

All the kiddos, minus the two smalls, ready to go!

the mayhem

B got a little dog that plays tons of songs, really loud

k was protecting his pokemon from little b.. and yes, that is a safe you see on the table, for K, that's what he asked for this year!

next year G said he is asking for a crow bar to break into the safe with, love it!

j playing with all her little toys

g couldn't wait to get home from church and put together legos. he worked on this one for about 5 hours.

christmas night. we had turkey, cheesey potatoes, rolls, pretzel jello salad and apples and pomegranite salad. I was expecting 8 adults, and only had us and eventually the elders.. oh well, it was still petty tasty!

great holiday!

Christmas eve

I think Christmas eve is my favorite. Dont get me wrong, I do love christmas morning. But Christmas eve in our house is the night we really focus on the savior and his birth. We read from Luke 2 and watch the nativity. We talked about what our gifts to the savior were this year. Then we read the notes from each member in our family telling each other why we are thankful for them. I love it. Then they give their gift when the person picks their note. I love it.

This year was kinda fun. The kids got to open their presents from my parents, and they were THRILLED! It made it nice because we didn't have to do it amongst the chaos of christmas day.

It also kept the kids busy before bed time!

gingerbread kids

We had our annual gingerbread decorating night. Always so much fun!

Little Elves working hard!

Not complete until we have a royal icing mustache.

a couple random pictures

This is where I found little B the other day. I didn't even know he could climb. I guess he wanted a straw!

K had his christmas program. Pretty great night.

K did a report on Lincoln and had to dress up like him. Do you see the resemblance?

We made these the other night for the ward party. Huge marshmallows dipped in chocolate and rolled in a variety of toppings. pretty tasty

christmas program

It has been a month of performances. We went to j's the other day. it was pretty cute!

conversation starters

i love these little conversations!

me- hey guys, tonight we are going to go out and deliver our treats to our friends.

J- YEAH! i love that !

G- NOT ME! I AM NOT GOING! I HATE TO DELIVER STUFF! That's why I will NEVER be a mail man.

G said, 'MOM, do you think J might be a squirrel'

Me- Well, maybe, she is ALWAYS eating nuts. and I wonder if i might find her running up a tree one day.

G- What kind of animal likes jam?

me- hmm, i don't know.

G- well, flies do.

me- G, I am not going to say that you are a fly

G- well, I do ALWAYS throw up when I'm sick.....

lists!

Once again, my little G made me chuckle! He loves lists. Saturday mornings are notorious for his lists. He cleans as long as its on his list.

This was his list I found last week.

Taped to the top is his gift to christ for the day

-'put a note under someone's pillow'- complete with check mark.

-put toys away

-dust

-vacuum

-practice piano

-make gingerbread house

-play wii

Love this kid!

6 months

Look at this cute little girl! 6 months old! can you believe it! She is our chubbiest little one by far. Her thighs have roll after chubby roll. I LOVE it!

Christmas stuff

The cute girls donning their beautiful christmas dresses! i love that they match!

G's school put on the play of the nativity.

This was some of the windows inside the church, so beautiful!

J was pretty excited when she found this lady bug wandering around the basillica

G played the innkeeper. He did a great job! The nuns said that he was the best innkeeper they had ever had.

It was so cute to see him. He really did so great! He had to memorize about 3 paragraphs. He recited them perfectly! He was one cute innkeeper.

christmas fun

G's school had a fun Christmas night for all the kids. They decorated cookies with Mrs. Clause

Had a game room

Even little B got in on some of the fun, well, he actually pulled the stick out and walked around with it

Picture with Santa,

LOVED by ALL (K set little B on Santa's lap, not loving it)

and there was a little art station.

the kids loved it.

just hanging out

we got our first snow of the season last week (now it's all gone)

but the kids had a ball playing in it.

we had to get out our snowman kit, j is sporting the hat

this cute kiddo LOVES legos!

he plays for hours with them. he is a builder and a creator!

j trying out the snowman's corn cob pipe

crafty kids

a few of the crafts we have been working on this december

countdown chains til christmas

candy cane reindeer.

we made 48 of these babies and then took them to the old folks home and caroled and handed them out ( a friend organized the caroling and we had a great time- minus the room that was no less than 95 degrees inside)

painting the snowman from home depot

crafting has been keeping us busy

thank you home depot!

who knew that the first saturday of every month home depot does a free craft for kids? i didn't, one of my friends informed me.

today they got to build snowman napkin holders.

very cool

they had so much fun!

we went home and painted them and then decorated them!

a few random pics of what we've been doing

This is B's new obsession, turning on and off lights. He LOVES playing with the switches. I used to stand and hold him by them until I wised up and sat a chair in front of them.

J left the fridge open one day and B found a half eaten yogurt...looks like he finished it off

This is B and his favorite blue blank. goes everywhere with this thing. he sucks on the tag, and yes it is brown, and disgusting. i wash it constantly, he wont sleep without it.

this kiddo loves to play with electronics and anything he can tinker with. this was daddy's headlamp

the kids thought it was so funny to put a santa hat on c

the hunt

In keeping with our family tradition, we headed on Saturday to cut down our Christmas tree. It differs a little from the way we did it in Utah....trudging through snow up to our knees, nearly freezing to death, driving our cars on dirt roads for miles, but ending with chili or hotdogs and hot chocolate heated on a propane stove, sledding behind cars, the works. Here, it's a little simpler. We get a cart, walk up the hill, decide what kind of tree we want, go down that row, search for the perfect tree, and cut it down with the saw that was provided. You haul it down the hill on the cart, take it where it is shaken, wrapped in plastic netting and placed neatly for you to put it on your car.

a little different, but we enjoy it is just as much (expect for all the cousins running around)

We saw some friends at the same place, they LOVED this santa!

so did G

K started by pulling J up the hill, it got really steep

he switched out and had dad pull

B just chillin'

The perfect tree!

Each of the kids got to help cut it down, it was J's turn

loading it on the cart

They also have a store with over '10,000 ornaments'

we let the kids pick on. J tried this one on for size, but opted for a hello kitty one

decorating the tree....and our bodies

g put the christmas light boxes on himself

beautiful finished product! we bought new lights this year, we wanted white, but the kids ALL begged for colored....we got colored.

we love this tradition!