Christmas Morning

Ethan set his alarm for 5:55 am so he coul have 5 minutes to relax before getting out if bed.  So at 6 am we heard both of them get up and run to the living room. It was fun to hear their squeals and exclamations. It was fun!!

They came running in to wake us up and so we faked being asleep. But they figured it out. So we got up and went into the living room with them. Courtney got an American doll with glasses that she had wanted and Ethan got a Wii game, Disney Infinity. They were both really happy!!

Santa brought me a towel, sheet set and gift card to Olive Garden. Bryan got the same as I got. The family got a pretzel maker. The kids also got gift cards and wii remotes in their stockings. It was a good haul!

We sent a text to my parents and they were in their way over. Then the unwrapping began!! Ethan got Legos, more wii games, books, a duvet fillet and a HUGE nerf gun. Courtney got a skateboarding dog, books, an easy bake oven, a soccer thing and a drum set. Bryan got gift cards, shoes, and shirts/ties. I got a Bosch and a book. We got a bocci game, board games and some wii games as a family.

We had breakfast of Heavenly Casserole (eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy), oj and overnight cinnamon rolls. It was yummy.

Then we began playing with our toys. Courtney painted her nails, ethan out together his nerf gun and played on the wii, Bryan started a puzzle and I'm blogging.

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

We have some fun traditions for Crhsitmas Eve. We always go on our hike then we have a pizza picnic next to the Christmas tree. We always get Pizza Hut pizza which Bryan and I like but the kids aren't big fans of their pizza.

As we ate our pizza, we talked about Christmas memories and it was fun to hear what they have liked in the past.

We then made a plan for the night. The kids really wanted to open their pjs so we did that at 5:30. 

We played the chimes and that was a lot of fun. Ethan's arms got tired from holding his chime so we got out a walking stick and hung them from that. It was a lot more fun when we didn't have to hold them. 

We then had to make cookies for Santa. Ethan and Courtney did that ALL BY THEMSELVES!!! I had to find the cookbook and they had me take them out of the oven but other than that, they made them all alone. I was so impressed!! I played the piano and Bryan napped while the kids were hard at work. Now we have to teach them how to clean up after baking. ;)

By this time the kids were anxious to get to bed so we said family prayer and they went to bed. We had already heard the Christmas story at Tuacahn so we had that covered.

Courtney only came out 3 times!!

Christmas Eve Hike

We have a tradition of going on a hike when we are here for the holidays. Ethan needed to plan a family outing for a Faith in God requirement so he decided to plan our hike.  

Bryan went to work for a few hours and then we loaded up and drive to Pioneer Park at the Dixie rock. There weren't a ton of people here but it wasn't empty either. We hiked all over and had a fun time!

It was a beautiful day with great weather!! I took some good pictures with Ethan's camera that I will have to post later.

Present Snowman

I saw this idea on Pinterest that I wanted to copy. A mom had wrapped the kids presents and made it into a snowman. So I decided to try it. 

The kids get a gift they want, one they need, and something to read. So it worked out great. I wrapped their presents individually and then put them in 3 boxes. 

I think it turned out cute! And the kids can't shake anything. Haha!!

Christmas Lights and Tuacahn Nativity

For FHE we went to the temple to look at the lights. We were kind of on a tight schedule so we didn't stay long but we got to walk around.

Then we went to the Adobe Icebox in Ivins for some hot chocolate. Thy have the best!!

We drove, along with everyone else in the city, to Tuacahn for the live nativity. Ethan froze but the rest of us weren't too cold. It was the last night and FHE so it was really packed! Ethan finished his hot chocolate before we even found seats. Then he finished mine. All if us had our hot chocolate gone before it began. 

I love this tradition!! Ethan doesn't but some day he will remember it fondly...or at least that is what we keep telling ourselves.

Science Musical Instrument

Ethan is in honors science at Lava Ridge.  His teacher has a different way of doing grading.  Everything is worth 5 points, no matter how many questions are on the test/quiz/assignment.  It makes it so you can miss quite a few and still get a good grade, but it also makes it kind of tricky.  Every trimester she offers one extra credit assignment to help students keep up their grades.  The extra credit assignment is worth 5 points, so it's a lot!

Ethan got a B+ last trimester and told me that he wanted to get a higher grade this trimester.  We talked about what it would take and he decided that he wanted to do the extra credit because it sounded like fun.  He had to make a musical instrument that could change tone and pitch.  Well, he procrastinated and I nagged....he procrastinated some more and I nagged some more.  We were getting no where.  Then the night before it was due I called in the big guns...Bryan.  He is a lot more reasonable than I am when it comes to grades and things.  Bryan had even taken Ethan to HomeDepot to find supplies to make the project.

So we talked to Ethan and he decided he would do the project.  He wasn't happy about it but the thing about Ethan is that he may not want to start it, but once he starts doing something, he has a lot of fun.  So he always feels good in the end, we just have to keep reminding him of that.

So they got out the power tools, drilled some holes, screwed in some things and voila...they made a table guitar.  And if you turn the knob, it will change tones and pitch.  It's pretty cool.  Ethan had a lot of fun playing songs on it and Courtney even got into the spirit and made her own guitar from a box and some rubber bands. 

In the end Ethan ended up having fun and he was glad he did it.

Here is his song:

Courtney's Owie

Courtney loves to play outside and one afternoon she came running in screaming.  She had been playing with a stick.  She raised it over her head and it slipped, hitting her in the face.  The screaming was more due to the fact that she thought she had just poked her eye out.  But, as you can see, it missed her eye, thankfully! 

Frozen Yogurt

If you know anything about Ethan, you will understand why we got a kick out of this Zits comic strip:

Ward Christmas Party

I didn't take any pictures because I was busy but I should have!  Our Ward Christmas party was on Friday the 13th so I thought we should have had some fun with it but I was over ruled.  The theme was "The Polar Express" and it turned out really well.  The Bishopric handed out tickets at the door to everyone and then punched them while the Executive Secretary acted the part of the conductor.  He really got into it and had a full costume and everything.

The Cultural Hall was decorated like a train.  When we started the party, the conductor read a shorter version of the Polar Express book and then we had a prayer and ate dinner.  We had soups in bread bowls and salad.  Everyone loved it.  There were kids activities in the overflow where they made bells, wrote letters to Santa and colored pages.  There was even a station to write letters to our missionaries.

When everyone had eaten their fill, the Primary began a hot chocolate station where you could "build your own hot cocoa."  The Relief Society sisters brought cookies.

Then we had a closing prayer and everyone cleaned up.  It was great but I am REALLY glad it's over now.

Pizazz Performance

Courtney had her first Pizazz performance for the year on December 13th.  This was the same night at the Christmas party for our Ward so Bryan took her.  It is also the first time that she had to have her full make up on.  I'm not a huge fan of all the make up.  They also have a new uniform this year so she was pretty excited for that. 

We had to take pictures before they left for the basketball game and I ran back to the Church.

Christmas Lights

For one of our Christmas activities, we went around looking at Christmas lights.  One house in Santa Clara has their lights set to music and we stop each year to watch it.  This year I decided to video tape a little bit of their display.  It was really cool!

A couple of other houses in town have similar light displays but this is the only one we ever go to.  There is usually a line of cars but after a few minutes you can get in front of the house pretty easily.

Ethan's Piano Recital

We braved the snow to go to Ethan's piano recital.  Luckily, it wasn't too far away so it wasn't too bad of a drive but my parents didn't make it because the roads were too bad.

Ethan has been working on these songs for a while and was worried that he would have a hard time with them.  We took his music to the recital in case he needed it but he didn't!  He did a great job!

It REALLY Snowed!!

After the Run Run Reindeer race it really began snowing hard and it was so cold that it stuck...and stuck...and stuck!  We got about 5 inches of snow on Saturday and the kids loved it!  We really should have gone somewhere and gone sledding but we just let them play outside in the snow.  It was crazy!

There is only 1 snow plow owned by St. George City and it was out at the airport so the roads didn't get cleaned off very well.  Bryan did a great job of cleaning off our driveway so we were able to get into the garage, but it was still pretty slippery.

The kids in the neighborhood all got together and played in the snow and made snowmen.  Ethan went with some friends and had a snowball fight with some of the older boys in the ward.  The boys (all seniors in high school) gave Ethan and some other kids 10 minutes to make as many snowballs as they could.  After 10 minutes, the boys drove around the corner toward Ethan and his friends with their truck bed full of snow.  Ethan and his friends were toast!  But they had a great time!

Here is Courtney in her snow stuff (you can see that she still has her race number on):

 This is our backyard.  If you look very closely you can see snowmen on each of the posts.  Bryan and Courtney made these.

Run Run Reindeer

It is our tradition to run in the Run Run Reindeer each year.  It's a race in Ivins on the first Saturday of December each year.  They give everyone a t-shirt, reindeer antlers and then you get hot cocoa and donuts at the end.  The kids love it.

This year my Aunt Kathy, Ethan, Courtney and I did the 1 mile run while Bryan and my Uncle Don ran the 5K race.  It was really cold when we ran so i had a hard time breathing but Kathy and I ran the entire thing and beat Santa!

Bryan and Don began their race after we finished ours.  It was just barely sprinkling snow when they began.  While we waited for them to finish we got donuts and hot chocolate.  Ethan didn't like the hot chocolate at all because it was really watered down.

Bryan and Don finished in good time and had a lot of fun running.  By the time they were done, the snow was coming down a bit harder than it was before.

Christmas Choir Concert

The elementary had their Christmas Choir Concert on the 5th.  This was our nightly Christmas activity.  The choir did a great job.  Courtney was right behind the microphone so all the photos of her has a line across her face.  But she was on the front row. 

Here is Courtney's favorite song from that night:

Ornaments

Last year I made a list of activities we could do every night during December to keep the Christmas spirit going in our house.  The kids loved it so we are doing it again this year.

For FHE after we got home from Denver, we put up our Christmas tree and Bryan put the lights on our house.  It was December 2nd and we were still one of the last houses on the block to put them up.  Our neighborhood is crazy over Christmas lights. 

The next night we decorated ornaments.  This is the kids favorite activity.  I bought some clear glass ornaments at Hobby Lobby in Denver over Thanksgiving.  We still had all the supplies left over from last year so we poured some floor cleaner in the ornament, swished it around and then poured it out.  The kids then put some glitter in the ornament and knocked it around to cover the entire inside.  Then we hung them on the tree.  They are simple and the kids loved it!

Another night, we did fingerprint snowmen and then drew in details when they dried.  Then on another night, we drew snowflakes on some black ornaments. By that time Ethan was pretty tired of making ornaments but that was okay because we had run out!

Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving in Denver with Grandma and Grandpa Pack.  We left pretty early in the morning on Wednesday so we could get to Denver early in the afternoon.  We had the car all ready and the kids climbed in with their pjs on.  The drive was great with only a small section in fog.  Ethan had a great spot in the back where he could lay out with his seat belt on.

 Courtney actually fell asleep in the car.  We had to document this because it NEVER happens unless we are 5 minutes from where we are going.  It may not look comfy but she slept great!

When we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house we started unloading the van when Bryan heard a hissing sound.  He immediately saw a nail sticking out of our tire.  Thinking quickly, he immediately hopped in the van and drove to a tire store to get it fixed.  He made it with some air still in the tire and they fixed it without charging him and really quickly too.  We were lucky.  There were a couple of other times when we saw nails but luckily we had missed them.

We played with Grandma and Andrew until Grandpa got home from work.  We all pitched in and made pies for Thanksgiving day.  The kids ran all over.  Courtney immediately began playing dress up and sang karaoke with Grandma.  Ethan played video games with Uncle Andrew and then got out the Legos.  They were in heaven!

Thanksgiving morning we went bowling.  We got there early and Grandpa stood in line (in the cold) so we could get in quickly.  We were able to get 2 lanes easily and began bowling.  We put the lefties on one lane and the righties on the other.  We had to wait quite a while for things to slow down so the man could put up the bumpers so we began bowling.  Ethan does a lot better without the bumpers but they still did one game with them up.  The kids had a lot of fun although Courtney had a rough time getting going.  She had a hard time figuring out what to do and wouldn't listen when Bryan tried to help her.  But it all worked out and we had a lot of fun.

Although there were only 7 of us for Thanksgiving dinner, there was enough food for at least 4 times that many.  We didn't even touch the second pumpkin pie and I don't think all the apple was eaten either.  It was crazy but the food was wonderful!  The rest of the day was spent just being around family.

Courtney had to swing in the tree swing after we went bowling.  She had a lot of fun.  When she first ran up to the swing there was a squirrel on the ground. He went running up the tree and almost fell out trying to jump to the other tree that was closer to the house.  It was fascinating to watch him scramble and try to get away from us.

Friday wasn't too big of a shopping day for us.  We did go out and get some things but it was later in the day.  There wasn't a whole lot I wanted to get and I was still mad at the stores for being open on Thanksgiving Day.  But we went to the movies and saw "Frozen."  I thought it was a good movie.

That evening we decided to go ice skating.  Grandma spent her time teaching Courtney to skate and Ethan hung out with Andrew.  Both of the kids were really natural on skates and did a great job zooming around.  At one point, Courtney stopped to tell Grandma something and a little kid slid right into Grandma from behind.  She didn't see it coming and went down hard.  We were all nervous that she had really hit her head hard, but once that pain subsided she realized that her elbow was really hurting.  She ended up in the ER with a fractured elbow.  That wasn't fun!

Saturday morning we went shopping with Grandma in her soft cast and sling.  She was a trooper as we got Christmas gifts taken care of.  We also learned to play "Smurf" which is a really fun game!

Sunday morning was pretty sad for the kids because it was time to go home.  They weren't very happy with us but what can you do?  The drive home was pretty uneventful.  We saw one accident but we were past it really quickly.  We made good time and were happy to be out of the van.

It was a fun Thanksgiving!

Turkey Trot with Courtney

Before Thanksgiving Courtney's 3rd grade class combined with a Kindergarten class to perform the "Turkey Trot" for their families.  Courtney drove Ethan NUTS talking about this all the time.  We were pretty excited when the day finally arrived.

It was during the day so I was the only one able to go.  Each student had a part of a story to tell and Courtney had her line memorized and did a great job. 

 Then the students all did the Turkey Trot for us.  Courtney started out in the front but was slowly pushed backward until she ended up behind some other kids.  It was okay because she was still having fun!

When they all finished, they invited the audience onto the stage to do the Turkey Trot with them.  It was pretty fun.

Last year when they did this activity they didn't have any kind of refreshments afterward.  But Courtney's teacher decided they needed to have something fun for the kids to celebrate the season.  So I helped cut pumpkin pie and serve hot wassail and apple cider.  The kids had a great time and it was a fun start to the holiday season.