Christmas Day!

I didn't take that many pictures on Christmas morning, too busy enjoying it I guess, but it was a great morning. The kids slept until about 6:30 and they were so sweet. Right when we came out they immediately wanted Brian and I to open the gifts they had made for us. Awwwww. So cute. Brian got me an ipod nano! I was pretty surprised. Our old one broke and I use it to exercise with so I was pretty excited. I'm sure that's the only thing that has been holding me back from exercising this last month :) No excuses now. I got Brian a temple bag and a shutterfly calendar of the kids for his office. The girls got sewing baskets from Santa and a sewing machine (hooray for Black Friday!) to share from Brian and I, they were pretty happy!

Miles got trains and more trains! He was, and still is, in heaven.

Nora got a Kit American Girl Doll. I had to put this picture in because you'll notice Sophie's reaction in the background. I'm sure she's thinking of the complete injustice of us making her save all year to buy her doll, and then Nora just gets one handed to her at Christmas!!

But honestly they are such different girls, I know there is no way that Nora would ever have the diligence to save her money for a year. Even if we tried to make her she would probably be able to buy one when she turned 18. She truly would never be able to do it! And I wanted the girls to play together with them. I explained to Sophie that we bought Nora's doll used on craigslist for 1/2 the price and that she cost the same as Sophie's main gift. But Sophie was fine and they have been playing so cute together with their dolls, Sabrina and Kit. Nora was beyond thrilled that Kit was also wearing jammies that matched hers!

Our four cute girls :)

Here is Sophie's main gift: a camera!

And since I didn't have one picture of Wesley, here is a group one with him in it. He got trains and a Mr. Potato head. We gave him trains not only because he loves them - he can point out Thomas and Sir Topham Hat in our books, but it also gives him some leverage when playing with Miles!

And a picture of our puzzle this year. It was a little hefty for the kids (750 pieces) but the girls helped quite a bit and Brian and I finished it off by Christmas night. We've had a bit of sickness traveling through our family the last week or so. Both Nora and Miles were throwing up the night before Christmas Eve, then Wesley, and then Sophie was sick and threw up Christmas morning so just Nora and I went to church... then I got it on Tuesday! Today we are all feeling better and hoping Brian won't get sick as well. Yuck!

Christmas Eve & Book Find

Brian's family does a yearly tradition called The Book Find. His parents buy each person in the family a book and wrap them all in different wrapping paper. On the night of the book find you get a piece of the wrapping paper that matches your book and you have to find it. It is always one of the most anticipated events of the Holiday season and was a lot of fun this year!

Miles got a Thomas book that has a little projector and slides with the story, Wesley got a Cat in the Hat book with a blanket/stuffed animal Cat. Sophie got a beautiful doll book that has fun pop up pictures and lots of facts and information on the Edwardian Era. She loves it. Nora got a fairy tale book on the 3 Billy Goats Gruff that came with a Cd. The girls both got cute bags as well. Brian got a book Stephen Covey and I got a sewing book! Thanks grandma and grandpa!

We did all this while skype-ing with the family in Utah and while we all had our backs turned towards the computer Wesley got a little too quiet....

and found the baby powder. He loves dumping out things lately! After the book find we went to the park! Which is something I'm sure we've never done on Christmas Eve! We took the stroller and the wagon and walked a few blocks down to "the blue park" as the kids call it.

This pond was very frozen and we took a few steps out on it to slide around, but not too far. Brian still remembers falling through the ice when he was young and having his brother save him. Scary.

When we got back from the park we had dinner, crepes, and then the kids got their Christmas Eve pajamas. Sophie even got a pair to match her doll, Sabrina. I made Santa Sacks this year so each of the kids leaves their sack on the couch and that is where Santa leaves his present for them. (I'm planning to make a bunch of re-usable ones for next year so there will be no wrapping paper next year!) I put their jammies in their Santa sacks.

The best part of the whole weekend happened on Christmas Eve. We read the nativity story, first in the scriptures while the kids acted it out, and then the kids all brought in blankets and pillows by the fire and we all snuggled up and sang Christmas songs and looked at a Christmas nativity board book together that has lots of pictures and the Christmas stories from both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. And guess what? The kids actually listened to the whole thing! Miles stayed laying down and listening to it all and Wesley sat and looked at a book quietly. It was a wonderful evening that was pretty much perfect. Our own little Christmas miracle!

Of course we let the 3 big kids all sleep together on the air mattress in the girls room. They were so excited but went to sleep pretty well and didn't wake up until about 6:30am.

The week before Christmas...

The week before Christmas we actually got a bit of snow. It only lasted a few days but we lived it up! Nora spent almost the entire day outside and loved it. We pulled the kids around on the sleds and had a great time. Brian even pulled me around the yard once :)

Sophie had a school concert on the 20th. It was the 2nd and 3rd grade classes and Sophie tried out to sing a solo part for "A Song of Peace" and she got it! Brian and I were surprised she tried out since she is pretty shy. She was so excited but the day she found out she got the part she had a rough night being very grumpy and whiny. I finally said, "What in the world is going on with you tonight?" and she threw herself on her bed and cried, "I don't think I want to sing the solo part!" She was very nervous and scared, but with lots of prayers from us and our families (thanks everyone!) she decided she could do it! And she did such a good job. She has a sweet voice. Her music teacher told me she has such a pure, sweet voice and perfect pitch. The night before the concert her music teacher called me and said that the girl who was the back-up for Sophie was really upset about not getting the part and she thought maybe she was trying to get Sophie to not do it. I felt bad for this little girl and I could tell Sophie was thinking about letting her do it instead because she didn't care about it as much as the other girl did. But in the end Sophie did it, and she did a wonderful job. We were so proud of her! I can't get the video to load on here, but it is up on my facebook page.

The boy on the left in the blue also sang with Sophie, but for some reason we couldn't hear him very well, and only occasionally. Which was too bad, but we could hear Sophie really well. She did forget to sing the last line at the very end of the song, but no big deal. She realized she had missed the start of the line so she started singing it quietly, but the boy didn't join in and she got nervous that she was wrong. It was such a fun day. I love seeing my kids finding the things they love to do! Here are the girls in front of our tree the day of the concert:

The Monday before Christmas we had a Family Home Evening with our friends and neighbors, the Osmans. We decorated gingerbread men, acted out the Nativity and had dinner. We had a great time and we are so grateful for these wonderful neighbors!

Sophie was the angel, Nora the wiseman, Miles was Joseph, Hallie was Mary and Marshall and Wesley were shepherds. Although Wesley wanted nothing to do with it. He fell off a chair right before we started and just wanted to sit with Brian.

We delivered 14 treat boxes in one night! I made caramels and it was kind of a nightmare. It boiled over my pot and all over the stove and down the sides so I had to pull out the stove and scrub it and the floor down. Then I took off the front glass to clean behind it and the whole front part kind of fell apart and I lost a screw and the side pieces either broke or we couldn't figure it out. So Brian and I spent an hour trying to put the stove back together! The good news was that I was able to save some of the caramel mixture because I had my buttered pan right there and dumped some of it in there. So I reboiled it and it turned out delicious!

The tree.

This was the first year EVER in both Brian and I's entire lives where we haven't cut down our own Christmas tree!! We were planning on cutting one down. We'd looked up a place near Madison and loaded up in the car to go, but after about 15 minutes realized we'd headed in the wrong direction! So now the place we were going to was an hour away instead of 45 minutes and it was pouring rain. So.... we pulled in at the nearest Menard's and picked out a $23.00 tree. Nora was pretty sad about it but we let her get a $2.00 wreathe to decorate and she recovered.

Yes, Miles is wearing pajamas, not to mention too small rainboots. Eh, pick your battles. He does have a coat on so that's what is important, right?

We did have fun walking around Menard's looking at fun Christmas decorations and lights. We even - for the first time - bought lights and hung them upon our house!

Yes, Wesley is wearing a girls coat. It was both Sophie and Nora's and it fits him perfectly and I can't find the 12 month boy coat in the storage room. Luckily he doesn't seem to mind. But no one can tell whether he's a boy or a girl in this coat. I find it kind of funny.

Here it is up and mostly decorated. Don't mind Nora trying to strangle Miles :)

Thanksgiving!

We went back to Michigan for Thanksgiving and had such a fun time with our friends there. The kids all played together just like old times and Miles even tried to go in our old house to get something! Nora was SO excited to see Maddie and they spent a lot of time crafting together, and even called themselves "the craft girls", which it says in the picture they are coloring.

Just hanging out...

We stayed with the Johnson's and these three boys were pretty darn excited to be having a sleepover. They were so cute together the whole time. Zach and Grant are so good at sharing their toys. Miles was in heaven and is still asking me when we are going back!

More hanging out...

These 3 played together a lot as well and all had fun being puppies and superhero's! Zach introduced Miles to the world of superheroes and today he asked me to be Wonderwoman. I asked what Superhero he was and he said, "Dinoco Lightning!"

There were kids all over the place...

Sophie also got to stay with her BFF from Michigan - Ellie! They had fun and Ellie was so cute and started crying when she saw Sophie.

Sophie and Timmy made a yummy apple pie together.

And the Johnson's cooked the turkey. On Thanksgiving Nora informed both Brian and I that she was not going to eat any turkey because turkey's are animals and part of nature. And she hasn't eaten meat since. She has never really liked it so it's not too surprising. I imagine she'll still eat it sometimes, but we'll see where that goes. :) Sophie loves taking care of the little kids. Especially if they let her carry them around. Here she is with cute Emmaline Jane. Who is adorable.

At Zach's house Miles fell in complete love with this Dinoco Lightning toy (that used to be Spencer's). He kept it with him constantly and before we left Zach gave it to Miles! And he is so thrilled. He has played with it every day and slept with it every night since he got it! Thanks Zach! I don't think Miles needs Christmas now.

The only downfall to our trip was that we had to say good-bye. Sad! We had such a great time and we miss them all over again!

Here we are on our way home! The kids were amazing both ways. We definitely have some good travelers! We only stopped once on the way to Michigan and once on the way home. Awesome. And they only watched one movie on the way there and one and a half on the way home. There's our plant, Rapunzel, in the back window that Ruth was saving for me! It's nice to have her back.