Christmas!!!

Christmas was awesome this year! I know I say that every year, but it's true!! On Christmas Eve, we went sledding as a family during the day. That night we met Trav's family up at the cemetary to visit Rex's grave, but there was so much snow we couldn't find it! So after being there only a few minutes we went back to Shirlene's house for clam chowder, stories, chatting and great family time. 

The kids were eager to get home to open their one present on Christmas Eve.

 William went first opening his gift from Kate....(some goldfish crackers)

 Kate was next opening her gift from Will.

 A minion! It was funny because when we were shopping for Kate's present William kept saying that he wanted to find something "creepy" to give Kate. We went up and down the aisles (He muttered in the doll aisle..."This isn't creepy). He finally settled on the minion thinking that was the right amount of creepiness in her gift. Silly boy. But she did love it.

 Josh was next opening his present from Kate. (a lego set)

 Then it was Rach's turn opening a Calvin and Hobbes book from mom and dad.

 Rach was anxious to give me her gift insisting it was my first gift this year.

 New fuzzy slippers!! That was all I needed. We could have cancelled Christmas after that (according to me)

 Kate knew exactly what she wanted to give dad. We even had to order it on-line because I couldn't find it in the store.The anticipation is killing me!!....

 Paddington, the movie. Just what daddy always wanted....

 We then set cookies, milk and a carrot out for the guests coming that night.

 Someone thought he'd try to be sneaky and pretend to be Santa.

 This is what we woke to in the morning!!!

 Kate got her beloved cheese balls!

 Will loved the alligator Josh got for him.

 I was really horrible about taking pictures this year! But this is what it looked like after we opened all our stuff.

 The box/garbage piles are always so big!

 William tried to help me in the kitchen. We made a yummy turkey dinner for that night and all the grandparents came. It was a great night!

 The rest of the day was spent playing with all that great stuff we got.

 Thanks Santa!

My favorite part of the day was telling the kids our big news!! (we did take a video of it, but apparently we forgot to take pictures...oh well). They are all very excited to be adding another sibling to the mix!!

We decided to surprise the grandparents too. So that night for dinner we had Rachel say the prayer and in the prayer she threw in, "Please bless mommy and the baby that they will both be healthy." I could feel eyes opening in surprise but tried to keep a calm, closed-eye face until the prayer was over. They were SO surprised and it was a fun way to announce to them to have the kids in on it.

Merry Christmas!!

December, Disaster and Dasher

We had an awesome December this year. Christmas season with little kids is the BEST! We also got a ton of snow this year which doesn't hurt the Christmas spirit. So here's what we did this December.....

 I had been meaning to take this picture for months and decided I needed to do it before somebody grew too much! William and Josh got matching "school" shoes this year. They are totally awesome and super handsome in them.

 These two little buddies play their hearts out when Kate comes home from Kindergarten every day. We're always glad when Kate comes home.

 I tried to get a picture of these kiddos in all their different Christmas hats but someone wasn't cooperating. I won't mention who....

 We did make a trip to temple square to see the lights. It was a gorgeous night and the lights did not disappoint!

 It wasn't even crowded either which was an added bonus.

 We spent a good amount of time catching up on old Christmas shows.

 I love those days when you can just lay around in your jammies all day....

After our plans to go to the cabin failed when the cabin got flooded (Nooooo!) we made the best of our time with my sisters in town. We had a party at the Hardy's. It was a Hardy party. Hah! My sister made all these adorable forest animal hats to take to the cabin. Too bad we couldn't test them out at the cabin yet! But we did get lots of good cousin time while everyone was here.

 Trav and I got to go see the new Star Wars on opening night. It was really good too! On our way home I dropped Trav off with his friends to go see it again! Darth Vader really is tall!

 We also got to go to a Festivus party this year (Seinfeld fans, anyone?) The party was a ton of fun and we all came home with white elephant gifts. This is what we were lucky enough to end up with. I'm pretty sure these are what will be making appearances in my nightmares from now on.

 We also had our annual Gingerbread house making night. We decided to split into 2 teams and make 2 houses. For some strange reason Rach and Josh begged to be on daddy's team. So it was Kate, Will and I. I was going to show them!!

 Here's the architect hard at work.

 We had our house up and the kids were decorating it and we were done when Trav's team was still putting walls up. It looked pretty good too!

 But before I could get a final shot of our gorgeous house....it collapsed.

 It was so awesome while it lasted.

 We had to then wait for the "other" team to finish theirs.

 The good news is, we didn't feel bad when we started eating it!

 Okay, I get it.....I would want to be on daddy-the-architect's team too. But in my defense...he does this for a living. I'm pretty sure they just make gingerbread house models of hospitals at work.

 Team Em's finished product.....

 Team Trav.....

 Wait a minute....I though Will was on my team? Did he switch?

We also had Dasher the elf return to our home. For the most part he would just move from place to place and not cause any trouble. But once in a while he would get creative. Here's some of the more creative ones.....

 A full-blown sledding hill down the stairs....

 Thanks December, you were good to us!