Nativity

Day 12

Last night we read Luke 2 and used my little nativity to demonstrate the words in the scriptures.

I love reading the birth of Christ.

We sang a few Christmas songs and taught the kids the song "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plain"

Then we had hot chocolate.

Party & Santa

Day 10:

Christmas Party

On Friday evening we drove down to American Fork to have the annual Christmas Party with the P* family.  This is Sean's dads side of the family.  He only has 1 sister, Carol, and they only had one child, Christin, so the gathering is relatively small.  During the evening, all of the adults were upstairs talking so I went downstairs to see what all the kids were doing and if they needed anything.  I found them ALL nestled on the couch together watching Shrek.  I thought it was so sweet.  They had a great time together.  We ate dinner and then just played "catch up."  It was a nice, relaxing evening.

 Shelly, Mike, Sean & Trent

 Sherra, Trent, Sharla, Sawyer, Grandpa (aka Santa)

 Aunt Carol, Shelly, Christin, Uncle David

Day 11:

Reindeer, Santa, Hayride, Face Painting, Hot Chocolate and Cookies

At the local nursery/garden center by our house they had an Open house this past Saturday and did all of the above mentioned things, free of charge, for the kids.  SCORE!  My kids were excited to see the real reindeer.  Tayler asked about a million questions:  How do they fly?  How does Santa get them to stay on each rooftop?  How do they pull a heavy sleigh with so many presents?  Ahh, they just kept coming too.  I laughed and couldn't really answer any of them.  We had a fun time walking around together. Sean kept Jackson home because he was sleeping.  They missed out :)

I can't believe that we are half way to Christmas. Cheers!

Service & Giving

Day 9:

Service

When we did our 25 days to Christmas countdown list I told my kids that we had to have at least 3 days of service along the way.  We didn't plan anything specifically because I knew that we could find several opportunities.  Wednesday night, I received an email from my Ward Relief Society, telling us about a Toy Drive that was taking place this coming Saturday and letting us know that they were in desperate need of gently used toys.  They had invited several families to come and pick out toys for their kids, but didn't have enough.  I thought this would be the perfect activity for our Service day.  I knew that we had several toys that were never played with anymore and still in good condition.  I could have easily packed them up and taken them over and they would have never missed those specific toys, but I wanted them to be a part of it.  I wish that I could say it was easy, but it wasn't.  There were many tears.  Those toys that have been out of sight for a very long time quickly became very important again.  I didn't force them to give anything away, but we all sat down and talked about service, sacrifice and giving to those less fortunate for about 20 minutes.  I cried a little as I recounted stories from my childhood and they cried as well knowing that it was the right thing to do.  It was so neat to see and hear them talking about it amongst themselves afterwards.  Jayson picked out one of his nice toys and was adamant that it needed to go to another little boy.  I couldn't help but cry a little bit as I watched them all. 

In the end we had 5 big bags of nice toys that we could donate.

 I let them deliver them to the lady in charge of the whole thing.

It was sweet.  I am so proud of them.  On the way home Tayler said "Mom, what does the Holy Ghost feel like again"   and in the dinner prayer, Rylee said "thank you for letting us give some toys to other kids."  It was definitely my favorite day so far.

Candy Cane Reindeer & Lights

Day 7:

We made Candy Cane Reindeer to hang on their Christmas tree.

 Jackson LOVED the candy canes.  You should have seen him at the end of the activity.. I could have stuck him to the wall. 

 

 Working on the antlers

 I'm pretty sure the favorite part was just eating the candy canes.  We picked the "spree" flavor. They are quite tasty.  I love all the different flavors you can buy now.  No more boring peppermint ones.

 All finished

Day 8:

Christmas Lights

Layton park does a fun display of Christmas lights that you can drive through or walk through. They do animals and lots of other cool displays.  We decided to drive through first and then we got out and walked around a little bit. 

. 

 Sean and the boys

 Me and my girls

It was a perfect night!  Not too cold and no snow to have to walk through.  I sure do love this bunch of kids!  Afterwards we went and got a treat at Pace's.  I was thinking hot chocolate, but they all picked an ice cream treat.

Pictures, Gingerbread House and drawing names

Day 4: 

Cousins Christmas Pictures

We all meet at Target Saturday afternoon to take the D* family cousin pictures.  The kids were AMAZING! We got some great pictures. I'm so mad I didn't take one with my own camera. When I get mine I will scan it into this post.  It was really cute of all of them and amazingly easy to get them all to look at the camera (except Jackson and Jayson).  It is nice that they are all getting older and so it isn't such chaos anymore.  They sure are cuties!  We were going to make ornaments this night too, but Tayler had a pretty bad migraine so we postponed that craft for a different night.

Day 5:

Gingerbread House

Jayson was really excited to do this one! He asked me all day "if it was time yet."   Here they are ready to start.  Jackson started eating the gingerbread man!

 All finished

 They had so much fun putting it all together.  I laughed at how much frosting they put on.

Day 6:

We drew names with the kids to get presents for each other.  Here's the run-down:

Tayler:  Rylee

Rylee: Jayson

Jayson: Jackson

Jackson: Tayler

While I was tucking Jayson into bed tonight he said "mom, I'm so excited to pick out a present for Jackson"  So dang cute!  It will be fun to let them decide and see what they will pick.  Of course they have a spending amount, but they usually do very well and the gifts are always thoughtful!

Sean and I went to my work party tonight so tomorrow or Wednesday we will split up and shop.  Can't wait!

wrapping paper and fudge

Day 3

Today on our journey and countdown towards Christmas we went to the store and let the kids pick out their very own wrapping paper that their gifts will be wrapped in under the tree.  It was so funny to see what they picked out.  Jayson was dead set on the candy cane paper.  Rylee picked the old fashioned Santa Clause paper and Tay went for the blue "Merry Christmas" paper.  It made me laugh.

We also made yummy fudge for our secret santa plate and my friends birthday (thanks for the awesome recipe Jen.  It is delicious!)  Tomorrow we will do the delivery of our plate. Sean is always our runner.

We also got to play with Audrey tonight.  We sure love that girl!

Festival of Trees

Day 2: Festival of Trees

Tayler and Rylee performed at the festival of Tree's today so we decided to make a day of it.. which isn't hard, because that place is HUGE.

Last night was the dress rehearsal for today's recital.  Rylee's friend Ashley and Tayler's friend Jessica are also in the same dance classes.  We love the B* family!  They have so much fun together.

 Rylee and Ashley

 Tayler and Jessica

 At the Festival of Trees- ready to go backstage

They both did such a good job on their dances.  I didn't get any great pictures while they were on stage, but we got some video. I love watching them perform.  Sean came from work & met us there, but he could only stay to watch their performances and then had to get back to work.  He did bring them both roses again.  What a guy!  Afterwards, we changed clothes and went and walked around to look at all of the beautiful trees that were set up.  There were so many gorgeous trees and when you stop and read the stories and see the pictures of the little children/babies attached to the trees you can't help but tear up a little bit.  I can't imagine losing a child or seeing your child suffer because they are so sick. 

 Jayson loved this Toy Story tree. He begged me to take his picture in front of it.

 After we walked around and saw most of the trees, we ate lunch and then found the kids corner.  Jayson went for the fishing booth, while Tayler & Rylee got their fingernails painted.

This is what Jackson thought about the whole thing.  I guess all the beautiful white lights and soft Christmas music lulled him right to sleep. 

Before we left the kids area, my kids had to do the bubble maker.  They stood in the middle of the bubble and were suppose to blow.  Pretty cool, I think!

We had a great day together.  My kids didn't go to school this morning since we had to be done to the Expo Center by noon.  We had fun just hanging out with no plans.  I can't wait until they are off for 2 1/2 weeks for Christmas.