Christmas morning

Santa made a quick stop to our home once we were all asleep & left us a whole lot of loot. Ruthie was especially fun this year. We thought she would be playing with the boxes & wrapping paper the whole time.  No, she came in doing her usual hoot that she does when she is excited. She was exploring through everything, probably wondering where everything came from. The two older kids snuck under the wrapping paper at 5am & started sneaking through everything. So finally around six or six thirty we woke grandma & grandpa up to start unwrapping presents.

 

The kids got spoiled. Besides Santa, there are always grandparents, cousins, friends & us that they all get gifts from.  Ruthie got a rocking horse, a big elephant, an elephant ball popper, books & lots more. Ezra got a beyblade stadium with beyblades, Black Pearl Lego ship, a table to do legos on, a remote control airplane & more. Adde got a v-tech innotab that she loves, a doll with horse, a set of barbies & plenty more. The kids also got fishing poles & cute horses from dad. It was a very fun morning watching the kids open their presents & Ruthie going from person to person to try out their stuff they just opened. I got lots of clothes, a couple pair of boots, kitchen utensils. Kel got shoes, tools, clothes - we were pretty boring this year.

Christmas Eve 2012

We had an awesome Christmas this year.  Grandma & Grandpa came up & stayed out our house.  We were so lucky to have them all to ourselves Christmas morning! We woke up Christmas Eve to see snow, which add to the magic for the kids. Ruthie liked Papa holding her to see the snow outside.

 We kept our tradition of bowling with the fam.  We were supposed to meet up with Kyle & Megs but the weather did not permit that. So off we went to Jack & Jill's on our own. We had a great time, after I wiped away my bad attitude. I may or may not have been a bugar at first.

 We then headed over to Carissa's where Larissa, Carissa, John, Mike & us all gathered our families.  Monica couldn't make it & Lisa was here & headed back to Ephraim because of the snow storm. Russ stayed in St. George (don't blame him) & Tami & Melinda for apparent reasons. It was great getting together with everyone. Kelly & I have stayed home for Christmas since we had Ezra so we have not had the chance to be with my family in almost 6 years on Christmas. It was fun to do our usual tradition of eating & then having Santa, aka Grandpa Phil, come & hand out grandma & grandpa presents.

 Ruthie was a hit.  She gets passed around everywhere we go. People love to snuggle on her & can't get enough of her. Even Uncle Jason & cousin Jordan.

 Then we went home, instead of looking at lights this year, to open our jammies & watch a Christmas movie that was wrapped with jammies. The kids, of course, got matching jammies. They look awesome in them. Wonder how much longer we can do matching.  I will do it forever if they will let me. They watched the movie, sprinkled reindeer food on the ground, set out Santa's cookies & milk & wrote a sweet note & off to bed they went.  The 2 older kids slept together in the downstairs family room since Grandma & Grandpa slept in Adde's room.  We wrapped them in & off to sweet dreams we went.

st. george visit before Christmas

 We went down to St. George & surprised the West family since we told them we were not going to come down for Christmas anymore since we had been down alot.  It made Ester sad so we decided to go, leave Ruthie on the porch & hide. Fun surprise. We left this:

To go to this:  Amazing

 Adde went from this:

 to this:   Still Beautiful

 We got to show off our talents  (karate - some orange belt moves, piano - Silent Night)

 to these people, who also shared their talents.  Boy have all these kids missed each other.  I, on the otherhand, have not missed the chaos.

 We got to greet him & tell him our Christmas wishes.  Again. Ruthie wasn't a fan.

 I'm so glad Ester got sad & we decided to go down.  We had a fun quick trip with both our families. Then headed back just in time for Christmas Eve up here.

While living up here, I feel we have made our time's worth & have done lots of fun things with the kids.  One night in December, we took the kids out to Carrabas, an Italian restaurant. Then a stop at Krispy Kremes, which we can never do too much of.  Ummm....then off to Thanksgiving point lights. As we were driving out, we decided to stop & see the reindeer there.  That was a big hit for the kids.  Mostly Ruthie.  She squealed & made her owl sound & whistled lots.  She could hardly contain herself. I love that little nugget. It got the kids that much more excited for Christmas seeing those reindeer.

For the months of November & December, we got to watch this All - Star on the court. She was counting down the days til she got to play she was so excited.  I really like the way the program runs.  The first 30 minutes is a different skill/practice & the last 30 minutes is a scrimmage 3 on 3.  She played twice a week for about six weeks & loved every minute of it.  Our good friend, Kevin Sheiss, was the coach & Brooklyn Scheiss was on the team.  Adde might have been on the smaller side but that did not keep her from getting in there.  She loved to steal, even though you aren't technically supposed to at this age, dribble (travel) down the court, & shoot (air ball) the ball any chance she could.  By the end, she even got good at passing to her team members (or the opposite team). She averaged about 1 goal per game.  But the last game she was on fire! She made about 6 goals & we were proud parents cheering her on! She's already for next season!