Merry Christmas!

So, I'll start off the Christmas post with a copy of this year's Christmas card, courtesy of Costco:

On Christmas Eve, we went over to the Chapmans for the annual Christmas Eve dinner, nativity, and gift exchange. Ham & funeral potatoes were the main course. I didn't take pics of dinner. After dinner, we read the story of Jesus' birth out of the bible, while the grandkids act it out. Here are some fun pics:

Then we do our gift exchange. Each of the grandkids has drawn a name of another grandkid. The adult couples have another adult couple to buy for.

Grandma Myrna makes jammies every year for all the grandkids! Here is this year's loot, minus the Breeze kids, which are in California:

(Kevin is trying to keep Ryker calm, which is why he's in the shot.)

Trinidee loves her new Rapunzel doll.

Then we came home and got ready for Santa to come. The kids were so excited, and wrote a final letter to Santa, leaving cookies, milk and carrots for the Reindeer.

Christmas morning was fun as always, although I didn't take many pictures. I was too busy having fun! But here is a picture of each of the kids enjoying their new things after everything was opened.

Here is Ryker with his new "Cars" garage:

Bailee playing the new keyboard, (it's for the whole family). The kids have loved it so far, and play it all the time!

The girls each got a ream of their own paper, since they love to write, draw, and color so much! Here is Trinidee creating something beautiful:

That afternoon/evening, we went to my parents house to celebrate. We had some soups for dinner and did our gift exchange. This year it was just my parents, my family, Kyle & Brianne's family, and Kody & Brianna's family. Shane & Dawna, and Season & Tyrel didn't make it down this year. Maybe next time. :(

I didn't take a single picture at my parents house. I really need to get better about remembering to take a few shots!

Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas!

On another note, Kevin's engine in his Chevy blew out, and he is planning on replacing it. In the meantime, he was able to find this truck for $1. Someone from his parents stake was going to be just donating it for scraps anyway, so they sold it to him for $1!

She's a beaut:

December happenings....

I thought I'd just put the entire month of December into one post, so here goes:

Here are 3 random pictures of Ryker painting one afternoon. I just thought they were cute pics. I love having just him home during the day. It gives me time to give all my attention to him, without interruptions. Next year he'll start pre-school, but it will only be a few days a week for a couple of hours. He's such a good natured little boy!

On December 4, we went to our Ward Christmas dinner. It was a good night with yummy food, a cool slideshow of pictures from the year, and even a visit from Santa.

Ryker loves to play on Kevin's phone. Even Santa Claus couldn't get his attention. I think we may have a problem already.

One December evening, we decided to make Gingerbread, aka "Graham Cracker" houses, (it's cheaper that way). This year we let each of the kids decorate their own however they wanted. It was a lot of fun for them. We had some neighbor kids over too, and we had enough supplies, so they made some as well. :)

On December 11, Bailee had another dance performance. This time it was at the Valley Fair Mall. She did her same dance to "Rockin' around the Christmas Tree".

And here's a random picture of Snowflake climbing the tree. We have bird feeders out there, and he loves to climb up there and try to catch them.

On December 21, we went and saw the girls sing at the school. The First Graders sang "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", and "Santa's using Zebras now". The Second Graders sang "Mele Kalikimaka" and "Feliz Navidad". They did a great job!

Festival of Trees

This past Friday, December 3, Bailee was able to dance at the Festival of Trees with Star Dance. She did such a good job! She was really good to smile the whole time and she knew all the moves.

After she danced, we wandered up and down the aisles and aisles of Christmas trees, wreaths, quilts, and gingerbread houses. Here are some of our favorites:

Behind Ryker is a Cars tree. He did not want to leave it.

Our friend April Dalton's tree:

The girls love anything PINK.

I thought this Utah-BYU one was kind of cool! We need this tree in our house. Kev's a Ute fan, I'm for BYU.

You can't go to the Festival of Trees without getting a yummy Scone.

They were very messy, but delicious!

Another friends donation

This was a bunch of Christmas trees bent to look like a wave, w/ Santa surfing. Very creative!

And my favorite part is the Gingerbread Village:

Trin was lucky enough to see Santa on his way over to his chair. She ran up to him and gave him a big hug! Then Bailee did too. I'm glad we didn't have to wait in the long line. :)

Trin's favorite: