New Year's Eve

Kent has had the last couple weeks off of work for the holidays.  We decided to frame our basement ourselves, so our days have been filled with construction.
Today we ran out of wood with only 40 minutes to make it to the store and load up all our new wood before it closed early for New Year's Eve.  We knew we'd never make so we had the evening off!
Instead, we went grocery shopping, ate dinner, watched a movie with the kids, and ate candy. 
Now we are bone tired, and off to bed while the older kids stay up for the magic of midnight.

Hayden made a project along side our framing work the other day.  It's a little table for his panda bear. He placed it at the dinner table and fed his little panda from his plate while "Pandie" sat at his own little homemade table.

Christmas wrap up

Favorite gift for 2014:
McKinley-outfits for her American Girl doll, giraffe scarf
Sawyer- r/c helicopter
Hayden- r/c helicopter
Josh- train set

And apparently Josh was wiped out from all the holiday fun because he didn't wake up today until 12:50!!!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

We started at my parent's house around 2:00 with pizza and snacks.  We played a game of holiday bingo to decide the present opening order.  Then we took turns opening presents.  Around 6:30 we were on our way home to get kids nestled all snug in their beds.  Of course we had to do our little family gift exchange first, and the traditional Christmas Eve jammies picture.

Now the littlest is asleep in his bed, and the three oldest are having a sleepover in McKinley's room where I hope they sleep a little!

Old Timers

McKinley had another concert with the service symphony on Sunday.  She informed me that the first concert would be at the assisted living center after which we would go through the locked area to the "Old Timers" area.  Which confused her since they are all old to her. 
So I set her straight about the Alzheimer's area :)

It was a beautiful concert,  and I have much to be grateful for. 

3rd grade Christmas program

Sawyer had his Christmas program today at school.  They were adorable. 
They made these funny little characters out of themselves to decorate the walls.

Earlier this morning I helped out at his classroom making gingerbread houses.  I love the Christmas season through the eyes of kids.

South Valley Service Symphony

McKinley joined in with the South Valley Service Symphony, which is all volunteers in the community who come together on Sunday evenings to practice and then perform in the community.  This week and next they are performing Christmas music at a couple of assisted living centers.

She made a difficult decision this weekend and turned down a weekend-long cabin trip with a friend so that she could do this performance. 

iphone pic

Mommy's little helper

This kid has been getting dragged around everywhere during this busy time of year.  He is not the happiest shopper.  Mostly because I insist on him being strapped in to something instead of running around like he'd prefer.  He's been getting a lot of snacks to stay entertained though.

I love that face!

Neighbor party

Last night, much to the chagrin of my introvert husband, we hosted a little neighborhood party.  My neighbor and I talked about starting the neighborhood tradition here of giving to charity instead of gifting trinkets to each other.  So I hosted an open house at our home, and we made donations to Primary Children's and Huntsman Cancer Institute.  We had a good turnout and it was a lot of fun visiting.
Poor Kent is going to have to endure years of socially engaging with people as long as he is married to me.

We had treats and hot chocolate (which later burned because I was talking instead of minding the pot).

Sugar cookies

We made sugar cookies tonight while watching the Christmas devotional.  I think they were a hit!

Sinterklaas came!

Last night we spent our Dutch Christmas Eve with a dinner of chocolate sprinkle toast and strawberries with nutella.  McKinley prepared the whole feast.  Before bed we put out our shoes and placed baby carrots inside.  Hayden almost earned himself a lump of coal, but was lucky enough to find his shoe filled with chocolate and treats this morning.  Sinterklaas was very lenient this year.  Sawyer was very kind to his brother and promised him last night that he could have some of his chocolate in the morning after Hayden was threatened with no goodies.  He actually did give him most of his chocolate coins this morning.  Sawyer said "It's better to be kind than to have chocolate."  

Josh quickly figured out the whole thing and spent his morning eating chocolate and stroopwaffels for breakfast.

Gelukkig Kersfeest!

The lists

We just mailed off our Christmas lists (although they were made in October).  Before they left I took a picture of everyone's list.

Hayden's: Tenkai knights (1,000), a scientist play thing, Mario party 9, Mario party 8, a helicopter, battroborg, skylanders, skylanders giants, a giant panda bear, more beyblades, a phone, more marshmallows (erased it though later), Ipad, Ipod, 3DS, webkinz (1,000), Orbeez, 90 bucks, ds games.

McKinley's:  Cozy Sweater outfit (for American Girl=AG), Pet bed (AG), the dog Meatloaf (AG), the healthy smile set (AG), clothes, national geographic magazine, Nintendogs DSI game, pipe cleaners, colored crafting foam, Journey girl accessories, boondoggle.

Sawyer's: remote helicopter, remote car, $50, PS3 games (sport and car games), football gloves, Mizzou/Clemson jerseys,  Legendary pokemon, webkinz (5), X out Freckles (Ha!  He wants to get rid of his freckles.  I told him no.), a verizon phone, Legendary Pokemon...again, hamster, clothes, BYU tickets (30 tickets), blankets (6 blankets), football card packs.    And then on the back of his long list he wants an Iphone 5S, Iphone 4S, beyblades (again), and an ipod touch.

The first day of Christmas

We got our tree up today!  I even let the big kids help.  That's progress.