Christmas Morning

Everyone is awake! 7:00 a.m. imposed minimum by the parents. I had a very late night.
Making doughnuts with my number 2 favorite guy.
He was doing a great job!

Doughnuts for breakfast is our tradition......they were delicious!

There was a little bit of excitement! Gotta love 5 year olds.

There was love for technology.

There was a gift for a girl with great talent. There was a lot of box sitting.

There was a cute girl in a new hat.

There was laughter and happiness.

There was love for a mom who sent a gift that could not be purchased.

There was the demolition of the Gingerbread house (that kitchen stool again).

What a GREAT 2009.

Christmas Nativity

The Angel Visits Mary
Mary and JosephNo Room at the Inn The Shepherds Find Baby Jesus

The Wisemen Follow the Star

The Whole Cute Cast

The First Winter Snow

My favorite outside chore is to shovel snow. There is such a defining moment when it is all done. I also love the "muscle" it takes to get the chore done. Luckily this snow day came on a Saturday so Jim was out there with me. It was like a little date. Lilly did not like her first snow experience. We put her on the sled and as we began to pull it she rolled over and did a face plant. Snowsuits make for rollypoly bottoms.
Bella didn't mind the snow on her face.
Arielle was a Tasmanian Devil in the snow.

Kiley and the kids all had fun with different snow toys.

It was a bright, beautiful sunny day.

Perfect for snow angels.Not too perfect for snowmen. They took some work to stick together.

This snowman is going to get Valerie some kind of math extra credit.

Gotta love those winter days.

The Kitchen Stool

I keep forgetting about the kitchen stool.........

I love that smiling face.

A little Bit of December

At Thanksgiving I had this whole month planned out and I was going to be on top of this whole season. Every day seemed to snowball into another item on the to do list. Instead of stressing me out though, I have really enjoyed all that I have been doing. The pictures below may have something to do with that and they may just be pictures I find of Lilly that are cute.Here Lilly found the food cupboard. We seem to regularly have box juices with missing straws and chips bags with a lot of crumbly chips.

Santa came to our Ward Christmas Party. Bella helped me get his suit. She kept asking me who he was. I told her Santa and she said "No way, I know we bought the suit." I guess Kindergarten will make you smarter.

Arielle can never look normal in a picture. Aren't these 4 cute girls?

Here is the nativity scene the kids and I made. We had a lot of fun. Nic is the close wiseman.

Valerie is the behind Shepherd.

Lilly wanted to help make dinner. Nic was in charge. He forgot to compensate for wildly grabbing hands on babies that have learned to climb a stool.

We had a fun Christian celebration of Hanukkah. The kids here are playing the Driedel game. Somehow Valerie kept ending up with all the candy. We also fried Latkes and doughnuts.

We didn't get a finished picture of anything because we were to busy eating. Good thing I guess, I kept finding cinnamon sugar on my face.

Bella and Arielle made a game. It is called the Bella and Arielle Awesome game. We all obliged and played.

They don't think they are cool or anything.

Lilly just got a new coat from her grandmother. Bella and I tried to get her to stand on her own so we could see it's complete cuteness. Here Bella is holding her up.

Here is the picture I got when I had her stand on her own. She is down on the floor, flat on her belly.

I realize this post is very random, but I have felt random and scattered this month so it reflects me perfectly.

Random, scattered, and a little behind, but very happy.

The Value of Work

I have always felt that one of the most important things I can teach my kids is knowing how to work hard. I jut hope, as the youngest, Lilly will be able to learn that same value.

Spectacular

I have never been a fan of New York City. I have only gone twice before in my life. The first time I had a stroller and two little kids to corral. We saw the statute and rode the bus and saw all the other sights. It was a nice trip, but stressful herding the children in the right direction and not really knowing the city. The second time I went was about 8 years after the first. I went with my sister....and our two babies. We had a good time, saw the statue and rode the bus and saw the other sights. The kids were really good. This time we were able to get off and walk through Times Square. It was fun to be on the streets and see the people and the lights from that level. It was a nice trip, but a little stressful with the babies and not really knowing what to do. This last week I went to NYC for the third time. We went without babies. This time, I loved New York.

I felt the vibe and was excited to be there. We got to stop by at little boutiques. We went to a great hole in the wall Chinese food place, went in Sax 5th Avenue and touched the expensive clothes, we visited the American Doll shop, had the best cookie ever, saw Rockefeller square and all the lights and to top it all off went to the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular.

We had a GREAT time. The Spectacular was exactly that - fireworks, flying people, confetti, 3-D, dancing, singing, video affects. We were really impressed. And walking the streets without children, having the freedom to go into any store we wanted, that was bliss. Now I can say I LOVE New York and can't wait to go back - but grown ups only please.

Getting the Christmas Tree

Every year we can, we like to go and cut our Christmas tree down. It is a favorite family tradition coupled with the purchase of doughnuts and chocolate milk for the trip to the farm. Last year we found a tree place about an hour away. We enjoyed it so much we decided to go back to the same place. This year we discovered that Cabella's is just 15 minutes away. Jim was very excited. Because we spent so much time looking at all the animal displays in the store, we didn't make it to the tree farm until the sun was going down, so some of our pictures had to be taken around the sun's shinning rays so as to avoid too many shadows.

We found the perfect tree. She was tall just like everyone wanted.
The kids were very excited.

Jim and I were very excited.

Lilly was not very excited.

Luckily I have the magic touch.

Nic used his manly muscles to cut the tree down.

Dad finished it off while all the girls caught it as it fell. A favorite part of the whole experience.

Here the tree is all wrapped up and standing in our house. It even touched the ceiling to every one's delight.

The Bear angel was placed at the top by Jim and Lilly.

She cared very little about the experience.