Crafty Kids!

We have been having so much fun with all of our gifts from Christmas...Today we were crafty, Ashton and I built his biplane he got from Santa after he painted it and Sierra painted her bobble head animals she got from her Uncle Norris and Aunt Brenna.

Christmas is GONE, Sickness is GONE, house is clean, and we are playing Wii!

BARF!

At 5 am, morning after Christmas, I woke up to Sierra throwing up in our bathroom. Then at about 7:30am Ashton came and woke me up and said his throw up in his bowl spilt on the couch. "What?" My children were sick and throwing up all day on Saturday. Saturday night they were feeling better but Jake and I were starting to feel not to good! I felt nauseous, light headed and a bad tummy ache Saturday night and all day Sunday. Jake threw up twice and had the runs. Who else got sick? Let me tell you...my mom, Shane, Nixon, Rossi, Briana, Brenna, Norris, Sophi, Rich, Brenna's mom and dad and brother, Jake's Aunt Leanne and Bro Travis and mom. I think that's everybody, pretty much every person that was at my mom's on Christmas Eve! Lucky for a couple of people the bug missed them. It didn't last long but it was nasty! Thank heavens we were healthy on Christmas Day!

A Christmas Miracle!

Let me start by saying Sierra does not have a bike. Her bike was to small for her and we sold it for $5 at our annual garage sale last May. I told her Santa would bring her a bike but she really wanted Chrissa, an American Girl Doll. We were driving to my Dad's house for Christmas dinner and on the side of the rode a girl's bike. We drove past it and I looked, a sign taped to the handle bars said "FREE!" I said, "FREE!!!" Jake turned around and hopped out and put this bike in the back of our car. Santa brought Sierra a bike too! It fits her, it's her favorite color, it says "Glamour Girl" and it is in such great condition! A Christmas Miracle!

Christmas...

was good to us! Hope you had a very Merry Christmas too!

We had Nana, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, Travis and Miriam over for breakfast. Papa made Mount'o eggs, Grandma brought bacon and sausage and I made Homemade Cinnamon Belgian Waffles (I even folded in the stiff egg whites). Oh, breakfast was so yummy! Then we hurried to mom's and talked with Missionary Blake on Skype! :) Yep, I said Skype! We got to see him and he got to see us. He got permission from his Mission Pres. I felt like we were cheating, it was so much FUN!

Then we played at home with new toys and then went to Nana and Papa's for dinner. Dinner was delicious and we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Nana read us a book, "I believe in Santa Claus." We had a great evening!

Then, we took our kids to Grammy and went and saw Avatar in 3D. It was FANTASTIC!!!!
Merry Christmas!

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

My Mom's house was bustling with activity! Ate yummy food and then hurried on to start the Christmas Program. House was full of loved ones, made it quite cozy!

Look at that sweet face, Rossi played Joseph!

"And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn..." Luke 2:7-16 "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night."
"And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them...And the angel said unto them...Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger...the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go and see this thing which is come to pass...and they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger."

And the Wisemen came and brought Him gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

The program was beautiful and very touching, the little kids (especially Sierra) love doing it and more importantly it helps us remember and focus our thoughts on our Savior's birth.

Then, Sierra told the story of the Christmas Orange and

she wrote a song and we all sang it...the song was so cute, I wish I had it on video!

We hurried home and the kids got their traditional Christmas Eve present, jammies! Yahoo!
Hurried some more, put out Santa's cookies and milk.

Put out his Christmas letter...
and his present. (Sierra made him a reindeer out of clay and painted it brown with a red nose!:))
Sprinkled the reindeer food out on the lawn so Rudolph could find our house quickly and THEN the children were nestled all snug in their sleeping bags! :)

Merry Christmas!

Preparations...

Yesterday morning me and my kids went and picked up my mom and Norris and Brenna from the Flyaway. I told my mom..."wouldn't feel like Christmas without making a trip to the airport!" She said, "Grammy's home for Christmas!" My kids loved making the trip, they jumped out of the car to give loves. My mom treated us to IHOP, Ashton got a Funny Face pancake and giggled the whole time he was eating it. Sierra got a Tooty Fruity JR. and loved every bite too. A perfect treat, we never go out to breakfast. Continued on to Walmart to do some last minute shopping and what was hilarious was we were shopping for each other. :) Sierra wanted to get Ashton a present so I pulled her to the side and then Ashton wanted to get Sierra a present so I pulled him to the side. Good thing Grammy was with us and we hid presents under a sweatshirt in the cart! :) On to Sophi's house to see Lincoln's new Air Hockey table from his Grandma and Grandpa. She had all of Rich's family there and they had opened Christmas from each other and I told her "it looks like Christmas exploded in here!"

Today we got rid of and organized toys to make room for NEW! Sierra said "I love this, I'm finding things I didn't even know I had!" SCARY! :)

Grocery shopped for breakfast Christmas morning.

Hot Chocolate.

Wrapped presents.

Fire in the fireplace.

Made cookies for Santa.

A decorated truck full of carolers came up and then back down our street.

I think we are ready!

Santa left a video message for my kids!

http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/515b25ef9e6692647f1723eada6d6606

http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/ad929a6af35e26e44884d5491134a632

Iron Fist Martial Arts

We got to go to Iron Fist Martial Arts studio for Diana and Daniel's Birthday Party! My kids did not want to go, they were telling me all week "I don't want to go!" I would say, "to bad, you are going to go and you are going to have so much fun!" My kids had so much fun and now they tell me they want to do Karate! When we got home, Sierra said to me, "Thanks mom for making us go, that was so much FUN!" :)

Running around the cone and then do the Bear Crawl...

Punching the bad guy!

Kicking the bad guy!

Even got to use swords on the bad guy, I'm telling you this was a little boy's heaven! :)

LUNCH (pizza)
Breaking a board!
Great job, High Five!

Cutting the cake with the Samari Sword!

What a FUN Party!

Caroling with the Scouts!

(Thanks Heather D. for the picture!)

About a week ago, the cubscouts went caroling to the elderly and we got to join Jake. We loved singing and loved watching all the grandma's and grandpa's enjoy the music and even sing along. Brother Heyborne played the guitar and it was such a nice touch. The kids went caroling down the halls afterwards and then they got to eat donuts in the parking lot! A fun filled evening!

3rd Annual Christmas Piano Recital!

This was Sierra's 3rd annual Piano Recital with her Aunt Miriam as her teacher (lucky girl). She played 2 songs and had them both memorized. I asked her before the recital started to go and get her music and she said "mom I don't need my music, I have them memorized!" Didn't know that, WOW! She did great, we are proud of her! We are blessed to have so much family around, Grammy and Grampy came, Papa, Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Leanne. Thanks family for all your support, our kids love having you there! :)

Thanks to Aunt Miriam for working with Sierra, she has blossomed!

Bowling!

Today I got to go bowling with my boy! It was another field trip with his Primetime Preschool! This was his second time bowling, we went Thanksgiving morning with Jake's sister (the Coppin Family). He loved it and had so much fun, he kept asking me "mom is it my turn." Love hanging with my Ashton! :)

Gingerbread house!

We got to decorate another Gingerbread House, A real Gingerbread house this time...Thanks Illum Family!

The kit came with cookies to decorate and then hang on the tree! My kids each got to do two snowmen and two christmas trees.

Then came the house...

TA DA! :)

FUN STUFF!

Crafty Kids!

Sierra made Christmas cards for her whole class at school, SHE MADE THEM! Then she wanted to make cards for the other third grade class too but, it was 8:30pm and I told her no that it would be to much (her hand was already hurting and I was helping her to color all of them :))!

Ashton made a card too! :)

Ward Christmas Party!

We always look forward to our annual Ward Christmas Party. The kids love to see Santa! They know he's Santa's helper! :) In fact at the end of the party we saw Santa in his Hawaiian shirt and I said, "oh, he's on vacation!" :) The kids thought that was funny!

The program was very nice, they had different families from our Ward sing their favorite Christmas song. Sierra kept on telling me that she wants to do that, she loves to be on stage! :)

Ashton's Holiday Party!

Ashton's class party was so fun! We made crafts together, his reindeer hat and a reindeer ornament out of popsicle sticks. He wore his reindeer hat the whole day and still wears it if we are going to a Christmas Party. I loved being with my boy!

Look who came!

Ashton would not take his eyes off of him. "Mom, I think that is the real Santa!"

He even came with a sack full of toys, Ms Eugenia was his helper!

Santa was telling the kids what he does if they don't have a fireplace for him to go down. He uses this magical key!

Santa brought Ashton a Cars Movie Racecar!