Tuesday, December 25, 2012

And here we are in December!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!  Well first I will tell you about the last few weeks of December.  We started our Christmas celebrations with our annual Christmas tree decorating.  We do this on the first Monday night after Thanksgiving every year.  I love the fact that our kids are learning our family traditions, and they keep us on track with them all.



The first full week of December was spent at the University Theater during tech week for our annual Nutcracker production.  This year Jenna was the only member of the family participating.  I really missed it, but being Mom to five little ones keeps me more than busy.  I knew something had to give this year, and Nutcracker was it.  This year I enjoyed sitting in the audience watching my little Jenna dance her heart out.

Here's our little Harlequin!


The following week we had attended our annual Ward Christmas Party and got a chance to sit in Santa's lap.

My favorite part was when Olivia asked for a swimming pool for Christmas!  

Next we had our gingerbread house decorating.  This year I found a kit for a gingerbread house village which meant that each of our kids had their own house to decorate by themselves.  This was quite amusing.  The house that got the prize was Olivia's.  In the middle of decorating houses, we had diaper changes and an impromptu bath leaving the oldest three to work independently.  When we returned we found this creation...
Olivia said the gummy bears were having a party on the roof!

And here's our village.
 And a first for us, we got to see a sundog.  It's like a rainbow only it happens when the sunlight is refracted through ice crystals in the air.  You can't see the full effect in these pictures because I didn't have a wide enough angle to capture the whole view, but these pics show the two halves.


And finally we have Christmas morning which can speak for itself in pictures...




Oh wait, I have to explain... Li'l Robby got an apple with a bite out of  it in his stocking as a hint of a that was under the tree for the family -- an Apple TV unit.


Homemade donuts!








Oh and here's the Apple TV unit.
 

Yes, it was a Merry Christmas!  And now, good night!

Catch-up... November

Apparently most of November escaped being photographed, but we did document Robby's 14th birthday and a little bit of Thanksgiving.

For Robby's 14th, we surprised him by taking him to a local shooting range to shoot some targets with several of his friends.  You'll have to ask him what type of guns he shot because it was a boys only affair, so I don't know.  Here's the celebration back at the house...


So can you believe I have a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood?  I can't.



The next day we had fun celebrating Thanksgiving with friends...





I know, we're super exciting, aren't we?!

Catch-up... October

October found us in the midst of fall colors and piles of leaves.







And then we finished the month off with Halloween fun...



Pippi Longstocking
Aerial from The Little Mermaid


And our cute little cow girl!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Catch-up... September

This will be really quick.  I have a few moments to catch you up with pics from September.

We began with a visit from my parents and a trip on the Boone Scenic Railroad. 
























Then goofing around the house...



And Jenna was a cheerleader for a night...



Ahhh yes, and we were playing at the park in September...







And more general family goofiness...







And lastly we got to take our friend, Cosy, and go to the Festival of Lights...