Christmas fun

Christmas is so much fun with small children. Here are some of my favorite pictures.
Who wants presents when you can eat the Christmas tree?

Putting out the food for the reindeer.

Jeni got this sleeping bag from one of her cousins on Christmas Eve and has slept in it ever since. Thanks Hayden!

Should we go downstairs to see if Santa came?

First we have to wake up the uncles. Tackle time!!!

Opening presents at last! Nathan really got into presents this year. He keeps asking for more and wondering when Santa is going to come again.

Yay!! Look at all that paper to crumple up and eat (and choke on!)

Fun new Christmas pajamas.

When everything is all said and done it's lots of fun to play with new toys. The girls have especially enjoyed their new dollhouse and furniture and Nathan loves his trains.

Getting ready for Christmas

It's been very busy getting ready for Christmas. The kids have all had Christmas programs to attend. First we started with Jeni's very first play at school. She was a choral reader (third from the left - green bow) and did very well learning quite a bit of Luke Chapter 2 and singing all the beautiful songs.
Then we went to Nathan's Joy School Christmas play/party. He made a very cute Joseph. He and his Joy School friends all did a great job.

A few days later we went back to school to see Maddie's grade sing songs and share Christmas traditions from all around the world. For a class project each child had to learn about a different country and make a presentation about their Christmas traditions. Maddie learned all about Uruguay which is where my Mom went on her mission. Then of course, there has been all sorts of shopping, parties and running around. For our neighbor gifts this year I decided to bake a loaf of orange or cinnamon raisin bread for everyone. (The picture shows just over half of the bread I baked.) As things usually do, it turned out to be a bigger project than I expected and kept me very busy for several hours but it was fun to look at all of the loaves sitting on my counter and to visit with our friends as we dropped them off and wished them all a Merry Christmas.
I decided to get a head start on the wrapping and when the girls saw me bring the stuff up they wanted to help. They ended up doing most of the wrapping for me! They were very creative in their wrapping efforts but hey, I didn't have to do it all. Yay!!! Thanks girls!

Then the girls decided they wanted to make a little extra money for Christmas so they decided to set up a Hot Chocolate stand outside and sell cocoa. Since it was pretty cold nobody was out and business was very slow so they decided to go door-to-door. In the end I think they made $3.50. I've got a couple of entrepreneurs there!

Merry Christmas to me!!!!

Tuesday morning I went in for my last regular appointment at the orthodontist. The plan was to take an impression so they could have my retainer ready for the “debanding” appointment next Tuesday. I was really nervous that the orthodontist was going to see something else that needed changing and put the appointment off again (it's happened twice already). But imagine my surprise and delight when they told me they had a cancellation and they were going to take my braces off right then! Yippee!!!! They took a quick impression, he made my permanent retainer right then and off came my braces a week before I was expecting them to. Merry Christmas to me!!!! So here is a before picture...

...the day I got the braces on...

...and an after picture.

I love my new smile! It makes me feel so beautiful and after three long years, what a relief it is to finally have everything all done.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Last Friday we made our annual trek with Grandpa Moultrie up Weber Canyon to a tree farm. We wandered over the hillside until we finally found the perfect tree. It didn't take long since the kids were all freezing and after about 3 minutes they thought every tree looked great! We picked our trees, cut them down and tied them to the top of our car. The rope was so long that Bob tossed the rest of it in the back of the car where the kids were sitting. They held it tight and made sure that the trees didn't fall off on the way home! Thanks kids! We spent the rest of the day on Friday and Saturday decorating the real tree in our Family Room and the artifical tree in the Living Room. The kids all had such a great time decorating.Jeni and Nathan worked really hard and made the paper chains for the real tree and then everyone added the candy canes. As long as they are hanging on the tree the dog leaves them alone.

Later I tried to cut off my thumb with a chisel when I was chopping up white chocolate to make a molded nativity scene. Don't worry though, I saved the chocolate by yanking my hand out of the way before I could bleed on it!

Sunday morning I came downstairs to find the kids making presents to go under the living room tree. They were busy drawing pictures for everyone then they would fold them up, wrap them in blue paper and tie them with some red string they found. What sweethearts!

Congratulations!

Monday night my brother Steve and his girlfriend Sarah came over to make the happy announcement that they are engaged!! They were so cute, bubbling over with excitement and happiness as Steve asked Maddie and Jeni what they would think of having a new aunt.

At first the girls didn't really understand what all the excitement was about but after we explained it to them they got really excited too. They have been playing wedding ever since. Maddie got dressed up in her pretty (but three sizes too small) blue dress, olive green/hot pink argyle socks and a Hawaiian wrap draped over her head like a veil. Then she walked tippy-toe down the "aisle" while Jeni ran ahead of her throwing "flower petals" up in the air to rain down on Maddie. They have been very excited when they found out they will be getting beautiful new dresses and they figured out how they want to do their hair - up in a bun with two roses, except that Maddie's hair isn't long enough to make a bun. Oh darn. They have also been asking if they can start calling Sarah "Aunt Sarah" now or if they have to wait until after the wedding.

So anyway, congratulations guys and welcome to the family Sarah! I can't imagine a better match for Steve or anyone else making him as happy as he has been since he met you!