Christmas 2013 (FINALLY!)

 Christmas is hard for me to capture with my camera for a few reasons. #1 I am busy trying to enjoy it with out trying to always stop them and get a picture. #2 when I do try to get a picture they don't actually stop long enough and I get blurred shots  A LOT! So I have a few that are not totally blurry to share. Here they all are by the tree waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to get here for breakfast and presents! Very exciting!!!

 Hayden's dream came true and she FINALLY got her own American girl doll. She was dreaming of the girl of the year Sage and Santa really came through!

 Ethan asked for literally NOTHING! I knew he was saving for some Lord of the Rings legos so Santa decided to help him out on that one. He also got all the Lord of the Rings movies and the Hobbit. He was in Lord of the Rings heaven!!!

 Ruth asked Santa for the Klipity Klop Castle from little people. He brought that and she loves it. But mommy and daddy got her this Rapunzel and dress and I made her this wig. She was so excited about this that she hasn't taken it off other then church for WEEKS! Brock got her the stroller, and Ethan bought her the play dough. She had a very Rapunzel Christmas!!!

 Amelia asked for this bathtub from American girl. Sure is fancy and she loves it!

 Brock got lots of Dino legos and is in hog heaven.
I didn't get pictures but I did get video on a camera I don't know how to download onto this the last present of the morning. Everyone got Mickey Mouse T-shirts and gift cards because we are GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!! My kids have never been before and it has been a very long time since Larry or I have been. We are all very excited to go and get to be there in February for Amelia's 10th Birthday!!!

 Now we all live close to Grandma and get to spend part of Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa so in the afternoon we went to their house for dinner and more presents!!! The kids all got their Grammy jammies and a $15 gift card at Walmart.

 It is so much fun having family close enough to celebrate all the big stuff together! We had a wonderful holiday and are so grateful for our many many blessings all year and especially this time of year!

I didn't take any pictures but the day after Christmas Amelia had her tonsils taken out. She was a champ!!! She ate lots of ice pops, ice cream and drank LOTS of juice and ice water! She was all better just in time to go back to school. It was nice to need to be somewhat down for the rest of the holiday because we spent lots of time together and they played with their new toys, and games and movies. We did go to the movies one afternoon with cousins and then Grandma took the kids to spend their gift cards. It was a great break and we all had fun.

Christmas Morning

 

Santa sure found our house! What a pile! But there were 13 people at our house for Christmas morning! Which made it so much fun! After our traditional Christmas breakfast we got to work opening presents. First they all opened what was in their stockings and then we saw what Santa brought. 

 He really came through Amelia got the American Girl Doll she wanted. She even got an extra outfit to go with her.

 Ethan and Brock got Nook Color's from Santa. (Just as a note, Children who are not pictured as much as others or children who are on here more then others has NOTHING to do with the amount of love I have fore them it has EVERYTHING to do with the amount of time the kid will pose, allow me to take their picture, or will hold still long enough to get a picture taken. Kids who don't have pictures are the ones who run from the camera, run constantly or are to busy to get their picture taken....aka BROCK)

 Santa really came through for Hayden. She not only got the Cinderella stuff she asked for but she also got a whole set of ALL of Cinderella's dresses. Including her night gown, work dress, pink dress, and ball gown. Plus she came with the wedding dress! WOW (dresses not pictured)

 Ruth got a Pink Kitchen! Thanks Santa! She didn't know what she wanted but Santa know she would love anything she got! She spent the whole day putting things in her oven and opening and closing the doors. There is a pink fridge to but not in the picture. SHE LOVES it and EVERYTHING she opened Ruth would yell " I LOVE IT!" It was SO funny and SO cute! I wish I had taken video but most times I am lucky to get a picture I am to busy watching. It was a magical day though!

 Ethan had earned quiet a wad of cash and very carefully bought gifts for his brother and sisters. You can see Hayden here hugging Ethan thank you! And Ruth coloring on the thing he got her. Which of course she "LOVES!"

 This was our labor of love this year. Amelia asked her daddy to make her AG dolls a bunk bed for Christmas. Larry did an amazing job and I made the bedding. Which was tons of fun for me. I even made super cute pillows to go with it.

 Daddy went all out and made this armour for all her dolls clothes. She even got hangers to hang them all on. She was thrilled!

 Hayden got totally stocked with arts and crafts stuff. (She is always asking to use my supplies and she is very crafty! So she will be in heaven for a Very long time!!!)

 This is the aftermath mostly cleaned up (well the paper and boxes anyway. What a day!

 Finally one picture I could get of Brock finally sitting and checking out his Nook! I need  a nap just reliving this!
Even with out all this "stuff" we had a wonderful year. I count my many blessings many times the last few months and know how truly blessed I am. We had some pretty major trials this year and watched and suffer with others as they go through theirs and my heart is over flowing with the love of our Savior, the true meaning of this season. I couldn't help but feel an out pouring of his love after all that has happened this year and know that he loves us, and will support us and care for us though everything. We truly are blessed with the Gospel and the knowledge of our Savior and all he has done for us. Families are Forever and I am so so eternally grateful for that knowledge and for all who have made it possible for me to have those blessings in my life!

Gingerbread

 Every year we make a Gingerbread house. For years Larry has helped the kids do it and I just stand back and take pictures. The last year or 2 I have gotten other things for them to decorate on their own (since they are old enough to do it them self) Then Larry does the house. This year I got a 4 pack of these giant gingerbread boys, and the gingerbread house kit came with a tree. So Larry did the house, Ethan the tree, and everyone else did a gingerbread boy. Ruth had SO much fun doing this all by herself. Literally by her self. I only helped her squeeze when it got to hard. She was so proud!

 Brock and Amelia I think had a competition to see who could put the most candy on. They both used A LOT but I think Amelia's weighed more mostly because she used heavier candy!

 Hayden's looking cute!

 Ethan's tree

Amelia's very heavy Gingerbread "girl"

Visit with Santa

 Our favorite place to go visit Santa is the Carousel in Salem. He is nice to the kids and its always set nice, plus we get to ride the carousel. Amelia told Santa she really wanted the American Girl of the year McKenna.

 Hayden made her list pretty clear with Santa. It was cute. She asked him for a Cinderella barbie with the Prince, and the Pumpkin Carriage.

 Brock told Santa he wanted an E reader. Santa told Brock he had one and that he loved it. He also asked Brock to leave Chocolate milk because that is his favorite.

 Ruth didn't ask for anything again because as excited as she was to see Santa from far away she would not sit with him or talk to him. She would wave from the carousel. That was as close as she would get to being friendly. But she sure talks like she loves Santa!

 Ethan also told Santa he would like an E reader.

 One of the best parts of this outing is of course the carousel. Ethan loves getting the golden ring and earning free rides!

Traditions and Catching up

 WARNING! LOOOOONG post! I love this first picture! this is what Thanksgiving weekend looked like at my mom's house. I slept on the couch where you can see tiny Ruth laying, and there were 9 kids on the floor, it was wall to wall blankets and wall to wall fun!

 The next week we went and cut down our Christmas tree! We went one evening hoping to get it all done before the rain and the dark. We beat the rain... kind of, and almost the dark...

 We had a truck full of trees 3 for our house and several to give away. It was lots of fun! This is our favorite tree farm they have great big trees! It is a tradition for us to go chop it down ourselves!

 Another one of our Christmas traditions is to go to the tree lighting at WOU. There is a parade free hot chocolate, glow sticks and of course a giant Christmas tree to be lit at the end of the parade! OOOOHHHHH almost like being in New York!

 After they light the tree there is a concert in the Warner Center. Brock's school choir sang. They did a great job! This was the beginning of recital/ concert week for us! (Even though it is on Friday, but from this concert to tonight I will have gone and seen each 5 of my kids perform something different times...)

 Saturday night Larry and I put our Christmas tree up and the lights on, then Sunday evening after the First Presidency Christmas devotional we put all the decorations on.

 Ruth LOVES the tree. It has been up almost a week and she still points at it every morning and each time she gets up from a nap, she blows kisses goodnight to the angel. Luckily she is being good about not tearing it apart! Which is more then I could hope for!

 Everyone enjoyed putting on their favorite ornaments.

 Larry and I don't do the "theme" tree or the color coordinated tree... We have a memory tree. Each year we get ornaments that represent things that happened, or places we have been Sunday when we were done I felt like playing with my camera and took some pictures of some of my favorites. I thought I would share a few.

 These two mice are holding a cookie and a cookie cutter and it says "friend of my heart" on the cookie. This is the one we got the Christmas we were engaged. Awwww.

 This shell angel we bough in Hawaii the year we went to visit friends in 2005.

 This is the one we bought our first year we were married.

 The one above is the one we got our first trip to the Great Wolf Lodge. The one below is from when Larry and I went to Las Vegas when my little sister got married.

 The dog bone is for Dotty our dog

 The ballet slippers of course are from the year the girls started dancing and then I started teaching dance...

 The Nativity is just one I loved from a lady that hand paints them. I bought it the year I bought the bazaar.

 Brock has a "best friend" who is a little people. He loved him since he was 3. Grandma bought him this one I think.

 This silver bells one may be the first one my Great Aunt Amanda gave me. It has always been one of my favorites. They sound pretty when they chime together!

 The brown dog is from our first dog Snickers (those of you who know us will notice there is NO ornament from the horrible dog we had one Christmas Rodney. Although I can't set up the Christmas tree with out thinking about that DUMB dog!)

 Another Ballet one they love. Hanging next to a snowflake made out of one of Larry's white shirts on his mission. Long story short, he ruined his shirt in a bike accident, they found a scrub tree to put up in their mission apartment, didn't have ornaments, so made some. There is a tin foil ball on our tree somewhere that came from the same tree when he was on his mission.)

 This bear is another one of my favorites that my great Aunt gave me. (She sent me a new one every year, which is why I do the same for all my nieces.)

 This cute 1 is from Ruth's first Christmas.

 Tigger... well anyone who has known me since high school will know... to long of a story... but there was a time when my nickname was tigger, or Tiger!

 We got the flag the year 9/11 happened

 This WOU snowman simply because I went to WOU.

 This Koala bear is another from my childhood but what makes it extra special is if you look close you can tell it has been in the mouth of a dog.. My brother got a dog for Christmas the year I was a JR in high school.... self explanatory, good think I loved that puppy!

 Ethan's first Christmas

 The year we bought our first house.

 The bears are from when we went to Yellow Stone

 And Brock's first Christmas. They girls have one too... I just didn't find them while I was taking pictures....

 This is the second performance to watch this week. The girls dance recital. I don't have great pictures because my camera died. When will I ever learn to plug it in the night before not half and hour before big events... maybe when I am not the one running the show...  They all did a great job and I think Ruth thinks she was the star of the show!!! It was pretty cute!

 Performance number 3. Brock's choir sang at the state capitol this morning. Performance number 4 will be tonight when I go to Amelia, Brock and Ethan's piano recital.