Christmas Review

As usual, Christmas came and went and waiting around for no body.  Good thing we tried to take advantage of the moments and have fun.

 The week of Christmas Caleb went and visited three temples in the valley.  It was generally snowing for each visit which made the experience neat with the falling snow.  Then after Christmas Caleb visited the temple again.  Each time he tried to remember something to tell me about the temple.  His favorite, being confirmed for a man named, "Thor."  Caleb was pretty stoked to be confirmed for an Avenger. :)

 The happy smile of children after opening up the haul.

Peter had fun battling anyone he could with his smash bots.

 Haley loved her soft robe and her musical tigers.  That girl loves soft, pink things and tigers.

We had to snap this picture upon returning home Christmas night from the Grays.  It was seriously a close to perfect Christmas.  To name a few moments.....it snowed!!!!!  A lot in West Jordan.  Which meant that I took the goods to make snow ice cream up to the Grays and we treated ourselves to many cups.  We had yummy food; my favs were the roast and gravy from Dacia, my squash, and the turnovers. The kids actually got along very well. Haley had such cute moments with the white elephant exchange (namely the "this is hard" quote on the left-right-left game). And I was able to have a sweet moment with Haley right before going home when she was watching a part of the Cinderella movie and I was able to share in her joy of princesses and beauty and magic. Christmas was full of happy moments.

Christmas fun with friends

Christmas is sneaking up on us! Cannot believe it is so close, but I think we have been doing our best to be happy and celebrate.

 At Haley's preschool on Thursday her little class made gingerbread Christmas trees.  The little boy pictured with her is her best friend, William. He is always full of smiles and when they see each other they hug and insist on sitting next to each other.  It is very fun to watch.
On Friday, Peter had a soccer game.  They won, 14-3! Peter did really good.  He was keeper for half of the game and second half he played defense and forward.  He has really come to enjoy soccer.
On Saturday Caleb had another killer soccer game.  I will tell you the score first, they beat us 1-12!!!!  Now for the stats.  Our team took 19 shots on goal.  The other team took 54 shots on Caleb!!!!!!  Ack! Caleb made some great saves and played with his whole heart.
I also cannot forget to mention that Sunday morning, before church, Peter and William were playing together so well! I actually told them that they did not have to get ready until the last possible second, before church, just to maximize the good vibes that were flowing between them.  It was great.

Also on Sunday, it was the Salt Lake Children's Choir's last Christmas concert.  It was beautiful!  Gloria and Silent Night were my personal favorites.  But each song was so wonderful, the kids all did fantastic!  In this photo, we have some good friends.  3 cousins that love each other and could be considered the best of friends. The other boy, Colin, sits next to Caleb in the choir and they have become friends.  They are fun to watch up there.  Caleb nudges Colin every now and then, they play games together on down time; good friends are a treasure to find.

Christmas lunch day 6

A mix. Gingerbread, trees, santa and jokes! My favorites so far: What do you call a dirty fairy? Stinkerbell.  And; What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear.  And; What do you call a snowman in the summer? A puddle. Have an awesome day!

Christmas Lunch Day 4

All wrapped up and ready to eat.  Christmas time is so fun!

Christmas Lunch Day 3

 Reindeer themed; antlers (pretzels), nose (strawberry), body (bread)

Christmas lunch day 2

Red, Green and White

Family fun and traditions live on

Snow Ice-cream!  Oh it is so good.  This is our third batch of the day, as we were watching Prep and Landing for our advent tonight.  My mom, Alene, taught me how to make it.  I remember as a girl, going out in the backyard and getting a bowlful of snow to make this for myself.  Now all my sweet kids love for me to make it for them.  No recipe on file for our tradition, just mix until it tastes right and then enjoy to your hearts content.  Love this little family.

Happy, Happy Snowy Day!

 The countdown has begun!  12 days until Christmas and our plans are laid out for that time.  So fun.

 On day 12 Haley planned a Christmas party.  Her menu: salad, with beans and meat, cauliflower, noodles and cornbread.  It was fun.  We had fun antlers and headbands to wear, and after dinner we had games.

 The puzzles were the biggest success, everyone loved them.

 Woke up this morning to SNOW!!!  Love it so much!  So, Day 1 of the Christmas lunch was snow themed.

After school Caleb came home and we built a snow fort.  Or, the beginnings of one.  So much fun to play in the snow.  Peter's first words this morning were, "Mom, will you make snow ice-cream?"  Why, of course!  I think our day is about complete.  We have eaten snow ice-cream, built a snow fort, made a huge pile of wet-snow clothes to dry out, and it is still snowing!  Our advent activity is to watch Prep and Landing on the computer and eat pop corn.  It will be a great evening!!!!

A winning weekend

This was such a great weekend.

 I got some expert help in decorating the Christmas trees and the house for the holidays.  The kids have loved getting it all out and playing with the Christmas things that they had forgotten about.

 We did some serious gingerbread house decorating.

 Haley was loving the process.  And no one ate too much candy and got sick this year.  A win!

Caleb had his Christmas choir concerts this weekend at the Cathedral of the Madeline.  He did fabulous and loved the experience. All the practice and nagging him to practice payed off.  All of the driving and going from one thing to the other payed off.  He was ready and did great.

Not pictured: soccer games.  Peter had a game on Friday, so while Rob and William went to Caleb's concert, Haley and I went to Peter's game.  He did great.  His whole team is fabulous and they won.  Peter played keeper for half the game and made some great saves, as he put it, "when I have confidence in myself I do pretty good."

Caleb came home late Friday night and got up early Saturday morning because he had a soccer game to be at.  His team did incredible!  And Caleb, OH MY GOSH, talk about bringing home the win! The score was 8-3, Caleb took 30 shots on goal and saved 20.  His defense was there for him when he needed it, some shots were hard and wide, and he made some amazing dives and saves.  It was awesome!  

One other really great experience we had this weekend was a special stake conference for our area.  Elder David Bednar of the 12 Apostles came to our stake this weekend and we had the privilege of listening to him and his wife speak on Sunday.  It was powerful and spiritual.  Usually when I listen to Elder Bednar at conference he is really serious.  But at our stake conference he seemed more personable, more humorous.  It was great.  His wife spoke about church attendance with her young family and she shared some funny experiences, but emphasized on never giving up.  About never coming up with an excuse of why we do not go to church or are not active.  Elder Bednar spoke about how with the church's growth the chances of another apostle coming to our stake again is nearly impossible, so listen up because what he had to say was super important!  He spoke about church ordinances, about how everything we do in the gospel is centered around feeling the Holy Ghost.  And how there is nothing more important in this life than the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what it teaches and leads us to.  It was really neat to be there with my little family and feel that spirit and love.  A winning weekend for sure.