Christmas Morning

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

They finally awoke at 7 o'clock

and waited for dad to undo the gate lock.

Here they come now, the race has begun

Brinley is up for some shopping cart fun

The boys got new scooters and look at them go.

Around the kitchen and past the back door.

Kayla was in for quite a surprise

2 new dolls - she couldn't believe her eyes

Christmas Eve

Lars' parents came over for Christmas Eve dinner and festivities. We had taco salad and Christmas cookies for dessert. It is so fun to have 4 kids because they can actually play the parts of the nativity. Kayla was Mary and she also stood in for a very tired Brinley as an angel. Henry was a shepherd and Jack was Joseph. Lars brought the happy couple to Bethlehem as the donkey. Grandpa Larsen read the nativity from the Bible. We had a fun time.

We let the kids open a gift - the traditional jammies. Henry was so excited to open a gift. All day long he asked, "When can we open a present, when? when? when?" He obviously can't remember that every Christmas Eve it is the same thing... Pajamas. Maybe next year he'll remember.

Santa had a little helper this year in the form of an 8 yr old who no longer believes. She was very excited to be an elf for the little ones. It made for a late night so we had to wake the kids up at 7:00 AM to open gifts. Good Times!

The Ice Skaters

We have this musical magnet ice skater thing my parents gave us that my aunt had given them. It is a Christmas time favorite for the kids. Brinley sat on that chair and just watched the skaters go around and around. She loved it!

December

I'm way behind on postings! So let's play catch-up!!

We had a visitor in the form of a roadrunner (we think). It was on the wall right out of our front door.

My sister went to Africa to visit my parents last month. She brought Jack home some chips called 'Jackers". They are shaped like Pringles but they are too sweet for me.

Let the baking begin! The kids absolutely love love love playing restraunt. They get out the big keepers and put blankets on them for the tables and use all the pretend food we have. They make menus and then fight over who has to be the patron of the restraunt. They all want to be the chef. They have so much fun and we have fun listening and watching them play.

We baked and baked and baked for what seemed like days and days but really it was just 1 day all day! Chocolate chip muffin cookies, peanut brittle, mint fudge, chocolate carmel pretzels, peanut butter blossoms, YUMMY!!! The hardest part was not eating all of it. I usually make way too much but this year we actually ran out of treats! It was fun!!

Part 2 Kindergarten Concert

Henry's Kindergarten Christmas Extravaganza!!

Lars couldn't be there so I took alot of video of Henry's class. Annalee came with me. They were so dang cute! I especially love the political correctness of the "Light the Candle Spin the Dradel" song.

Ward Christmas Party

We had our ward Christmas party this past Friday. Our theme was an Old Fashion Country Christmas. People dressed up in 'western wear' and had pulled pork, sloppy joes, hot dogs, coleslaw, potato salad, jello salad and dutch oven cobbler and cookies for dessert. Since I was in charge this year we did a simple program. Brian Levanger in our ward played his guitar and led the audience in some Christmas Carols while the kids went into the primary room and dressed up to act out the Nativity. It was darling! Jack was a 'king' not a wise man. He was pretty disappointed that he couldn't be the Baby Jesus... sweet huh? Henry was a sheep and Kayla was an Angel. It was a great time! Brinley was totally sleep deprived since she didn't get her nap on Friday so she fell asleep before Santa came.

This is just a fun picture we took in front of the tree last Sunday before church since we were looking pretty festive.

My Little Elves!

I 'elfed' the kids and we laugh and laugh every time we see it.
Enjoy!!
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/nLR6SIB4kECMTrWcsqrN

Love this!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db3Fifi8JiY

Santa Who?

I interviewed Jack and Henry the other morning to find out what they know about Santa. I decided to do this because while we were shopping at Target last week Jack voiced a desire for a certain toy and I said, "Maybe Santa will bring it to you...". His response, "Who's Santa?"

The following is our interview I asked the questions, Henry and Jack responded:

What color is Santa's hat? Red

What color is Santa's Hair? White

What color are Santa's shoes? Red no wait... black

What color is Santa's jacket? Red

What color is Santa's beard? White

What color is Santa's belt? Red

What color is Santa's sleigh? Red

What is Santa's favorite song? Happy Thanksgiving!! I mean, Jingle Bells Jingle Bells...

What is Santa's favorite food? Pizza

What is Santa's favorite drink? Apple Juice

What is Santa's favorite treat? Chocolate chip cookies, in the blue bag.

What does Santa do when it's not Christmas? Goes home and plays video games.

What does Santa like to do? Surfing, his favorite rad move is the triple whip.

What does Santa do? He brings us presents if we are nice and don't fight.

What does Santa look like? Is he a kid? No, he looks like daddy! Like a daddy.

What does Santa give Mrs. Clause for Christmas? A Guitar

What does Mrs. Clause give Santa for Christmas? A Guitar, they are like rockstars like Super Rhino.

What does Mrs. Clause do all day? She bakes cookies and blueberry muffins.

What does Mrs. Clause look like? Like Santa but a girl.

Random Facts about all things Christmas...

Elves make presents for everyone except for naughty kids.

Good kids get scooters and bikes and balls.

Reindeer like to eat carrots (said Henry). No bunnies eat carrots (said Jack).

Reindeers are magic, Santa is magic too.

Santa is nice, he says Ho! Ho! Ho!

Santa is a 'Buckeye', wait no he is not.

One more question...

Does Santa like sports? No he DOES Christmas!

One More ok maybe 2 or 3 or 5

Gratitude Tree

For family night last night we made a gratitude tree. I drew a fall tree without leaves and then we put things we are grateful for on the leaves and stuck them to the tree. We had a great time.

Here are some of the things we are thankful for (in no particular order)

Family

Friends

Carpools

School

Jesus Christ

Babysitters

Our Minivan

Lars' Job (hopefully we can be thankful for that for a long time...)

Health

Home

Neighborhood

Photographers

Nursery

Church

Recess

Kisses

Kohl's

Baking lessons from Mom
Missions
Holidays

Good Movies

The Brady Bunch

The Park

Playgroup

Storytime at the Library

Kayla

Henry

Jack

Brinley

Lars

Cristi

Heater (in the winter)

Air Conditioner (in the summer)

Mountains
Camping

Shoes

Sports

Stroller

Money

Sunshine

Sunsets

The list goes on and on and on...

We had some pictures of the kids taken (By Tiffany Lewis) this past Saturday. I'm totally bias but I think they are so stinkin' CUTE!! I'm so grateful to be a mom and to be blessed with these great kids!

Birthday Festivities

Lars took Jack's birthday off work and so we stayed up until 1 AM making the surf board cake. It turned out really cute.

Kayla, Henry and Brinley gave Jack a t-ball set and a watch and a Transformer shirt. He was very excited about it.We made the traditional pancakes in the shape of your age and decorated the house with '3's everywhere. Jack had a few friends come over to play and we had cake and ice cream.

Tonya Kalina brought sunglasses for all the kids to go along with the surfing theme.

Red Robin for dinner - Jack was afraid when the waitress and her possee came and sang to him although he did enjoy the ice cream sundae.

Annalee and Conrad are in Africa so they left a present for Jack at their house. Love the Legos and then we played the Wii for a bit before we took some very happy tired kids home to bed.