Merry Christmas Eve 2013

I'm FINALLY getting around to downloading pictures onto the computer....where has the month of January gone?  It's been good, but time is flying.

We had a wonderful Christmas and a relaxing Christmas break.  I realized, for the first time in 7 years, Shawn wasn't stressed with writing a Master's or Doctorate paper.  He had a true break, and we enjoyed it so much!  We had a lot of fun with the kids at home and loved spending the quality time together.

Ready for the picture overload?  The girls and I made sugar cookies to decorate and leave out for Santa.  We had a great Christmas Eve, we made our "authentic to us" Cafe Rio and had the missionaries over for dinner. 

 Little Joseph for the Nativity play

 Our little Shepherd Girl

 Baa....says the sheep

 Oh...now she's the angel

 Elder Reid helping Joseph get his costume back on.

 Mary with baby Jesus

 Here's the crew.  We read part of Samuel the Lamanite, Luke 2 and sang songs in between.

Samuel the Lamanite preaching to the Nephites about the coming of Christ.

 Assisting Joseph and Mary (by pushing the donkey aka cooler) riding into Bethlehem

 The girls prepared the cradle and cut out straw for the manger.

 The shepherd and sheep coming to see the baby Jesus

 The three wise men.

 Presenting their gifts to baby Jesus.  (which were later opened - Christmas Jammies!)

 Decorating cookies after dinner with the missionaries.

Caleb and his cookie.

It was a fun night.  We have loved having the missionaries in our home every Christmas Eve.  Since we don't live near family, and neither do they - it's become our little tradition that we've done every year since we've moved away.  We are always so grateful for the example of our Savior and Brother, Jesus Christ.  For the miracle of his birth and his life.  We try always to remember to be more like Him, to give service, and love as he would love.  It's especially easier to do around the Christmas holiday and I'm thankful for the traditions I had growing up of acting out and reading the nativity and singing Hymns to help us remember the story of our Savior's birth.  We hope each of our family and friends had a wonderful Christmas Season and will continue to remember the Savior each and every day.

Happy Birthday Andie!

It has happened.  Andie is officially 7 years old.  It's so fun to watch her grow up - although, I tell her daily to stop growing!  It's been a fast 7 years - but we have loved every minute of it!

 Right when she woke up - she came to see the Birthday tree.  It's so fun switching the decorations for her!

 I also made a sign with the magnets.  She wanted her hair curled before Breakfast, as well as waffles for breakfast.  So - we had to rush to finish everything.  Fortunately, it was early out, so she only had school until 12:30pm.  Perfect time to come home and open presents!

 She loved the Pink hoodie from Grandma and Grandpa Pratt.  Ali also loved it and was cheering all around the house, "Go BYU!  Go BYU!  Goooooooooo Cougars!"  loved it!

 Andie has been wanting a magnifying glass for quiet some time.  I don't know what she has planned with it - but it was a cute picture to get her BIG eye!

 This brought a BIG smile to her face, when she opened a new white kitty from Grandma and Grandpa Broderick!

She also asked for a stuffed animal with a light in it.  If you don't know Andie by now, you should know she LOVES stuffed animals.

 and a jewelry boc

 And now the cake.  For the first time in 7 years, and didn't want a pink cake with pink frosting!  She is maturing.  She requested a mint chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting.  Then, she wanted it decorated with a snowman. 

 And so, that is what she got.  I made a chocolate cake and sprinkled Andes mint chips in the batter.  Let me tell you - IT WAS SO GOOD.  She is a girl after my own heart.  I made a snowman out of marshmallows and used pull-n-peel licorice left over from the gingerbread house to write Happy Birthday. 

 Andie couldn't decide what to do for her birthday.  She wanted to go see the movie Frozen, go eat at a restaurant and go bowling.  I told her we could only afford to do one of those activities.  She thought about it for a day or two and then said, "Mom - I think bowling will be the most fun!"  And she was right.  We had SO much fun. 

 Adalyn enjoyed pushing her ball down the "slide"  The girls also enjoyed it on occasion.

 Impromptu picture taken by itself up on the scoring table.  Probably one of the better family pictures we have.  haha

After bowling, we came home and had dinner.  She wanted pizza, then changed to chicken alfredo, then back to pizza.  We enjoyed pizza and then some cake and ice cream. 

 She chose mint chocolate chip ice cream to go with her chocolate mint cake!

 Since we never got a picture of Caleb enjoying a cupcake on his birthday, we thought we would get a picture enjoying Andie's cake.

 And boy oh boy - did he enjoy it!

as did Ali...

 and Adalyn...

 ...but mostly Caleb.  What a ham!  I love this little kids so much!

 We had a great day with Andie and a lot of fun.  We think she had a really great birthday.  She is such a great little friend to everyone in the family.  Although it's rough being the oldest and feeling like "you always ask me" to do everything to help out with the younger siblings, she is learning and growing in leaps and bounds.  We recently had parent-teacher conference and her teacher said, "Andie is so smart, and I'm not just saying that.  Usually when there is an advanced student, there are areas that need work, like nicer handwriting, or spelling, etc.  However, with Andie - everything is perfect and she really needs more enrichment and challenging things to help her continue to grow."  It was great to hear that she is working on special projects.  She is involved with a research project, 3rd-4th grade math and reading.  Her teacher also said that most of the kids, if they don't know will go ask Andie first, before they ask her.  She sent me a video the other day of Andie in front of the class explaining how she solved a math problem.  She was the only one to get it right, so Ms. Hartwell had her go up and teach the class her thought process.  It was fun.  Andie has always been so talented and smart, it is simply amazing.

She is a sweet, sweet girl and we love her so much!  Happy Birthday Andie!

2013 Questions answered by Andie:
Favorite Color:  Pink and Turquoise
Favorite Food:  Treats and Pizza
Favorite Activity: Watch TV
Favorite Toy: All my stuffed animals
Favorite Subject in School:  Recess and math and reading
Favorite Book:  Magic Tree House and the fairy books
Favorite Movie:  I don't know.
Who is your favorite person:  (shruggs shoulders)....Mommy!
What else do you like to do:  Color, play in the snow, ride my bike
Why are you excited to be 7?:  I do not know.
What's your favorite song:  Mary's Lullaby

December Festivities.

We've had a pretty good December always filled with lots of fun. Near the beginning of the month, we were invited up to a friend's house to decorate ginger bread houses.  Of course, it snowed the night before and the next morning the roads weren't in the greatest condition, so we decided to not drive the winding hill up to her house.  However, because she's such a great person - so sent us all the supplies and an empty house home with another friend (who has 4 wheel drive and snow tires!) for us to decorate. 

 The girls had a BLAST decorating the house and worked well together on it....well, most of them.

 Others just ate candy and colored.

 This handsome little man is walking around now and loving it.  He kept trying to swipe the candy off the table.

 All done.

 A close up of each side.

 and a final cheesy grin from our little man!

The girls had fun holiday crafts and parties at school.  I am Andie's room mom and had fun creating crafts for the kids to make.  We made candy-cane out of beads and sock snowman.  It was so fun.  I also had fun going to the High school music concert to support a few of my YW.  The decided to combine the band and choir concerts into one night.  It was so fun to hear them play and sing and brought back great memories of my clarinet days in band and orchestra and of course, singing in a'capella.  We also went as a family to see another YW in one of her swim meets.  It was at the college and the girls had fun cheering her on.  Afterward, we drove out to find some awesome Christmas Lights.

So far, we've had a wonderful Holiday Season.

Thanksgiving

We had a bit of a different Thanksgiving this year which it turned out to be just what we needed.  We decided to join some families at the church and have a pot-luck Thanksgiving lunch.  We were in charge of bringing Turkey and Gravy, and I made a rainbow jello as well.  Everyone brought games to play and it was really relaxing and fun.  I told Shawn, "It sure was nice to not have to stress over ALL the food, for just a few people!"

 A little Risk action.

 Uno

 and Catch Phrase.

 Kitchen helpers.  A huge shout out to the Orr's, who organized this all.

 Here we all are, one nice long table.

The next weekend, the math club was holding their annual Yankee Swap (white elephant).  We went out to the Keene State Camp, where they have a really nice cabin.  The kids had a lot of fun and Caleb loved roaming all around.

This year, Thanksgiving and Christmas seem really close together, because of how late Thanksgiving was.  It's fun to get into the Holiday season though.  :)