Merry Christmas 2013

Now, on to our Christmas Day.  This year we had a fun time coming up with ideas for gifts for the girls.  We decided that as their parents, we would give them each a book, a hobby and a movie.  Santa gave them a toy, a game and coloring books, and grandparents...like usual....spoiled them over the top!  :)  We had a wonderful Christmas and a fun full two weeks of playing with all the new toys, hobbies, games and watching movies!  Here are most of the pictures...

Here is the set up.  I think I was most excited that Santa brought us matching stockings this year!  YEAH!!  You can see the 3 we had before were still hanging on the wall.  The older girls were really worried about what Santa would do with only 3 stockings.  Good thing Santa is so smart.  :)

 

 Good Morning everyone.  Caleb wasn't sure what was going on - but the girls convinced him this little car was for him.  He has since taken many, MANY rides around the house in it.  It's fun to watch him LOVE the rides his sisters are willing to take him on.  They open the door for him to let him know they are done with the ride and he will quickly close the door to say, "Keep Going!"  They are great sisters, because they will usually take him on another round or two.  Writing this a few weeks after Christmas, Caleb is very possessive of his little car.  If friends come around or the girls try to get in, they quickly learn/hear that THAT is HIS car.  hahaha

 Beep, Beep, Beep!

 Lot's of new fun coloring books

 Thanks Aunt Tamara and family for all the fun crafts, coloring books and art projects.

Ali and her green frog from Grandma and Grandpa Broderick.  Thank you!

 Adalyn loved her Disney Princess sticker book.

 Andie has had fun with her new nail polish!  We got a LOT of new nail polish this year.  It's been fun.

 Ali loves rocks and is always trying to bring random rocks inside.  So, for her hobby, I found this Crystal Mining kit.  She LOVED it! and had fun finding, cleaning, polishing and recording/naming the different crystals she found.

 Shawn got me an Amazon gift card.  I haven't decided what to use it for yet.

 Princess Candyland is probably the MOST played game in our house as of December 25th.  Adalyn wins about 95% of the time - and she even plays with all the rules!  She LOVES it and so do we!

 Beat the parents.  This is a fun game, but Ali gets frustrated because she can't read and understand all the cards.  It will be more fun in a year or two when the girls get older.  Andie on the other hand is a competitive little sneak!  This is a trivia game and one day I caught her reading through all of the cards.  I didn't think it through until we played it that night and as we were in the middle of reading a question to the kids, she quickly blurted out the answer.  I said, "How do you know?"  she replied, "I read that card today and already know the answer!"  haha.  She has a memory like no other!  It's probably photographic.  :)

 Andie got Legos...and was so excited.  We're not the best picture takers/lookers.  :)

Adalyn's big present from Santa was a little people princess castle.  Boy of Boy....her expression tells it all!

 Grandma and Grandpa Pratt got Ali a doodle bear.  She exclaimed while opening it, "I'VE ALWAYS WANTED ONE OF THESE!!!!"  That bear has been doodled and washed on many times - and she still loves it.  The second it comes out clean clean again, she's doodling flowers on it again.  Thanks!

 Andie wanted a BIG BUTTERFLY Stuffed animal.  A butterfly pillow pet did the trick!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

 Shawn got Star Trek of Catan...bummer is we need at least 3 people to play, but it was fun when we played a quick game with the missionaries on Christmas day while they were skyping with their parents.

 Ali wanted to a picture with all of her stuff.  So, she arranged it all and said, "Mom, will you take my picture?"  Sure thing.

Mining for crystals.  :)

We had a great year and are so grateful to our extended family for thinking of us too!

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