Family Daze: December 2008

Christmas is my favorite time of year, but I have to admit that this year it seemed to lack a little. It seemed that fewer people were filled with the spirit. Fewer homes we're decorated for Christmas this year. We were a little disappointed when we took the kids out to look at lights. Even our own neighborhood had only a handful of houses decorated. We were also very busy. We did a total of three Christmas'. I don't think I want to eat again till next Christmas. We had so many yummy dinners and treats of all kinds. I also got to bake over 200 hundred cookies. I think at one point I actually started to look like the Pillsbury Dough boy. It'll be a long while till I bake again. Christmas Eve was a lot of fun, we enjoyed a lovely dinner with our friends, the Kunz's. The time went by really quickly and before we knew it it was almost 10 pm. The men decided to tell the kids they had seen Santa flying into the neighborhood and that we had to get home and in bed or he wouldn't come to our house. The kids were falling all over themselves trying to get out the door and into the car. We got home with just enough time to decorate Santa's cookies. It was a lot of fun letting the kids decorate the cookies. Faith was good about trying to get all of her sprinkles evenly distributed over the frosting while Emma and Charlie put a nice big pile right in the center of their cookies. We loved every minute of it. Once they were asleep we had to put together a few of their toys. Then Santa showed up and put his toys under the tree. Needless to say between the Grandparents, Mommy and Daddy and Santa the kids made out very well. Thankfully the kids didn't get up till almost 8 am. They loved opening their gifts. Charlie wasn't really into it until he saw that there were toys underneath all that paper. They had a great morning. We had to pry the kids away from their toys to go to our friends, the Halsey's, for dinner. It was a wonderful day.

Stocking Stuffers

The girls' favorite toy, The Diamond Castle

The happiest baby ever!!!

My little man

Now it's New Year's Eve and I feel like the year has just flown by. We have had a lot happen this year. Jason separated from the Army, joined the National Guard, got his dream job and became the Elders Quorum President. Faith had her first day of school and celebrated her fifth birthday, Emma celebrated her third birthday, she also performed in her first ballet recital. Charlie turned one and started walking and has started talking. I worked on my calling as Second Counselor in Relief Society, I also was pregnant (once again). We welcomed our fourth child this year, a boy. We got to go home to see Sean get married. And last but most certainly not least we celebrate our eighth year of marriage. It has been a wonderful and blessed year for us. Next year doesn't show signs of us slowing down one bit. I look forward to another fun filled year.

So here are some photos from when we did our gingerbread men. I couldn't tell which the girls liked more, the decorating or eating the candy pieces. I am also including a random video I took about three weeks ago. It is one of my favorite videos of the kids. I especially love the look of Charlie's face when he sees Jason come through the door (you don't see Jason though).

Faith's 1st gingerbread man

Emma's 1st gingerbread man

Charlie eating a gingerbread man (did you think I would actually let him decorate one. He would probably have ended up with more frosting on him than on the cookie.)