Christmas Morning

My goodness! I took a lot of pictures over Christmas, so here we go again...


The kids woke us up at 5:30!

Waiting on the stairs for everyone to get there.

Austin told me. "wow, your hair is a mess. You must have slept really good!" yeah this short hair doesn't sleep well :)

After the boys had a chance to wake up, they were really excited about their massive stack of presents. Santa went a little overboard this year.

The big present from Santa that the kids found at the end were these little four wheelers.

Parker is already giving the chicks rides :) Little Brooke rode with him all morning.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house.

My mom is always the best hostess, she makes such great meals for us. We had a very yummy Prime Rib dinner.

This is the before

and after, we make short work of my mom's beautiful table setting.

We had the kids act out the Christmas story. Parker was a shepherd. He is in the green, with his back to the camera. In the front.

Layton was a wise man. He is in the blue, with his back to the camera also (or course!) in the front.

Another attempt at a all the kids in front of the tree picture. As you can see. not a great success :)

Chritmas Eve Day

This was the next stop on our Christmas party train. A party at Lance's grandparents house.

As you can see, Santa didn't go over much better than the past few times.

Parker did however love eating the candy cane Santa gave him.

Both boys got these nerf guns. They shoot so fast, they are serious guns. But the boys love them and I can deal with them (for a little while at least :)

Thanks Harv and Louise brunch was great and it was so nice to see you both!

A Rush Valley Christmas

On the 23rd we had Chirstmas at Lance's parents house.

Don't Layton and Tanner look suspisious getting into Sidney's presents? :)

Parker, wrestling his cousin (who is Layton's age). Lets just say Parker wasn't the one crying in the end :) (sorry Shannon!)

This was the attempt at a picture of them all together... real life I guess.

Gingerbread Houses

For family home evening tonight I had a few friends and their families come over to make gingerbread (well graham cracker) houses.

The boys were of course, super excited about all the candy. They had lots of fun.

Thanks everyone for coming, we had a great time!

Our Ward Christmas Party

We just had our ward Christmas Party. It was really nice, we had a super yummy dinner. My cute primary kids did a little program, and then of course Santa came!

The boys were really excited to see him. But still nervous, we told them it was their choice to see Santa or not. They both said not :) then at the end Layton said he wanted to be brave and stand by him so I could take a picture, and this is as brave as he wanted to be...

After all the kids were gone and Santa was about to leave, Layton told Lance that he wanted to go and see him. No one sat on his lap, but it was still a big deal for both of the boys to get so close without any tears. They were actually smiling when they came back.

And they of course were thrilled with their treat bags!

Thanks to everyone who planned the party, we loved it!

The Forgotton Carols

Lance and I went with my brother and sis-in-law, and my mom and dad over to Richfield to see Michael McLean's "The Forgotten Carols". I have heard the music during Christmas time for my whole life, but Lance hadn't ever heard any of the songs, so I wasn't sure if he would like it or not.

But of course we all loved it! It was funny, spiritual, sad, and everything in between. Without being inappropriate. Micheal McLean is awesome and all the other performers were so great. I totally recommend it.

Live Nativity

I guess every year on Bishop Aston's farm they do this live nativity but I hadn't ever been before. It was cold, but really nice. Our boys loved it.

You walk from place to place looking for Mary, Jospeh, and Baby Jesus.

As we were walking away from the angels and could see in the distance the stable with the star over it. Layton said very quietly "Im so excited to see who's in there"

The boys have heard the Christmas Story several times but after this Layton finally got it, now he can remember the names and what happened. It really came to life for him.

If anyone has a chance to go to a live nativity do it (assuming it is as amazing as the Ashton's!)

Christmas FHE

A few cute girls in my ward put together this fun FHE for all our families.

We started out by walking from house to house asking if there was room for us, when there wasn't room that family would join us and keep going. (probably about 10 families)

We ended up at the Randalls house.

We ate a dinner like maybe Mary and Joseph would have eaten.

Then did a rotation of games, crafts, and stories.

At the end LouAnn read us a story and we sang christmas songs.

This was such a fun night with our familes focusing on the meaning of christmas. Thanks so much for all your hard work girls, we loved it!

sledding and snowflakes

After the boys finish shoveling snow, Lance always pulls them around in the sled for a bit. They built a jump and the boys think it is the funnest thing ever!

It was still snowing when they were sledding and I showed them how to catch snowflakes on their tongue.

Free Digital Kit Download!

One of my favorite digital scrapbooking stores has the cutest new kit avaliable for a FREE download

This new kit just came out today(its $5.95), and I think it is darling. I was just making plans to do gingerbread houses with the boys, now I really want too so I can scrapbook them with this!!!

Shoveling Snow

The boys love to help Lance shovel the snow. We have kid size snow shovels for them, and they are actually pretty good with them.
(Layton is in blue, Parker is in red)