Merry Christmas to All

Santa Came! This year was great. I had everything all ready to go so I was in bed at about 10:30 (instead of 3:00am). Ethan woke up at 2:30, and I let him go peak so he could go back to sleep. Everyone else was up about 8:00. Here's what Santa brought...

Avery with her new play mat!
Haylee with her new American Girl doll, Elizabeth. She was so excited to find Elizabeth and her were in matching jammies.
Ethan with his new Lego's and Pokemon card and binders. The kids played for a little while and then we all got dressed for the day, so we could open presents.
Avery loves getting presents
Andy was in charge of taking pictures so we didn't get a lot of the kids with their presents, but he did get a lot of close-ups of their faces which are darling. Then we went to the Shippen's for a very yummy brunch! Grandma Kathy makes homemade cinnamon rolls, eggs, sausage, hash browns, hot cocoa, and orange juice. Best Christmas breakfast ever. Then we opened presents with everyone.
Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Skip got Haylee a duffel bag full of make-up!
Thanks dad she loves it, and I love the bright pink eyeshadow she puts on EVERY morning:)
They got Ethan a present as big as a card table! Any ideas on what it is?....a Carrom Board. He loves playing it with Grandpa, Dad, and Uncle Luke.
Avery trying to help Grandma rip into another one! After hours of fun at the Shippen's we headed to the Mac Gillvrays, for even more fun. Grandma Mac had planned a Nativity for the kids to act out. She had costumes for each character, and Grandpa Mac read the Christmas story from the scriptures.

Avery as baby Jesus. She kept kicking off her "swaddling clothes"
Haylee was an angel, and she had a speaking part,"Peace on earth, goodwill to men." Ethan was a Shepherd with his own little lamb (his 18 mo. old cousin, who didn't want to wear her costume, or hang around for long) The Nativity was a hit and I think Grandma is making it a yearly tradition.
Haylee and her cousins with their AG dolls
Ethan and his cousins
Grandma Mac finished Haylee's quilt Christmas morning. Haylee was so so excited! The quilt turned out beautiful (Thanks Grandma) We had a wonderful Christmas!

T'was the Night Before Christmas

Every year for Christmas Eve we go to my mom and dads for a wonderful dinner and time with Great Grandma and Grandpa.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Shippen with their great grand kids!
Ethan, Haylee and Avery in front of Grandma Kathys tree.
All of the grand kids in front of the tree.
Aunt Ally and Avery
Every year on Christmas Eve we get to open 1present from mom and dad. OUR CHRISTMAS JAMMIES! Avery loved opening presents. She would get all excited and kick and try to grab the present.

Avery opening her new baby from great grandma and grandpa Shippen.
Isn't she funny?
Our new Jammies
Averys new jammies and new baby
After dinner we we watched the nativity story and grandma read a poem. Then we headed home and decorated some cookies for Santa and made him some hot cocoa, and of course we left carrots for the reindeer. Then they hurried to bed so Santa could come!

Melts My Heart

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

YoU'rE InVItEd...

I am having a Jean Party! Anyone is welcome to come It is WEDNESDAY the 19th (not Thursday) at my house from 6 to 8. There will also be a consultant from Tastefully Simple there with lots of yummy food to sample. Let me know if you would like to come or if you need directions....and please invite anyone you think would like to come!

Ward Christmas Party

Tonight was our ward Christmas Party!

They had this cute backdrop you could take pictures with.
Avery with Katie...one of our babysitters:)
Avery was pooped after being passed around all night. She makes a fun toy and all the girls (and women) fought over holding her.

We are loved:)

We must be loved...58 hits to our blog in one day, HOORAY! I am so glad all of you are avid bloggers like myself. Thanks for the support but all I have to say is out of 58 views there are only 10 comments on the last post? Leave me a comment I love love love to hear from you;) If you know me and are not on the friends list leave a note with your site so I can add you.

Festival of Trees

On Saturday we went to the Festival of Trees.

Summer, Ethan, and Avery loo in front of the zebra tree.
Say "CHEESE"
Aunt Ally and Avery. Avery loved to look at all the lights.

Little Avery loo who with the Grinch. (Everyone says she looks like a who)
Avery with Grandma Kathy and Great Grandma Shippen
The kids with Elves making candy...YUM
Ethan staring in amazement at the "Darth Vader" tree. What could be better for a 7 year old then a huge Darth Vader covered in little Star Wars action figures?
Group shot.....and some of our favorites



The BYU tree was donated by stores on line (the company Andy gets his leads from)

The kids thought the upside down tree was great, and it was covered in fairies. We had to take a picture of the raggedy Ann and Andy for Grandma Mac.

They had cute Gingerbread houses and of course we had to take a picture of the South Park tree.

After we went to dinner at Mcgraths. Kids likes the crabs.
I love Avery in blue.

Bug Bloopers

Kids are HILARIOUS! I don't think I have laughed this hard in a long time:)

Haylee: Mom Guess what?
Mom: What?
Haylee: Camden got to go to the MT River with her grandma! (she was way excited)
Mom: I don't know what the MT River is.
Haylee: (Confused for a sec) then her eyes lit up and she said "I mean the MTSea" (MTC)
Mom: (trying so hard not to laugh) Do you know what the MTC is?
Haylee: Like a big swimming pool or something?

I had to explain to her what they Missionary Training Center was and what they do there. She walked away disappointed that Camden wasn't going swimming. I think she liked her "MTSea" better.

My pretty pretty princesses

Aunt Ally came over to play with my kids yesterday. She was taking care of Avery for me while I got some stuff done around the house. All of a sudden Avery starts screaming and Ally starts yelling for me to come. I dropped everything and ran and this is what I found...

Ally was playing Pretty Pretty Princess with Haylee and Camden. And guess who won? Avery! She was so funny. She liked all the jewelry except the crown. (Notice the earrings?)
The girls had fun and thought Avery was "overreacting" (poor Avery) Thanks Aunt Ally for all the good times.