Christmas Morning 2013

Christmas morning dawned earlier than I wanted it to after getting home so late the night before.  My parents and Curtis came to watch the kids open their presents.  We had to wake both of them up.  As usual, Brandt popped right up out of bed but it took some doing to get Kylie up and moving.  Kela was helpful in that area... They were both pretty happy to see that Santa had come and brought them most of what they had asked for this year. Kylie was excited that she got "more lipstick, lots of pretty dresses, books, a Brave barbie, cute socks, and my tablet."  Brandt says, "Christmas was great!  I loved everything I got.  My favorite was my electronic (AKA his new tablet)."  After everything was opened, we had a yummy breakfast before my parents and Curtis headed home.  One funny thing that happened was that my dad had picked out his own gifts from us kids and he was so excited about the wool vest he got.  Little did he know that my mom had also bought him a wool vest over a month ago and had been saving it as a Christmas surprise.  We all got a pretty good laugh out of it.

Christmas Eve 2013

We spent our Christmas Eve at Bryce's Grandma Hemmert's house along with Dan and Linda, Cynthia and Trevor, Doug and Shellie, Matt and Tiffany and Emmalea and Jennilyn.  The highlight for the kids was shooting nerf guns with grandpa Doug.  The highlight for Bryce was his mom's stuffed mushrooms that went along with the prime rib dinner.  Kylie showed her artistic abilities by drawing purple graffiti on two doors and the inside of the toy closet.  Thankfully it was a washable dry erase crayon.  When we finally got home at about 10:30 pm the kids were super excited for Santa to come.  Brandt had already prepared a ziplock bag of oreo cookies for Santa and a bag of carrots out of our garden for his reindeer.  After they got in their PJ's I got out my new Christmas gift a little early-a new camera-and took a few pics of the kids with the tree and then took a few more after Santa had been here.  Note how clean my living room looks when my children are peacefully sleeping-I'm guessing it's the last time it will look like that for awhile...

Ward Christmas Party 2013

My mom and dad were given the huge task of organizing this year's St. Charles Ward Christmas party and had less than two weeks to plan it.  They did an amazing job and arranged a yummy roast beef dinner made by Cooper's restaurant (who kindly donated all of the labor and workers to make it) as well as an entertaining program and a special visit from Santa (or at least his helper, Curtis Keetch, who was here for a visit with his parents).  We got to have extra special guests when Rylie and Mckenzie came to stay with my parents and were able to go to the party with us.  Dallas and Theresa Arnell helped put together the program which included a violin and flute duet by Fern Nielsen and Caren Howard, singing and guitar playing by Bob and Sheven Andersen, a cowboy Christmas song by Glenn and Linda Transtrum and family, and a medley of Christmas songs by the primary children.  Brandt was nervous about going up to sing until Rylie went up and that gave him the courage he needed.  While it was a really nice party, I miss the ones when I was growing up.  They were such a huge deal-mostly when it came to the program.  When I was in primary we would practice our songs and parts for weeks (including during the week, not just on Sunday) and then we would get all decked out in angel, shepherd, wise men, Mary, Joseph, etc. costumes and perform the nativity or another short program that really helped to bring the Christmas spirit.  Life is just so busy now but I'm trying hard to make time for some of these things that I feel are really the most important part of Christmas so my children will understand that we celebrate the birth of our Savior, which is more important than the commercialized Christmas of our society today.

We were slow in getting our tree up this year.  Typically I try to get some pics of the kids decorating, but this year looks like Brandt was the only one taking pictures. Then he put down the camera and was the main decorator.  He had to group all the like things together.  For example, he put all of the cherry flavored candy canes in one section of the tree and the peppermint candy canes in another section, which drove his dad crazy!  I told Bryce he shouldn't worry about it too much since my guess is all the candy canes will be eaten over the next few days, anyway. :)

Christmas Card Pictures

As we started getting Christmas cards in the mail at the beginning of the month, I realized that I didn't have a picture that would even work for ours.  Maleri was a trooper and took a few shots on this afternoon despite the below freezing temperatures and windy conditions.  I think the high of the day was about 7 degrees. We were able to get a few cute ones by the Paris tabernacle, the old shop on the corner by Quinn and Mal's house, and inside on their staircase.  Afterward, Kylie, Allee, Jolie, and Bridger had fun with their own silly photo shoot.

I ended up having this Friday off because the docs had a provider retreat so the office was closed for the day.  I had high hopes of getting a lot accomplished-mostly of cleaning my house.  So...at one point I took a few minutes to put a load of laundry in and take a quick potty break.  And this is what I found when I was done... Brandt had started his own hair cut and his and Kylie's make-up.  Thankfully he didn't cut her hair as well!