Christmas Morning~

Christmas Morning!!  Finally~  The kids were so excited.  We have always done Christmas morning the same way ever since Ethan was little!  The funny thing about my family is that I have 4 kids ranging from ages 3-16 and only one of them knows what to expect!  Ethan has been great at filling in Victoria and Ezra on all of the Christmas fun that is about to come.  He has been so excited and trying so hard to explain what to expect.  He's been very helpful.  He is a great kid.  Our kids are weird because they sleep in on Christmas.  I was awake and dressed with breakfast made before anyone woke up around here.  We had Ezra and Mason awake by 8:30 and Ethan strolled in around 9:00ish!~  At that point we sent Ezra in to 'check' to see if Vika was awake.  Sure enough she was!

We all gathered in our bedroom to eat pancakes before we went to check if Santa really came.  That's always the trickiest part of the morning, but very important for happy kids!

After eating they all lined up youngest to oldest (they thought it was funny that it was shortest to tallest - we thought it was funny that this may be the last year that's the case!).  They made the walk into the family room.  They were all so excited!  It was so fun to watch all of them with their different perspectives.  Ezra didn't really understand what was happening but was thrilled at the outcome, Ethan totally understood what was coming and was so happy and excited, and Victoria had no real clue what in the world all the fuss and secrecy was about but she was so overwhelmed and giddy about everything, and Mason was happy just to be there and to hear the sweet sounds of 'puppy.'

Victoria was thrilled to finally get her chipmunks.  Every time we walk into the grocery store she searches to see if they have all of them.  Since October they have only had 5 of the 6 so she was pretty surprised to get them all!

Spen was a great videographer this year.  He got all dressed up for the occasion and let's be honest, everything is so much more fun when he is around.

Ezra was sooo happy when he saw all of his balloons.  He wanted to play with them all and hold them all.  He had Ethan count them for him and was so happy.  He loved that he had his cuppy cuppy cup cakes and he played with his train . 

All of the kids were very attentive to Mason and fetching his puppy and trying to give him paper to tear apart.  Mason wasn't so sure about all this crazy Christmas stuff and all of the kids were so great to him.  It was so sweet to watch as the mom.  I loved seeing Victoria hand him paper and toys and play with him, Ethan kept trying to hold him and talk to him to keep him entertained, and Ezra just kept giving him things to throw.  What great kids.

It's always fun that my parents and my Grandma Pete come over to see the kids.  The frustrating part for them is that my kids don't really do a whole lot for them to see!  They open one gift at a time and then they play with it for a while.  By the time my parents left around noon to get ready for church we had opened only a few gifts.  My cute Granny was loving playing with the balloons and Spencer tied one on her wrist where it stayed all morning!

The best part of Christmas for me is watching my kids give each other gifts.  They get so excited to see each other open them and to see their reaction.  Mason was slow, but they were all patient with him as he enjoyed the boxes and wrapping.

This year we gave each of the kids $40 and the opportunity to earn extra money to use to buy each other Christmas gifts.  Victoria spent that and everything she had on her gifts.  She went to Build-A-Bear to get Mason a bunny that had music buttons in its paws.  She was very thoughtful.

Ezra gave Mason a Perry the Platypus that didn't really last long in Mason's arms!  Perry was quite a hit with all of the kids.

Mason gave Ethan his BYU pillow pet and I think that was one of his favorite gifts of the day.  He was so happy to finally have a pillow pet and that it was even BYU made it so much better!

Spencer was fun all morning and got a few gifts.  He has a money bottle that he keeps in our closet that broke so I gave him his electronic bank.  We kept telling Victoria that we love that she has an 'American smile' now and she didn't really know what we were talking about, so Spen took a few of his pictures with his 'Ukrainian smile!'  We sure thought it was funny..  after looking back at pictures he's pretty accurate actually!

Ethan was elated when he got a bank too.  He was so grateful and happy about everything he got.  He is the one that really started our Christmas' taking forever because he gets so excited to try everything out that we just decided we should let him rather than hurry him along to the next present!  Last year Christmas officially ended on New Year's Eve.  Hopefully this year isn't that long, but it really is fun to let them enjoy their gifts!

Ethan's 'big' gift from us was his radio.  When Victoria got here in April she was pretty involved with listening to her music.  It was really one of the first things she wanted to do.  Ethan is just the kind of kid that immediately ran down to his room and brought up his for her to use.  Well, he never got his radio back and never once said a word to Victoria about it.  He just decided that it was more important to him for her to have it.  He did ask me one time if sometime he could get one for his room again sometime.  He was very happy to get a radio/CD/mp3 player.

Our big gift for Victoria was her watch.  The one I got her when she first came works but you can no longer change the time.  We thought she'd really love it. 

After Christmas had gone on for a few hours Ezra decided that it was finally time for him to try his cuppy cakes.  He was very nice to take them around and share them with everyone that was there.  He had us sing a Merry Christmas song - I'm thinking it was his equivalent to a Birthday song?- and we all ate cuppy cakes.

Victoria was very excited to give Ezra his drill set.  It had a battery drill that he could screw in his screws.  He played with that thing for a long time.

She gave Ethan a Socker Bopper for him to try out his Taekwondo.  He loved that too.  We had a very successful Christmas morning.  This year Christmas fell on a Sunday and we had 1:00 church to get ready for.  It was a nice break to get all ready to go and listen to the speakers and the music that was prepared for Christmas.  It really helped us to remember why we celebrate Christmas and to be grateful for all that Christ does for us in our lives.

Christmas Eve - Christmas Morning ~

Christmas Eve is such a strange day for me.  It feels like the slowest day ever but then suddenly there is so much to do and no time left to do any of it!  We start out Christmas Eve with a little breakfast party at our house.  It's a tradition that I absolutely love.  If anyone knows me they know that I love a good tradition!  We had cousins and family over to play and eat and play some more.  My mom always has presents and games for the kids complete with a Christmas Lego set and ornament exchange story.  We hate to have people leave but they have to go and get ready to get together for dinner at my parents later!

After all the family left Spencer went errand running and me and the kids made our traditional homemade marshmallows.  It is always a huge mess and a lot of fun!  It's usually much colder than it was today so when I put my mixer on the porch to cool as it mixes for the 30 minutes or so it takes it took longer than we expected!  I'm just glad my mixer can take it. 

We got to cleaning up and organizing the house just how we like it for Santa to visit.  By this time it was time for us to get ready for 'dinner' at my mom's house.  We went over at around 3:30 this year to have kind of a lunch/dinner of our traditional Christmas soup.  It was delicious as ever!  I decided the first time she made it when I was a kid that it should be a tradition and named it 'traditional Christmas Soup' to ensure that it was.  It stuck and we enjoyed it this year too!  My kids love it and already remember it.  So much fun.  My mom had presents of pajamas for all of us which was so much fun.  Ezra got superhero jammies, Mase and Spencer got Mickey Mouse, Ethan got some super cool BYU flannels, and Victoria and I got matching purple fleece.   After the early dinner and fun presents we all set out to see the Christmas Lights in the Riverwoods.  It was freezing and gorgeous. 

We came home to make our hot chocolate and eat our marshmallows and treats.  Victoria, Spencer, and Ethan ended up in a whip cream fight.  There was whipping cream everywhere.  They were laughing. 

The kids were mostly excited to get to the present opening.  Nan and Papa Shaw sent pajamas for the kids too.  We had to get a picture of all of the kids showing off their pajamas.  Ethan was embarrassed that they were tightys so he tried to hide!

Victoria was funny when she opened hers.  She was not at all discrete about not liking them.  We made her put them on and when she did she liked them.  They were very soft and cozy.  After that she never wanted to take them off!

After we talked about Christmas and read our Christmas story the kids went off to bed.  We were so tired already that I wish we could have just gone to bed!  We have always kept every present hidden until Christmas Eve.  The kids all gave us theirs as they wrapped them to hide so that magically before Santa comes we put out all of the gifts for everyone all at once.  Ethan has always loved it because it is such a surprise and a change in the morning.
This year if you asked my kids what they wanted for Christmas Victoria would say, "a cat." Not happening.  Ethan said, "an electric scooter," or "an electric motorcycle," or "a BB gun."  Hmmm, not really sure about most of those!  Mason really would have loved if we could have pulled off a bike, but he is happy with anything.  But then Ezra... Ezra was a funny little kid.  He was a little confused with Christmas.  I think that he really thought it was another birthday or something.  When you would ask Ezra what he wanted for Christmas he would answer, "I want balloons and cuppy cuppy cup cakes."  So darling!  He stuck to that all month long.  Luckily Santa surprised him with exactly what he wanted.

It really was quite fun to have a room filled with balloons for Christmas.  It was a first for all of us.  This is what the kids saw when they woke up and walked into the room together...

The funny thing was that the stockings were what held Victoria's obsession.  She was so curious about what in the world could be in there.  Ethan kept explaining that we do the stockings very last and that just about killed her!

It's kind of fun having our tree on a platform that is raised about 14"  off the ground.  It really gives us a great place to stash stuff!

Ezra got some of the yummiest cuppy cuppy cup cakes ever.  They were fantastic.  He even got enough to share.  Along with his balloons Santa brought him a new train.

Victoria changed her mind from a cat the the beanie babies 'Chipmunk' dolls.  Spencer kept telling her that 'Santa must be real because he would never buy her that!'

Ethan got his Heely's.  He didn't ask for them but he was thrilled when he got them.  He put them on and was riding all over the kitchen for the next 30 minutes.  He was happy.

Mason got a new puppy.  This makes #7 I think?  He loves that puppy.  He wasn't very interested in Christmas this year.  Usually he rolls around in the wrapping paper and loves it, but he kept trying to leave and go to his cupboard in the kitchen.  Poor kid, kept getting dragged back to be with us.

It was just so much fun to walk into this Christmas room, I have to post all of the pictures I took!  We had such a great morning.  Our kids are funny.  They have always taken their time.  Christmas morning lasted a few days at our house.  More on that next..

Happy 2012~

We have a few traditions that we ring the New Year in doing as a family.  There aren't many because up until this year our oldest child was in fact only 8 and we would have kids in bed early!  We always have a fun dinner together that Spencer usually only makes for New Year's Eve.  His chicken wings.  It is one of my favorite things we do.  Spen takes care of everything and makes such a delicious dinner for us all.  We then play games together and just before bedtime we ring in the New Year with a special toast.  We typically have a countdown no matter the time.  This year it was much later than usual because we stayed up and watched the movie, 'Captain America.'  That was fun, but by the time it was over it was well after 10:00 and our kids were so tired that only Ethan participated in the toast.  I don't think we explained it very well to Victoria, but we had fun clinking our plastic cups and telling what we liked the most about this year.

Visiting Temple Square Lights~

Another tradition we have as a family is visiting Temple Square to see all of the lights.  We love going there but our kids always freeze.  We made sure to go prepared this year.  We actually planned our trip to arrive at Temple Square around 4:30 before the crowd showed up and just as it was getting dark.  It was in fact, genius!  We were the only people around for a while.  By the time we left after eating dinner across the street it was packed, but for the first little while it was quite nice to enjoy the lights to ourselves.

 We had to get a picture of Victoria with the pink lights.  The boys usually don't like me taking pictures over by the pink lights but now that we have a girl, it's allowed.

It was actually really great to go so early.  It eliminated a lot of the tantrums and crying we usually get.  The boys were very excited about the lights.  I honestly couldn't tell how Victoria felt.  Mostly it felt like she was ready to leave before we got there!  Oh, well.  We were glad she was there!  Ezra and Ethan loved being in pictures this outing.  That made me happy.  Mason was really good too.  That is not something we can count on lately with him.  He is really hating going anywhere.  This was such a great night though, I think we'll for sure do it again next year!

 It really is quite spectacular to see.

 As I was taking a picture of the family a nice couple offered to take one of all of us!  It was so great.

 This year my favorite and Spencer's favorite tree was the tree with all of the white lights.  It was breathtaking.

 You can see Spencer with the kids when we first got there by the pretty trees, there is NO ONE there!  It was so much fun to enjoy it without running a wheelchair or a stroller into anyone.

 It really is a gorgeous temple.

 We had to warn the kids about touching the water.  All 3 of them still tried!  They were amazed by the reflection pool as always.

 Ethan wanted a picture of himself with the temple.

 Then so did Ezra!

This was my favorite picture I took of the night.  I may actually have to print this one at some point!  I love the temple glowing through the tree of lights.  It was pretty. 

 Luckily we all stayed warm in our snow clothes.  We planned for freezing and we were pretty happy that we all kept nice and warm and could stay as long as we wanted to enjoy the lights.

 Merry Christmas!

The Lights on Christmas Eve~

Every year since I can remember, on Christmas Eve we have piled into the car and driven the streets looking for the best Christmas lights.  The last few years we have looked at the house lights on other nights and chosen to spend our Christmas Eve at an outdoor shopping plaza that really decorates for Christmas.  The lights there are amazing.  We have loved it.  Our kids like going there and don't like to go to that place unless it's Christmas Eve!

 This year it was COLD..  It was freezing actually.  I think it was the coldest night we have had so far.  The strange part about that is that the day was very warm and nice.  It was a little trick to have it get so cold.  I was not prepared for myself or for my kids for it to be that cold.  Mason ended up with one of his grandma's coats around his legs to try and warm him up.  He's just too skinny to stay warm, all my kids are!

 This year there was actually more of a crowd than in year's past.  We especially love that they have fire pits and heaters everywhere to hide under and get away from the cold.

 My sister and her kids and my parents joined us.  My nephew, Riley (9), is hilarious and mischievous.  Within minutes of being there he had soaked himself by sticking his arm up to his shoulder into the fountain trying to retrieve money, then burned himself in one of the fires after which his hand went back into the freezing fountain.  We spent our time chasing kids and enjoying the lights.

 We are a family who likes to take a lot of pictures.  It is a lot of fun afterward to have the memories.  Ethan was a great little photographer for me this year.  He took a great picture of my parents.

 Victoria was absolutely freezing.  She wouldn't really admit it or say anything.  She was trying to be a good sport, but when we left she was sure happy!  Ezra was pretending he was an airplane and running from one end to the other and back again.  He has so much energy and was so excited he couldn't contain himself!

 We loved the colored trees.  They were amazing.  Pictures really don't do Christmas lights justice I think.  The kids were very good sports and were so excited for it to finally be Christmas Eve they were just happy that it was getting dark!

 If anyone knows a lot about Ethan you know that it is next to impossible to get a good picture of him.  He likes to be goofy, but mostly just likes to avoid having his picture taken.  So when I get a great picture of him I am thrilled.  He was so great this year.  He was the Christmas veteran explaining how everything works to Victoria and to Ezra.  He was telling them what we were doing and what to be excited for and made the job of being the mom so much more fun.  He was a lot of fun this year.

 Ezra was the one kid that DID NOT want to leave the lights.  He was having such a great time.  He wanted more pictures and more lights to see.  He just loves being outside and doing things.  We were the last two in the cars to get going.

 He is my one child who absolutely loves having his picture taken.  I really hope that doesn't wear off~!  What a darling kid.