The rest of our December Festivities....

MeRrY cHrIsTmAs 2009!

Looks like Santa found our house! I guess the kids were pretty good this year! What a fun morning! We told the kids they couldn't go downstairs until 8am! Teagen was up several times in the night cause he was so excited & then Kiley found him downstairs at 6 something watching TV! What a stinker! A tradition at our house is that Santa leaves the stockings at the foot of every one's beds, so they can sit in their rooms & open the presents they find in their stockings & maybe nibble on a little bit of candy--that is what I experienced as a kid & LOVED it! I think our kids also enjoy it & look forward to the surprises they get inside their stockings!

We had a fun, lazy day! The boys played the wii for most of it & Liv loved her pink bike & baby stuff! I got to talk with my entire family for 2 1/2 hours, including my little bro Rob & little sis Ash. They are both serving missions for our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). Rob is in Brazil & Ash is in Michigan. My bro Chris set up this conference line & we all called in on it & all 10 of us (including my parents) got to sit & chat! It was such a neat experience & made my Christmas! What a fun day we had! We are so truly blessed & are so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ & for the gift that He has given us!

CHRISTMAS EVE 2009!

Here I am with my big pregnant belly on Christmas Eve--5 more weeks to go. I am not a huge fan of taking pictures of full body shots while I am preggers, but I knew that since this is my last one, I need to have a few for memory sake.....and to help remind me that I don't want to ever be pregnant again! We had such a fun Christmas Eve this year, just our little family! We missed our extended family awfully bad, but made the most of it!

We had the boys play their December piano recital pieces for part of our family program. Kiley put together a nice little program & of course it would not be complete with out the tradition of reading the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ! What a fun evening!

After the program, we went out to spread the Reindeer Food all over the lawn so that they could have a snack while Santa dropped off the presents & enjoyed his snack. The kids also made sure they put out the magical key so that he could get into our house since we don't have a fireplace (forgot to take pictures of that event!!!).

Opening of the TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS PJ'S!!!!

This is a tradition that I LOVED as a child & hope that my kids love it as well! I love to look back on pictures when I was a kid wearing our new jammies, sometimes they were home made & sometimes they were not. I love the "train" pictures & it is a MUST at our house now. It is so fun to see how much the kids have grown & changed each year.

Our kids really like to pose for the camera!

Kiley had to show off his new PJ's with the boys!

Although Kiley & I have been married for 10 1/2 years now & we should be on top of everything, we are still trying to create our family traditions. We had no plans for Christmas Eve. Kiley had to go to work for the first part of the day, so the kids & I pretty much just hung out. Being the anal person that I am, my house had to be spotless & beautiful for Christmas morning! So I spent a lot of time getting things tidy. When Kiley got home, we decided that we'd go out to dinner.....a big deal cause if we are going to take the kids out to dinner, we usually just go with Subway. But we thought we'd go somewhere a little nicer so we took them to Texas Roadhouse. We had the BEST service & the food was FANTASTIC! The kids really enjoyed it & it was so nice to come home to a clean kitchen!

We let the kids open their Christmas presents from the Mortensen's in Seattle because it is always fun to open something besides the traditional PJ's that we do every year. They were pretty excited about their gift cards & couldn't wait to use them! Thanks Mortensen's!!!

Dec. 20th:
GINGERBREAD HOUSES!!!
The Berryman's came over & we made some fantastically messy gingerbread houses. The kids had so much fun! The Berryman's had a great kit that seemed to be pretty simple & easy. I had a kit as well, but it was a few years old & when we opened it, I thought the smell was going to kill me! Luckily I had a box of graham crackers & icing on hand. I was very impressed to see each of my kids personalities in their little houses! Braydens was very precise, a rhyme & reason to everything. Very thought out. Teagens was just very.......random! Olivia's needed a lot of help & was lacking lots of candy cause she kept eating it! It was a great night & something we hope to do every Christmas Season!

Before the Berryman's came over, the kids really wanted me to take their pictures with their daddy! They had so much fun posing & being so silly! It was quite comical to watch!

The Sunday before Christmas....(Dec. 20th)

I absolutely LOVE to get my kids all decked out for Christmas Sunday. I don't know that they enjoy it as much as I do, but it just always puts a smile on my face to see my boys looking so handsome & Livy looking so adorable! We all matched in our gray, red, & black attire. I may be partial, but I think I have pretty darn cute kids!

Dec. 17th:

Today was Olivia's MDO Christmas Pageant! We made sure she looked absolutely adorable before school & so we HAD to take a few pictures before she left. She kept telling me to take more & more. I think she knew she looked pretty darn cute & just kept hamming it up for the camera. The program was adorable & she did such a great job with her yellow star! She was very excited to give Miss Sherry & Miss Kelly their Christmas presents. She loves her teachers & loves going to school!

Liv with her favorite teacher, Miss Sherry!

Dec. 16th:

Teagen is playing basketball through the youth program on base again this year. He has thoroughly enjoyed it & really is such a great player! The coaches told the kids that who ever won some competition that they had during practice, they would get to pick the team name out of the hat. The week before they each got to write down what they wanted their team name to be. If any of you know my T-money, you know that he is a HUGE fan of BYU Cougars. So his contribution of course was the Cougars. Long story short, he won the little competition, pulled the team name out of the hat & as luck would have it, he pulled out COUGARS. Oh & I forgot to mention that their shirt color for the team is BLUE! Teagen is one happy little cougar!

More of the December Festivities!

Dec. 14th: Music Class Party!

Music Class...

Our neighborhood/ward does a music class for toddlers every Monday. We had our Christmas party & although Liv looks like she feels pretty crappy in the pictures, she had a good time. She had an ear infection.....

Dec. 12th: The boys piano family had the opportunity to play at the Rolling Oaks Mall for all the shoppers. It was a very laid back atmosphere & the boys seemed much more relaxed than they normally do when they are preparing to play for a recital!

This is Teagen & Brayden with their Amazing teacher, Emily! We sure do love her!

Brayden!

Teagen!

After the piano playing we headed to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa. We had about a 2 1/2 hour wait, so we played, made candy cane reindeer, went to lunch, & then back to sit on Santas lap. Liv was not so excited this time around. In fact, she was shaking & bawling her head off! But it was still a fun filled day. I don't know that Kiley thought it was as fun as I did, but that's okay! It just made it feel more like Christmas here in Texas, without family & without snow!

Making our Reindeer!

Kids playing & posing with daddy!

This was outside the shop & the kids really wanted their pictures taken infront of it!

Dec. 10th:

Getting ready to take our Neighborhood Christmas treats around. We have always done Muddy Buddies since living here & have just made it a tradition. Everyone seems to love them, so why change something if it doesn't need changing!

Church Christmas Party & Missionary Packages!

Dec. 6th:

For a Family Home Evening, we decided to go shopping for the missionaries in our family & make them some fun packages for Christmas. We had lots of fun choosing candies, cookies, & other treats & some fun little gifts, too! The boys decorated the packages, we filled the boxes with goodies, & each wrote a letter to each missionary. Liv colored pictures for them. It was a lot of letters, but it sure was fun! We sent them to California, Michigan, & Brazil! We sure love our missionaries & pray for their well-being & safety!

Brayden wasted no time when the jolly old fellow came! He was the first in line & the first to sit on Santa's lap!

I thought maybe Teagen would be too cool this year, but he got in line with all of his buddies & didn't seem to have any problems sitting on his lap!

Caroline was so brave this year! Kathryn said that she would NEVER sit on his lap, but with the pressure of her little friends, she was more than willing to hop up on his lap....she's even smiling!

At last, just before we were to go home, Liv decided she would take the plunge & sit on his lap. She was so brave! Way to go Olivia!

Dec. 5th:

The same day I had my surprise baby shower, we also had our church Christmas Party. I inivited my good friend Kathryn to come along with us. The boys disappeared & ran around with friends all night. Liv, Caroline, & Anna had a great time running around the gym! We even had a special guest......Santa Claus! Olivia was very nervous about this strange man in read! She would not sit on his lap, but then finally after staring at him for quite some time, she sat on his lap with my help! It was pretty funny!

SURPRISE!

This is my sweet friend Kathryn! She is the one that I am always blogging about. She delivered Olivia & will also be delivering Brielle on the 20th of January. She surprised me back on Dec. 5th with a Baby Shower! Livy & I walked over to their house thinking it was a birthday party. When we walked toward the kitchen, a bunch of my friends jumped out & instantly I started to cry! What a fun surprise! I am sad that we didn't get pictures of everyone that was there---that always seems to happen! I felt so much love & support from my sweet friends! Thanks ladies for such a fun get together & those that couldn't make it, I know you would have been there if you could have been! You guys are the BEST!

Is this cake not the cutest! It was so adorable-I hated to cut into it, but it also was so nummy!

Good friends, Good times!

WISH BONE!

The boys could not wait to see who would win the wish of the turkey wish bone! We finally remember one night to do it & was smart enough to capture some pics of the big event! Kiley got the boys ready & told them the rules. One, two, three.....Brayden won! He was so excited & could not wait to make his wish! Olivia was feeling left out, so we had to do a repeat of the ordeal with her & Teagen & had to make sure she got the biggest side! She was quite proud of herself! A few moments later, Brayden decided he wanted to test out this whole wishing thing! He said he made his wish & then he did something funny with his hands! I asked him what he was doing & he just said, "Nothing, these wishes really don't work!" I asked what he had wished for & he said, "I wished that I had super powers & could throw fireballs out of my hands!" Ya, I am pretty glad this wishing thing didn't work! What a kid!

Decorating the tree!

Aghhhh, decorating the tree! So we have what we like to call our Charlie Brown Tree. It isn't much of a tree, I think we got it for $20 at Walmart a few years ago. We load it up with all our ornaments that we have collected, made, or been given over the past 10 years. It may not be the prettiest tree, but it does have a lot of meaning to us & we love to look at all the fun, unique ornaments. I opted to not have any pictures of myself taken during this fantastic event. Pregnancy=avoid the camera at all costs!

Teagen sure enjoyed decorating this year, in fact, he was goofy & intense all at the same time!

Brayden got a hold of the camera & started going crazy. He did help out a lot, but seemed to take a lot of the pictures & was not in many of them.

Olivia....oh this girl! She had the opportunity of putting the star on the tree. Obviously from the pictures, something did not go exactly has she had hoped & therefore she is showing off her dramatic side! People, what is this girl gonna do when this baby is born!??!?!?!?!

The finished product! I just love this time of year! I love having my house decorated with loads of different holiday items! This may be our last Christmas in this house, so I need to get pictures of the other rooms as well! It is so much fun to transform the house for the holidays! Merry Christmas Y'all!

An act of service????

Before we put the Christmas Tree & other decorations up this year, I had one small request. I really just wanted the windows & blinds cleaned...not too much to ask right? Well, it did take some time, but these 3 handsome, wonderful boys got the job done! Thanks for making sure everything sparkled & was what I wanted! I have the best boys ever!

Thanksgiving Day.....

We hosted Thanksgiving this year. Our WONDERFUL friends, who are pretty much family, joined us, the Berryman's & the Meier's. We enjoyed some delish food & nummy desserts!

Kiley took the boys out early in the morn to play in the annual Turkey Bowl with a bunch of people from church (no pics :(). It was a nice relaxing day!