Ready for Christmas!

Lindsey was reading Treasury of Christmas Stories in her bed tonight, and called me up to read me a poem she liked. I thought I'd post it because it is really cute, and pretty much sums up what we've been up to lately!

Day Before Christmas by Marchette Chute

We have been helping with the cake
And licking out the pan,
And wrapping up our packages
As neatly as we can.
And we have hung our stockings up
Beside the open grate,
And now there's nothing more to do
Except
To
Wait!

Welcome Winter

Winter arrived in all its glory this weekend. Friday night a nice storm hit. The kids have been so excited that it will be a white Christmas!! It won't be quite as exciting in May when the snow is still here, but for now it is fun!!

Lindsey really loves reading the American Girl books. In her Kirsten book (about a family who comes to america from Sweden in the 1800's), Kirsten celebrates a Swedish tradition called St. Lucias Day.
Here is a segment from wikipedia:
Saint Lucy's Day (Santa Lucia, Saint Lucia) is the Church feast day dedicated to St. Lucy and is observed on December 13.
In the Lucia procession in the home depicted by Carl Larsson in 1908, the oldest daughter brings coffee and St. Lucia buns to her parents while wearing a candle-wreath and singing a Lucia song. Other daughters may help, dressed in the same kind of white robe and carrying a candle in one hand, but only the oldest daughter wears the candle-wreath.
If you want to read more go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy's_Day

We have Swedish ancestors, so Lindsey decided that this year she wanted to celebrate it, Lindsey style. Instead of lighting the wreath with candles, she hung a bell from it. Instead of the buns, she whipped up some gourmet instant oatmeal. Guess I don't care what it was...I got breakfast in bed!


After the luscious feast of oatmeal, we went to our church Christmas party. The kids sang a couple songs, and got to sit on Santa's lap. All but Dallin enjoyed the big red bearded guy.


It's been snowing big fluffy flakes this evening , and Dallin was so cute to watch it out the window~!



Well, Spencer and I did something scary today. We played "Joy to the World" as a violin duet in church!!! I think it sounded just fine, though my hand with the bow was shaking and making a new vibrato sound that I hadn't known I could make! Lindsey took this shot for us a couple days ago during our practicing. She wanted us to walk out all fancy, so that is why we are being silly.

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree...

Well, we got our big ol' tree up. It was pretty heavy and took a couple tries, but amazingly it stayed up!

Making Ginger bread cookies to hang on the tree.

Setting it up just right.

The kids getting it all decorated.



"Santa" and his sleigh.

Yahoo! Christmas is a comin' and the goose is gettin' fat! Come December 1st we decked our halls with boughs of holly and started listening to our Christmas music.

Today was a way fun day. The young women in our ward held a service project where they offered to watch children ages 3-11 from 9am to 1pm while us parents went Christmas shopping! So we got up and out the door, dropped the kids off, and Ryan and I had a fun time in Idaho Falls trying to fit in all the stores we needed to hit before we had to be back. We had a great time and Dallin was so good sitting in the car and shopping cart while we cruised about.

Then, we went and picked up the kids, who had had a wonderful fun time filled with crafts, activities, treats, even lunch! We dropped by our house real quick to grab snow pants and tree cutting tools, and were off to find the perfect Christmas tree. We decided to go up to where the kids built the wiki- up with Ryan. So our first mission, of course, was to find it.


Mission accomplished! The kids were so excited to see that it was still there. No one had discovered it and ransacked the place. It is still standing nice and sturdy with the firewood inside. Next task was to find "the tree".

It didn't take the kids long to spot"the one". They each took turns sawing, and finally it went down.


That thing is huge! Ryan and I tried pulling a few of our canoe hoisting moves, and we got it up there, but boy, was it heavy!! The kids wanted to find the biggest tallest tree they could find, since we paid a permit for a tree up to 20 feet. I think they about did it!! Our car made it home ok, but I'm sure she was sagging a bit. We decided to save the putting up and decorating for Monday since our energy was sapped! The best part of the trip was reading our current family entertainment Calico Captive in the car on the way up and back. It's about a family in the 17oo's who is captured by Indians on the brink of the French and Indian war. They are separated, sold to the French and....well, you better read it to find out what happens if you haven't yet!!

Tlinkle Tlinkle Little Star

This afternoon I found Kami sitting on the toilet belting out her own version of Twinkle Little Star. As soon as she was done with her business, I asked her to sing it again.

Happy Birthday Jackson!

Well, yesterday was Jacksons big day. The kids have been talking for weeks about Jackson's first birthday, and the present they 've been wanting to give him: an entire day in the house. I told them I'd think about it, but don't get your hopes up. I'm not exactly a fan of really big hairy wet animals clamoring about the house. I cleaned up enough daily doggy doo doo when he was a puppy living in the mud room to get my fill of having a puppy in the house all day. That rug there in the picture was the recipient of his first little accident on Christmas morning. Well, yesterday the fated day finally arrived. I woke up to see that Spencer had arisen early to make him his very own "Happy Birthday Jackson" banner to hang on the wall. Luckily, the kids spent most the day outside working and playing, so I didn't have to worry about "the gift". When they all came in for dinner, they remembered what they had promised Jackson. So he got to come in and spend a bit of the evening with the family. He even got a candle, his very own home made birthday hat, a song, and a nice warm brownie. Happy Birthday Big J.

Ready or Not, Here it Comes!

Well we woke up to snow this morning...much to the childrens delight! It just doesn't seem right that jack o lanterns should have to deal with snow. But alas, here we are with snow capped pumpkins perching on our porch.

This was Dallin's first experience with this cold wet stuff. He was really rather entertained for quite awhile. However, when it came time for him to climb his favorite set of stairs, he met with some unexpected frustrations...slippery, cold, and a bulky snow suit cramped his style. He couldn't quite understand how those stairs he climbed with ease just a couple days ago could now be such a challenge!