Christmas Morning

We didn't really take many pictures Christmas morning.  So - here they are.  First - the boys as they came downstairs to see if Santa had come...

 Santa brought two a-frame tents for the boys!  They love to build forts, so Santa must have thought these would make it easier...

 Kate got this great ball popper.  Jackson had lots of fun playing with it!

 Great place to eat.

 Opening presents...

 Hyrum surprised everyone, and was able to fly home on Christmas Eve.  It was so fun to have him here for a few days.  He helped Tiffy give Kate her first pedicure!  (I was told I'm not a very good girly mom, since I don't even own any nail polish to begin with!  Poor Kate!  She'll have to go live with Tiff to learn how to be girly!!)

Christmas PJs

We love spending Christmas Eve together as a family.  It's fun to have a yummy dinner, read the Christmas story and talk about the different people that were part of the original nativity.  Christmas traditions are the best!  And you can't ever forget the opening of the Christmas jammies! 

So - here are the annual Christmas Eve PJ pictures! 

Here we are in our new PJs.  (Scott and Daris didn't need/want any new PJs)

 Cute Kiddos! (this was seriously the best picture I got with my phone.  I love how Robyn's head is swinging!!)

 Love this picture of my three kiddos.  Kate was so happy!

 Kate had fun sitting in this rocking chair.  She loves this rocking chair.

 Happy girl in the rocking chair!

AJ: Days 20 - 24

AJ had some fun the last few days he's been at our house.  He didn't get in to too much mischief, which was nice!

Days 20 & 21: He hung out with baby Jesus in our nativity set.  I guess he enjoyed it so much the first night that he just decided to stay there the next night too.  We normally move him back to his shelf after we find him, but it took us so long to find him the morning of the 20th, that we just left him there.  He was in the same spot the next morning too!!

 Day 22: Adam did a fun unit at school where they learned about how the holidays are celebrated around the world.  He came home and shared it with us, and then asked his dad to add in information about Italy (that's where Scott served his mission), and then we talked about other countries.  I guess AJ heard us, because we woke up the morning of the 22nd to see that he had added the North Pole to Adam's book.

 Here's what he wrote:

NORTH POLE

Santa Claus lives there!

That's where candy canes are made.

That's where elfs like me make toys for good boys and girls.

It's cold with lots of snow.

Love, AJ

 Adam thought this was so cool!  He loved reading about the north pole.  His best comment - "AJ has such good hand writing!"

Day 23: Buried in all the presents!  We didn't put our presents under the tree, because Kate likes to rip into anything she can get her hands on, so they were piled on the desk next to the tree.  We found AJ buried there!

 Day 24: Sitting on the kitchen table with a pictures of Santa and the kids, and a cookie recipe.  We decided he was trying to tell us what kind of cookies to make for Santa.

 So, we made "Scott Manwaring's Chocolate Chip Cookies" for Santa!

Christmas morning, we woke up to find AJ was gone - along with the milk and cookies we had set out for Santa.  See ya next year AJ!!

Lego Advent Calendar

We bought the Lego advent calendar this year and then never got it out.  So, Grandpa helped the boys put everything together on Christmas Eve.  It makes a bunch of parts to make a Christmas scene.  It was a fun way to spend Christmas Eve.  Maybe we'll do it this way again!  Then we don't have to remember to do it every day!!  Perhaps we started a new Christmas Eve tradition!

Pictures in front of the Christmas Tree

The Sunday before Christmas, we were all dressed up in our best holiday colors for church.  So, we did a bit of picture taking in front of the Christmas tree.

My cute kids.  Love these three!

 Ms. Katie Mae!

 Dad and his boys.

 Dad and Kate (with Jackson thrown in!)

 My baby girl and me. 

And Katie Mae showing off her beautiful Christmas dress.  Grandma Wallis bought this dress for her and she loved wearing it!  Isn't she so cute!! 

Gingerbread houses - take 2!

Every year at Adam's school, the 1st graders do gingerbread houses the last day before winter break.  His teacher asked for lots of helpers, so Adam asked if I would go in.  It was so fun!  I really love volunteering in Adam's class!  Seeing how he interacts with his classmates, and just seeing what goes on in the class is great!  There were TONS of parents and grandparents that came in for the activity, so I got to spend a lot of time at Adam's table!

All the candy was donated by the kids in his class.  Look at this pile of candy!  This wasn't to share with the other kids at the table - this was just for Adam!  Crazy!

 Here's a blurry picture of Adam's final house!  It was also pajama day at school, so all the kids were nice and comfy!

After the gingerbread houses, his teacher invited any parents to stay since they were just going to be playing games the rest of the afternoon until reccess.  So, I stayed and helped Adam and a friend play "roll the gingerbread man".  It was a fun afternoon!

Breakfast with dad!

Every morning, after Scott walks Adam to school, he sits down for a bowl of oatmeal.  No matter what she has had for breakfast, and no matter what she is doing at the moment, Kate always makes her way over, pulls herself up to stand next to him and opens her mouth like a little bird.  Usually, he'll pick her up, sit her on the couch and share his oatmeal with her.  She loves it!

 

Snow!

We kept hearing that there was a chance for snow.  The boys were so excited!  They wanted to go sledding again!  We woke up to the tiniest bit of snow this morning!  Once breakfast was over and Adam was ready to head to school, out everyone went to have a snowball fight!

 

It's a good thing they did it before school.  By about 10:00, the snow was gone and it was raining!

AJ: Days 13 - 19

AJ continues to get into lots of mischief around here!

On the 13th we found him diving into the gingerbread house!  He broked the roof!!

 On the 14th, he went for a ride in the train.

 On the 15th he was practicing the piano.  We think he wanted to play in Adam's piano recital with him.

 On the 16th, he snuck into the boys room and built a car out of their legos.  He also built a chair and foot rest for himself!  The boys were amazed that he was so quiet!  They didn't hear him come into their room at all!

 On the 17th, he rode Wolfy (Jackson puppy)....

 ... and did some jousting with Buzz.

 on the 18th, he was found tied up and surrounded by a bunch of toys guys! 

 We aren't sure how it happened - but they got him good!

 And - this morning, he was found enjoying a cranberry bliss bar that Scott was given at work. 

Only a few days left before he goes back to the North Pole with Santa. I wonder what he'll do next!!

AJ: Day 12 - with a note!

We woke up this morning to find AJ at the computer.  He had typed up a little note for the boys!

Here's what it said:
Dear Adam and Jackson -
Did you know there are only 12 more days until Christmas?  I've been having so much fun hanging out at your house, watching you play together and help your mom and dad!
Adam - you have been so great about doing your homework every night!  You have become such a good reader.  And you ROCK at math!  Keep working on being patient with your brother and sister when they get in to your things.  And be sure to listen to your mom and dad and don't be disrespectul!
Jackson - you are such a great big brother to Kate!  I love watching you play with her and help your mom.  Keep working on remember to go potty in the toilet!  It's super important.  Also - be sure you stay in your bed after you say prayers and sing songs with your mom!
Keep up the good work guys!  I've been able to give Santa mostly good reports!  I like giving good reports!
Thanks for looking for me every morning!
Love, AJ

Waiting to pick up Adam...

I've been working on getting this little blog up to date for a while now.  I've been downloading pictures and putting them into draft posts for about the past 2 hours.  Kate's been napping, and after having lunch, Jackson has been running around playing.  About every 10 or 15 minutes, he'll come over and ask me if it's time to pick up Adam yet.  I think that's his favorite time of the day.  We always walk over and he always rides his bike!  He loves it. 

About 10 minutes ago, he sat down in the chair next to my desk, and asked again if it was time to pick up Adam yet. I told him no, but that I was about at a stopping point and we could play a game until it was time to go.  He sat there for a few minutes and pretty soon, I heard snoring coming from the chair...

Doesn't he look comfy!

The good news is that soon there will be lots of posts about our summertime adventures for you to read on this little old blog!  I never should have let it get behind.  I've been sorting through about 700 pictures today.  I've got 15 draft blog posts that just need some words added to them...  So - check back into July and August in the coming days to read all about our Wallis family reunion and camping and all the other fun stuff we did!  Whew!!

AJ: Days 8, 9, 10 and 11

AJ has become a bit mischievous the past few days!  Saturday morning we awoke to find that he had drawn silly faces on our family pictures!  Luckily - he used a pen that wipes right off with a little bit of water!

 I tried to get close-ups of the pictures so we could remember what he'd done.  He even drew himself into our family picture!

 

 

We finally got our Christmas tree on Saturday.  We put it up in the stand, but didn't get a chance to decorate it.  Sunday morning we woke up to find AJ was trying to put the lights on the tree!

 Monday morning he was stuck in the basketball hoop!

 And Tuesday morning, he was taking a Christmas candy corn bath!  I guess he wanted some of the candy left over from decorating our gingerbread house!