Candlelight Christmas

One thing Scott really wanted to do was this candlelight Christmas at This Is the Place Heritage Park. They had old fashioned Christmas activities. It turned out to be kind of cool. We met up with my brother Drew and his family and my sister Amy and her family.
We started out with the live reindeer. (It was so super foggy but I think that helped create the abience). After the reindeer we saw Father Christmas (F.Y.I. Not the same as Santa Claus) When we sat Peter on his lap, Father Christmas gave him a candy cane and asked him "what he wanted for Christmas?" Peter handed back the candy cane and answered "Open it" That's as simple request. If all we ever need to give for Christmas was "opening it" what a simple life this would be.
Check out the Nutcracker the size of Peter he thought it was the coolest thing.
There were all kinds of arts and crafts, caroling and such. Scott and Ellie loved the dancing. Can you believe that was Scott's favorite thing? I can't even get him to dance at weddings but he liked the Virginia Reel. . . Who would have guessed.
William loved the live nativity complete with real Shepherds, sheep, and Wise men. He kept asking me if he could pet the baby. Much to his disappointment the baby was a fake.
Brennen loved the writing letters to Santa and then sending them up in ashes in the fire. That is until he burned his hand on the fire barrel

Legacy Center

One of the things we love to do in Utah is go to the Legacy Center. Its a Rec center with all kinds of fun activities. Our favorite is the pool. As you can see with the picture of Ellie we are part mermaid.
We took the whole crew. Stringhams, Mom, Dad, Reeves family, Johnson family, Grotegut family, Farr family and a few extras. Everyone had a great time. My favorite is the lazy river. The toddlers love the baby area, and the bigger kids loved the dump bucket, and water slides. Grandpas, and babies favorite was the hot tub. Even though babies aren't allowed we warmed them up by splashing them. Much to the chagrin of the life guards. (We were scolded repeatedly for sneaking the babies in the warm water.)

1st snow of 2010

When we got to my parents house it was cold but there was no snow. My kids were so disappointed until the next day that is, when they woke up to 8 inches of snow. It was so funny because William woke up, saw the snow and started shouting. "It SNOWED, IT SNOWED. ITS CHRISTMAS EVE!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE. Ellie wake up it snowed it Christmas."

Now it was Not Christmas Eve it was just a snowy day but for some reason my children think that when it snows its Christmas.

To prove this point it was a few days after Christmas when it snowed again. William again woke up saw the snow and announced "It snowed its Christmas!!!"

That said, we had a great time just playing in the snow. Of course it took some time to get everyone dressed in their proper attire but we had a blast. Scott and the kids built this giant snowman then I tried to build a chess Rook at the end of the driveway but it turned out to look like a giant flower pot. Hence the absence of a picture.

Cedar City photo shoot

We went to Cedar city Utah to visit Scotts family. While I was there I did a little photo shoot with my nieces and nephews because I realized when I was doing Scott's Mom's present I didn't have any good pictures of them. It was really cold outside but we managed to get a couple of shots. My youngest nephew Austin was not sure about me taking his picture especially when I took him out of the house to do it. His pictures are very subdude so I only took a few, he was not really working with me.

The oldest is Kelsey in the pink plaid. the next is Mandy in the brown vest, then Jarom, then the youngest Austin.

The individual pictures are what I was going with, the group ones were just for fun. It really helped the kids loosen up when a buddy was with them.

A day in the backyard

We are getting ready to head out to Utah and I have a lot of work to do before we go. First on the agenda today was find the backyard. It was totally COVERED in leaves, leaves, leaves. I am so thankful my Dad got us a blower for Christmas a few years ago. While we were trying to corral the leaves, the kids thought it would be fun to play in them and scatter them all over again. Frustrating but cute so I whipped out the camera.

Peter LOVES his Daddy and wants to do everything that Daddy does. So here he is with his little "mower" helping Dad. I love this toddler stage. It seems that everything they do is cute and funny.

Brennen was telling me that he slept on my bedroom floor last night because Ellie and William kept waking him up. And then "his eyes were broken because he couldn't see and so that's why he was in my room." His little voice was so full of inflection it was hilarious.
So I chuckled and let him know he was a funny kid. He replied with gusto "YA I Am!!!!" Oh to have the confidence of a 3yr old.

Homemade Christmas

This year for Scott's family we are doing and old fashioned homemade Christmas. We thought since everyone is tight on funds it could be fun and interesting to see what we come up with. The goal is to have it cost next to nothing.
So here's what I came up with. Scarfs for the kids because I already had the fleece and felt. I just had to come up with the ideas for the applique's . The girls also got headbands with felt flowers. A bracelet for Scott's sister Tracie. The one that took the longest is a family tree for Scott's mom. It took a while to cut and stitch each leave and then to track down the pictures but I think it turned out cute.