Christmas

 Traditional Christmas Eve pajamas.
Watching the Santa tracker- a favorite tradition, and when the boys got up Santa was already delivering presents, he has to start early!

 This year we had a Christmas Eve dinner at the school with many teachers who stayed for the holiday.  Then we had the Singers over for traditional bingo.  Our photographer must have been out sick or something, i feel like we need a lot more pictures of Christmas!

 Anyway here are the boys notes to Santa- Dear Santa I want a mario race track.  I love you.  Some people don't believe in you- inserted in my class-.  Love James

 Dear Santa have you had a good time so far?  I have been watching you on the Google Santa Tracker.  Did you know you were being tracked?  I watched the Princess Bride today.  Another thing last night I woke up at 2:00 in the morning not exactly. Just a reminder.  I love and believe in you.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year sincerely Spencer

 Wow, this Christmas thing is pretty crazy!

 Spencer got a big jar of his favorite Famous Dave BBQ sauce in his stocking.

 James got his Mario Race Track

 Carrie with her chocolate Santa

 Spencer got a Magic kit- he has been practicing lots of tricks lately

 Traditional breakfast burritos

 I love how excited Carrie was for every present

The girls got strollers from Santa and cute dolls for them from the boys, once again the photgrapher must have fallen asleep- no pictures.  It was a great Christmas though

Christmas performances

James impromptu solo for Hold that Note performance

Spencer's Jingle Bells solo

 At the school Christmas concert Spencer's class sang "Rockin around the Christmas Tree" and James' class sang "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" in Navajo.

December

 One sunny day in December we visited the sand dunes.  If there is no snow you can always make a sand angel

 Carrie has already reached her teenage years

 Leah wants to be just like daddy

 Helping around the house

 Hello, anyone home?

 making applesauce ornaments

 Leah really does love Ammon, she just looks frightened in this picture

 Spencer and James entered the art contest for the Hot Air Balloon Festival

 James giving Leah a ride

 Night glow, the best part of the hot air balloon festival

Christmas Tree

 We cut down our Christmas tree the weekend before Thanksgiving.  It was great weather, no snow to trudge through.  I think we got our best tree yet, it even had pre attached decorations, cute litttle pinecones

 Carrie really wanted to take this little tree home- unfortunately we were limited to one

Thanksgiving

We got to spend Thanksgiving in Logan at my sister Emilee's house. It was a lot of fun and almost all of my family was there except the ones that live in Florida- but with modern technology they still made it into the cousin picture. My kids were so surprised when I showed them the photoshop version- those cousins weren't there!

My mom made matching dresses for all the little girls, and they are so cute, my girls wear them almost every Sunday. 

We did get one good picture but most of the photo shoot was like this

The next day my grandma had her annual Christmas party, we were excited since we don't usually get to go.  Carrie won these for guessing how many kisses in a jar.

And Spencer (and the boys team) won the dress up like Rudolf contest, so a good time all around

We went to see Santa, but only the boys were brave enough.  Leah was seriously terrified of Santa this year. 

The nest day we went to Nickelcade with Gabe's family

This is a rollercoaster ride- their faces are so funny

The last nickels were spent working as an X-men team to defeat villains.  We had a really fun trip.

November

 Leah in the dress we bought in Mexico before we had any girls, she is a cutie

 James and Carrie are either best friends or worst enemies, but I couldn't resist getting a picture of him reading to her, how cute!

 Carrie is not following our example, we do not talk on cell phones while driving (or remotes while sitting in a cardboard box- how dangerous)

 Day after Halloween hair and activities.

 Carrie has inherited a love for stuffed animals from her brothers

 Spencer decided this would be a good hat for Leah, but it slipped down over her head and would not come off.  We wended up having to use Vaseline to get it off, at least we didn't have to cut it.  Devon always misses the exciting adventures, he was on a work trip.

 Spencer the Christmas tree- inspired by the book "Mooseletoe," if you haven't read it you should!