Christmas

 Corbin and Maggie woke up at 7:30 on Christmas Morning. We had wrapping paper in the hall blocking off the family room so they stayed in their room for a while and then I got them their stockings to open in my room. Finally at 8:20 I let them go in and wake up Kent. He had a few minutes to open his stocking before we started presents.

 Our traditional Christmas morning photo.

 Everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Maggie got books that she can read alone and the Shopkins she asked for.

 Corbin got the motorcycle he asked for and was so excited!

 Kent was happy and excited about everything he got, which included Avenger action figures and a robot.

 Matt got me gorgeous diamond earrings and I bought him a pillow, pretty typical of our Christmas present exchanges.

 

 

 Our Christmas morning was truly wonderful. My parents came over to see what my kids got. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and had a little while to play with new toys before we headed out to Plain City for the rest of the day. I love my family and the joy they bring!

Christmas Eve

 I loved that Christmas Eve was on a Sunday this year. We went to sacrament meeting and then had the rest of the day to spend with family. Maggie and I made sugar cookies to get ready for Santa. We brought them out to my mom and the kids got to frost them.

 We went to Mark and Marianne's for their Christmas Eve party later. The kids got new pajamas and new books, which was super exciting!

 Corbin loved his new Roald Dahl Collection, he started reading in the middle of all the craziness.

 I'm not quite sure why Maggie was so upset by the end of the night, but she most definitely did not want to be in this picture.

Christmas Village

Last night for family home evening we took our kids to the Ogden Christmas Village. It was so fun! Maggie thought everything was magical. Corbin and Maggie loved to see if they could find the small nutcracker in each house. Kent loved the train more than anything else, until we found the huge stair case at the end, he liked that just as much.

 

 

 

There was a band playing on the stage and Maggie was so excited to get up there and start dancing with the other kids. Kent enjoyed being up there too. It is funny to see my kids personalities show, Corbin never in a million years would have gotten up there to dance and Maggie was loving it!

Afterwards, we went to Farr's for ice cream. My kids thought it was pretty special.

 It really was such a great night to see so much joy from all three of them. They are growing up so fast! I have so many hard days, but they are so cute, it is hard to think of them growing up. It is weird to think of having a new baby in a few weeks. My kids are getting to where things like this are more fun than they are work. It's pretty easy to go spend a night out in the cold walking around and that is about to change.

Family party

 My family had our Christmas party on Saturday. We had dinner, played games, made a craft and exchanged presents. Maggie and Corbin always love crafting. They took a break from the craziness of cousin play to make an ornament. 

 

 I love that my kids get to exchange gifts with cousins. I don't have them do gifts for each other, so this is the only gift they get to pick out for someone at Christmas.

 

 

 The best we can do for a family picture.

We do all presents at this party since we don't usually all get a chance to be together on Christmas Day. My parents gave us all Lagoon Season passes and my kids are so excited. It will be super fun that my sisters families all have them too. We gave my parents their gifts, which always includes a calendar and this year Erin made a photo book too. My dad loves pictures!

Christmas Recital

Maggie had her Christmas dance recital on Saturday. She did such a great job! I loved her costume and she looked beautiful. I think she likes being at the same studio as three of her cousins. I didn't ever get a picture with MaKenna though. She danced to I'm gonna be warm this winter, and it was darling!

 

 

She had two recitals that she did the same dance in. Afterwards it was just me and her so I took her to Chik-fil-A and we went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. It was fun to be able to spend the day with her. I am usually not very good at taking her to do fun things so she was way excited about the ice cream.

Work Party

For Matt's work party this year KBell rented out a theater to show the new Star Wars movie. They gave out prizes for the best costumes so Matt wanted us to dress up. I bought our kids costumes, but mine I made out of a dress from the DI. Matt didn't end up dressing up. I should have made him one too, or at least bought stuff for him to get it ready.

There were only a few families that dressed up, but they were pretty awesome! We took third place and won a Roku, some TV streaming device (for the family that probably watches the least amount of TV of everyone there.) It was still fun that we won something. We had dinner at the theater and then watched the movie. I had never seen a Star Wars movie before, not my thing, but my kids thought the whole night was pretty awesome!

Braces

Corbin's front couple of teeth grew in behind his bottom ones so he has a little bit of an under bite. This week he got "bunny braces" to help his teeth hop in front. He only has four brackets on the front teeth. He did so great getting them put on. After the braces were on the assistant glued bite stoppers to his back two teeth. This was by far the worst part. I could see his hands all tense and he didn't like it at all, but he did good even with that.  It is quite an adjustment for him. I hope the novelty of them wear off soon. He just keeps looking older and older though. Hopefully they work in about four months, it is supposed to be a pretty easy fix.

 

 

Emmett's tree

 Last year we decorated a tree for Emmett's grave. So this year we carried on the tradition. I think this is my new favorite thing to do at Christmas time. It is so simple, just a wooden tree that my kids put stickers on. I love it though. Maggie told me she loved doing this while we were decorating too. It was too late after we were done and my kids didn't want to drive out to Plain City again so we brought the tree out the next morning.

 

 

 

 

Ward Party

Our ward party was a breakfast with Santa this year. Kent was super excited to see Santa. Corbin was indifferent, but went willingly. Maggie surprised me. We told her it was her turn and she was ticked. She did her trademark yell/growl thing and then ran away. After breakfast she came up and told me she had already sat on Santa's lap, so I made her go back up for a picture. I guess it just needed to be on her terms. Corbin wants an electric motorcycle. Kent isn't quite sure what he wants, maybe a tractor. Maggie wants shopkins and real live coal.

 

 A couple in our ward gave Matt these beardaments as a gift so he wanted to put them to good use. He was quite the hit of the party. So many people came up to take a picture of him.

Thanksgiving

This year we did Thanksgiving at my mom's church with her family. I'm not very social, so I just hung out with my family, but it was really fun. We hung out there for a few hours and then went over to Matt's parents and hung out for a while.

 

 

 I'm  not sure this boy had anything to eat except dessert, but he loved all of those.

 My mom brought bags that each kid could decorate. My kids love crafts, so this was a hit. I helped Kent decorate his, but he didn't have as much interest as the other two. Maggie could have kept going for five bags worth of stencils.

 

I have so much to be thankful for, especially my amazing family!