Christmas Sunday

 The Sunday before Christmas was Sacrament meeting only. I tried to dress my kids fancy like other families do. This was as good as we can get. It is a fight to get the boys to wear a tie, and Maggie hates to get her hair done. She let me do this style because in the picture it the girls hair looked like a Christmas tree shape. Her's didn't look quite the same, but at least it was done. When Claire was born Meredith gave Claire this darling dress. This was the first time she had ever worn it. I was glad it was only sacrament meeting though because by the end of just the one meeting everyone in my family was completely covered in glitter. I almost felt like I needed to vacuum the floor around us because there was glitter everywhere! She looked absolutely darling in it though!

Whenever I take a picture of all my kids, they all fight over who gets to hold Claire and we end up taking a picture of each of my kids in turn holding her. 

Davis Christmas Party

My family party is definitely one of my favorites at Christmas! It is always at Stephanie and Joe's house. We ate dinner of sandwiches and finger foods, crafted, played games, and exchanged presents.

My dad just had surgery on his knee again because the first one didn't work, so he hung out on the chair the whole night. Claire hung out with him for a little bit which was a nice break from Joppy. That dog wouldn't leave Claire alone! Claire usually really likes Joppy, but apparently, only in small doses.

Stephanie had a craft for the kids to decorate either a stocking or Christmas tree. Corbin and Maggie love crafting and would have been happy with only this the whole night. I had to work hard to convince Kent it would be fun to decorate a tree.

Shannon had a fun game called snowy that was played with dice. Maggie loved that one. We played it for days afterwards. My mom had a fun game like pictionary, but you mold your picture out of play dough. The girls did awesome at it!

As long as Claire had a break from Joppy she was a happy camper! She was at a good age this year because she loved to hold the presents and shake them, but didn't know how to open them.

All the kids exchanged gifts with each other. I love this because it is the only present my kids pick out for someone else the whole season. All of my kids were super excited to give a gift. And they all really loved what they received.

Kent got a pair of Black Panther claws which were a hit. He didn't take them off for days. The next morning they were his forks for eating waffles and he said couldn't help clean anything up because of his claws. Matt and I actually had the exact same claws to give him for Christmas so Matt had to go out shopping the next day to replace our gift with something else.

My parents gave the kids a Lagoon Pass for next year, which they are so excited for. They also got a true balance toy that my kids have loved!

The party was so great!I love spending time with my familly. I also love that this is the night for all presents to be exchanged. It takes some of the craziness out of Christmas day so it is just more enjoyable.

Winter Dance Show

Maggie had her winter dance show yesterday at Ogden High School. This year she is on the Mini's team. They did a hip hop dance to Ice Ice Baby. It was darling! She dances her little heart out. It is so fun to watch.

 

Christmas Village

 Matt and I took our kids to Christmas Village in Ogden on Friday night. I was super impressed with it this year. There were a ton of houses and they were super cute. My kids loved the train. Kent came off jumping so excited that it had been so fun. I love enjoying this part of the holiday season spending time with my family! Claire didn't hate it, but she pretty much had the same mellow expression the entire night.

 

 

 

 

Bird Tree

We did the bird tree this past Sunday at the Jenkins. I still love this. We just have a simple pizza dinner and then string cereal and crackers and all sorts of food for the birds on string. We put our strings on a small Christmas tree. We then take the tree to Marianne's parents grave and sing Christmas songs.

Service Project

As a Christmas gift to the owners of K.Bell the employees do sometime of service project. This year Matt decided to be in charge. He worked with Catholic Community Services and came up with the idea to make bags full of fun things to donate to the families that come in near Christmas to pick up food.

We went to the Orem shop and invited everyone at K.Bell to help us. The owners served us dinner and we made brown paper bags full of a blanket, puzzle, card game, craft, plush, and a cute treat. Then we decorated the bag to look like a reindeer. We had a really good turn out and it was awesome because most of the kids even were able to be involved. It took a lot of cutting and wrapping and gluing, but it really turned out great! Some of the bags weren't the prettiest after going through a huge assembly line, but I loved being part of such a great service!

Tree Lighting

This year Plain City had a Christmas parade and a tree lighting we took our kids too. It was super slow. The parade started like forty minutes late and was super short. It was cute though. My kids had more fun waiting for the parade at Grandma's than actually watching it. They were outside playing tag with their cousins. The parade had about five floats or vehicles, they did throw out candy canes, and then Santa came by in a fire truck.

We walked with Steph and Shannon's kids down the the square and got donuts and hot chocolate. It was freezing. I didn't go very prepared, I didn't even wear socks. We had to wait about 15 minutes and then we started a count down to light the tree. We counted down from five and nothing happened. We did another count down and the lights came on at two. It was still fun though.

Thanksgiving

I spent all day on Wednesday cooking at Marianne's. I love that I get to cook all day. I make some cheesecakes and slush and then help with other random things like cutting vegetables and poking pies.  

The morning of  Thanksgiving we ended up at Walmart browsing aisles and trying out the claw machines. Kent was the only one who didn't win and he was devastated! 

We went to Matt's parents for Thanksgiving this year. It is smaller than Sunday dinner over there because Meredith and her family and Michelle and Adam go with their other family. Marianne's sister and kids do come though. It pretty much just feels like a Sunday. We eat a super delicious meal and then just hang out and talk. The kids play upstairs and watch tv all afternoon. My pictures are not great, but I enjoyed the afternoon.

We did stop over and say hi to my parents. They didn't even go to a Thanksgiving dinner because my dad had just had surgery on his knee.

Halloween

 We had a great Halloween! Corbin was Harry Potter, Maggie was Hermione Granger, Claire was Harry's owl Hedwig, and Kent was a spooky skeleton. The three older kids had school and parties there. After school we headed out to Plain City to see both Grandma's. 

That night Matt took the kids out trick or treating while I stayed home and handed out candy. I even dressed up this year, very last minute. While we were in Plain City Maggie was wondering why I wasn't dressed up. So I went to Shannon's and grabbed a costume. It was actually really fun being dressed up as I passed out candy. And I was no longer lame to my kids.

My kids got tons of candy and had a blast trick or treating. It was cold and a school night so they were done before eight. It was a great night. 

Frightmares

 Matt and I took our kids to Frightmares on Friday night. They were terrified! We only went through one haunted house (the first thing we did there.) Kent and Maggie were both crying and Corbin was trying to be very composed, but still super scared. Kent liked looking at all the spooky things, but he hated the creepy people walking around. Maggie just hated all of it.

 

 After the haunted house we did the kid friendly trick or treat walks. The kids loved those. Then we hit up a few rides and were done. Claire hated it. It got cold quick and she was stuck in her stroller with tons of people around. We didn't last too long but I am still glad we went.