December

December was such a busy and fun month for our family. We celebrated Christmas at home with Grandma and Grandpa Rice. I love to see all the excitement on Christmas eve as the kids prepare for Santa to come. McKenna is starting to lose the excitement a bit but she is a good sport and lets all of them sleep in her room where she reads a Christmas chapter book to them. She didn't get much sleep due to the fact that Kami takes up the whole bed, Kelsey snored and Conner was too excited to fall asleep quickly. The next morning I love asking them if they heard the reindeer or santa and they all tell me their stories. While we have the fun of Santa we also celebrate the Birth of our Savior during the month. We read stories every night with our scriptures about Christ and end with the Bible story. During the month Kamryn was so cute, she would come up to me and tap me on the shoulder and say "you know the real reason of Christmas is Jesus". I hope they get it with all the materialization. Here are a few of our memories from the past month.
I would have gotten him more clothes if I knew he would be so excited.

Kenna asked specifically for strategy games this Christmas.

Kelsey loved whatever it was she opened!!

Kylie recieved a cotton candy machine and some clothes for her American Girl doll from Grandma and Grandpa Rice.

The stockings are my favorite. They are sitting on the couch when they come downstairs and the find which one is theirs and then sit and wait while we take turns opening presents.

Kelsey and Kamryn had a Christmas dance recital. They both preformed two numbers. Kelsey danced to Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and Jingle Bells.

Kamryn danced to The Good Ship Lollipop and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

They love to dress up in their dance costumes but I think the real excitement is that I let them wear make up. . .

At the preschool Christmas program Santa was on hand to visit with all the girls and boys.

At the preschool program Kamryn sang, Suzie Snowflake and Tapping Tapping Little Elf were my favorite.

Kylie was in a show at the Scera (local theatre) called The Magic of Christmas. She was in it with one of her best friends Madeline.

The month sure went fast. I can only hope the cold weather in January will do the same.

A little of This and That

I always have good intentions to blog about certain events so I take the pictures and that is where they die. Here are the few. . .


Kamryn's preschool feast. She is the slowest eater even at home so while the rest of the class was on the rug singing Christmas songs and reading shories we were cleaning up around her.

For an object lesson I was using in a talk I needed two eggs completely different so I enlisted McKenna and Kylie to decorate them. They took the challenge and had fun pulling all the crafty things out and decorating their eggs. Can you guess which is which?

Kylie Birthday #10

Kylie celebrated her 10th birthday this month.

We sent her on a scavenger hunt to find the present she has been wanting all year. We knid of teased her by letting her believe she opened all her presents and handing her an envelope with the first clue after she thought it was over. She was so cute and gracious about her other presents but I saw the dissapointment in her so it was so fun to give her the clues. She raced downstairs, upstairs and outside before finding her treasure.

Halloween

Kamryn was a fairy princess...

Kylie was from Hawaii...

Kelsey was from the 60's...

I find it funny that it never matters what they plan to be months before halloween they ALWAYS change the night of Halloween. Kami was the only one who stayed true.

I only have a few pictures of halloween this year. It was pouring outside and even though we tried to wait the rain the kids were too excited so we we left on a whim. We braved the wet weather and came home looking like drowned rats and only hitting a few homes which was great for the candy bags. They were able to have a little treat for the night and all was well.

Bar stools

These poor bar stools are several years old and have had many meals spilled on them. They have been spot cleaned and professionally cleaned but the time came where I thought we would need to replace them. I started looking around for new chairs when a wonderful friend recommended I reupholster them. Lucky for me she offered to help and we tackled the task. Here are the before and after pictures.
Before


After
I love the results. Thanks Kimberly!!

Kamryn's Fieldtrip

We went to Hee Haws with Kami's preschool and at every turn she requested to have her picture taken. I ended up pretending to take the pictures but here are a few.

St George

We went for a short little trip down to St George over Conference weekend and had so much fun. John and Joelyn were so nice to let us crash with them. We were able to take the kids and see Tarzan at Tuacahn. It was so fun and beautiful. We had a big day and the kids were tired but the weather was perfect and we enjoyed the show.

On Saturday we spent the day with Ruth Ann, Mandy, Gabe and their cute families. We haven't seen them forever and it was nice to visit with them.

Some of the kiddos playing together.