Christmas Eve

This year we spent Christmas and New Year's in California with Casey's family because we rented our house.  The day we were leaving it finally decided to snow and poor Spencer was so sad.  He asked if we could stay so he could build a snowman, a snow fort, and have a snowball fight.  Unfortunately we had to hit the road so we wouldn't get caught in the storm.  He had been waiting for 2 months for snow.  Still to this day we haven't had anymore snow.  We really did miss the only snowfall:(  However, with all that said, once we arrived in Cali and spent the day at the pool in 80 degree weather Spencer forgot all about the snow.  

On Christmas Eve we picked my mom up from the airport.  She spent 5 days with us.  We didn't do anything extra special on Christmas Eve.  Our usual for this day is:

1. We bake cookies for Santa.
2. The kids open one gift (holiday pj's I make).  They get to wear them to bed.
3. We set cookies and milk out for Santa.
4. Casey and I wrap gifts and set everything out.

Here are pictures of the kids opening their gift.  We had just gotten back from the pool.  It looks like Eleanor is naked but she actually has on a swim diaper.  It just blends into the wrapping paper:)

Here is everything set up ready to go for Christmas morning.

Olliebug and the umbrella

So after church it was raining but Ollie insisted on playing outside.  I gave him the umbrella and went inside to put Eleanor down for a nap.  When I came outside I found this sweet boy so happy exploring the rain, puddles, and everything else.  I couldn't resist taking photos.  

Christmas Sunday

This year Christmas didn't fall on a Sunday, but that didn't matter to me.  I still wanted to have Christmas outfits for the kids.  I think it's fun for them and I enjoy making ties, headbands, and whatever else needs to be made.  I do try to keep the colors neutral so they can wear most of it again.  Here are the kiddos before church.  I'm finding it's not easy to get 3 kids to look at the camera at the same time.  These 2 photos were the best out of probably 30.  I'm not even kidding.    

  

Santa's Reindeer

Every year Thanksgiving Point hosts Santa's reindeer.  And, every year we visit them no matter how cold it is.  This year Spencer told us that visiting the reindeer gets him extra points on Santa's list.  I guess it doesn't hurt:)

The Lindon Holiday Train

For the past 3 years I have been trying to get tickets for the Lindon holiday train.  It has become a very popular thing to do over the holidays.  Our friends parents are neighbors to the owner so this year they got us in at the last minute.  I was afraid it wasn't going to work out because our time was 8:30 pm and the kids usually go to bed at 7:30 pm but it all worked out.  The first half of the ride was focused on Santa and the second half was about the Savior.  It was really neat.  

 I bet you were expecting a bigger train than this one.  It's awesome how many people they pull through a neighborhood.

 Oliver wasn't afraid when he met Santa for the second time.  Thank goodness!

Spencer asked for the same thing again - a trip to Disneyland and planes fire and rescue set

Sticker Snowmen

An easy activity we did was build snowmen with reusable snowmen stickers.  It was nice because the kids would play with them throughout the day.  

Eleanor is learning quickly that there's always time to wrestle.  She's going to be tough otherwise she won't last with her brothers.  

Our Sweet Kiddos

For a lack of better words Eleanor has become our pet.  You can find her under the table or by the barstools when someone is eating.  She loves eating people food.  

Olliebug is our cuddle bug.  He loves to lay in bed with me in the morning or have me hold him in the afternoon when he's woken up from his nap.  I love his cuddles!

Spencer absolutely loves the color blue.  He's actually obsessed with it which makes life difficult at times.  The coat he is wearing is from 2 years ago and is finally too small.  It took almost a month for him to be ok with getting a new blue coat.  I'm hoping his stubbornness will be a good thing in the future - ha!

Welcome to the library

Even with all the Christmas stuff going on we found time to do our letter of the week.  For the letter L, I set up a small library in our downstairs hallway.  The kids LOVED it!  We played library every day for at least an hour each day.  I was shocked at how much they liked it.  Now before looking at the pictures promise me you won't judge my makeshift library.  Promise:)

 Enter here

 Pick out the books you want from the limited selection

 Put them in your bag

 Scan them

Pass by the cute security guard

PS - don't judge me that my kids are in their pj's or half naked.  Some days are just easier like this! 

Dear Santa........

Another activity was writing letters to Santa and then visiting him.  We were surprised when our one kid who doesn't like anyone but mom was happy with Santa.  And our other kid who says hi to strangers especially old people at the grocery store had an issue with Santa.  Who knew?

After we said hi to Santa we met our friends for hot chocolate at the Riverwoods fire pits.  The kids ran around while we stayed warm by the fire.  It was an awesome night!

Frosting Cookies

It was Eleanor's first time being able to choose the advent calendar card.  She insisted that she wear the fun reindeer ears:)  The activity she chose was frosting cookies.  Always a hit at our house.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Yes, I'm still playing catch up and will be for a little bit.  So here are the pictures of us decorating our Christmas tree at the beginning of December.  I love decorating our tree because it brings back good memories.  Every time we travel we buy an ornament so when we put it on the tree it reminds us of that awesome trip.  Now we are starting to collect the homemade ones from the kids.  So many great memories all hanging from a tree.  I love it!