Carnival Celebration

This year I was in charge of our school's carnival.  The games and food, popcorn, lemonade and cotton candy are all free and everyone who has 100% homework or attendance get to go.  About 90% of the kids get to go.  They go at different hours according to their grade.  It was so fun seeing Esther and her class come into the gym because this is their first year.  This carnival tradition started when Hannah was in 1st grade and I would bring our cotton candy machine.   For the past 3 years we haven't been able to give away cotton candy because of a state law passed that prohibits certain foods but our principal let us this year because the students could choose a fat free granola bar or cotton candy.  I think only 3 kids picked the granola bar.  Scott was in charge of the cotton candy this year and made 460!  We had 80 parents/grandparents volunteer.  It is a production but so fun. 

Noah's Boy Scout Court of Honor

We have been so blessed to have the Chischilley family move from Lindon, Utah to Page last August.  He is Noah's scoutmaster and knows what he is doing.  It is great!  Page has always struggled with scouting and our troop has gone in spurts.  Scott is now converted to Scouting as the Young Men's President and hopefully we will have some of our boys earn their eagle.

Snow Cave Camping

Scott and Noah went with our Boy Scout troop to dig out snow caves one Saturday in January.  They went up to Cedar Mountain.  One of the Asst.Scoutmasters works for the Utah Dept. of Transportation so he had a location that people don't use that would be there the following Friday for their campout.  When they drove up to camp the next Friday it was snowing and when they got to the mountain the road was closed!  So they had to dig out new caves while it was snowing.  They were at a different Transportation storage area that had a shed and was fenced in.  Half the boys left their snow caves in the middle of the night and went in the shed.  The next morning they went sledding and loved the snow.

Christmas Gifts!

My favorite Christmas pictures are of our family opening gifts from each other.  The giver is always so happy to see the recipient open their gift.  I love how happy everyone is.

Esther gives Jonah popcorn for his present.

Hannah gave a poem to me about being the best mom.  I like homemade gifts from my kids more than anything.

Esther was so happy to give us her present she made at school and we love having a reminder of her little hand.

We had such a wonderful day.  We stayed in our pjs all day and played game after game.  It was a wonderful Christmas.

Finally Christmas Morning!

Christmas morning Orange Julius!  Before we can see what Santa brought we have to make and drink our orange julius.  The hardest part for the kids is waking up Scott who doesn't want to get out of bed!

Then we have a family prayer before lining up on the stairs.

Santa always leaves a note by the plate of cookies we left for him.  He always reminds our kids to be good and thanks them for being good kids.

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

This year was an off party year, but Hannah managed to have 5 friends over and we took them out to eat.

Hannah loves green and purple.   She picked out a Princess and the Frog birthday cake.  You are never too old for princesses!

December Christmas Traditions

 I love the entire month of December!  We have so many traditions that help us focus on Christmas.  I love the spirit of the month.  My favorite tradition is baking all month preparing to take treats to our friends: poppy seed bread, butter cookies, sugar cookies, toffee and fudge.  Next year I need to remember to take pictures of all our treats when we go Christmas caroling.  Watching Hannah in the Nutcracker has been one of our December traditions.  Hannah was in the party scene, a rat, a Snowflake and a Russian dancer this year.  She has been in this production since she was 6.  Next year Esther gets to be a mouse!

We love watching the ballet and the music puts on in the Christmas spirit.

 

A tradition at our elementary school are the Christmas decorations.  We are blessed to live in an area where we can go to a public school that allows Christmas decorations!  These two pictures show some of the things in the hallways that are put up over Thanksgiving break.  We have a wonderful custodian who spends four long days decorating the entire school!  I didn't take a picture of the ceiling which is filled with stars hanging down throughout all the halls.  It is wonderful to have that Christmas spirit at school.

Another tradition: Baking and decorating sugar cookies with our friends.  Each year the kids invite a friend over to help.  We get creative and delicious cookies!

New church clothes for Christmas and a picture in front of our wonderful tree.  We pick out our tree the Monday after Thanksgiving but this year they were closed and we had to go on Tuesday.  The kids were upset that we couldn't stick exactly to our normal tradition. But it turned out fine and we decorated on Tuesday.

I need to take a picture of all our Nativities around our house.  Esther loved playing with all the different sets.  One day I found the Nativity in our entryway had 4 baby Jesus', 3 Marys, and countless Wise Men.  Everyday Esther would rearrange and play with the various Nativities.  It was great to see her recreate the story of the Savior's birth throughout the month.

 

 

On Christmas Eve day we make Gingerbread cookies to give to Santa.  This has been our tradition for years mainly because none of my kids really like Gingerbread cookies and will leave enough for Santa to eat!

Our Christmas Eve Nativity is another favorite tradition.  We act out the Nativity while Scott reads the Bible.  Then we sing Silent Night and the kids take turns playing their Christmas piano pieces.

 

Every night during December we read a story and scripture about Christmas and sing a Christmas hymn before family prayers at night.  Christmas Eve is then Luke 2 and Matthew 2.

After our Christmas Eve program the kids get ready for bed.  This is the only night of the year my kids are eager to go to bed!  They brushed their teeth in record time.  All 5 sleep in Noah's room downstairs.  They played games and talked.  Finally lights out at 10 but I could hear their voices throughout the night.  This is their big sleepover and they love it.