Made by Memilyrae

After we cleaned up at the Shaws’ on Christmas morning, we headed down to my sister’s house for more presents (by this time we already knew the kids received too much and we were going to have to find room to put it all!!!) We hung out and played games, napped (poor tired Steve!) or read (uh, yeah…I was trying to finish reading OUR gift TO Lauren before she opened it) while Gavin took his nap.

(Look: Matchy-Matchy and we didn’t even plan it!)

Mr G woke up happy and it was on to the presents. Look at his cute face!

Can you say HOLY ADORABLE JACKET, BATMAN! Yeah…that’s her 2nd DIVA coat in a month…I think we’re in trouble!

Steve was excited for this present. He knew he got something from me from the Robot store but he didn’t know he’d be getting more from Grams and Papa. At least one gift was a surprise to him! LOL

Lauren and Kayley were great with their gifts to my kiddos. Lauren printed and created cute characters as magnets for Spencer and Evie’s magnetic wall in their room. Now they have Spiderman, Princesses, sports, etc. etc. etc to play with on there! Kayley created Spencer a puzzle book. His favorite puzzles lately are the “hangman-like” phrases with numbers underneath them. You have to use a chart to match the number to a letter and fill in the blank. Kayley made him a whole book like that and on each page it describes someone in our family. Such creativity girls!

Okay, have to explain this one. Back in March for Spencer’s birthday we had a Superhero Party and everyone came dressed as their own super hero (Whoa…I just realized I never posted pictures! What a slacker! I’ll have to do that soon…for those of you who have me on facebook, it’s in my pictures). My sister, Annette, was Wonder Woman and instantly became Evie’s favorite girl super hero. Now, EVERY TIME she seems Wonder Woman she calls her “Netty”. Annette is still AUNT Netty, but Wonder Woman is Netty. She even has an action figure Netty…and now, thanks to Aunt Netty, she has a Netty book too. Funny, huh?

That evening Steve and the kids and I went to our own house for our own Christmas. They opened their last few presents (like Legos) and then daddy gave them their own kid computer…each with their own account to allow for Princess or Batman backgrounds! It’s great cause it’s Linux and it’s free and it’s the education version so it has great games for the kids already on it. What a hit!

And I just think this is a cute Diva picture with Evie and her Cheetah friend, both animals of the Feline Family.
Welp, these 2 posts describe our fantastic Christmas celebration filled with family and fun. Thank you all for your generosity, for letting us sleep in your bed, for making us breakfast, for allowing us to ransack your house, for not getting mad for ditching dinner, and for just being there and for loving our little family. We love you all – Merry Christmas (all year round!)

What a busy time of year! But boy oh boy do I love it! And NOT just because of all the time I got to sleep in, but also to spend time with our families.

On Christmas Eve day both Steve and I had to work half days. Luckily Steve can work from just about anywhere so he and the kids came with me to my work. At 1:00 we packed up and headed to Steve’s parents’ house. The past few years we’ve really enjoyed sleeping over on Christmas Eve and being there first thing Christmas morning. We put our things away (in John’s room…thanks!), played games, ate dinner, put the kids to bed (next to the Christmas tree) and went to bed…well, everyone but John and Steve…they stayed up all night playing computer games. Eh – it’s good bonding time, right? At 9 we heard Alec making crapes (yum yum) so we headed downstairs. The kids were just waking up and we all gathered around the table. Then (how mean is this?) we made the kids take a bath! LOL oh well…they didn’t mind TOO much! Then we got to opening presents. Thank you everyone for the fabulous and very generous things you gave us! (Steve and I are so excited! We got the first and second season of our favorite British Comedy…Allo’ Allo’! AND a new card shuffler…as well as other things of course!) Here are a few pics from our morning:

At lunchtime Steve’s other brothers and their families came over. We had lunch together and then finished opening presents:

(Thank you JoJo for a GREAT picture! See…now I’m done trying to take one!)

I am so proud of Spencer and all he’s learning in his preschool – Little Readers Preschool – and I love how excited he is every time he learns something new. AND he’s much more open about what he’ll show me he knows. He’s usually too shy but it’s helped him out a lot. Steve and Spencer love doing letter games and it’s really been fun watching them do it together.

Spencer wrote the word “HAT” on my dry erase board. I told him he can make it a new word by changing the first letter. After HAT came FAT and then CAT. I’m impressed by how much he remembers AND how great his penmanship is.

He’s also found other creative ways to show me what letters he learned. (pipe cleaner) Sorry it’s upside down

These were there “O” necklaces.  (Again, sorry they’re upside down)

Spencer also wanted to write his Christmas list to Santa by himself. He asked me how to spell certain toys and I’d tell him one letter at a time. I think he did SO good.

Spencer I am so proud of you!

I’ve really missed digital scrapbooking, so you’ll notice I’ve been doing more of them lately. I recently learned to love templates and I’m having so much fun with them! Here’s a page I made using a template.

We were able to head down to St George with my family for the weekend. Annette and her family and Stephanie headed down on Thursday to enjoy hiking and some fun in the sun.  Steve, Mike, Nicole, and I plus our kiddos headed down Saturday morning. We put our things away and headed to the tennis court and swimming pool. It was nice to get away and just relax and be with my family.

(darn…it’s sideways!)

After dinner and showers, we got ready for AIDA at Tuacahn. All the girls went, except for little Evie. She’s still a little too young.

I’ve seen Aida at BYU and the Hale Center Theater in Orem and I love Love LOVE that musical! Annette, Stephanie, Nicole, Lauren, Kayley and I got tickets a while back and were so excited to see it! We drove to Tuacahn, got in our seats and were dazzled by the stage. I loved being outdoors! They had live animals, lots of room for the set, fireworks and even running water from the waterfall! It was really good….BUT, in all honesty, I liked it from the Hale Center much better! It was cozier so I really FELT it and really EXPERIENCED it, plus the vocals at the Hale Center were amazing! BUT, I still really enjoyed it at Tuacahn.

The next day we packed up and went on a little hike or two. Unfortunately a lot of the pictures came out blurry….here are a few that came out not so bad.