Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve was a little early this year. Shawn didn't get Christmas off this year so we had to make the best of it and have it on December 22nd. We didn't have Christmas Eve and Christmas day together. The kids didn't get out of school until the 22nd. and Shawn had to be back to work on the 23rd so we had to split them up. We had a great day though. We took the kids to see Tangled and out to dinner at Chick-fil-a. We haven't done dinner and a movie as a family for a really long time. It is way too expensive but we had some Christmas money saved and we had a great time.


After we went home and opened a game. Operation! This is the funnest game! My kids had so much fun! A game all of us could play.








Piper was very confused by the noises of this game especially when the dog would bark. She would bark back. She was so confused.


I have to say this was one of the best Christmas Eve's we have ever had. We truly miss family but this day with just us was so nice. The kids all got to open their first gift of the season. Pj's from Nana. The all looked so cute. Merry Christmas!

Ginger Bread Train

In the box of gifts my Mom sent out, she included a Ginger Bread Train. My kids were so excited. We decided to do the train for our family night activity. So we got it out with every intention of trying to make it just like the box. We quickly found out that the frosting doesn't stick to anything it is supposed to. Well with the exception of skin. haha. We had such a good time trying to make our train look good and the kids had a good time eating the candy as they put it on the train. It's a good thing that no one else was going to eat this with all of the sticky fingers touching the train. lol It was a great family night!




I couldn't resist! I had to get him in the face! It was too tempting! His face was so clean and I just couldn't resist it. Blank canvas you know what I mean.




While decorating the train a frosting fight broke out that involved everyone. It was so fun! Our family is notorious for not following directions on the box very carefully and we always end up throwing things at one point. We had a great time!







Dominick was sad every time the train fell which was a lot!


Holland looking perfectly cute during the fight.


Working so hard to make our train stand up. It just wouldn't stay! Dominick would say "oh our poor train." every time it fell. So much fun!






Holland some how got away without any frosting or candy on her face. We couldn't have that so Shawn went over and took care of it. The family that plays together gets frosting on their face together. Not to mention on the counters, clothes, floor and anywhere else it happened to drop while playing. All in good fun though.






Our completed train? Well after we sampled all of the candy. Ours didn't quite look like the picture but we had a lot of fun doing it.


Dancing to Christmas music. We love to play around together and when everyone has had a lot of sugar and is really hyper amazing things happen in our house. And isn't Shawn's bald spot cute! haha




Then we ended the evening with a talking email from Santa for Dominick and Holland. They were shocked. It was so cute and Holland was so excited she ended up in tears. The day was priceless. So much fun!

Chloe's piano recital

Chloe had her recital tonight. She has practiced her songs so carefully. She played "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" and a piece from Bach. I am always amazed at her ability. She decided to take a class called Jazz Band and also take piano lessons after school. We aren't able to pay for them so Chloe has been babysitting to pay for her lessons. I am so impressed with her drive to do this. Her Jazz Band class was a little advanced for her. Her teacher was unsure Chloe could handle it and quite frankly so were we. She seemed so stressed and she was having a hard time keeping up. Thanks to her wonderful piano teacher and her drive to do it and do it right Chloe was able to not only catch up but in piano she started at level 2 at the beginning of the summer and her teacher just moved her up to level 4. She skipped a level! She plays beautifully and we all love to listen to her.

Tonight was amazing. She played beautifully and did so well. I was so proud. I love to listen to her practice. She loves to play classical music but the Jazz she has been playing has been really fun to watch and listen to. My girls absolutely amaze me with their talents in music. I look forward to seeing how far they can go. I am such a proud mother.

Brittin's debut!

Brittin had her debut performance on the flute! She did so great. Brittin had to give up the Violin this year for the flute. We just can't afford all that our kids want to do so we made a deal with Brittin. If she would give up her violin for now we would buy her a flute so she could be in the band at school. Unfortunatly they don't have an orchestra out here so it has been difficult to find lessons for her. Now that she is playing flute she can be in the band at school and get lessons everyday from the school. This had made her very happy. She gets to play an instrument and we are happy to listen.

It was fun to go and see their band play. Honestly they sounded pretty good for a bunch of kids that had only been playing for 3 months. However it did make me laugh when they tried to sell the parents a CD of the nights performance. Something I don't think I am quite ready to invest in. Ha ha.

Brittin is doing really well though. She has been practicing so hard and is sounding so good! I really wish all my family could be here to see how well my girls are doing. I really hope that before too long I will be able to put Brittin back in Violin lessons I do miss hearing her play. She was really good, but the flute is coming along and she sounds so good. I love to hear her practice.

Brittin you are doing so well! I am so proud of you!

Our First Thanksgiving!

This was our first Thanksgiving of our own. I have always gone home to Utah for Thanksgiving. This year we decided to do Christmas and Thanksgiving here in Missouri. We want to start some of our own traditions. Usually we meet up as a big family at my Mom's and have a big dinner. In years past we would go to my Grandma Love's house and eat and then decorate her tree. I have so many fun memories of things we would do with family as a kid. A lot of those traditions are not ones we do anymore. My family (cousins, Aunts, and Uncles and even my brother and sisters) have gotten so big and my Grandparents are older now and just can host a party of that size. I miss those traditions so this year we had a big Thanksgiving dinner. I made a turkey with all of the trimmings complete with home made rolls. Yes I have become quite the chef since we moved out here and it is up to me to provide all of the fun meals for the holidays. We invited my Grandma Weedn over to join us. It was so fun to have a holiday here. So quiet and small. Just us. I thought it would be hard to be away from family. In some ways it has been. I miss them so much but I am enjoying having my own holidays and starting my own traditions.

After dinner we decorated our Christmas tree and watched all of those fun old Christmas shows...Santa Clause is coming to town, Frosty the snow man and Rudolf the red nose reindeer. It was so much fun. I love the holidays!




Grandma Weedn helping with the tree


Holland had a great time decorating but was a little impatient when it came to getting the ornaments. She would grab as fast as she could and run to the tree to put the ornaments on. Most of which ended up on the same branch. It makes me laugh every year when we go back through the tree and move ornaments. Our poor tree doesn't have many year left from being overloaded on one side and falling down. ha ha.


Me and my Grandma Weedn. I love that I get to spend a little more time with her. She lives about an hour away and so I get to see her more than before. She used to live in Texas and I lived in Utah. My Mom would fly her out every once in a while or she would join us on our trips to Disney World but I get to see her anytime I want now! Its great!








We always try to take a family picture after the tree is done which as you can guess doesn't always turn out but I like the trial pictures anyway.






Success...well I tried to get Piper to join us but she really wasn't in the mood to be photographed. We took it without her. Ha Ha!