Christmas Day

Christmas Eve was really special with Barbies dressed up like the Nativity. I think GI Joe was Joseph. Gail was so creative to make this, and it was so fun for Ally and her to work on it together.

And finally-Christmas morning. ally's favorite present from Santa was three hermit crabs (all still living two weeks later...) and even though it was cold out, they could not resist riding their motorcycle. Or maybe that was Josh.



Look at that proud dad. Sadly (or maybe not so sadly) to say, the motorcycle turned out to be a little too hard to handle for the kids, so it was traded in for a four wheeler, which has provided much joy pulling the kids on sleds through the snow. ally is pretty good at it, if we could just get the steering down. All in all, we had a great, fun, busy, tasty, whirlwind of a Christmas and New Year, and loved it all, especially being with so many friends and family. We truly are thankful for each of you, and for the birth of Jesus Christ. Here's to another great year!

On Christmas Eve Day, we went up to Grandma nd Grandpa Wester's for a delicious breakfast and to open presents with his family.


Ava loves her little cousin baby Kira "Ka-ka" She is such a doll.

Ava and Luke like to help everyone open thier presents, the unwrapping is really the best part...

The kids had such a fun time and got so many fun and thoughtful toys from relatives close and far away. Thanks to everyone from North Carolina who really helped the kids have a fun day.

And just look at the muscles on this spiderman. This is totally not just for Halloween. Around our house we need superheroes everyday. to save the day.

Thanks Westers for such a fun time and letting us hang out at your house so much over the holidays, we loved it.

The Campbell Family

We were lucky to have so much family with us this Christmas. My mom and dad and sister came to celebrate Christmas, and it was so fun for us and the kids. Here my dad is helping the kids make snowmen out of pretzels dipped in white chocolate. Cute and tasty.



My mom makes the best caramels. she does not always cook with her eyes closed however.

I t was the first real snowy night, so dad was a great "horse" for the sleigh. He was way faster than me-which helped Luke to be a "speeding bullet".

And we even made a snowman with a celery nose.

Thanks to the Campbell family for coming so far to help us have a fun fun Christmas this year. We love you.

live nativity

Our stake does a live nativity every year. It is really well-done, with a real donkey and sheep, but not a real baby-too cold. It is really spiritual though, and makes the nativity story seem more real.
It was also cold for this baby, but thanks to papa, she was snuggled up.

And the hot-chocolate at the end is so delicious, despite it being watered down and only semi-hot. The kids had two cups each. If anyone wants to know what Luke needs for Christmas, a scarf in a color besides pink would be nice.

Live nativies are fun, but they take a lot out of you. Like the Christmas light pj's?

reindeer cookies

Sunday we went to grandma and pa pa's like always, and decorated reindeer cookies

The kids had a great time, very creative, adding hair and bows and stuff

Here are the fruits of our labors, de-licious, crazy-antlered reindeer
Ava ate her share before it made it to the reindeer, thanks to the game she played with pa pa, thinking she was stealing the M&M's before he could get them. He'd lay one out and tell her she better not get his m&m, so she would grab it up and pop it in her mouth, so proud.

scary lights

When I was getting the "big" lights out to check them before I put them on the tree, of course Ava wanted to come see what I was doing. She was so afraid of those lights. Here I am hodling them up to her, and she is hiding behind the train table and almost to cry, I don't know if you can see her face in this, but it was so funny, she was so scared.


So she tried to not look at them, and see if they would go away. Here is Ava's signature pose, whenever she needs comfort, she puts two fingers in her mouth and touches her bellybutton. She used to get sores on her fingers, but they have toughened up. I am surprised her bellybutton isn't rubbed off either, it's funny what kids use for comfort, this is hers.
So we turned off the lights. They burned two little brown spots on our carpet, those big old fashined lights are hot!

Getting ready for Christmas

The kids love to read Christmas stories together at night. Ava is especially loving her book it seems. and Luke looks like he is loving his nose. And mine is just red. My contribution-looking like rudolph. I'm so festive.

This has nothing to do with Christmas, but Ava and my dad were good friends over Thansgiving. Ava loved to wear his glasses. so big.

We don't have a tree of our own yet, but at least we got to help decorate grandma and pa pa's. As you can see, the tradition of going up to the mountains looks like it has seen an end.

Still working

Oh the joy of Christmastime! Hopefully we will be putting our own tree up soon, we are still looking for the "perfect" one. So far it does not exist. I'm all for fake tree next year. Always perfect. Needs no water. No needles falling off. But no delicious pine smell, either.