Christmas Eve Contd.

After the party, we went to my parents house where the girls opened their new pj's, so cozy!

Then they each got to open their new ornaments.  We hung them up when we got home.

And finally, we cozied up and listened as grandpa read the Nativity Story.  Then we went home for some much needed rest.

Christmas Eve Party

This is another party with David's immediate and extended family.  We have dinner and then dress all of the kids up to role play the Nativity.  

Kenadie and Mason are having another fight over her bunny.

Mason's a shepherd!

               Baylie is a star!

              Avrie's an angel!

Kenadie was a star for a moment...

        The moment's over!

They all look very cute and it's a nice time to remember what Christmas is about.  Looks like Kenadie's star is pretty tasty!

Let It Snow Somewhere Else!!!

Seriously, we've gotten plenty over the last week.  If you can't tell, there's probably 10 inches total by our house.  Of course it's fun to play in but not so much fun when David has to be out plowing 24/7.  So we could use a break from the snow for a while so we can actually enjoy it.  

Secret Friends

This season, we've had some very kind and generous secret friends.  They have left us a surprise on our porch every day (for 12 days of Christmas).  So, last night they gave us some cookie mixes to make for Santa and an apron for each of our girls.  They are so adorable!  We appreciate so much the thoughtfulness of these "Secret Friends" and hope to be able to thank them personally some day.  

Christmas Sunday

Pretty self explanatory.  Just on our way to church and they look beautiful!!!

Brown Family Christmas Party

This is an annual party with David's immediate family only.  Still requires the reservation of the church building to fit us all though.  Anyway, we just had a nice night with dinner, games, and a gift exchange.  

         The kids are listening to some stories.  

This is Avrie's cousin, Sidney, but I think they look a lot more like sisters.  

Kenadie and Mason were having a pretty epic battle over the teddy bear--she's giving him the evil eye.  

Wardwell Gingerbread House Tradition

This is one of my family's traditions every year at Christmas.  My mom puts together small individual houses made of graham crackers (not gingerbread) and everyone decorates their own from a wide assortment of candies.  The kids love it and so does David, especially.  It really gets his creative juices flowing.  

They are hard at work.

         I tried to help Kenadie make one but she just kept pulling the candy off to eat it.  

               Avrie's masterpiece!

     Baylie won the prize for using the most candy. 

This one's David's.  Of course, he later added some bears holding light sabers but I didn't get a picture of it.  He was most proud of his car in the yard.  I'm sure this holds no bearing on what kind of job he'll do if he ever graduates in Construction Management.  

JSMB

What a day this was!  Baylie's choir sang at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake on Saturday, which is a neat thing to see.  However, it also happened to be the first big snowstorm of the year so David got stuck plowing snow all day and night.  Which left me, 8 months pregnant, toting 3 children downtown in the middle of a massive snowstorm.  Thankfully, we arrived safely after the extra hour of white knuckled driving--boy I was not happy to be out on the road.  Then I had to try to enjoy the performance while keeping Avrie and Kenadie happy.  Well, that didn't work out too well as you can see from Avrie's expression:

Kenadie was mad she couldn't run around 

and play.  

       Too bad I couldn't really enjoy the beautiful setting and singing.  

Well, we did make it home in one piece and then I received this email from her choir director which made it all worthwhile:

Carrie,

 

I just had to stop and write you a quick thank you for having Baylie in our choir.

I think most songs would fall apart without her.  She is always right on pitch and knows

all the words to every song.  She watches me like a hawk for starts and cutoffs and she

is just so wonderful.  She sparkles and keeps a great attitude and demeanor no matter

what is going on.  So thank you so much for all you do for her and know that I adore her and

am grateful to have her sweetness and her abilities in our choir.

 

Thanks,

Catherine

So, I would do it again in a heartbeat!

Shades

Kenadie has discovered sunglasses and is really enjoying putting them on.  She still hasn't learned the difference between upside down and right-side up, but she looks adorable either way!

The Tree is Up

Putting up the ornaments!

This is the face Kenadie perpetually has every time she looks at the tree.

Kenadie's helping out.

The finished product.  The kids are sure excited this year!

They're so Bendy!

I wish I was still this flexible.  I don't think I would choose to sleep bent in half but the flexibility would be nice.

Happy Turkey Day!

This was a pretty quiet Thanksgiving for us.  We alternate years between my parents and David's so this year it was mine.  There's not a lot of extended family on my side that live close so it was our family, my parents, my sister Jodi, her husband and daughter, and my sister Kiley.  We had a really nice time though.  We had a huge meal and all relaxed, played a little Wii, went on a scavenger hunt, and watched a movie.  It was very nice but sad because Baylie was sick all day and pretty much slept through everything, which also contributed to the quietness of it all b/c she's pretty loud normally.  Anyway, thanks mom and dad for having us--we're grateful for you all!

A Good Mom Moment

Since I'm in my last little bit of pregnancy, I'm pretty void of energy right now.  So I made a goal to make a craft with Avrie this week for Thanksgiving.  So I was proud of myself and for her because she is writing her name perfectly!  That's my cute 4-year-old!  Yeah us!