Marvelous Today

Today was such a marvelous day!  I am so grateful for my Savior and my beautiful family.  Our ward Christmas program went very well.  My choir sounded wonderful.  I sang a solo - Oh Come, All Ye Faithful - my outward expression of how I feel inwardly.  I felt the Spirit so strongly and felt so much love and gratitude for Jesus Christ.  I am richly blessed!

 After church, Madeline and I decided to frolic and twirl

 nice photo-bomber

 and even though Oliver wasn't impressed,

We just kept on twirling in our Christmas dresses!  Madeline's is a Nana special!

Meanwhile, Cooper and Ethan spent the afternoon throwing paper airplanes into the Christmas tree.

 We went over to Grandpa and Nana's for Christmas Adam dinner.  The food was amazing

 especially the Yule log.  Gasp!  I loved it so much!!  :)

 The sister missionaries joined us.

Then we did the reenactment of Luke 2.

 Angels

The cutest shepherd with the CUTEST sheep.  I hear Aunt Carrie made it.  I'm in love.

 The Star!

 Three wisemen, Joseph and Mary, and the shepherd

We also celebrated the final week of Advent.  Hope, Joy, Love, Peace - all gifts because Christ the Savior was born.  I loved reading scriptures for Advent each week.  It made the season so beautiful.  Thank you Nana, for giving us such a wonderful gift.

My, what a wonderful day.  Now my kids are tucked in bed shivering with excitement at what is to come.  Such a grand time of year.

Merry Christmas!

Girl's Night to The Nutcracker

Madeline had been anticipating our girl's night out to The Nutcracker with Nana for weeks.  But the day came, and a huge windstorm did too.  40 mph winds with 60 mph gusts.  It was really stormy and I just wasn't sure if we'd make it.  The wind was so strong that I could see our sliding back door bow in from the wind.  FREAKY!  The power went out (I LOVE OUR NEW GENERATOR!!!!) and trees were coming down everywhere.  I told her it might not happen.  But we knew the storm might pass.  About an hour before it was time to leave, things began to settle down and look what I saw: 

That's when I knew it would be okay to go!  And I'm so glad we did!  We had such a great time.  First, a fun dinner followed by ice cream.  I got pfeffernusse.  It was such a strangely good combination of anise and cinnamon.  Oh man, Mallards has the best ice cream.

 Then to The Nutcracker.  The best part was watching Madeline love it so much.  She adored it and we've been dancing around the house since!

I love The Ballet so much.  And it feels like Christmas to see The Nutcracker.  I was lucky enough to see it twice this season.  These two ladies made it really fun!

Christmas Festivities

Cooper wanted lots of bows and ribbons for his present to Oliver!

 The kids LOVED going to this festive light-up show house with music that matches the lights.  It was really cool!

 Oliver's Christmas preschool program

 Ward Party

 Orange Cranberry White Chocolate Bars

 So many people I'm grateful for and love!

 Madeline's cute hair for her Christmas program

 Cooper's kindergarten program

 5th graders

 Sugar Cookie decorating day!!

 yummy yum yum!

This and That

The clues from Ethan's treasure hunt

 flexy bendy boy

 cutie pie sleeping

 Stamps!  It's been so long, I almost forgot I had so many fun stamps and great stamp pads.  The boys had a blast.

 Cooper is always making awesome creations

 And seriously, of course your American Girl dolls have to have stockings!  Teehee,  my daughter is the cutest crafter I know.

Ethan's Birthday

Ethan's birthday was such a fun day.  I love birthdays!  They are just happy days that feel special and I usually feel extra grateful on birthdays too.  I can't believe my oldest son is now a teenager.  It is so crazy!  He had blueberry pie for breakfast with orange juice.  Yum.  Two of my favorite things.

 The other kids really were awesome in making Ethan's magic birthday extra special.  They wrapped and gave Ethan 13 snacks/drinks/treats in the form of a treasure hunt!  They ran around the house searching for the gifts and then he opened them all at once.

 He got a pretty good stash!

He had me make chicken tikka masala for dinner.   For his cake, he requested white cake, with raspberries in the batter, raspberry curd filling, and white chocolate frosting.

 It was good!

What a fun day!  I can't believe how fast this kid is growing up.