christmas eve traditions

have i mentioned lately how much i love dave? 

he worked hard this christmas to make it nice for everyone.

he sent sadie and me to salt lake for 24 hours.  we stayed in the little america hotel.  we ate and shopped.  it was so fun!  when i came home, he had the house all clean for christmas.  i needed to step away for a minute and enjoy getting out.  he made it happen and he made sure when i came back, i wasn't more behind then when i left.  

the next day, he walked in from a long day at work on christmas eve and he took over for me.  i excused myself to wrap gifts and he cooked the entire christmas eve dinner.  

he always takes over right when i need him to. 

we like to spend christmas eve as a family.   

this year the kids worked on their gifts for each other (aka 'santa's workshop'), then sadie took them ice skating while i cleaned up and did dinner prep.

dave cooked salmon, steak, shrimp and crab legs.

kai helped cook and set the table, even cutting branches from our yard for the napkins:)

after our candle light dinner, we exchanged sibling gifts. 

i almost put this tradition on hold this year, because it takes work, but i like the idea of the kids thinking about each other, so we did simple gifts and i'm glad we did.

this year, viv had sadie.  

a picture mobile.

abe gave to kai.

he made star wars pokemon cards.

kai gave to max.

he created a thumb wars game.

sadie gave to abe.

lets just say, abe was a little excited.

she gave him a coupon to go see star wars with her, and a new light-saber.

max gave to vivian.

he decorated her doll house for christmas.  she liked it.

christmas eve jammies were a hit!

everyone immediately stripped down and put them on...haha!  

sadie was feeling a little uncomfortable!!

even kai liked his elf of the shelf pjs, which i thought might be a zonk.  loved them!

the kids headed downstairs to sleep all together in sadie's room.
the stockings were hung and

vivian was so excited.  

good times!

thank you

we have a nativity in our kitchen and vivian was admiring it while i was making dinner.   

i noticed her taking baby Jesus around to each piece and quietly saying something. 

 i stopped what i was doing to listen.   

"thank you, thank you, thank you." 

when we set the nativity up, she helped me, and we talked about the gifts they were bringing to baby Jesus, and of course, in her mind, baby Jesus would want to say, 

thank you!

it made me smile to think of baby Jesus whispering thank you

when we are service-ing this christmas.

winter wonderland

every once in a while, dave gets to take the kids to work with him:)  

the other day, sadie played in the snow with viv for hours, so i could finish some on-line shopping.

a win for all of us!  these pics melt my heart.

happy 19th

dave and i celebrated our 19th anniversary on the 17th of december.

we had big plans, but like usual, our anniversary is a hard time of year to ask people to watch our kids and the kids always have a lot going on.  believe me, i tried to get a babysitter this year, but it just wasn't happening and i started to feel disappointed.  then i realized, we could still go do something fun.  all was not lost, we let viv tag along on our anniversary day with us.

dave surprised me and left to take the kids to school, but not without leaving me a surprise outfit and the nicest note to start the day. 

 we went to brunch at the cutest little shop in salt lake city.   the food was awesome.  it was beautiful outside and felt christmas-y.  viv loved every second, mostly because she loves her dad's attention.  enjoying our tag-a-long, each other, good food, and interesting art, was a fun way to celebrate our nineteen years of marriage:)

 we took viv to her first art museum before we headed home to do after school with the bigger kids.

 dave and i got away by ourselves in the evening- we watched star wars on opening night! 

i really enjoyed the day with dave and had a peaceful, happy feeling all day.   

i'm grateful for dave....haha! and vivian:)

a few highlights

max was picked as "TOP HAND" wrangler in his class this month.  

(basically student of the week)

sadie started varsity:)

we have a love/hate relationship with basketball, but she has always wanted to start and this was her day.   not sure if it will ever happen again, so i took a picture to celebrate!  sadie and i were talking about basketball the other day and how she felt impressed to start playing.  so many good things have come from it.  it's been a blessing.  it also has been trying and frustrating- but those times provide growth and sometimes just enduring... good lessons.

abe decided not to try out for basketball at school and is doing county ball and he got a job on the train by our house "the north pole express".  he made a good elf--they even moved him to first class.  he learned to juggle quite impressively and he enjoyed getting a real pay check.

he also played a christmas duet in sacrament meeting.  it was a really difficult song and it made him dig a little deeper and he did it.  i was really proud of him.

our ward sponsors our neighborhood christmas party, a live nativity and hay rides.  it was pretty amazing.  a real camel and everything!  a great chance for the youth to be part of the christmas story.  absolutely beautiful!

(sadie's VSCO account)

kai decided to play club ball.  he is fun to watch.  his team practices at 6:30am and we like to joke around that it is a bit much for the 5th grade C team, but he actually likes the early practices and wants to work hard.

kai works hard in school and got his first report card with actual grades.  he enjoys the challenge of the gifted class and brought home a 4.0  he is also rocking the clarinet this year.  the concert was so fun!  i think being a 5th grade band teacher would be the worst job!

best part of the concert was after when he dashed into the bathroom as a clarinet player 

and came out ready for late night bball practice. 

so cute.

i'll tell you what, kai is a thoughtful kid and is always watching out for his mom.  he notices when i need help carrying things, or i'm feeling stressed.  sometimes he enjoys peace and quiet and calm and i can relate.  

we hosted vivian's preschool for a week in december.  we loved it!

we made christmas trees and polar express shape trains.  such good friends and vivian loves her preschool friends!  it's been a really good thing for her.

gingerbread houses

making christmas houses with the kids was festive and fun.  we loved all the fancy candy, even though we set ourselves up for gingerbread house failure with graham crackers and lousy frosting- 

all part of the christmas joy!

 love this crisp kringle's house and love abe photo bombing.

thanksgiving 2015

a few highlights and traditions from our thanksgiving.

this is a perfect picture of my mom.  

she loves to cook thanksgiving dinner.

seven layer jello...a haws tradition.

 thanksgiving bingo-played for gold chocolate dollars or real dollars. 

pie with the tullis side...also a tradition. 

 black friday sleep-over and dress shopping for the granddaughters.  

 the grandkids spend a day setting up grandpa's christmas village and his collections of santas.

 this year my parents invited us to stay in a hotel downtown.  we swam, went out to dinner, walked around temple square and saw the beautiful lights.  sunday morning, grandma and grandpa took the older kids to the spoken word in the tabernacle.  

i am grateful for good families to which we belong, great family traditions that keep us close and strong, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(oh yeah...and sadie's VSCO account- where i found all these pics!)