Merry Christmas!

We woke up before the kids!  In fact... I sort of woke them up!  Ha! Ha!  Lennard had gone out to the living room, turned on the Christmas lights and was patiently waiting.  I went and told my parents that we could start any time... and then I went upstairs and started playing Christmas songs/sounds in the hallway.  Ben was up immediately and jumping up and down.  Emma took a few minutes more, but they were pretty excited to get out to the living room.  The best part was when they headed down the hallway, the first thing they did was run to give grandma and grandpa a hug before they even looked at the gifts under the tree or their stockings.  (Melted my heart)

One of the first things they noticed after that was that Santa had eaten the cookies and milk!  There was part of a cookie left on the plate and Ben asked, "Does Santa have germs?"  When we said 'no', he quickly asked, "Can I eat the rest of his cookie?"  We all got a good laugh out of that!

 They got to open their stockings and then we had family prayers together.  Then we got down to business of opening gifts!

We had so much fun taking turns opening gifts.  We all got spoiled and it was so fun having my parents there with us.  One of the very last gifts that got opened was a Simon Dewey painting of the woman at the well.  Lennard had written on the tag - "To my wife.  From your hubby"  Emma picked it up and said, "To my wiffy?  Who's wiffy?"  It took us a minute to figure out that she was pronouncing the 'e' at the end of wife.  We definitely laughed!  What a fun time when kids are learning to read.

After opening gifts and playing with some of them, we had to get ready and head to church!  It was a beautiful Sacrament meeting.  The kids got to sing with the Primary in church.  It was the perfect way to spend Christmas morning.

When Lennard finished up at church, we headed out to my parents house for Christmas dinner. Since we leave tomorrow and we're going to miss our annual Fish Pond, mom let the kids 'fish' for their presents today.

 Ben was thrilled to get a Star Wars blanket!  His whole room is Star Wars now!

 Emma fished for her present and Grandpa tricked her with a phone book first!  ha! ha!  Then she got to fish again and got her real present.

 Getting all kinds of nail polish was a great gift!

 Ben had fun getting rolled up in his blanket afterwards!

It was a great way to spend the afternoon together.  We had to head home in the early evening so that we could get packed up, but I loved getting to spend some time with my parents.

Christmas Eve

We had a great, relaxed Christmas Eve.  We have normally spent Christmas Eve at my parents house, but they were invited to spend the evening with my brother and his in-laws.  We decided to have a big Chinese dinner here.  The kids were so excited for Christmas, that they hardly ate anything!  Crazy kids! 

Santa made an early delivery and the kids got 'zip-up' pajamas!  They were pretty excited to go put them on!

 Thankfully, they went to bed really well and were asleep in no time!  We were able to load the presents under the tree in good time and have a bit of quiet time before my parents arrived.

The kids don't know that my parents are sleeping over and will be here in the morning!  Such a fun surprise for them!

Funny Boy

I was cleaning up from Emma's birthday dinner when Lennard called me to come look at something.  I came around the corner and this is what I saw... ha! ha! ha!  What a funny boy.  Glad he gets comfortable while brushing his teeth.  He makes me laugh every single day.  Sure do love you, Benny-boy!

Happy Birthday, Emma!!!

Happy Birthday, Emma!  It was the last day of school today, so the kids got to have lots of fun all day!  We had my parents over for a fondu dinner.  It was a fun way to spend the evening.

 Seven years old!  Wow!  Where has the time gone?!

Emma got a locket necklace and a hairbrush from Grandma and Grandpa.

 We gave her some books (that she quickly and easily read tonight!).

 Grandpa Nichols gave her a Care Bear!  She was 'slightly' excited!

 We gave her an Easy Bake oven.  She loves getting to help in the kitchen, so it will be fun for her to get to make her own little cakes!

We sure love you!

Birthday Party

Emma was SO excited to have friends over for her birthday party!  They had had a dress up Christmas day at school, so some of them were quite done up!  

To start with, they got to do a craft.  They each got a canvas and painted anything they wanted.  They had stickers, glitter, paint, etc.  

 They also got to play a few different games.  I wrapped up a package of candy in multiple layers of wrapping paper.  I guess I overdid the tape though because it took them a while to get it opened and I had to help get it started a few times.

 Emma was more than excited to get to open her presents!

Emma and Izzy

Haylee and Emma

Emma and Brandy

Emma and Katey

Emma and Cydelle

Amy and Emma

 Birthday cupcakes!  The girls got pink lemonade and ice cream to go with their cupcakes.

It was a fun party for Emma and she got thoroughly spoiled.  It's hard to believe that she'll be seven years old tomorrow!

Primary Live Nativity

Every year since I've been in the Primary presidency we've done a live nativity for Christmas Sunday and this year was no different!  The kids absolutely love getting to dress up and it helps us keep their attention!

Emma got chosen to be 'Mary' this year.

 

 

 Junior Primary.  Ben didn't want anything to do with the nativity... but I managed to get him in the picture at least!

 Senior Primary.  

Nativity Display

We had a bunch of errands to do in Lethbridge this afternoon - mostly finding stuff for Emma's birthday party.  It was a busy day, so by the time we stopped at Wendy's for some dinner we were ready to just head home.  While we were sitting there, we happened to see a gal from Cardston who asked us if we'd been over to see the Nativity display yet.  I'd forgotten all about it actually, although Shauna had told me about it earlier in the week.  I told her no, that we hadn't gone, and she encouraged us to go.  She said it was amazing and that we wouldn't want to miss it.  

After finishing dinner, we decided to pop over and check it out (even though Ben was falling asleep on the bench!).  We are so glad that we didn't miss out!  It was so beautiful!  I can't imagine the hours and hours it would have taken to set everything up.  Not only were nativities displayed, but there were large backdrops done too.  Amazing!  The kids loved it and perked right up and then didn't want to leave!  It was the perfect end to a busy day.

 There was a children's room set up with all kinds of activities for them to do.  Emma immediately started coloring.

 Ben loved all the puzzles they had.

 I couldn't convince Ben to dress up, but Emma jumped at the chance.  I think she makes a pretty beautiful angel!