Christmas Eve with the Ham's

Hallee told me it was the best day ever because she got to go to Chuck E Cheese and grandma's house!  I love that Tessa always strikes a pose!

Christmas Eve is always such an exciting day.  The night is full of traditions at grandma Ham's house.

Hallee played the Angel in the nativity.  Look at that star above her!

Wyatt loved being a Wise man and riding in on his donkey!

Cute kids!

We sure had a good looking nativity cast.

I sure love this cute, little family!

I loved looking over and seeing Hallee sitting on EJ's lap. 

After the nativity grandma had Jonah read a wonderful story that helped us understand what our Savior has done for us.  You can see that Hallee walked over and sat on Dante's lap next.  Cute.

The kids had fun playing the chimes.

Jonah sang Jingle Bells in his best cowboy twang!

It's getting a little tricky to fit all the kids around the grab box.

Hallee immediately wanted dad to read her the new book she got.

The adults took their turn with the grab box.  After that we opened family gifts and played Bingo. 

Another great Christmas Eve.  Grandma and grandpa sure spoil all of us on Christmas!

Christmas Eve with the Loosli's

Garth put together a Christmas Eve party.  He thought Chuck E Cheese would be fun for the kids.  He said he didn't want the kids to be bored so he wanted to do something fun for them.  I thought that was very thoughtful of him.

Pat was having a good day and she enjoyed watching the kids play.

Hallee spent all of her tokens on the rides.  I love the big smile and wave I get every time she sees me.

Jonah was excited that Jacob was there.  They had a great time together.

Caitlyn had fun on this horse ride.  Caitlyn is always so good about talking to everyone and making sure she spends time with grandma and grandpa.

Hallee had fun riding the rides with Jaden.

Wyatt loved playing games to earn as many tickets as he could.

We had fun visiting, eating and playing games.  It turned out to be a great afternoon.  The kids were in heaven! 

Zoo Lights

We went to zoo lights a few years ago and loved it, but we haven't been back since.  They have discount tickets for Thursdays so we decided to go tonight.  Keith had to work late so I took the kids. 

The kids were excited to go.

Tiff and the kids decided to join us.  We were all glad they did.

Caitlyn was a big help to Tiff.  She loves Tiff's kids!

There were a lot of fun things to see.  We didn't have a lot of luck with animals, but the lights were really fun.

We took a few pictures at the beginning and then put the cameras away.  It was too crowded to stop for pictures!

I'm so glad my kids have such awesome aunts and uncles.  We did see some animals, but most of them were sleeping.  We went inside the small animal building, the kids loved that.  It was a lot of fun. I'm glad we made it this year!

Temple Square

We have thought about going to Temple Square a few times in the last few weeks, but it has never worked out.  We finally made it yesterday.  We were excited to go with Katie and Ben. 

The kids were excited to go with their friends.  

Love this cute family of mine! 

Caitlyn loves to hold Kenzie.  She was excited that Kenzie got a big smile and reached for her when she saw Caitlyn. I loved seeing Keith carrying Kenzie around too.  

Jonah is such a good big brother. 

It was so crowded.  I can handle the cold, but the crowds sure make me nervous.  It was hard to walk in a lot of places.  I was really worried about keeping track of Wyatt.  He gets distracted so easily and has a hard time keeping up. 

Hallee walked around for a while and then she decided that she wanted to get in the stroller to stay warm. 

Keith proposed to me at Temple Square 14 years ago on December 19th.  We were there with my family and he took me up to the room with the Christus.  He told the guy in the jewelry store to tell me that my ring wouldn't be ready for a few weeks so I was completely surprised.  I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful husband! 

We went inside the visitors center to warm up. We were hoping to see the Christus, but the line was out the door.  Hallee wanted to play rock, paper, scissors with Keith.  It was so cute to watch them play.

When Hallee won she would hit him on his arm and repeat some saying that she has heard Caitlyn and Jonah say.  I love her cute, little voice and her adorable smile. 

My kids have the best dad! 

We looked over and saw Boston and Wyatt laying on the windowsill.  I heard Boston say, "Lets tell each other facts about planets."  So cute!

  We stopped at Village Inn on the way home.  It was such a fun night!

Gingerbread Houses

On Sunday we went to my parent's house to make gingerbread houses.  The kids love it, but I'm not a huge fan.  I know I sound like a scrooge, but they are so messy!   The kids spilled half of them in the car on the way home and yesterday I told them to eat as much as they wanted because they were all being thrown out that night.  I really am a scrooge, but I couldn't have them taking up my whole counter anymore!

The kids sure love it though.  Hallee had a lot of fun decorating hers.  I helped her a little bit, but she was excited that she could do most of it on her own. 

Oh man, I love this kid!

Caitlyn's house fell apart, but she was a great sport about it. 

Keith had fun helping Wyatt.  The kids had a lot of fun!

Sibling Gifts

We drew names again this year for sibling gifts.  This year I made sure they all spent their own money and picked out a present for their sibling.  If they didn't have enough money they could earn some.  It was fun to take each one of them shopping and see them get excited when they found something that they knew their sibling would love. 

We open these presents before Christmas.  I like to make it special and have them really get excited about giving to each other.   

We drew names and the boys had each other and the girls had each other. 

They were all so excited to show each other what they had picked out. 

I love that Hallee is just as excited as Caitlyn! 

Everyone loved their gifts.  We have really been trying to focus on Christ this Christmas season.  We watched the Living Scriptures Nativity before opening presents.  It was a fun family night!