Maybe Christmas, he wondered, means a little bit more!

Merry Christmas everyone! The picture show is of things we did through the month of Dec.
We had a great one up in the Northern country. Actually Josh and I had a big traveling weekend and got to spend some time with a lot of loved ones. We started our journey Fri night and made it to up to Idaho. Then Sat morning we drove over to Vancouver to visit some good friends. We have a dear friend who is battling an illness, and that is another story, but we were so excited to spend some time with him and his family. On Sun. we headed back to Idaho to spend Christmas with Josh's family. It was fun and the kids had a blast! We have not seen Grandpa Dave in a long time, it was great to spend time with him. Kenna actually stayed in ID while Josh and I went to WA, because she wanted to see Grandma and Grandpa! We had a wonderful Christmas Eve filled with good food and good company. The kids had fun listening to the Christmas story, read by Aunt Cheri, and Kennedy had fun setting out the cookies (vanila wafers), milk for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer. Imagine her face the next morning when Santa left a note for her! She was so excited! Christmas morning was great! I love to see the excitment on the kids faces as they unwrap their gifts. It was all sorts of fun and chaos at the same time! The first gift was a small Nativity, to remember why we have Christmas, to celebrate Jesus' birth, Heavenly Father's gift to us. It has been fun this year, Kennedy has been so excited about everything Christmas. I think a lot of things she has done at school has expanded her mind and imagination!! Boston loved everything and wanted to play with everything, even if it wasn't his. Needless to say he and his cousins need to work on the sharing aspect of things. But if a quarrell ever started it seemed to end just as quickly. Kids, gotta love em! Griff was just excited to see all the people. He cut another tooth and didn't sleep well, but you would never guess it during the day. He is such a happy baby!! Ken and Pat came up to visit on Christmas day. They are some great friends of Dave and Audrey's from Buhl and we have become great friends as well. We always love seeing them. Then Wed. came and feelings of sadness along with it. It is always hard to say good bye to Dave and Audrey. A bright side is that we were able to stop at my mom and dad's on the way home. Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go! It was great to see mom and dad and mom's beautifully decorated home. After a few hours it was on back down to where we call home. The kids are excited to be home and play with their new treasures. We loved seeing everyone we saw and missed everyone we didn't! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!! (I feel like sleeping for a month.)

My Griff turns 5 Months!!

My little Griffin is 5 months old. I cannot believe it!! And I cannot count how many times I have said that about him and the other kids. Griffin is so so sweet and such a good baby! He sleeps well and is rather happy and complacent. He loves when Kenna plays with him. She scares me a little when she carries him around, but he doesn't seem to mind a bit. He has been drooling like crazy the last few weeks and a little grumpy every once in awhile and low and behold I felt his first tooth coming through. Before I know it I will be posting pics of his first birthday (sigh), if only I could program my brain to remember and enjoy every moment!! Well I guess that is what scrapbooks are for, only I will probably have his done in say 10 years! I love you Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Griffindor! (Nikki's nickname for Griff)

Kicking off Christmas!!

I decided that we needed to kick off the Christmas season with a fun movie night. When there is a movie there has to be popcorn. So the kids and I made "Grannie Goose Popcorn". Yummo! Colored green it just got me in the spirit. Although I had to threaten everyone that if they ruined this, by acting naughty, they could go to bed and I would watch the movie and eat all the popcorn by myself! Oh yes, and the movie was "Muppet's Christmas Carol". Some might think I am crazy, but I love that movie. I thought the kids would like it too, they had never seen it. Kenna said she got scared of the ghost of things yet to come (the future). I actually think this version of "A Christmas Carol" is less scary than others I have seen. So as the kids and I watched and ate our yummy popcorn, Josh took a nap. I have to admit I wasn't surprised, he had a long day with it being the last day of the month. Oh well, his scrooge days will be eliminated if I have anything to do with it! And as Scrooge and Tiny Tim say "God Bless us Everyone". What a great way to start the holidays. And Sunday we got to watch the First Presidency give their Christmas Devotional. It was awesome. It really brought perspective back to why we have Christmas. To celebrate our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ's birth. You know "Away in a Manger" always seems to make me cry! I love this time of year!

The First BIG Snow!!

So it came, it finally came!! Well I don't know that everyone is happy for the snow, but my kids sure are! They went to sleep with none and then woke up the next morning screaming, "snow, snow, it snowed"! Then Josh called and said how bad the roads were! That is the bad part. But anyway, the kids had a fun time playing in that much snow. Vancouver got a little snow last year, but nothing worth playing in! This was great snowball snow. Ask Josh as he whizzed them by all of our heads. He actually got Kenna in the face, yeah not so fun after that! Well, winter is here. I hope that everyone drives safe in the snow, and that we can have a safe White Christmas. Oh, white Christmas, time to break out good ole Bing and Rosemary!! My Fav!