Christmas 2008

Christmas morning! They all have new pj pants that I sewed all by myself!

I finally got a chance to get on the computer now that the kids are back in school. Sorry it has taken me so long to get these on here, but with all five of us home for two weeks, there was a lot of competition for the computer and mom's time.

Stewart opening his new snow boots, they all got new boots which was nice when we went sledding at Grandma Gardiner's that weekend.
(Unfortunately, the camera didn't get taken out in the snow, so I don't have pics of that.)

Sarah got a piggie bank from Aunt Jessica that had her first and middle names engraved on it. Also a roll of quarters. She keeps taking it all out and putting it all back in.

Kaela got a hand made tu-tu from Aunt Jessica. She loves to dress up and loves to twirl!

Here she is testing it out. She will bring it to me most mornings and ask to have it put on.
She wanted to wear it under her dress to church!

On Christmas Eve, Poole's came to make gingerbread houses. We also had dinner with them and then did our traditional nativity story where we acted that out. I think all the pictures were taken with my dad's camera though, because I couldn't find any on ours. Oh well.

We had an amazing Christmas. Christmas Eve a storm was coming in and the winds were very strong. We heard something happen to our house and couldn't figure out what it was at first. The soffit/facia had been ripped away from the house on the south end and was still attached at the corner and swinging around the house and hitting Stewart's window. I thought it was going to break the glass, so I had Michael go in Stewart's room and pull it through the open window. The storm made it so Michael's parents couldn't come to our house, but we were able to meet with them at the Poole's for a bit.

We had put out duplex and oreo cookies with milk for Santa the night before, and that was the most exciting thing for Kaela. She said this every morning for the whole two weeks upon waking up, "Santa's cookies are gone!" After we opened presents at our house and had breakfast of the traditional butterscotch bubbles (my first year of making them here actually) oj and sausage links, we made our way to Grandma and Grandpa Poole's. The storm was weird that day. It was treacherous and windy in our town and then just rainy until we got near Grandma's and then it was snowy again. The snow stopped shortly after we got there though and we were able to spend the day. We tried to leave in enough time to beat the storm home, but upon going around the mountain, we hit straight into a wall of snow moving sideways across the road. What normally takes 20 minutes from that point, took three times that long. I wasn't the one driving, but by the time we got home, my neck and shoulders were tight and sore from stress! LOL!

We made it home safely and just in time for bedtime too!

Saturday after Christmas was the Gardiner family party. We all went up to Midway where the temperature never got out of the teens. The snow was waste deep or deeper on the kids and Uncle Mark and Uncle John got out their snow mobiles. There was lots of hot chocolate and good food. The cousin's exchanged gifts and I think everyone got something they liked. There was talk of going swimming that day, but we were having too much fun with everything else so it will have to wait for another day.

Thanks to all those that made this a wonderful Crhistmas! We really enjoyed spending time with family and friends these past two weeks.

Building a house!

Grandma Poole brought over gingerbread house kits on Christmas Eve. She, Aunt Maggie, Aunt Marcie, and Michael and I helped put them together with the kids.
Here is Stewart with all of them finished.

Here is Kaela's finished and ready to be displayed.
I think they ate as much candy as got put on them. :)

Stewart and Maggie made one together. Stewart asked if he could have another gum ball. We asked him how many he had in his mouth and he said, "one." Then he pulled it out to show us and it was the size of a golf ball! LOL!
To him it was one piece now because he had chewed them all into one piece. :)

Sarah and Grandma trying to put the roof on.

The whole group!

Oh, Christmas tree!

For FHE last week we got out the tree and decorated it. (Well, really I put up the tree while the kids were at school and it was prelit so all we had left to do was add the decorations)

The kids were enjoying the sating string balls for earings

Sarah's turn!

A lot of our ornaments usually end up on the bottom half of the tree, I wonder why that is... LOL!

Our best shot that day.

Ouch! That hurts!

So, about a week and a half ago, we were at church and when we went to get Stewart, he had a swolen black eye. Apparently he and another boy his age had hit heads together. The other boy was leaning back and Stewart was moving forward. This is the day after what it looked like.

Trick or Treat!!

This year the kids got to pick what they were for Halloween out of our costume box. (I shop clearance racks after Halloween for lower prices for next year's costumes). Sarah was a princess, Stewart was a shark, and Kaela was a ballerina (hers was actually an older dance costume of Sarah's from a few years ago.) We had fun trick-or-treating and Kaela walked most of the way this year. It is fun to watch them grow up and understand things. Kaela would hear someone shout, "Happy Halloween!" and she would start singing, "Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!" She'd been singing her own little song all day any time she saw someone in a costume when we went shopping or out to lunch with Michael. It was very cute.

I took the kids trick or treating while Michael gave out candy (and read his book, of course). I dressed up as a wizard.... of sorts. LOL!