December Family Fun

Our whole family in front of the lights and the Salt Lake Temple on Sunday night.

We got to go into the Tabernacle for the first time since they renovated it. The building was beautiful inside and out, especially with the Christmas decorations. The acoustics in this building are incredible. You can hear a pin drop and a someone talking at the front, even if you are all the way in the back of the building.

The kids up at Temple Square in front of some of the lights. Evan has a snowball ready for fun.

Here are the kids with the Salt Lake Temple behind them. It was extremely cold outside, but Evan kept picking up the snow to play with it. The problem was he only had cloth mittens on, burrr! He also was picking up the snow to eat it. We had to explain that it wasn't clean enough anymore and you only eat white snow, not brown or any other color.

While we were waiting for the lights to come on, we went on a Temple Square tour. The kids love to go to Temple Square to see the statue of Jesus. We started a tradition of going to Temple Square at Christmas time to help the kids remember why Christmas is so special.

Saturday night was the ward Christmas party. The primary kids sang "When Joseph Went To Bethlehem" and some of the kids dressed up in costumes. Evan is a wise man and Jonathan is the donkey. Originally Evan was supposed to be the donkey, but he didn't want to do it, so we asked Jonathan and he agreed. The whole theme of the Christmas party was A Night in Bethlehem. While we were walking around to the little booths displaying parts of Bethlehem life, Jonathan kept getting down on all fours to be a "donkey." He was really getting into character.

Jonathan is about to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas when Lindsay pops up to help him with what to say.

Decorating For Christmas

I guess I might be called a humbug, but I like to wait until the day after Thanksgiving to start Christmas decorating. I love Thanksgiving. The air has a different feel, the sunlight slants differently, and I love to cook a delicious meal and enjoy it with the people that I love. So on Sunday night we started decorating with the help of Uncle Ryan. The kids absolutely love to decorate for any holiday, but especially Christmas. I am so glad Michael was willing to put the lights on the tree. It is definitely not my favorite part.

Evan, Lindsay, Jonathan, and Laurel pose in front of the tree they decorated. They were so excited to decorate, so chaos was everywhere.

Lindsay helped to decorate the stairs. She loves to help out. What a sweet face. She could be the angel for our tree!

Visit From Auntie

We just finished a fantastic week with Auntie Lindsay. The kids went to the extra room this morning hoping to find her. I think we all missed her a lot. Last Monday we went to a corn maze and picked out pumpkins. We made caramel apples. We carved pumpkins. We ate at IHOP. Uncle Ryan even dressed up as a Gecko. What a great time we had. We can hardly wait to spend more time with Auntie at Christmas!

A Halloween Tale

Handsome Evan makes a great Peter Pan. After the trunk or treat and some reall trick or treating he said, "My bag is overflowing." He definitely had a lot of candy.

What a smiley Tigger! Evan wore this costume as well, but he never really liked it. Jonathan really liked it. This is a great costume. This was the fourth year it was worn and it still looks great! Jonathan loves to eat the treats. We will have to put them up higher because he keeps getting into them without asking.

What a beautiful Belle. This is the third year that Lindsay has been Belle. It fit her perfectly this year. She wore it to a clogging Halloween party, to school for the Halloween parade, and to the trunk or treat and trick or treating in the neighborhood.

This is the first year in 3 that Laurel could not be Princess Aurora. She finally grew out of that costume, so this year she is Giselle from the movie Enchanted. Isn't she lovely? She looked beautiful in her costume. The crown and shoes were the perfect touch for such a beautiful gown.

Sword Fighting

The boys have such a good time playing swords together. They are on a Star Wars kick right now and love to say "Are you on the dark side?" Sometimes I worry about all this battling, but so far my experience has been that they will make weapons and battle with whatever is available. I guess this is one of those issues where I teach them correct principles and hope their pretend battles remain just for fun. Overall, I believe this is true because my boys are very sweet and loving, despite their many "battles."

Scarecrow Festival Clogging Performance

The girls had a clogging performance at the Scarecrow Festival up at Thanksgiving Point. They both did a good job in front of a lot of strangers. Don't they look cute in their little costumes.

Here is a little video of the girls. It is hard to see lil' Lindsay until the very end. They are still learning, but working hard and doing very well.

Provo City Services Fair

Last Monday we went down to the Provo Mall where they were having a fair demonstrating the different services available in the Provo City. So they had the Provo Police, Fire and Rescue, UTA public transportation, Provo, City Utilities, the library, Parks and Recreation. We did it last year and it was a ton of fun, so we decided to go again this year. The kids got lots of free coloring books, candy, pencils, water bottles, T-shirts etc. Even Michael and I entered a drawing for a free tree from the City and we won!

Evan tries out the driver's seat of a huge fire engine. He has the best grin!

The girls are escaping from the smoke in a trailer that teaches children how to get out if there is a fire. The man in this picture is the paramedic who came to the house this summer when Laurel hit her windpipe on the edge of the counter and couldn't breathe. Of course she was fine, but it is an experience I will not forget anytime soon. I could remember him because he seemed so young to be saving people.
The kids got to go on a UTA bus. They are such happy kids! Can you believe how big they are getting? Where does the time go? I am glad for moments like this to cherish their cute faces.
While the girls went in the fire escape trailer, the boys went with Michael to some other spots. They got a picture with this squirrel. I have no idea what he was a mascot for, but it is a cute picture anyway. The kids also got to squirt fire hoses to push down a bucket. We went into fire engines and ambulances, and we also saw the firefighters in full gear fight a propane-fueled fire in the middle of the big parking lot.