Decorating for Christmas!
Rick was gone at basketball or something, William was busy with church work, Eliza was feeling sick, and I was busy cooking and doing other things. So Aaramie, Hyrum and Vienna did the Christmas tree by themselves!
The kids got a free meal ticket from their summer reading program at the library. I have
Of course the kids were not going to let me skip gingerbread houses just because we weren't in Spokane anymore. They made them from cardboard and then put graham crackers over the cardboard. (I really think it is 10% about creativity and 90% about getting a lot of candy to snack on)
The Christensens invited us for Christmas eve to eat and talk and read the Christmas story. William thinks that we need one of these huge bean bags. (Look how pregnant I am!)
I am so grateful for all the costumes that I have. They were used for the ward Christmas party and also this Christmas Eve party.
This is our new venture . . . face painting. It is in demand and also fits well with balloon twisting. It is has been fun to practice several different designs. The girls love it too but will need a lot more practicing.
This was the kids gift from Grandma and Grandpa Wilding. It is like a scooter and a rip stick put together. All the kids do it, even Vienna!
Here is our new tradition! On Christmas day we set up our gazebo and didn't lift it up and then had a "Night in Zarahemla". We all dressed up and we ate finger foods like fish sticks, chips and dip, crackers and cheese, etc. We even had the sister missionaries which was a fun addition. We read the Christmas story from the Book of Mormon and stopped and sang carols every verse or two and ended with the "Nephite Forgotten Carol". The spirit was there and it was super awesome. So hopefully in the future we will do the same thing: Christmas Eve: Christmas story from the Bible, Christmas day: Christmas story from the Book of Mormon. The one thing that I love the most about this tradition is that it helps us think of Christ on Christmas day.
The face painting practice begins!
For New Years we had Josh and Merrilee and her 4 kids and also the Pipers and their two kids over. We invited a lot of other people but they couldn't come. It was a pretty mellow night. Merrilee and her kids let me practice face painting on them. The Piper's youngest boy had a bad cough and threw up on the floor while I was face painting. The dads and his mom tried to clean it up. Weeks later I can still smell the carpet :(
Here is some December pictures from William's phone. This was from the stake nativity display. It is a natvity made out of bullet casings. I love the title "Swords into plowshares"
I want to make one of these. Mom can you help me? :)
All the kids had Christmas programs in the same week. We really enjoyed them but it was crazy going to a concert every night, especially in December!
This was so crazy. The kids got a free meal from Applebees from the library summer reading program. They have been begging to use their tickets for months. We just never had the time. We finally decided to go and the kids were very well behaved but it still cost us $45 just for me, William and Rick to order a meal. I don't know how people can afford to take their kids out to a restaurant!
Christmas day dinner in Zarahemla withe the sister missionaries.
William and Rick stayed up New Years Eve after everyone left and watched movies. I think they stayed up until 2 or something!
I don't know why someone took this picture and I definitely don't look cute but it does show me in my frumpy maternity clothes and how I often sit on the floor because the only place for the laptop is on the coffee table.
This is the sister missionaries, Sister Zollinger and Sister Pritchett wearing my non-maternity clothes so they could help with some of the loading of wood to our basement.
