Winter Break Activities, Flute Concert, Lights, Sledding, Swimming

Here are our Christmas Vacation activities.  We have been trying to keep busy and I think we've done pretty well.  Every time it snows Matthew is so excited to 'help' Aaron snow blow.  However, Aaron has been sick.  The last snow storm Aaron snow blowed the night before, but didn't want to do it again first thing the next morning because he didn't feel well.  He told Matthew he'd snow blow in a bit, but that wasn't good enough for Matthew.  Matthew felt like the drive way needed to be snow blown right then so he went outside.  He then went over to two of our neighbors and asked them to come snow blow our driveway since Aaron was sick.  We had no idea Matthew was doing that.  When our neighbors came over to do it, we were so embarrassed!  Matthew likes to take matters into his own hands other times, too.  Last week in church Aaron was sick so he stayed home with Sarah and Noah.  That meant that he wasn't there to stop Matthew from making his own announcements during Priesthood.  Since Aaron wasn't there, Matthew got up and told everyone that we needed help snow blowing our walks and driveway when we went out of town for Christmas.  What?!  We weren't going anywhere for Christmas.  However, we didn't find out that he'd done that until a few people called us up to ask when we would be gone so they could watch our house for us.  Sigh.  Oh Matthew--what a little stinker!

 

The last week of school Matthew got to go on a field trip with his class.  Matthew's learning center classroom and the functional skills classrooms were getting together.  They were going to go to Wendy's for lunch and then out to All-A-Dollar for some Christmas shopping.  When they had sent the consent form home Matthew insisted he needs lots of money.  We worked out a deal where he could earn some extra money by doing some extra chores.  It was awesome because he didn't complain about whatever I asked him to do.  Anyway, when he got home from his field trip he told me he chose the kid's meal at Wendy's.  What?!  I then asked if that single cheeseburger and small fries and drink filled him up.  He said he chose it because it was cheap.  Hmmmm that's interesting that when he is spending his own money he can make due with the kid's meal, but when I am footing the bill he can suddenly eat 20 nuggets plus two hamburgers.  What a funny boy.  Anyway, he got us all presents from All-A-Dollar.  They were pretty thoughtful gifts, too.  He got Noah a toy car, me some make up, Sarah a princess puzzle, Josh a Monster's Inc. figure, Daniel a Monster's Inc. figure, but the funniest one of all his he got Aaron an elf hat.  It was a little on the small side (well a lot on the small side) so Aaron calls it his elf Yamaka.  Matthew was excited so Aaron wore it for a bit.  What a good sport!!

It snowed again so Aaron got up to snow blow before Matthew could ask any of our neighbors to do it and all the kids went out to help, too.  They weren't out for very long until I had a crying kid coming inside.  Noah couldn't find his boots so he slipped on his church shoes.  Unfortunately his church shoes are a little big and didn't stay on his foot when he decided to wade through mini Lake Erie at the bottom of our driveway.  His sock and pants got soaked and he was very upset about it.

 He was done being outside after that for a few minutes anyway.

 Daniel had a Christmas flute concert at his school.  He was so excited to see us come watch him.

 They all got to play their flutes for a few Christmas songs.

 

Here's a little clip of the performance:

He then got to play some sticks for a few more Christmas songs.

 Then we got to walk into his classroom and see the projects they have been working on.  The teacher also had pictures of all the kids on a slide show which played all through our visit.  Here's one of Daniel's pictures:

 

One morning I was trying to get a lot done.  Aaron was nice enough to take all the kids outside to play in the snow.  I felt a little guilty for not going out with them, but I really did have a lot to do.  Here's part of the snowball fight through the window:

 Aaron took turns dragging the kids around the yard on the sled.

 Noah loved it:

 I was busy trying to sew our matchy family Christmas jammies.  Of course when Matthew came inside he had to help me.  I would line everything up and let him work the foot pedal while I steered the needle.  It worked out quite nicely.

 We did sneak in a hayride to see the Lights at Layton City.  When we went inside to pick up our hayride tickets the kids got another chance to see Santa.

 After waiting in line a few minutes it was our turn for the hayride.  It was COLD, but fun.

 I put Bubba on my lap to try and keep me a little warmer.  He didn't mind since that's where he wanted to be anyway.

 The lights were really pretty.

On December 23 I wanted to do something fun with the kids, however, Aaron had to work so I had to do it solo.  I decided to take the kids to the dollar movie.  We went and saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.  It was kind of crazy getting settled since we had to park a few blocks away.  When we got to the theater the line was long, but luckily we got in.  Since it was so cheap I let the kids pick out a treat.  When we got that all settled and sat down I had to take Sarah and Noah potty.  After that the movie was starting, but we were able to watch the whole thing.  It was a cute show and the kids seemed to have fun. 

That night Aaron and I had procrastinated our Christmas present wrapping so we put the kids to bed, ordered a pizza, turned on a movie and had a nice wrapping party.  Good thing my kids don't care what their presents look like because I am seriously wrapping impaired.  For whatever reason, I can't wrap presents and make them look good, I can't flip pancakes without scrambling them, and I can't make rice without it being super crunchy or super soggy.  These are just those funny little things that for whatever reason, I can't seem to do without some kind of problem.  Anyway, we got it done and it was fun spending that time together.

After Christmas was over we still tried to keep busy.  We had gotten some free swimming passes that we needed to use so we headed over to the Clearfield Aquatics Center.  I'm sure we looked pretty funny walking around outside in shorts and flip flops since it was only 20 degrees outside. Brrrr.  It was even worse walking back out to the car when we were all wet after swimming.  Brrrrrrrrr!!

The next day we headed over to Temple Square to see the lights.  We got there right before dusk so we got to see the lights come on.  It was pretty.

 While we were there we stopped by the Church History Museum.  It was pretty busy so we didn't stay for too long.  While we were there all the kids had to take a turn trying out the mock up beds for the pilgrims that rode the boats across the ocean to get here.  It was tight quarters.

 We also stopped by the Boy Scout exhibit as well.

 The kids had a chance to do some fishing with magnetic poles.  You can just see Noah's hand in the picture.  He was a little too short to see what he was doing.

 Daniel found a computer you could answer questions on and stayed there for a bit.

 So did Sarah.  I think she just wanted to push the buttons.

 Then they all had to try speaking at the podium set up like the one in the conference center.

Noah and Sarah had to take a turn at the podium, too even though Noah had to do some serious rock climbing skills to get to the microphone.

 

Noah decided he was done about this time and just laid down on the ground.  Too bad I'm the adult and couldn't join him since I'm supposed to be the responsible one.

 We then headed out to see the pretty lights.

 We had to stop by the fountain where Aaron proposed to me, of course!

 Then we took a family picture by the doors where Aaron and I had our pictures taken after we had gotten married inside.

 The next day we took the kids sledding.  Daniel wasn't happy about going and was letting everyone know.  Little did he know I had made him put on this fitting sweat shirt.  HAHA!!

 Sledding.  We had the whole hill to ourselves and it was great.

However, I think the reason why we had the whole hill to ourselves on a Saturday morning was because you had to try and dodge the light pole at the bottom of the hill.  Not a very easy task when you are going pretty fast.  Luckily the city had tied a big foam pad around the base of it so if you hit it, which we did a few times, it didn't hurt.

 

It was fun and we got pretty good at dodging the light pole.

 The hill was pretty ice and Noah got tired of waiting for a sled so he started just sliding down on his bum.

 I think we wore the kids out because when we got home both Noah and Matthew both curled up with Aaron and fell asleep.  What a hard life!

Christmas Eve, Christmas and Fun

Christmas Eve Matthew got a special present from one of his friends.  Her name is Ashlyn and she was his peer tutor in 3rd and 4th grades.  When we moved into our new house we found out that she was in our new ward which was nice.  She has looked out for Matthew and I am so thankful for that.  She lets Matthew sit with her friends every day for lunch in Jr. High.  She also makes sure to say hi to him every time she sees him.  She is a very thoughtful person and I would love to give her a big hug and say thank you with tears in my eyes because I am so thankful for her sweet actions.  However, I don't want her to think I am a crazy lady so I will just tell her thank you and hope she understands how thankful we are.  She brought Matthew over an awesome present Christmas Eve.  Matthew was outside when she came and he was so excited he didn't know what to do so he ran inside and left her alone on the porch.  Once I caught him and brought him over to see her and held him in place she gave him her present.  He was so excited and that's an understatement!!  She even gave him a train ornament that he made sure went right on the very front of our Christmas tree. 

 Here's the sweet note she wrote to him.  It says, "Dear Matthew!  Merry Christmas!  Thanks for always letting me and my friends sit by you at lunch.  You are my best friend!  Thanks for being so nice to everyone!  I hope you have a nice holiday!  You're the greatest!  Love, Ashlyn!"  She then drew a train on it because she knows how much he loves trains.  Have I mentioned how thankful I am for sweet people like this?!

 For Christmas Eve we had G&G T, my brother Bryan and his family, and my sister Johanna and her family over for a ham dinner.  However, I got a little nervous when I pulled the ham out of the oven--it looked a little small for 21 people to eat.  Just in case my nice hubby ran to Walmart and picked up a few extra rotisserie chickens.  Phew!  So instead of just a ham dinner we had a ham and chicken dinner.  Thankfully we had enough food for everyone and then some.  I guess it is better to err on the side of too much than not enough food, right?!  We didn't have Bryan and Grandpa T at the beginning of dinner because my niece, Miriya, her car had broken down and they had gone up to fix it.  Luckily it wasn't too bad of a fix so Bryan and Grandpa were able to make the tail end of dinner.  Miriya had to work until 6 pm so we saved her a plate for when she was able to make it.  After dinner we all visited for a while and it was nice.  Afterward we headed over to the traditional walk through the Ogden Christmas Village.  It is in downtown Ogden and they decorate small models of the stores and businesses around Ogden.  My family loves it. 

 Matthew's favorite was the Union Station mock up.

 Even though it was cold, we had fun.

 I tried taking the last picture, but I took it before Noah could say, "Cheese!".  He got all upset and refused to walk on to the next building until I took another picture of him.  You wouldn't believe how hard he was crying by looking at this picture.  As soon as I let him say "Cheese!" and took a picture he was immediately all smiles.  It's amazing how fast he can turn on the charm!

 Afterward we drove around and looked at Christmas lights.  We then headed back home to have hot chocolate.  My niece Miriya from Ohio was able to join us for the Christmas Eve festivities after she got off of work up in Logan.  We were glad to have her come visit.  Hopefully, it wasn't too crazy and loud for her :).  Here we all are getting ready to read the nativity from the scriptures.

 Daniel read it this year and did fabulous.

 Then we let the kids open their traditional Christmas Eve present from Mom and Dad.  The kids were excited--except for Noah who was horribly disappointed that his Christmas present didn't include a car.  After he opened his jammies he kept asking me almost in tears where his cars were inside his present.  He was quite upset.  Poor guy!

 I was wondering if these jammies were actually going to get made this year since I put off sewing them until four days before.  I didn't have a good excuse either because I had gotten the fabric on a Black Friday deal so I had had it for a long time.  Oh well, I did finish them even if I ran out of fabric and had to piece my bottoms together with the leftover scraps of fabric.  At least my sewing machine didn't break this year like it did last year.  Anyway, my family grew too much this year and I guesstimated my fabric needs a little short.  Whoops!  Josh and Matthew's legs are too tall!!  At least they all got sewn and we could be matchy family.

 Miriya got to open her Christmas jammies, too.

 The next morning Santa had come and the kids were excited to see what he'd brought.  We made the kids wait behind the corner until we had all the adults in place so we wouldn't get trampled.  Then Aaron said, "GO!"  and everything else is a blur, literally!

 We each took turns opening presents.  It was such a fun morning.

 I think Miriya enjoyed herself, too.  I was glad she was here because she helped a lot with opening and setting up some of their new toys.

 G&G T even got to help lots whether they wanted to or not because Noah and Daniel wouldn't take no for an answer.

 However, Bubba smooches always help sweeten the pot.

I love all the presents the kids make in school with their sweet pictures and handprints.  That is one thing I will really miss when they get older and won't make them anymore.  Daniel tried to be mysterious with his present to me.  He labeled it 'To: Mom  From: Qeshton mark'.  We are still trying to switch from reading with phonics to the real words, but for now I think it is cute.

 It only took about two hours to have this complete mess of a family room, but this is one mess that I don't mind.

 Here's Grandpa T helping Josh with his new circuits set.

 Here's Miriya helping set up Sarah's new doll.

 Sarah didn't want to miss out of the fun of wrapping she wrapped her own presents.  One of her presents to dad was a used bar of soap.  Another Sarah present was some wrapped up scissors--that Aaron and I had desperately needed the night before, but for some reason couldn't find them.  Who knew all we had to do was look under our tree.  She also wrapped up some used crayons, too.  Gotta love Sarah.

 Noah was relieved to finally get a car in one of his presents--a remote control car to boot.  Good thing this remote only came with two buttons--which made it easy for Noah to play with.  Noah loved it.

After all the excitement had worn off and all our guests had left the post Christmas slump hit everyone.

 Including Matthew who NEVER takes a nap so this must have been some extreme tiredness!!

 Of course we had to hit our traditional Christmas dinner at Burger King.  However, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the McDonald's by our house was open so we went there instead.  It is one present to myself.  Since I had spent all day Christmas Eve cooking and cleaning up I could enjoy a stress free meal---well as stress free as taking five hungry kids out to dinner is.

 When it was bedtime Sarah insisted on sleeping with her new dolls next to her.

 Noah who idolized his sister insisted his old baby sleep next to him, too.

All in all I think it was a good Christmas, however, Sarah keeps asking when we are going to have Christmas again since there is still snow on the ground.  She either doesn't understand the concept of a year or is trying to convince me to talk Santa into coming again....