The Christmas Eve Program

 Every year after our dinner we have a special program.  Usually the Carey's are here and between the two families the children plan out the whole program. 

This year we did more of a "wing it" approach.

Haylee played her violin and the piano, we sang christmas songs and ended with singing Christmas Hymns. 

It was wonderful evening.

 Zac came and we had new jammies for him too.

 This is the girls singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" I had no idea it was such a workout!

 Me and my girls.. Madi had been eating a ring pop, love the blue lips!

Christmas Eve Dinner

Erin and Sam were so excited to see each other.

Our cute missionionaries.  We were super spoiled to have them for Christmas Eve Dinner.

We love Sister Reynolds, and Sister Hawks!

Come on Todd and Ben, you have to wait for the prayer!

We love our Christmas Tradition to eat our dinner in our brand new Jammies.

It was so fun to share our tradition this year with Uncle Todd, Uncle Chad, and the Finan family.

(Sadly Mary Claire threw up on the way so they had to turn around and leave Jerry and Mary Claire at home, we missed them.)

Hannah and Jane

I love this girl, one of my dearest friends in Texas, Suzi.

Dale and Chad ready to dive in!

Braunersrither Brothers in their new Jammies.

Look at Mom and Dad take a cute picture, it doesn't happen all that often!

Christmas Eve Breakfast

We started our Christmas Eve with our special Christmas Eve Breakfast. 

We had Aunt Becky's Christmas Casserole and Jeni Gandy's Creme Brulee French Toast. 

 What a great start to a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Hannah's Special Lunch

Hannah in her new birthday outfit

Dale and I took out Hannah for her special "talk."  Usually I have done this alone with our other girls but I heard from my sister Becky that they do their "talk" together with their kids.  So Dale came along.  It was such a special afternoon.  Hannah was the most mature and took the "talk" better than our older 3 girls.   We also talked about her upcoming baptism.  I did most of the talking about the birds and bees and Dale did most of the talking about her baptism covenants.  It was a beautiful afternoon.  One I will never forget, and I am pretty sure Hannah will also never forget!

Mom, Dad, and Hannah at Cheddars. 

Hannah's choice for her special day.

Hannah turns 8

 Presents Round 1

 Hannah wanted to have a sleepover with friends. 

It was a sleepover full of makeovers, pizza, cupcakes, movies, and popcorn.

Hannah's BFF....Meadow

Presents Round 2

Hannah recieved her new scriptures, and her very special all white baptism dress.

Hannah's dress inspired Mickayla to put on her new formal for LDS prom.

Hannah and Mickayla are so much alike, Mickayla truly has a mini me.

We will be baptizing Hannah in March so her Grandparents can be there.

Relief Society Christmas

 Look at this beauty Jeni picked from the white elephant exchange.

Funny she picked it because it did have a tag on it that said

 "Don't Pick Me"

 This beautiful baby is what Lisa had her sights on but sadly I think Mona went home with it.

 We ended the evening by singing Christmas Hymns, thanks to Sister Schindler who opened her beautiful home and played the piano for a long time because we just did not want to leave.

Christmas Moments

My Dad came with my Mom and I to Khols to watch the boys while we shopped.

He introduced my boys to nut crackers.

There was a very large one in the store that Sam loved to lift the lever on the back and make noises like the Nut Cracker was talking.  It sounded something like this...

"Yodi, Yodi, Yodi, Yodi"

My boys LOVED them.

  They had so much fun picking out their favorite and taking one home.

I wanted them to just look nice on the piano but the boys wanted no part of that! 

They get played with everyday.