Christmas Eve!

I love all the traditions our family has on Christmas Eve, one of my favorite days of the year as an adult and when I was a child.

Making the holiday treats:

French Mint Brownies

 

Divinity

These two had no problem cleaning out the Bosch for me.

Toffee

And a new addition (request from Marlee)…

Gingerbread Cookies

I’m loving the cows more than the gingerbread boys.

All 4 watching a movie around the ipad, you can barely spot Carter, he’s next to Clayton.

Steak, it’s whats for dinner.

One of our favorite meals all year!

steak dinner

fun sodas

PJ’s

Carter’s not sure what all the excitement is over clothes.

Pinata time…

The hanger part on the pinata broke and it was freezing outside, so we just brought it inside to finish it off.

Carter was the one who picked out the beach ball pinata.

Just kicking it…

Going to town…

The loot…

Ornaments…

The kids get ornaments based on what they’ve done during the year. It seems like the older they get, the more they pile up.

Clayton’s: globe (for getting 2nd place in the school geography bee), Payson Temple (for participating in the Payson Temple Cultural Celebration), sea shell (CA Turley reunion), flip flop (Las Vegas trip for Laun’s work conf-swimming), lantern (camper living this summer), track/cross country (ran for schools team end of 7th grade/beginning of 8th grade), pheasant (hunting w/ Dad)

Porter’s: sea shell (CA Turley reunion), lantern (camper living this summer), flip flop (Las Vegas trip for Laun’s work conf-swimming), golden bee (winning the school spelling be as a 6th grader), cross country (1st school sport as a 7th grader)

Marlee’s: paint pallet (craft class for 4h club at school), sea shell (CA Turley reunion), flip flop (Las Vegas trip for Laun’s work conf-swimming), lantern (camper living this summer)

Carter’s: cow (his favorite animal), sea shell (CA Turley reunion), Las Vegas ball (Las Vegas trip for Laun’s work conf), lantern (camper living this summer), Shriners Hospital puppy (for all the hip surgeries and time he’s spent at Shriner’s)

Laun & I’s: Payson Temple (Clayton in cultural celebration on Laun’s birthday and it’s Spanish Fork City’s new temple), lantern (summer camper living), pheasant (Laun hunting w/ Clayton), sea shell (CA Turley reunion), got milk cow (Laun’s masters degree, Las Vegas ball (family trip for Laun’s work conf), IFA cow (1 year for Laun working at IFA), fish (Laun caught the biggest fish this year), pink fish (for me catching a fish on the CA boating day)

The tree is just going to keep getting fuller.

The kids playing w/ glow and the dark balloons that they got in the pinata.

Marlee loved looking for Santa on the computer to see when he will arrive in Spanish Fork and she left him and his reindeers some treats.

My favorite part of the evening was Laun reading from the scriptures of the birth of Jesus Christ and the reason we celebrate the season.

Carter decided he should hang out w/ mom and dad for awhile instead of going to bed. All the big kids slept downstairs together, I wonder if they’ll be able to fall asleep. Clayton was so excited that he couldn’t sleep and he even asked Laun for some benadryl (which he didn’t get). Laun told me I must be doing something right w/ Christmas if our teenager is that excited. Now if I can fall asleep.

holiday prep

Carter actually slept in today, he’s an early riser most mornings.

Morning snuggles with my youngin’s.

Today I baked the coffee cake for Christmas breakfast. It’s what my mom always made and I love that tradition.

We bought a queen mattress for our guest room and kept the tube it came in. The kids made a slide out of it and Carter slid down it over and over again.

We rarely play games, but with the break and free schedules we’ve had time to play.

winter break

Carter loves having his siblings home for winter break.

Laun saw a bunny on the way home from work, so of course he had to catch it, with his bare hands.

just relax

I love the laziness of winter break…staying up late, sleeping in, watching movies, holidays with family, etc. Today the kids and I were all watching Tangled and I love how Carter just sits on Porter’s lap and completely blocks Porter’s view. It’s all about personal comfort I guess.

air hockey pro

One of the best parts of Winter Break is that Carter will get so much time with his siblings. Tonight Porter was teaching Carter the ropes of air hockey.

family time

Laun took Porter out hiking. I think one on one time with kids is the greatest.

Then Porter and Clayton had a great futsal game.

We met up with Brandon and Mary’s family at Chuckarama. I guess the buffet really filled Porter up as you can tell from his before and after shot (slightly exaggerated).

Then we went to the Thanksgiving Point lights…total waste of money if you ask me. The lights were so generic and just set ups. The best part was the live deer who happen to be amongst the lights. Carter viewed the lights from the driver seat with Laun.

ipad junkies

Marlee’s chicken

I love Marlee’s art work-

laundry & more snow

Laundry isn’t so bad when you have this cute little helper:

The boys went sledding today with friends and had a great time.

these boys

I was so impressed and grateful for my boys this morning. We’ve gotten a lot of snow and they went out early before school to shovel our driveway and sidewalk. And then they walked to school (it’s only down the street, thankfully). Now I’ll actually be able to back out of my garage to take Marlee to school.

Clayton and Carter having cuddles before bed. Carter still wears his brace to bed.

snow & cows

Porter left his backpack at home today and sweet Marlee ran it in for him. Which was especially nice, since it is snowing like crazy.

Laun’s fire in the backyard looked especially beautiful on this snowy day.

The view from my bedroom window is pretty nice.

Whenever Laun get’s the Progressive Dairyman magazine in the mail Carter claims it. He looks through the pages for all the cows and moos and moos, it is darling.

special blanket

Marlee’s primary teachers, the Mill’s (we used to be in their sons ward in Marana, Sam Mill’s) give blankets to all of the children in their class. The husband sews all the blankets for them and also donates many to families in need or kids in the hospital.

Marlee had so many to choose from and this is the blanket she chose: