Pre-Christmas Fun

We have had so much fun this season the spirit of Christmas was really with us. I realized the other day why this year meant so much more than other years, last year I was couch bound trying to keep a baby in and at the cabin and the year before I was in London. This is the first in the last three years we have been able to enjoy all our pre-Christmas traditions together. After the Nutcracker and Kaite's birthday activities we started with setting up the trees. Yep tree(s), one of Ky's co-workers bought a house with a Christmas tree in it and didn't want it so we took it. I don't know why I don't have any pics of us actually setting up the Christmas trees but we had a ball.

First Christmas!

 Tree downstairs with all the presents and the train, the girls decorated this one by themselves. We really enjoyed Christmas morning downstairs with the fire and carpet.

 

 Our free tree upstairs, and since it didn't have the train around it we were able to put it in front of the window.

 

After the trees we had three Christmas parties in a week, it was also the week of Kaite's baptism (I was a little frazzled).

The first party was the S&R party. We had some awesome homemade soup (I had the homemade cream of mushroom, yum) and there was peach cobbler. The kids had fun playing with all theirs friends that made it and checking out the ambulance.

Santa came and visited and I totally expected Lyvi to cry, but she surprised us all and smiled big! She had everyone in the room laughing. Kami said this wasn't the real Santa because of the mistletoe toe on his hat! Kaite said she thinks this is the real one since his beard is attached, funny how they think!

Ky got a good somewhat blurry one.

But Brett got an awesome one!

The next party was the city one which we ended up missing since our sitter canceled on us the night before at 10pm, we were pretty disappointed I thought we had found a nice responsible one. The last party was the ward party, this was also the same day of the baptism. Devin, Julie and the kids came with us.

Here is Anna and Kami singing with their bells.

All the kids up on stage Kaite is on the right and Ash is behind Kami.

Then Santa came, Ash says she is too big to sit on his lap....

All the girlies together, they said this one didn't have glasses and he was wearing cowboy boots so he isn't the real one either.

We had a fun party but after all the fun from earlier that day everyone was wiped out.We couldn't get the kids to bed fast enough! Then all us adults played some Ticket to Ride (Devin & Ky totally cheated).

Sunday morning is crazy around here with four sets of hair to do, well adding more people including another girl makes it even crazier. Ky thought it was funny that we were stationed in the living room together.

We finally got Kaite's roller coaster set up. Thankfully, Ky came to the rescue and finished it after finals, it was taking me way too long!

We made goodies! The girls love frosting cookies!

Here are Kami's

Kaite's

And Ash's.

The Saturday before Christmas we hit the Christmas exhibit at the museum.

Kami was really creeped out by this fake Santa!

They had a bunch of nativity sets from all over the world.

This was a display of Bethlehem.

Chris, Chantelle, Chelsea, and Ky's parents came with us.

This was the only pic of Chelsea I have. Ky doesn't take as many pics as I do when he is in charge of the camera.

It was a fun exhibit and when we were done we drove around and looked at Christmas lights. We of course had to go down candy cane lane, but the most exciting part was when we saw Santa at one of the houses, the line was way too long tho.

Sunday the girls wore their dresses. We got some cute shots of Lyvi, she is becoming a camera ham.

It is hard to get a decent pic when they are all hungry and Kami and Kaite have each others tights on!!

Later that night we made "ginger bread" houses. The girls had a ball! And we got frosting everywhere!

Kami's house

Kaite's house

Ash's house

We had so much fun this year and I am sad it is over, it really went way to fast. We have been enjoying hanging around the house playing games and watching our Harry Potter marathon. I am trying to catch up on my posts but I still have a ways to go.

Nutcracker

Ash had her Nutcracker performance back around the first of December. She was a purple cherub this year. She was so excited and looks very graceful when she dances. Since she memorized the dance so easily her teacher put her in charge (doesn't sound like my daughter at all!!!) she told the girls where to stand and who went where, perfect job for her!!! As usual we took the girls to the Saturday performance and Monday was just me and her.

Here are pics from the dress rehearsal on Friday.

 

 

 

Ky picked her out the perfect flowers!

Monday was crazy. I got put in charge of two different groups of girls. You wouldn't believe the stuff they do and the places they get red lipstick!!! But in the end all went well, even some really quick costumes changes. I enjoyed being baby-less but also realized I am so glad we only have four girls! Handling 28 plus their costumes and stuff was a headache!

Goofing around on Monday back stage.

Next year she gets to be a mouse and the year after a flower, which means pointe and she is super excited about that.

When we were done with the Monday night performance me and Ash headed over to get our traditional pretzel only to find they closed, we were so bummed. We got hot chocolate instead and scalded our tongues! We had fun and now she is preparing for Aladdin come May, the costumes are GORGEOUS.

Kaitlyn's Baptism

 Kaitlyn was baptized Saturday December 15th. She said "it was the best day ever". She was baptized in the same dress me, Mar, and Ash (just to name a few) were baptized in. She chose to have grandpa baptize her and Ky confirmed her.

 Kaite was so excited! She was so happy, it was a good day. I did feel bad for her because only one of her friends could come, Kaylynn. That is one of the bad things about having a birthday right before Christmas everyone is so busy or sick.

She looked so pretty in her dress. She picked this dress out herself, it laces up in the back. She loves it, sometimes she can be pretty girly!

 Family pics

 Even Lyvi enjoyed it.

 Ky's family pic

It was a good day. The weather even cooperated, it didn't start snowing until that morning. We had a nice luncheon at the barn before the baptism. We literally had a one day window to do this between Ky's finals and Mar leaving with Cory for NM, glad we made it work!

I do want to mention that it was very cold in the building and they ran out of hot water for the font, there wasn't much in there so we added some cold just before we started. Just a few funny things that happened that I am sure she won't remember.

I wanted to re-post some of my favorite pics of her in her dress.

 

And our favorite.

Kaite we are so proud of you and we are glad you had an awesome day!