Merry Christmas, indeed!!

At the risk of putting your attention spans to the test, I thought that I would share "a few" pictures that sort of show our Christmas season in a nutshell. It's been such a wonderful holiday and worth every bit of work!

We got ourselves into the holiday spirit by attending 3 sing-a-longs at the Elementary school. This is a great tradition that the school does every year. The last six days leading up to Christmas break, the school starts its day with a sing-a-long assembly. Each grade gets a day to perform for the rest of the school and their parents. There is NOTHING that gets me more excited for Christmas than this! The kids know the songs so well and it's so fun to watch them and sing with them. The school building is one of the few really OLD buildings left so it just feels like I've stepped back in time...not to mention the fact that they are actually allowed to sing "Christmas" songs! GASP!! Here is Corinne with Spencer following her program.

Paige with Daddy and Spencer on her big day.
Nicole being "shy" after her fifteen minutes of fame.

During that week we had to bake gingerbread cookies because it just isn't Christmas at our house without them. Spencer LOVED the "cream gun" and would have emptied the whole thing on that one cookie if I had let him.
We enjoyed several family parties. We went to Great Grandma Felt's house on the 21st and had a nice time visiting with Matt's cousins/aunts/uncles. Then on the 23rd we were at Josh & Brigitte's house for our party with Matt's brothers/Mom/grandparents. The kids all exchanged gifts and then had a great time with each other. On Christmas Eve Mom and Dad and G'ma Pat and Matt's grandparents came for dinner. We had a very fun evening except that Paige was really frustrated that we couldn't just go to bed already!! Claire stole the spotlight for a moment when she decided to sit up by herself for the very first time.

While Claire was busy showing off, the other kids got to open their new jammies!
We had a live nativity program and I'm pretty sure that those present would agree that it was a very moving, spiritual experience...or something like that. Here is Mary riding her donkey to Bethlehem. Joseph decided that he needed to be a horse, which isn't a bad plan in case the donkey gets tired or something, I guess.
You can see here that the shepherds were "sore afraid" of the angel. (An oscar moment if ever there was one!)
Christmas morning was great! We were able to hold them off until almost 7:20 and then the fun began!!

'Tis the Season

Hi all! The last few weeks have been hectic and crazy and fun! I'm sure you can relate. I just wanted to share a few things that have gone on since my last post. I hope your holidays are happy and stress-free! : )Nicole is in her second year playing the violin. She had her Christmas concert last week and it was great! In her own words regarding orchestra: "I love, love, love the concerts...I just hate the rest of it."

Claire has found 2 new toys at the bottom of her legs! I just love it when babies find their feet. I thought that I would share this picture because even though she has crazy hair fresh from the tub and I couldn't get her to smile and hold her toes at the same time, it's just cute! (Says the Mom)

Two weekends ago, our Colorado cousins were here for Kaiya's baptism. We got to spend the afternoon playing with them and the kids didn't waste one minute of the time they had together!

Here is Spencer having the time of his life playing cars with...A BOY!!!

And as if we don't have enough spa days around here...

The fashion show put on by the divas (check out that pout on Kaiya!)

And not to be outdone by the girls...the guys walk the runway! Don't you love how they accessorized too? Cooper with his Colorado Rockies hat? And Spencer with his Hot Wheels carrying case? (Sorry Coop...I had to!)

Later that evening our family went to our Ward Christmas party. I included this picture to show you what a Wellsville Santa looks like! Zoom in and you'll see that they paid very close attention to detail even getting some rouge on his nose...but it seems like something is missing...hmm...I just can't quite place it.