Christmas Day

All she wanted was a swinging chair! She is one happy young lady. 

All he wanted was a new riding helmet. Glad his noggin will be protected. 

This little boy of mine wanted legos and dinosaurs. He will be turning 12 next year. I'm so glad he still likes to "play".  

Love his smile. I won't lie. It's been hard knowing this is my last Christmas with him home. He will probably be gone the next 2 Christmas's. Maddie may be gone the next Christmas and by then we may have a new addition to the family at that point (meaning a daughter in law).

She was thrilled with the gum ball machine Brayden gave her. 

This sweet thing is 8 and loves Barbies!

Hunter wanted biking/snow boarding gear this year. A new pillow, some favorite treats, Tenzi and other little things. 

Everyone got new pillows this year. This girls wanted a cricut. She's got great crafting plans. She also wanted new shoes, a few book and clothes. 

                      Barbies, a new doll, new clothes, legos and magnet board.                     

Legos, games, a new pillow and books. Oh how this kid loves to read. 

                              This girl loves games too! Lotions, hair dye, fun markers and some crazy socks. 

                 I love Christmas Day sitting around watching everyone enjoying their new toys. 

Mom was spoiled this year. 

Emily made me some custom spoons. The other kids gave me some wall hangings now that I can finally start to decorate our home. Love them. 

 

Christmas Eve

A few years ago we invited Grandma and Grandpa Heaton to our house for Christmas Eve. It has become a tradition for our family for a few years now. Sometimes we make homemade pizza and other times we just fix something easy. This night we had navajo tacos. 

What everyone looks forward to is the making of manger scenes. 

Uncle Kirk was able to join us this year also. 

The hardest part is always the foundation. Deciding how big and what kind of a design. 

And then it's go time! Let the decorating begin. 

What a great manger scene. 

Love the creativity each year. 

After Grandma and Grandpa head home it's time for our 1st present. 

New pajamas.

This year even mom and dad got some. 

This girl loved having matching jammies with mom. 

Hunter hadn't been feeling good and was ready for bed. Emily wanted to set up a timer to take our picture. This was the best she got. 

And now it's bed time. 

Cookies, milk and carrot. 

Sweet dreams. 

 

Decemeber Shenanigans

 It's Christmas Break and all my kiddo's are home. We have put our school work aside and are just enjoying each other. I'm loving it!

This young man has become quite the cook. He loves trying to make new recipes. He made a yummy and very rich cheese cake for dessert one night. 

This cute girl was quite proud of her Lego Christmas Tree she made one afternoon.

Kory has been wanting to get "big kid" toys for upstairs. He was pretty excited when he found a pool table/ping pong table on the marketplace. We have already spent so many hours playing. 

(Uncle Chris and Emily)

Kory was hoping for at least one more game upstairs. He was pretty stoked to find this air hockey table down in Vegas. It is super heavy! We were going to give it to the kids Christmas morning but it is so big we had no where to hide it. So we it was an early gift. I think air hockey is my favorite. 

(Brayden, Kylie and Aunt Hanna)

How heavy is that air hockey table? I have no idea... but it took several of Hunter's friends and 2 adults to get it up stairs. 

I couldn't get a good picture showing everyone whom helped. 

I bought some moon sand for fun. My little ones have loved it!

Somehow this little Christmas Tree has become the hanging mask tree. Really hope this is the one and only Christmas we have this. 

For YW's one night Emily learned how to make cake pops. She was so excited to make a batch for us. 

It's December in Southern Utah.

Shorts a t shirt this girl chose to wear.  

This year the Christensen's got together for a fun weekend. Grandma and Grandpa made each kiddo their very own skittle dispenser. 

We also played the money game. I think it's going to be tradition. 

This years winner was Noah!

Woo Hoo. 

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.....

                   It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas..... We got our front room done! Our baseboards are on and everything has been painted. WooHoo! One day we will install a corner wood burning fireplace but for now it will hold our Christmas Tree. 

        We decorated our tree for family home evening so that everyone would be home. My days our numbered with these kiddo's of mine. 

I am really trying to capture the small moments in our home this year. The tradition's we do every single year to celebrate our Savior's birth. My teens believe they should be able to go hang out with friends every single night. So having everyone home at once isn't always easy. The younger kids helped me make a paper chain with scripture references we wrote on the inside. Every night we take a chain and read the reference by candle light. 

This young lady talked us into doing the 12 Days of Christmas to a young family in our ward. She decorated an oatmeal container and made homemade chocolate chip cookies to put inside. 

This is my FAVORITE Christmas movie. I just love it! Last year I had tickets to see the play and I took Emily with me. Thanks to Covid this year there were no plays. My older kids think they've seen it to many times and don't want to watch it. So this year I turned it on during a mutual night. My younger kids snuggled up with me and together we laughed, and laughed, and laughed. 

Emily helped me wrap all of Christmas Books. 

My parents gave us these rocking reindeer's when Hunter and Maddie were toddlers. They only come out for the month of December. They are still in great condition. My kids love these! I know my kids are getting bigger and these rocking reindeer's are staying the same size. One day I may pass these on. But for now I love seeing my kids on them. 

Brayden is 11 and Kylie is 8. They look forward to unpacking our Little People Nativity, our wooden train, and paper mache gingerbread house. They play with them together almost every single day during the month. 

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Uncle Rich sends us a new Christmas book every year. The kids look forward to getting it. We love the books he send us. 

Treats!

Our family doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. But during December we do have a few favorites we like to make. Emily learned how to make oreo truffles in young women's. She made some for our family. Very sweet but good. 

A neighbor brought us hot chocolate bombs. So fun and yummy!

We put hot milk in a mug and then drop the bomb. 

You can see the bomb begin to melt and then pop!

Out comes hot chocolate powder and marshmallows. 

These have been so fun to make and then drink. 

I love this time of year. 

It seems we get to spend a little more quality time as a family. This is our last year with kids at home. Hunter will probably be on his mission for the next 2 Christmas's. When he get's home Maddie will be 19 and planning on serving a mission. For the next 3-4 years our family won't be together. I want to make the most out of this year. I will miss them. I will miss this. I will miss our current family dynamics.