Christmas 2011

What a great Christmas 2011 we had.  We were very happily surprised to find out that George and RaNae could take off some time from their mission they are serving at a military base in Wichita Falls, Texas.  The base kind of shuts down over the holiday and most of the soldiers leave so they were able to come our way! This meant that Sara and Adam and Allen took the opportunity to see them and came our way as well.  We had such a great time.  I did not want the time to end.  Sara and Adam came first.  We spent a lot of time at parks enjoying the nice weather.  I think we went to three different ones while they were here.  We also went to the cheap movies one afternoon.  George and Justin saw one, Adam took the boys to see Puss in Boots and the girls (plus Reid) went to see Dolphin Tale.  I got to put Reid to sleep and snuggle with him for the rest of the movie.  Hannah and Grace had a fashion shoot.  Little Grace is quite the poser!  Hannah just giggled.

 They also put on a couple music programs for Grandma and Grandpa.  It was fun to watch them practice and perform.

We played beautician and made all the girls hair pretty with curls, even RaNae.  They all looked beautiful.

These pictures are from the Rincon Park in our neighborhood.  I guess I didn't take any pictures anywhere else.

 Lots of scooter fun.

 Note quite sure what Spencer was doing:)  Must have thought it would ride better in the wood chips:)

 A little volleball.  Sara, Hannah and I played but no pictures were taken.

 Remote control cars.  Apparently, Nathan thought his might climb Grandpa's legs.

 Some football with Uncle Adam.

   Reid found a really fun water bottle wrapper!  Wish I had gotten a close up of that cute face!

  We had such a great visit and were sad to see them leave.  We had a couple hours before Allen arrived on Christmas Eve to snuggle with Grandpa,

 Teach Grandma how to play Tekken

 And start the Christmas puzzle Grandma Thompson gave to us.

Allen arrived just in time for dinner.  What a yummy dinner it was too!  Ham, potatoes, rolls, corn etc.  Justin had bought some Christmas crackers to kick off our dinner.  He use to do them on his mission in England.  you pull on them and they make a popping sound.  When they open, they have a little toy or game in them and also a crown.  It was a lot of fun and I think we need to make it a tradition from now on.

 After dinner, we decorated sugar cookies.  Everyone had fun and they were quite tasty too.

 Nathan

 Then George read us the Christmas story and everyone got to open one Christmas Eve gift.  

  The kids got new PJs from their favorite football teams.  I looked everywhere for the jersey Nathan wanted but could not find it.  He was very sweet and said it was ok and that he loved the T-shirt.  Isaac did NOT want to pose for a picture but he did love his Falcon's jersey!  Hannah was very excited for her orange Moore jersey!

 Chrstimas morning was great.  So fun to be able to have Santa come to a house full of people.  Makes it so nice to share it with family. We opened gifts and then had the traditional egg-gravy, bacon and biscuits breakfast.  MMMM!

Nathan got a bow and some arrows.

 Hannah got a guitar.

 Isaac got a remote control motor cycle.  

 We had to try it out later at the park.  It is fast!

George got a tie and yes, he is a gift to all of us!!

 The rest of the day was spent relaxing and playing with things they got.  Isaac's favorite was a roll of duct tape!

Nathan made a target for his bow and arrows.

Grandpa helped Isaac build his catapult.

Isaac got a music player and I don't think his ear buds came out all day!

Thank goodness Allen was here to show Hannah some cords on the guitar!  So fun to watch them work together.

It was just a really great holiday.  We missed those who could not be with us but were very thankful for the time we had with those that were.

U of A basketball game

 

Since both the boys have been able to go to football games with just dad, Isaac to a U of A game and Nathan to a BSU game, Justin decided to take Hannah to a basketball game.  She was so excited she could hardly stop herself from giggling before they left.  They had a great time.  Funny to see Justin in red instead of blue and orange.  We do all own one U of A shirt:)