! Happy New Year !

Today we went to a "bounce house" with our good friends the Browns and the Hoopes. We try to get together each year around New Year's, this was the location this year,

thanks for a great pick Jen! This was a party room called the "bug box"

Reese and Sidnee, the best of buddies.

The girls, friends since they were babies, they're getting so big!

The kids had an absolute blast and I was really impressed with the place.

Love you guys!

Later that night.......

We had our good friend's the Johnsons and the Corbetts over to celebrate the night away and party like it was 2009!
I'm sure our neighbors loved us for it, but we just couldn't resist a little fireworks and mischief....

Yikes, you'll burn your finger off!

My Lovely Friend Andrea jumping around with glee...

The Night Crew:

Audrey, Reagan, Emmie, Elle, Reese, and Morgan

Also not pictured...Jackson, Darby, and Rhyan

The heavy artillery..

We knew it was time to go back inside when Sam started reverting back to his old ways and dropping firecrackers near people's feet... (mostly just by Matt and McKay, and me, only once..)

**Merry Chistmas**

Looking Bright eyed and bushy tailed (mostly), Grandma and Grandpa sit back to watch the show.

6:50 am.

Grandma Mary is continuing the early influencing with Elle, these are her first ballet slippers, I think Audrey got a pair when she was two.
The Girls talking on the phone with Grandma Nyleen and Grandpa Ladd, Also trying out Audrey's new cupcake making contraption. Sam knows how much I appreciate a pretty present, he did a great job on this one, so I thought I'd show off his handy work. Cute Hat that Sam got me, I love seeing the things that other people pick out! I thought this was really cute and fun. Santa sure knew what he was doing leaving these Chocolate covered strawberries in my stocking.... So good...
The Family Tradition: Breakfast pizza. Consists of crescent roll dough pressed into bottom of the pan topped with sliced Swiss, scrambled egg and cooked bacon pieces. It's so good and we only make it on Christmas. Sam grew up eating this one.
Everyone was happily settled into playing by mid morning. Reese got three large Lego sets, so we all took turns overseeing the building projects.Grandpa humored Elle and played My Little Ponies in the toy room. The wall looks like that because it's just drywall and we let them be creative with it, so before you begin wondering how well I watch my kids.., don't worry, I put them up to it!A little girl and her baby doll, it doesn't take much to please her. So cute.
Hope everyone had a wonderful relaxed day!! Merry Christmas.

You better watch out...

All the kids decided to sleep together in Reese's room, the look on Elle's face about sums it up. The kids were all so excited. We did our tradition of cooking sugar cookies only this year we got to do it with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Tony.

Here's the note and cookies for Santa, this is the first year I can remember that Audrey hasn't written some kind of death-bed-repentance note to Santa. I guess she was feeling confident this time.
In front of the tree in their Christmas Eve pajamas, they're about to go out and sprinkle the reindeer food in the lawn to attract Santa's sleigh team. ( consists of glitter and oats ). We had just finished up reading the story of Christ's birth out of the scriptures, then it was off to bed!

Audrey and Grandma Making cookies...

Grandma was good natured enough to be "styled" by Elle, it takes a brave soul to let Elle brush your hair..Relaxing and watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special.I'm not sure how to rotate this video right side up, I think it had to do with the way I was holding the camera. Elle wanted to be the only one singing. Three year-olds can have a pretty good idea about what they want and don't want. The other kids have been pretty good to let her act like she's the big boss.

You might want to pause the playlist to hear Elle's song...

Sam and I grossly underestimated the amount of wrapping we had left on Christmas Eve, we were feeling pretty good and didn't start our work until about 10 'o'clock, by the time all was said and done and we'd cleaned up, it was ....2:00 am..!! Yikes, we knew we'd be in for it the next morning. The kids got up about 4 am, and got Sam's mom, she watched some TV with them and hung out, I'm not sure if they went back to bed or not, but we were all up and at em by 6:50. It's just so exciting when you're a kid.

State of Mind

When you're busy doing stuff like this..... And this....
Sometimes, this happens.....

Picture the light golden color we all know as perfect chocolate chip cookies, these were in about twenty minutes instead of ten... The bitten one was Elle's attempt to tell me they weren't so bad, she didn't want the rest as you can see. At least I got all my Christmas cards done! For those of you who've been in my house the stove is maybe only 10-12 feet from the table where I was working, I'm still not quite sure how I let this happen...twice!!! Yup, I ruined an entire package of cookie dough that day. I guess I really can zone things out apparently. Yikes, good thing the house didn't catch on fire, I probably wouldn't have noticed!

I have been getting things on my list done at least! I've completely knocked out my previous list and conquered a few more! I feel like my early fretting is beginning to pay off, I might actually have a couple days to relax! Maybe.... Yesterday I got all Sam's siblings a gift, and got all the gifts that need to be sent home with my brother Kyle wrapped/ready to go. I also got all the gift bags for Audrey's class party ready, (thanks to Andrea for coming over and helping me! It was nice to have the company and extra hands.) last night was the Enrichment dinner/program, - that went off without a hitch, immediately after I had to drive into the city to pick up Kyle so he could stay here and get to the airport early in the a.m., this morning Audrey sang at school, tomorrow, I've got her class party to be in charge of, the ward party later at night, then Sunday my friend Jessica's family party that we're invited to and Tuesday Sam's mom will be here! The good news is, I'm pretty much done with everything else! Yippee!

Merry Christmas Everybody.

Let it Snow!

Hooray!! This morning we woke up to this.....

The kids have been really wanting it to snow, and with the warm fall and winter so far, we were beginning to wonder if the snow would ever come! Come it did.

We of course took advantage of the situation and had a great Saturday full of fun outside, I had to give the kids part of their Christmas presents early though, I found some really great gloves and mittens that are waterproof that I couldn't resist breaking out.. They were really happy to have them!
Sam in his Rastafarian hat.... he actually said it was an old favorite of Grandpa Kienows! He feels like he's carrying on the legacy I guess, if you're looking for me... just look about 17 paces to the side of him.....ha ha!

There may have still been a bit of weeds at the bottom of the hill, but we were having too much fun to notice....

Audrey's Big Night

Here's Elle and Sam, waiting to see the big performance. Audrey has put a lot of practice time in over the last few months. We're so proud of her for sticking with it and not getting tired of practicing four days a week! It was exciting to see all her hard work pay off. I wish the pictures could have been better, with her moving and the room being dark, it was pretty hard to get a decent shot... so here's what we ended up with.

Audrey as Clara, entering the party scene.

Can't see her head in this one but I put it on to show her form! She really did great.

Here she is as a candy cane and the orange one was the sugar plum dance.

Audrey and her Teacher Ms. Sarah, who also performed.

Audrey and the dancer who played the sugar plum fairy.

Some of our cousins made it up to see Audrey too! She really appreciated the support. Also, thanks to our friends who came to see her dance!

After the performance it was out on the town for ice cream. I'm glad she was able to perform, she did beautifuly and I hope it will only continue to build her confidence in herself and what she can accomplish! Way to go sweetie!