New Year's Eve

NEW YEAR'S EVE =party at our house!

Taylee was in charge of the kiddo entertainment for the evening. I helped her come up with an activity for every hour, counting down to midnight.
She decorated the bags with the time and the New Year's Time Square ball dropping each hour.

First activity: cupcake decorating!

It was fun to have the Clawson's visiting for the week.

Maliah thinks that frosting is yummy.

Kyrick and Treyson concentrating on some serious decorating.

Audrey and Abree

Katelyn

Maliah, Micaela and Taylee

Jackson doing some sprinkles.

Daisylyn having some snacks.

Lots of family, lots of snacks, lots of celebrating.

Sterling

Levi

Let's get a cousin picture... ya, right.

Took several, but never managed to get everyone looking the same way..at the same time. :)

Da boys.

Levi says "Get me out of here!"

These 3 little cousins were like popcorn bouncing up and down and all around.

Atleast one is looking at the camera.

Ahhh.. Sydney and Maliah.

One of the activities Taylee had planned was a "photo booth" with dress-up props. She took pictures of all the cousins dressed up and looking silly. Here are a few...

Abree

Micaela

Katelyn

Micaela???

Audrey

Abree? and Kyrick

Cool Ky

Micaela...again?

Some other activities included; dancing with the strobe light, playing games and making shaker noise makers to welcome in the new year.

Tyrel brought fireworks, that were lit as the new year came in.

HAPPY 2012!

Christmas Day

After church, we changed our clothes and ate lunch. Then it was FINALLY time to open our remaining presents.

We did something a little different this year. I wanted our focus to be on service and Christ...and less on getting and gifts. Jason and I agreed that each person would receive 3 gifts; a gift of "wonder", a gift of "usefulness" and a gift of "meaning".

I also focused more on the wrapping of presents, since I would have less to wrap. I used cute brown paper wrappings, white yarn pom-poms, unique tags and cute ribbon. It was fun to have cute presents under our tree. :)

I should clarify...everyone's gifts were wrapped except for Treyson's. Treyson had snooped in my closet and found one of his gifts. So instead of lecturing or punishing, I chose NOT to wrap his gifts. I tied a bow and label each one and put them under the tree. He could see all that he was getting. It was interesting to see that he wasn't that excited about opening gifts this year. Wonder if he'll have the desire to snoop again. Time will tell. :)

I like our new 3 gift tradition, but I'll have to say, there was a little bit of an adjustment. Honestly it was a little hard for Jason and I to narrow down gift giving to only 3 gifts...but it was good. The kids went along with it. They were a little confused at first, but they enjoyed what they got.

We tried to get things they REALLY wanted/needed, instead of lots of little things just because they were a good price/on sale. Less trinket-y... more sustenance... I think.

We will continue this tradition, but possibly make some adjustments along the way.

Christmas Morning

Christmas was on a Sunday this year, so we got dressed in our church clothes before we ate our breakfast.

Ok, we did hair AFTER breakfast and opening presents. :)

Guess who?

No make-up = the blanket shield.

We spread out a sheet and ate breakfast upstairs in the movie room.

This year we had a delicious crockpot breakfast casserole along with cinnamon rolls and orange juice. Yum!

Rylee is being a good sport and letting me photograph us...even without her make-up on.

The traditional line-up... youngest to oldest.

We decided to see what Santa brought BEFORE church... and would open the remaining presents AFTER church...such torture. :)

Treyson showing off one of his gifts from Santa...goggles.

Nice.

Abree got a cute little "teacup pig".

Have I mentioned she LOVES pigs?... because they are PINK, of course. :)

Rylee is trying out her new cup.

She's been wanting one of these for some time now (?).

Taylee showing off some of her favorite gifts... pink zebra-striped duct tape and Sharpies in a variety of color.

This girl LOVES her craft/school supplies!

After digging through our stockings, we had plenty of time to relax and finish getting ready for church. And yes... I finally got around to taming Abree's wild bedhead. :)

Christmas Eve

After reading the Christmas Nativity story, we passed out our family exchange gifts. Abree received a cute fabric flower headband from Rylee.

Notice the one Rylee is wearing in her hair...ya, sorta like that. :)
Abree gave Rylee a flat iron holder... made from a pot holder.

Treyson was given a pom-pom/marshmallow shooter from Taylee.

My gift to Taylee.

Treyson came up with this gift idea all on his own. He traced the Jazz logo onto nice watercolor paper, then painted and framed it for Jason's desk at work.

Grandpa Waite received Stampede basketball tickets from Jason.

Jason made the ticket holder for his part of "homemade". :)

I received a chalkboard sign from Dad. He had Amber help him come up with the idea and make it. I LOVE it...and have used it for many occasions.