A Fun Visit!

Kent with his two sons

About a week before Christmas we received a phone call from Kent and Janice with such a wonderful Christmas surprise: they were going to be coming out our way for a visit during the Christmas break!  We were so lucky to have them stay in our home, and I know that we (and Alan's brother, Paul, and his wife Courtney) had such a wonderful time with them getting to know them even better.  

Maggie and Evy in cute matching clothes.  Janice has good taste!

Our kids sure loved our visitors!  Kent and Janice were so nice to play lots of games with Jared and Maggie and give them lots of attention.  

The night before Kent and Janice had to make their long drive back home, we all went out to eat (sans children) at The Melting Pot, a restaurant I had always wanted to go to!  I was blown away by how fancy and yummy everything was.   We had such a great time with great food and wonderful company.

(Sorry about the blurry picture.  The food is in focus!  Ha ha.)

We were sooooooooo glad that they came and are excited to see them again soon!!  

Merry Christmas!

I think these stockings are one of my favorite Christmas decorations.  It made me happy to add the 5th one to our mantle this year for little Evy.  (I am really not super good at crocheting, but I am rather proud of these stockings I made for our kids!  It's about the only thing I've made that I feel I can brag about...)

We had a fun Christmas Week.  We had a fun talent show and party with the Stouts a few days before Christmas, then Alan and I sang in our annual production of Handel's Messiah, and then we had a fun Christmas Eve party with my side of the family.  Christmas Eve night Jared and Maggie participated in the live Nativity with some of their cousins.  We tracked where Santa was on the internet and then left him milk and cookies before bed.  It was all wonderful.  

This video is a glimpse of the first few minutes of Christmas morning in our home as the kids see their presents from Santa. We were actually able to let Maggie sleep in til almost 8 am.  Jared woke up around 7:30 but quietly played Angry Birds Star Wars, a free app of the day for our Kindle, while we let her sleep.

Fairy wings for our little fairy.  She also got a crown and wand.  

A robot was a last-minute request from Jared a couple of week before Christmas.  Unfortunately, Santa couldn't bring a really nice one because he had maxed out already on his budget.  So Santa brought this cheaper one that unfortunately had a burnt-out motor when we put it together.  Luckily, I told Jared that I could order a replacement from the store.  We are happy to say that the replacement works great and Jared loves it!  He named it Spritey. 

Jared was sooooooooooo excited for us to open his present that he brought home from school.  It had four ornaments that he had made!  I love adding these special ornaments to our tree each year!

Jared got a fancy remote-controlled car from Grandma Curtis.  He loves to play with it at our church while Alan plays with his new remote-controlled helicopter (Thanks, Mandy!)

New movies!

Evelyn participated in our Christmas morning, too.  She mostly tried to eat all of the wrapping paper...

New Tinker Bell dress!

I forgot to take any pictures of the rest of our Christmas.  We had a wonderful time with Alan's family and got to talk to Mason on his mission in Mexico.  We opened some wonderful presents from Alan's parents.  Then we had a delicious ham dinner at my mom's house in the evening.  It was a perfect day.

Jared's Christmas Program

Each year Jared's school has a Christmas program where all the grades sing for their parents.  The first-graders sang "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" and "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth."  

Jared is on the front row near the very center.  It's a bit tricky to see him.

Afterwards, all the grades sing their school's original Christmas song. Each grade has a special part: "The Christmas Spirit's startin' down in the kindergarten.  The boys and girls in 1st are just about to burst. The children down in 2nd are hopin' and expectin'..." It was fun to come and see Jared.  He's a good little singer!

(In this video of the whole school singing, you cannot see Jared.  I just had the camera aimed at where all the first graders were standing.)

Also, here is a cute little video of Maggie singing "Jingle Bells."

Princess Haircut, "Part of Your World," and Baby Squawks

Before I get into all the Christmas posts, I thought I'd put a few pictures and videos up from the beginning of December.

Maggie loves all things princess, fairy, mermaid, etc. and she knows the entire "Part of Your World" song from The Little Mermaid.  I could only get part of it on video, though.

Maggie also got her hair cut!  I did it myself one evening after getting so sick of it being tangled all the time. After I was done she said, "Mommy, is it a princess haircut?"  YES!

Jared got a new haircut, too, the same evening

Here's a few cute pictures of Evelyn:

This video is of her squeals and squawks.  I love them!

Wow, I love this girl.  She is about 8 months in this photo.

She looks like a little Eskimo with this car seat cover

 Trying hard to get a good picture of Evelyn in her "My First Christmas" dress (taken a few days before Christmas.  Maggie wore this dress, too, when she was a baby.)

"Sisters, sisters! There were never such devoted sisters..."

Snowman cheeseball I made for a Christmas party.  It looked cute, but only about half of it got eaten.  I think the rest got thrown away...