Miles' Birthday Party

Miles' birthday is always a hard one for me. It is 5 days before Christmas and it is very easy to forget it is coming with all of the other festivities going on. This year Miles wanted to invite his friends from school and have an all out boy party. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to invite 12 little 7-year-old boys over for a 4-hour late night! Things got very crazy. Did you know that when the birthday boy gets like 5 Nerf guns for his birthday, no boys are going to sit down and watch a movie? I know now, and I'll plan accordingly next time!
Here are most of the boys eating dinner. Miles' dinner of choice? Mac and Cheese and hot dogs, much to his mother's dismay! It was an easy dinner though.
Apparently, the kids were singing "Happy Birthday" very loud!
Miles blew out his 7 candles all in one breath. Isn't that good luck?
Isaiah and Grace made this birthday sign for Miles. I love seeing the kids do things for each other. I spend most of my time breaking up silly little fights all of the time, so to see them serve and love each other is a mother's greatest joy! Now, if I could only get them to do that when it wasn't some one's birthday!?

Family Christmas Party

We had a great time at our Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's house for our annual Christmas party. It is fun to get together with family that you don't see very often. Kids love to reunite with their cousins, and I love to spend time with my cousins, aunts, and uncles that I only see every few months it seems. We had delicious food (too much of it!), great conversation, a nativity reenactment, white elephant gifts, and formal gift exchanges. I loved the white elephant gift exchange because it helped me get rid of a bunch of toys and stuff that was headed to the DI!
OK. So, my children wanted to come up with their nativity costumes all on their own. I was grateful for this because I had a lot to get prepared with the presents and food I was bringing to the party. This is Grace as Mary, her cousin Jonah as Joseph, and Isaiah as the donkey. I thought Isaiah was pretty creative with his donkey face.
Here is our shepherd boy who looks more like his name sake then a shepherd. I think it is the HUGE staff that he was carrying around.
Here is our little happy wise man. He was very excited to find that gold box to hand over his present to little baby Jesus!

We sang lots of Christmas carols, and the kids got games for their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Clawson. My favorite was the precious handmade gifts that Grandma Anderson made for all of the girls. Beautifully, creative homemade purses. The kind you see at boutiques. I don't know why I didn't inherit those crafty genes. Maybe because my husband might have divorced me if I brought home crafts to have around our house!

Sweet Ella

We just can't get enough of this sweet little girl. I just had to post this happy picture of Ella. We love you little sister!

Our Annual Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

Slippery Ice

We went to see the lights at temple square, and wouldn't you know it I didn't get any pictures! We got back pretty late and all of the kids had fallen asleep in the car. I pulled Ella out of her car seat in a peaceful sleep and started to walk into the house to put her to bed. All of the sudden I slipped on a big sheet of ice in front of the stairs to our house. We both went tumbling down, and although I tried to land so that I could bear the brunt of the fall, Ella was a little topsy-turvy and went head first for the cement. Poor little girl. This is a picture of the damage. Just so everyone knows, I didn't make it out very well myself. It looks like I'm abusive, but my injuries are hidden by clothes. I have huge bruises on my leg and on my behind and a scrape on my arm.

December Performances

One of many fun things about December, aside from Christmas of course, is that we get to go to all types of music performances for the kids. Isaiah, Miles, and Grace are all involved in choirs at their school and they absolutely enjoy it. Isaiah made the audition choir this year and they get to do movement to their songs and the songs are really fun. One of the songs for their performance was done in the dark and the kids wore a bunch of glow necklaces and bracelets. It was a psychedelic Christmas tune and they had a great time. Grace was in the mixed choir and Miles was in the beginning choir. I took a bunch of pictures, but they turned out really dark in the auditorium at school.
Isaiah also had a piano recital. This year he played a song from Handel's Messiah. He did such a great job and I LOVE the song that he played. It is always great when you like the songs that they play because they practice them so much before hand.

Season's First Snow

I am a really boring winter mom. I do not look forward to the snow season. I think it is because it lasts so long and it makes me cold. I just want to curl up in a blanket and have chicken noodle soup everyday. I remember the days of Seattle when you were lucky to have it snow once in four years and the whole town shut down to have a great time! Not so much here in Utah. Life just goes on as normal and it's not as fun.
I'm glad that the kids are old enough to go outside and just enjoy the snow all on their own. We've been collecting "snow clothes" for the last few years and it's nice to have good clothing for the kids to go outside for hours. Here are Isaiah and Miles with their friends Xane and Tyler. They had a great time!

Here is Ella all decked out for the first time in her snow clothes. She loves being outside, but hates being cold. She lasted a few minutes out there!