Santa

We went to Matt's Office Holiday party last weekend.  It was really fun, good food, fun white elephant gifts (with people who actually steal...makes the game so much more fun) and complete with a visit from Santa!  Santa brought each of the kids a new book.  As he was reading out names for each child to come and get a book, Hunter stood off to the side and just waited so patiently.  He was one of the last to be called up, and he knew it was coming so he just waited.  As soon as his name was called he ran up and took his gift with a big huge grin on his face.  After that he and Santa were tight...best of buds!

He loved sitting with Santa, and he didn't want to leave.

Since Hunter was sitting so wonderfully with Santa, we thought "what a great picture op."  Ha!  Jack would have nothing to do with it.  He didn't want to be near Santa...I had to sit next to Santa and force Jack on my lap.  The whole time he is screaming "NO" at the top of his lungs!

It was very comical, and we got our classic Santa picture too!

 Even though he was anti-santa, Jack still loved his gift.

He got a book about a dog and it's ball...perfect!  He was hugging it as soon as he opened it, we tried to get a picture of the book hug, but we were too slow!

Look at that grin though...it says it all!

After bonding with Santa, Hunter spent the rest of the night trying to mimc him.

He would say "ho, ho, ho", and in this picture he is making a Santa beard.

It was too incredibly cute for words!

SNOW!

The past couple of weeks we have been seriously dumped on by SNOW!  For 7 Days straight we got snow, and a couple of those days it snowed 3 or 4 inches in an hour.  Huge, beautiful flakes.  In this past week we have gotten more snow then all of last winter combined...just to put in some kind of perspective.  Lots of snow!

 So you would think that my kids would be excited the first day of snow and make a snowman!  

Nope, our friend here didn't get made until the 4th day of snow...but once the kids got out there they had so much fun they didn't want to come back in.

 Everyones house has a snow mountain in front.  It reminds me of the huge snow mounts my father-in-law makes when shoveling his huge driveway.  The boys love to climb it!  Or eat it....

 The countryside from my front porch, with the wall of snow from the snow plows.

our backyard. The snow on top of my patio table is a good representation of how much snow we got this past week.  I still think some of it blew away, but it was a lot of snow.

This is the first "real" winter my kids have had in a long time.  After living in Texas and California we would go home for a visit to Utah for Christmas...get our two weeks of winter and snow (hopefully) and then go home to greener (or browner) pastures.

We are really enjoying this winter!!

Christenbaum all aglow...

So, after cutting down our tree, and letting it defrost and dry out over night...it is now time to decorate!

 The kids all love to rummage through the ornaments and pick out their favorites.  The boys are no exception.

 Cora had waited so long to decorate, finally she gets too...

 Typical Toddler.  

Two branches at the bottom of the tree received all the ornaments the boys put on.

The only picture I have of Hannah decorating is blurry!

 And the star...

we had to cut off the top of the tree so the star would fit between the tree and the ceiling.

 The crew

Our pear tree cleaned up pretty nice we think.

The smell of pine and sight of twinkling lights sure rings in the season!

A Christmas Tree Hunting we Go!

There is a great Christmas tree lot in a village close to where we live.  They actually have some acreage  where they grow trees themselves.  Every year they go through and mark the trees that you are allowed to cut down yourself.  We cut our tree down last year, and had so much fun we decided it was a must for this year too!

Walking through the forest in search of the perfect tree.

Anya was very happy to be out in nature!

 Jack just liked to go around licking snow off the branches.

 What is Hunter doing???

 licking snow off the ground of course!

 So I didn't get any shots of the tree we found or us cutting it down.  Kind of bummed about that, but it takes two to cut down a tree and I was helping.  Hannah ultimately picked the tree out and then campaigned and convinced her sister's that it was the perfect tree.  It is very unique, kind of a pear shape...skinny on top, really bushy in the middle and then it tapers down again at the bottom.  I wasn't too sure about it, but now that we have it set up and all decorated, it is a very pretty tree...that we cut, and fills the house with a delightful smell!

 Off we go, homeward bound.

It did not get above freezing that day,  so when we got home there were ice crystals forming everywhere.  I thought the coolest were these two frozen spider webs above our garage door.

It was a fun adventure for our family!

What happened in November?

Soooo, since I haven't blogged the entire month of November, here is a quick update, blitz style!

We did the usual, visited castles, beautiful historic cities, ate delicious pastries and european chocolate (please don't hate us), but I won't bore you with those pictures or details.  Here is what happened in the kid arena...

Anya is sporting some new braces!

Yep.  She got braces on November 4th.

Hannah wins a "major award"

A/B Honor Roll...so proud of her!

 Cora has discovered a love for reading to her brothers, and they can sit through an entire book.

 Dental Hygiene is a must.

And you have to have a golf club in hand to make sure it is done right!

 Hunter loves to show his teeth.

"Mamma, see my teeth..."

 We potty trained the boys!!!

That was a major feat.

 Sporting their big boy under-roo's

(after 3 girls, I have to concentrate real hard to not call them panties.  I still slip a lot!)

 And just because my Hunt man is so cute!

We had a fun month, hit a lot of mile stones, and are busy getting ready for the rest of the Holiday season.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures of Thanksgiving, but we enjoyed the 2nd year of our annual Layton/Jeppson Thanksgiving fest.  It was delicious, and filled with good company and lots of kids!  The next day, us ladies took a trip to Poland to do some "black Friday" shopping, and brought home some lovely Polish Pottery.  

Yes, November has been a fun month, a Thankful month, a month to be remembered!

Family Pictures 2012!

We recently had our family pictures taken.  It had been 2 years since the last round, so we were due.  Our photographer was fantastic, and she got some really good shots.  What I love best is she gives you the c.d. of all the shots she edited and you can do what you want.  Put them on facebook, email them and order as many prints as your heart desires.  Perfect for me, when you have lots of family to order prints for.  You can see a lot of them on my facebook page, but these are a few of the candids that I loved.

Cora looks so grumpy in these ones!

 He kept looking under the door...he knew something was under there!

Jack's pouty face!  It reminds us so much of Cora's pouty face she used to make.  

 What it looks like behind the scenes...and action!

 I love these kids.

so.much.

Our family, I am so proud.

 Fun with letters!  

They were part of a photography project we were doing, and the kids got a little creative.

sadly these ones didn't make the cut into the project!

We had a great time, hanging out with our photographer and friend.

A big, forever Thank you out to her!!!

It's been awhile

Sorry for the hiatus folks.  It has been awhile (a month!) since we updated.  We had used up all our blog memory, and I was trying to decide what to do.  Do I pay for more storage?  Do I start another blog?  I didn't want to pay for something I knew I could get for free (I am weird like that), and starting another blog turned out to be a major headache.  Everything had changed, and I couldn't get my blog to look how I wanted (I really like how it looks now, apparently that is the original, antique layout...you can't really find it anymore).  The answer ended up being simple, and my friend helped me solve the problem.  I got to keep my blog looking how I like it, and I did it for free!  So grateful to her and her advice.  So now we can keep enjoying this blog until I run into the problem again in a few more years! Aren't you excited?!!