Christmas 2013

 Santa came!

I have to say that Christmas morning never quite goes as planned, and maybe that's the problem, I try to plan it.  I want to take pictures of everything which means that kids have to wait to open things.  I ended up giving up, so I didn't get everything, but oh well.  Anyway, we had a great Christmas and these are the pictures that I got.

Looking in their socks:

 Chris liked the chocolate Santa.

 They each got a Hot Wheels car.

 The boys all got a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figure and dress-up set from Doug and I. Now they can be all four turtles.

 The girls had fun shoveling the tile.

 Jenna sort of got how to unwrap a present.

 Chris was Raphael and liked carrying around the sais in his pajamas.

 Grandma and Grandpa Petersen gave the boys new Skylanders figures.   The boys played quite a bit on Christmas day (the the following days) getting the new characters all upgraded.  Damon got Whirl Wind, Pop Fizz, and Trigger Happy.

 Tyler's reaction to Eyebrawl and Chop Chop

 Chris liked his Skylander shirt from Grandma Datwyler. He also got Hot Dog, Catapult, and Zap.

 Santa brought the girls some Little People sets: the house and a playground.

 The new Skylanders figures:

 Santa brought Chris a Planes play set and a new plane.

Chris: clothes and books from us and a Chima set.  Puzzle from Damon.

 Jenna and Kaylee: Mostly clothes and Castle Marbles work from us. New shoes, slippers, electronic toy and clothes from Grandma Datwyler.

 Tyler: Clothes, book, shovel from us.  Puzzle from Chris

 Damon: Clothes, book from us.  Puzzle from Tyler.

 Family presents from us and some from Grandma Datwyler.  My brother Richard made the cool wooden snowflake.  We also got the movies Rise of the Guardians and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

 Mom: Mostly clothes for me this year and new boots.  Doug surprised me with a toaster oven.  I also got a new case for my iPhone, a silicon rolling pin, and an oven protector sheet.

 Dad: Doug got a new external hard-drive (to store all of our pictures on), new gloves, The Office season 4,  Mario Bros. Wii game, a new shirt, and a new wii controller charger.

 The girls played with their new toys pretty well.  They haven't learned how to play on their own very well yet.  They still just like to walk around and get into things.

 The boys playing the Wii.

 I brought down the tub toys for the girls, and that was the happiest they were all day.  Then they decided to dump a lot of the water onto the floor - oh well.  (a couple of days later they did it again and they spilled so much that it got into the air vents and dripped downstairs.  Good thing our basement isn't finished.)

 Sporting some of their new outfits.  Kaylee got a fever Christmas day and had it for three days, so that is why she is droopy-eyed and sad looking.

 Building their new sets: Chris got Krang's Lab and Damon got Iron Man Boat Battle, Tyler got an X-Man helicopter.

 And the Turtle Lair for both boys:

 We had a great Christmas and were so glad to just stay home and relax and be with our family.  We had a little lesson Christmas Eve and watched the Nativity movie.  We are so grateful for our Savior, His birth and life.  We are grateful for family and all of the support we have had during this past year.  We are hopeful that this next year will be filled with more fun family memories.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Gingerbread Turbo and Christmas Sunday

 The boys chose to make Turbo out of gingerbread this year.  I think it turned out great.  As Damon and Tyler get older they can help more and they did a great job of cutting out the pattern and cutting some of the dough pieces.  They helped assemble a bit too, but they enjoy the decorating the most.  I frost and they put on the candy.

"This snail is fast..."

 The spoiler was too heavy and the piece holding it up broke, but at least it held for the picture.

Christmas Sunday:  I had to leave around 8:10 for choir practice, so I had to get myself dressed, feed everyone and get the girls bathed and ready before then - it is always craziness.  Doug managed to get their picture before they left later.  The program was very nice, lots of scriptures and a few musical numbers.  The choir sang 2, the primary kids sang 1, a quartet, and a congregational.  Our choir director is a junior in high school and she did a very good job for her first program.

Oh boy, only 2 more days until Christmas, are you getting excited?  I spent another 2 hours wrapping last night, only a few more presents left.  It really adds up when you have 5 kids and you are wrapping the grandparent and great grandparent gifts too.  It's at least 5 presents per kid, so 25+  then there are Doug and I's presents too.  We will have lots to open Christmas morning.

Ward Christmas Pagent

 Our ward put on a Christmas Pagent this year instead of a dinner and I think it was a great idea and turned out beautifully.  The kids did a great job and there were a lot of wonderful musical numbers.  Damon was an angel and Tyler was a shepherd.  The girls and Chris were running the hall for most of the performance, so I watched from the doorway for the most part.  Oh well.  Good job Damon and Tyler.

small funny note- Damon forgot to take off his snow-boots for the performance (he was just going to wear socks).  So we had a well prepared angel singing in heaven. :)

December photos

Tried bigger pig tails, they didn't stay in long.

 Everyone loves the Christmas train.

 "No mom, I didn't dump all of my cereal in the basket and onto the floor."

 Playing with play-doh.  The girls had a taste, and only had to be reminded a couple of times not to eat it.

 Tried a new hair-do, it didn't stay in very long either.

 The girls do pretty well with marbles, as far as not putting them in their mouths.  They had fun putting them down the ramps.

 This was really cute, I wish I could have gotten a better picture.  Jenna was pulling Kaylee along by each holding onto one of their blankets.  They were giggling and have a fun time running around together.

 Quick project I did to hold some more hair-bows.  Just stuff I had around the house - picture frame, ribbon, two dowels and some pipe cleaner.

The girls have discovered the bouncy house and they like it!