Christmas 2011

Santa found our house!

The stockings were filled to the brim.

Check out all the loot! 

 

 

Matt is trying out his new binoculars already.

We had a great Christmas this year.  We enjoyed going out on Christmas Eve and attending the live nativity that is put on by our church.  It was a great way to help our children remember the reason we celebrate Christmas.  We enjoyed driving around and looking at the lights and then went home and the kids were able to play their Christmas piano pieces for Grandma Hatch.  Matt and I pinned up a sheet to block off the entrance to the front room so there would be no peeking -- that sure got their attention and made them even more excited!  I was surprised to wake up at 7:30am and realize that nobody had woken up yet.  I enjoyed laying in bed for another half an hour before anybody came creeping up the stairs.  We had a quick little breakfast -- Santa left us Nutella and mini boxes of cereal -- and then were able to read the Christmas story in Luke 2, have family prayer, and then we headed in to open gifts.  We finished up around 10:30 and then had some yummy waffles, and then got ready and headed to church.  We only had sacrament meeting, and it was one of the nicest meetings I have been to in a long time.  It was all music and scriptures and it really touched my heart and made me feel so very grateful for the knowledge I have of my Savior.  We had a nice Christmas dinner here at home and had fun playing with all the new toys that came.  Monday we went out to Mountain View for our Murray Family Dinner and Fishpond.  It was such a fun day!  We booked the church and mom and dad brought up their little cars so the kids could run and play in the gym.  We had an awesome dinner and then played a whole bunch of Minute-to-Win-it games which were absolutely hilarious.  The kids all enjoyed "fishing" for their gifts -- such a fun tradition!  We also had a Webster family dinner this week and it was nice to see a lot of my cousins and their families too.  I feel so blessed to have the family that I have! 

The Blessings of Tithing

On Sunday we met with our Bishop for tithing settlement just after church.  We have been trying to give our younger children an opportunity to earn a little bit of money over the last 3 months and they had all their pennies added up and were able to give their tithing to the Bishop too.  Sarah had all of 14 cents in her envelope and was quite excited to give it to the Bishop, but as we were walking down the hallway to go home, she started crying that she wanted her money back.  We had a little discussion on the way home about what tithing is for and why we pay tithing and that we get blessings for paying our tithing.  After we had been home for a while, Matt was looking for his iPod, which had been missing since Saturday afternoon, and I told the kids that whoever found it would get a dollar.  I couldn't have planned it better myself, but Sarah was the one who found the iPod and got the dollar.  I was quick to point out that she was being blessed for paying her tithing.  I hope that these little moments will be remembered for many many years to come!

Getting ready for Christmas!

This little Santa has been a family favorite for years!  It sings and dances when you clap for him and he gets his batteries replaced quite regularly!

Gideon loved putting ornaments on (and off) the tree.  He was even quite proficient with his broken arm too!  We are glad he got it off later that afternoon though!

Such concentration!  Maybe she was planning the perfect hiding spot for her glasses.......

Taking great care putting four ornaments on the same branch.....

The younger kids all had a great time decorating the tree.  Matt put it up for us and Brendan was too cool to help this year. 

But it did get done and I like it!!

Visiting Santa

So glad my awesome sister-in-law had a party and arranged to have Santa visiting.  My kids loved sitting on his knee and having some time to really let Santa know what they wanted this year!

Rebecca turns 6!

Rebecca had her 6th birthday on December 1st which was a Thursday.  She was absolutely convinced that it was not her birthday that day because her party was not until Saturday.  We did have a few moments to give her some birthday presents, but I didn't even have to make a cake that day! 

 Who knew that a barbie could be so entertaining for so many people!

Becky had a couple of friends over for her party and they had a lot of fun making fairy wands, searching for lost fairies, playing fairy games and eating fairy cake!

                                 Happy Birthday Becky!!



Before and After

 When we moved into our house a year ago, we knew that there would be a few things that we wanted to change. It has been a busy busy year with all those changes and we are all excited to have them pretty much complete. I just thought I would do a few before and after shots.

Originally we had a large L-shaped family room



We built a wall across the back half of it and made another bedroom. 

 

Grace and Rebecca share this room now.  Making the window larger made this room feel much brighter.



We had the boys in this room when we first moved in.

Now, Anna and Sarah share this room.  Adding a window here made a world of difference as well.

What was a girls room......

....is now a messy teenager's room.

We used to have two kids crammed in this tiny room.

 

Now, Gideon has his own room.  His sleeping habits improved dramatically with him having his own space.

Yucky, ugly before kitchen....

Beautiful new kitchen -- my FAVORITE!!

Some of the other projects that we had completed this year are:
1. Install a new garden door
2. Re shingle the roof
3. Replace the gutters and downspouts
4. Put in a playhouse in the backyard
5. Put in a garden
6. Add a sidewalk in the front

It has been a wild and crazy year that is for sure, but it has been such a great experience making this our home.

Fun Flying FHE

I saw a cute idea the other day and decided it would be a great activity for our Family Home Evening.  I tied it in with a spiritual message by talking about eternal marriage.  I related the two rings of paper to wedding rings and told the kids that when a man and a woman get married and work together they can accomplish many things.  It was really fun watching everybody work to make these little airplanes and fly them all over the house.

 Grace wanted to name her airplane and gave it the call letters of C-Grace.  She was so excited that her airplane had almost the same letters as her Grandpa Murray's which are C-GRPA.  I think there is a bit of aviation blood running in our family Grandpa!

Of course we had to have an awesome treat afterward too.  I made a batch of my Grandpa Webster's famous gingersnap cookies as they are a family favorite!  It was such a fun evening, and to top it all off, we made it through without anybody breaking another arm!

Poor Little Buddy

Poor little Gideon did not have a fun time at our family home evening this week.  It was a typical FHE at our house, full of wild and crazy kids.  We were attempting to talk about gratitude and the spirit of giving at Christmas.  As we were drawing names for the kids to see who they were giving a gift to this Christmas, Gideon took a bit of a tumble off the coffee table.  Totally obvious place to be during FHE, of course.  Actually he was "helped" off the coffee table by his big sister Sarah.  He landed just the wrong way and ended up with a greenstick fracture of his arm. Gid did NOT want to sit still for the cast to be put on, and he is still not quite used to having it on yet.  It should be a long three weeks!

10 Year Anniversary

How can it be ten years since I was married?? I am blown away by how fast the time has gone by.  Granted we were pretty busy having and raising our kids during that time.  By year 8 we had 6 kids already, so I guess it should be no surprise that the years have flown by!  Matt was able to take the week off of work and it was really nice to have him around, especially when the kids started getting sick!  We had a whole lot of flu going around our house and by Wednesday it was my turn, and then Thursday (our actual anniversary) it was Matt's.  I was so glad it was only a 24hr bug, and that everybody got back to feeling somewhat normal quite quickly.  Matt and I were able to get away for the weekend (thanks Mom!!) and we went to Calgary for some alone time.  We were able to get out for dinner and a movie, and then the next day did a bit of shopping and exploring Calgary.  We were only gone for about 24hours, but it was great to have that time alone.  Happy Anniversary Matt!!  Love you forever!!

Dancing kids

My two little bread bakers

It is a very interesting thing to make bread with two little toddlers helping you every step of the way!

They both had a great time helping though!

I think this may become a more common occurance around here!