Happy 6th Birthday Kayla!!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest six year old girl! MacKayla is one of the friendliest little girls I have ever met. She loves to make new friends wherever she goes and makes time daily to play with her friends. She loves to organize as much as her mom. Just the other day she organized her whole room, Joe's room and then asked me for something else to organize. It was wonderful! So for Kayla's birthday she decided to have her first "friends" birthday party. We went to Zurchers (which, BTW, I think is over-rated because they may have lots of themes but they're not as cheap you think they're going to be) and she went with the Hawaiian theme. Surprised? Yea, I was. I thought for sure she's go with Princess or Barbie. At any rate, it turned out so cute. I got these hawaiian flowers and put them on all the birthday hats with a gem. Then I made all the girls hawaiian flower hair clips with a gem in the middle. We had party bags, a pinata, games, cake & ice cream and of course, presents. I'm pretty sure Kayla loved it!

The pinata was hilarious and they couldn't break it. I took pictures of each girl and put it on a little slideshow. In the end, I was the one that ended up breaking it. Which was a relief because it was in the garage and it was freezing!!

Christmas Day 2010!!

I love Christmas Day! The only day I love more is Christmas Eve because it's the anticipation...the looking forward to the awaited day! So this year it only took 2 hours to wrap presents and that was with help from my sister. I cannot believe how much we had to wrap this year. It's all for the cause. :) I always have to take a picture of the set up of the presents before the kids come down on Christmas morning. There's just something about seeing it all! As it turns our, our living room is pretty small when it comes to Christmas morning.

Little Joe got his first tie for Christmas. He was so excited he put it on over his pajamas. The best part is his daddy got a matching tie. They're so cute!

My friends Vicki & Rebecca helped me (ok - they did it and I watched) make a skirt and shirt for Kayla for Christmas. It turned out so great and Kayla couldn't wait to put it on. She finished opening her presents in that outfit and now wears it 2-3 times a week. The kids also got new slippers for Christmas.

After the morning festivities at our own house we headed to my parents house for lunch and more "giving". It's always fun visiting with everyone and sharing in this exciting day. No matter what we give and get though we can never replace the true meaning of Christmas. What a blessing it is for us to know our Savior and have this day to celebrate his birth. Without Him our lives would be pointless and difficult.

Top Left - Mom, Amy, Thomas, Michelle, Derek

Top Right - Dad, Sara, Aunt Jane, Matt

Bottom Left - Mike, Mack, Marie, Joe, JoeJoe

Bottom Right - Thomas (front), Oliver, Kate, MacKayla

 

Oh how I love Christmas!

Breakfast with Santa!!

My family has a tradition of having Breakfast with Santa. From the time I was a little girl until it closed, we used to go to the Santa Breakfast at the Tiffin Room in the ZCMI Center. It was $4 a person, on Christmas Eve Morning and we loved it! We had a breakfast that was small enough that by 10am we were hungry again but we got to see Santa, sing all the Christmas songs with him, see some other kid-bob entertainment and then get a candy-cane from Santa. We looked forward to this every year, getting up at 6 am and being first in line to get in so we could have first picks on seating. Well, as we all know, the ZCMI Center no longer exists. So sad. My family had to find other Santa Breakfasts. Ironically they are few and far between. We seem to find a new one every year and none quite compare but we still have a good time. This year we went to the Santa Breakfast at the Davis Conference Center. It was really nice (as it should be at $18.99 per person)! There was a buffet, child's buffet, face paiting (or air-brush), candy counter, letter's to Santa, cookie decorating and of course your visit with Santa with a stuffed animal at the end. We might just give this one another go next year.


Gingerbread Houses!!

Every year my family makes gingerbread houses with graham crackers. Why graham crackers? Because it's easier and EVERYONE gets to make one. We had a plethora of candy! It's fun to see what designs everyone comes up with. My brother and his...fiance... (this is fairly recent so it's weird saying that) made an "In N Out Burger" Gingerbread House. Set up with hot-wheels cars through the drive-thru. The kids just love that they can make their own creation and put candy anywhere and everywhere.

Top left picture - Marc & Whitney
Top Right picture - MacKayla, Grace & Whitney
Bottom picture - Kate, Grace (back), Oliver, JoeJoe, MacKayla