Chirstmas Day

 Christmas day was a really nice day.  We spent the whole day playing together. we played with all the new toys, played games, watched a movie and made a yummy dinner.  Marcs family was going to come for dinner, but they were sick so they didnt make it. 

The girls playing with the new play dough toys.

Hailey with her new pet

Kyle and Hailey put on quite the music program for us in the evening, they sang and played the guitar.

 We all enjoyed our yummy dinner.  It was a great day.

Christmas morning

Christmas morning was so much fun.   Lydia gave me the best Christmas present she decided to sleep through the night for the first time, she got up a little before 6:00 and I got up and fed her while Marc got all the kids up and ready.  They were all really excited and we had so much fun opening gifts.  I took tons of pictures because Marc got me a new camera, which I got to open the night before so we had to try it out Christmas morning.

The kids lined up on the stairs waiting to go down.

Nicole checking out her stocking

Lydia wasn't sure what to think of it all

Hailey with her stocking

Kyle was so excited to give Katie this necklace he picked it out for her at the student store that they had set up at his school.  Katie loved it.

Kyle reading the letter that Santa left explaining the basketball hoop that he left for the whole family.

The girls each got a basketball to go with the hoop.  The balls didn't have any air in them yet, Nicole was ready to blow hers up.

Marc got some weights from us.

Kyles favorite gift was his guitar, he rocked out on it all day.

Marc, Nicole and Lydia posing for a picture.

This is how Lydia opened her presents.

The twins got this easel from Santa, here they are opening the things that got with is, paper, markers, chalk, and paint. After the opened it they were ready to just play for awhile.

Hailey got her Zhu Zhu pet, she was pretty happy, she has named him Coco and he goes everywhere with her.

Lydia reading her new books

The kids all got gift cards from Grandma and Grandpa Beck so they all opened them at once.

Kyle got the new book he wanted

Hailey opening the calendar that Nicole got her

We saved their big presents for the end.  Hailey and Kyle each got their own CD players, Hailey was especially cute opening hers, she kept saying "My own music player" you could see how excited she was.

Nicole wanted Lincoln Logs so bad, she kept looking under the tree and saying that they weren't there, and when she opened them she let out this little squeal of excitement, it was so cute.

Katie had wanted play dough and when she opened it she said I knew it was play dough I just knew it. 

It was tons of fun they were all so happy and excited.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a little diferent this year, marc had to work from 11:30-10:00.  We got up and had a nice breakfast together, then Lydia took a nap, when she got up we read and acted out the Nativity.  It was really nice we sang songs and read the story.  All of the girls wanted to be Mary, Katie ended up getting to be Mary, and Kyle was Joseph, Marc and Nicole were the shepards and then the wise men and Hailey was the angel. 

 After Marc went to work, we watched some Christmas shows on TV and made and decorated sugar cookies for Santa, worked on our puzzle and played games.  It was kind of a long day and would have been much better if Marc had been here, but the morning was really nice.

countdown to Christmas

The whole month of December we have a countdown to Christmas.  The kids take turns picking off the paper each day that tells us what we are going to do.  We had a great time this year.  We played games, read stories, did crafts, made cookies, watched movies, went caroling, and most off all had lots of fun.  I only had my camera for the gingerbread houses, so not many pictures, but hopefully lots of memories.

Haileys Christmas program

Hailey had her Christmas music program at school tonight.  She stayed home from school because she had a bad headache, but luckily she felt better by tonight and we were able to go.  They had some really cute songs. Haileys favorite was one called "where did my snowmand go".  She looked really cute up there singing, and we had a lot of fun.  Rachel and Spencer came, Spencer gave her a balloon and some candy when it was over she thought that was pretty cool.

fun in the snow

It snowed most of the day on Saturday.  Kyle wasnt feeling well, but the girls had fun playing in it for awhile.  They really wanted to make a snowman but they couldnt get the snowballs on top of each other and I had Lydia and couldnt go out to help them, but they did make some good snowballs.

Haileys gingerbread house night

The first graders at Haileys school got together Tuesday night and made Gingerbread houses, they also had a visit from Santa Claus.  Hailey made a cute little house, we all had fun helping her.  And everyone was pretty excited to see Santa, Kyle thought he was to old to sit on his lap.

Lasagna

Lydia has decided that she doesn't want me to feed her anymore. The other night I tried feeding her lasagna from a spoon and she wouldn't have anything to do with it, so I put it on her tray and she devoured it.  But boy was she a mess.

Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree tonight.  The kids were pretty excited.  I love watching how excited they are about all the ornaments.  They love that they each have their own box with their own ornaments in it.  I love the homemade ornaments because they all have a story behind them, it is fun showing them the ones that my Grandma made for me when I was a kid and the ones that their Grandma Murdock made, and then they each have their own from Grandma Beck.  It was a good time.  We will see how long the tree lasts with Lydia around.

Thanksgiving in Shelton

Friday morning we got up and drove to Shelton to spend the day there with all of my family.  We were all able to be there this year, which is the first in a long time, so we were pretty excited.  The drive was pretty uneventful except for having to stop twice for the big horn sheep in the road.

 The dinner was wonderful, and fun to look down the very long table and see everyone there.

After dinner we took some family pictures.

 Then my Dad had a fishing game for the kids.  The had a fishing pole with a gummy worm on the end that they put over the loft and then they caught some pretty good fish.

 Lydia though the bait looked pretty good.

 Then my Mom pulled out five big presents and let each of her kids pick one.  We each got a beautiful quilt that she made and some fun books to enjoy with our kids.  I love my quilt it looks so nice in my living room, and it is so special that she made it, I know that we will enjoy it every Christmastime.

 Then we put the kids to bed.  The twins and Hailey got to sleep in Grandpas new triple decker bunk bed.

 After the kids were in bed the adults had a fun white elephant gift exchange.  It was a lot of fun there were some funny gifts we had a fun time opening them and exchanging them.

Stephanie opened the first one and got this wonderful mask, she didn't end up with it in the end but it did look great on her.

We stayed up late playing games and talking and laughing, it was a great time.  We stayed and visited a little the next morning, but then we had to home.  We are so glad that we were able to see everyone, it was really a lot of fun

The unfortunate part was that we all woke up during the night in Saturday throwing up and were sick all day Sunday and into Monday.