Christmas with kids

These kids make Christmas so fun! Their enthusiasm is contagious and it filled our home this Christmas season. I am so blessed to have such great little people in my life. They are an amazing gift.

Christmas activities

This Christmas Season was busy, busy, busy! We did all of our normal Christmas activities. The kids of course enjoyed decorating cookies and gingerbread houses, and as usual stuffed their faces with candy and frosting in the process. Seriously, I literally caught both Lincoln and Lily sucking on a pastry bag full of frosting. Luckily the frosting was for the gingerbread houses, which we don't really eat. On Christmas Eve we went to my aunt and uncles house and ate delicious food, sang Christmas songs, and watched the kids act out the Nativity. This year Carson was an angel and Lincoln was a shepherd for our little Christmas play. Stubborn little Lily refused to participate, but she was there being her cute self too. Adding to the craziness this year, were the school activities that Carson was involved in. Carson was one of very few first graders who got a speaking part in the first and second grade Christmas program. He was so excited to say his 2 little lines, and he did a great job! However, the night before the performance he was so nervous that he would get confused that he was up late in tears. I felt so bad for him! But he was a trooper and overcame his nervousness and performed like a champ. I was very proud of him! Also Carson worked very hard on his teddy bear float. He worked meticulously on coloring and cutting out the reindeer which were the main decoration on his little float. He got a lot of positive feedback on his throat and was very proud of his float. We had a great Christmas season! I love all the activities and family time it really is a special time of year.

O' Christmas Tree

This year we went to a different Christmas tree lot than normal and scored the cheapest, freshest tree we have ever had since we lived in Oregon. It was a freezing and blustery day when we got the tree so we made a quick decision and I couldn't be happier. The boys always like to go help Nate trim the tree so we can get it in the tree stand. The kids had a great time putting on the decorations. As usual when decorating with kids the front middle section of the tree was overwhelmed with ornaments and needed some adjusting, but after a little tweaking it turned out great! This was Lily's first year helping to decorate the tree and she loved it! She was into absolutely everything, I think we had a couple ornament casualties due to her interest, but it was fun to see her get into the decorating.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this Year! We spent Thanksgiving day here locally with my family, then headed off to Utah for the rest of the weekend. While in Utah the kids enjoyed riding the four wheeler with Grandpa Snow, Decorating Grandma Barlow's Christmas tree, seeing cousin Caleb being blessed, and of course seeing the lights at Temple Square. It was a jam packed weekend full of family and friends, it was a great time.

Quarterback

Carson was the quarterback of his football team this fall. He did Great! Like Lincoln he totally blew me away the first game of the season when he completed 2 passes (which is way hard in peewee football). Throughout the season Carson completed more passes and even threw a touchdown pass. Nate was the assistant couch of Carson's team this year and Carson loved going to the practices and games with his dad. Carson had so much fun this season that he decided he wanted to play football in the Spring this year instead of soccer. Great work Carson. We are proud of you!

Lincoln's a soccer star!

We put Lincster in soccer for the first time this fall. He did awesome! I think I was in shock the first game when he scored 5 goals! And he did great the whole season. The only time he didn't score a goal was the game when he had an ear infection. He was so cute, the first couple games whenever he scored a goal he would look over at us and give us a big thumbs up. One funny thing about Lincoln is that when he is really concentrating on something he sticks out his tongue. So, in all of my pictures when he is actually playing the game his tongue is hanging out. Lincoln gave every game his all and Loved every minute of soccer. We will definitely be having Lincoln play more soccer in the future. Great job Lincoln!

Halloween

For Halloween this year the boys insisted on being super hero's, from movies they have never seen. The super hero's weapon seemed to be key to the kids choice of costume, if there was no weapon the superhero was less super in the boys eyes. Carson was Wolverine. Lincoln was Captain America. Lily veered away from the superhero theme and was a cat. On Halloween we made our traditional trip to HP for the kids to do some trick-or-treating. The kids always get way too much candy in way too short a time at Nate's work, thus the kids LOVE this tradition. While at Nate's work a lot of people would greet Lincoln as Captain America. While we were there Lincoln says to me "mom, mom they think that I am the real Captain America," it was too cute. Lily didn't want to be put down while trick-or-treating, but definitely got the gist of Halloween. She whined and said candy every time we passed by someones desk and we didn't put candy in her bucket. After trick-or-treating at Nate's work Heather came by to show the kids her cool costume. When Nate got home from work he took the boys trick-or-treating around the neighborhood while I handed out candy at home. It was a really cold Halloween but the boys both refused to wear coats, because it would cover their costumes. We were worried that they would be cold and not last very long, but the boys ran from house to house and stayed very warm. Nate was amazed at the boys stamina they wanted to keep going and going. Nate eventually had to pull the plug on the trick-or-treating and make them come home. Thus we ended Halloween with 3 pumpkins full to the brim with candy. It was a very successful Halloween!