Christmas Eve

We kept with the usual Christmas Eve traditions this year.  Our Christmas Eve included: lounging, cooking, decorating gingerbread houses, making candy with Grandma Barlow, enacting the Nativity with family, singing Christmas carols, and getting new pj's.  Everything went relatively smoothly except that Nate could not get the gingerbread houses to hold, they kept collapsing. Finally, after a lot of frustration on Nate's part the houses held and the kids got decorating.  The only other glitch in an otherwise very fun day is that Carson was super disappointed that the gift he got to open on Christmas Eve was pajamas and had a bit of an attitude about it before bed.  He would not smile for the kid picture in front of the Christmas tree until I finally threatened him with less presents.  It really bothered me that he acted this way.  I hate ingratitude.  Luckily by Christmas morning he was a happy and appreciative kid. Also Lincoln had a melt down on Christmas Eve night because Mr Squirt our elf on the shelf was going back to the North Pole.  He shed a few tears over Mr. Squirts upcoming departure, but of course on Christmas day had completely forgotten his little elf buddy.  It was a fun Christmas Eve.

O' Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree this year the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Heather was in town for the Thanksgiving holiday so she helped in the selecting and decorating of the Christmas tree.  In looking at all of these pictures I realize that Carson was grumpy during the tree selection process.  I am not sure, but I think it might have to do with our tree being relatively small compared to previous years.  The new casa doesn't have the 20 ft ceilings of the old one, thus the tree size had to be scaled back.  Despite that, we got a beautiful tree that stayed fresh all season.  We decorated our tree the Sunday morning after Thanksgiving.  We ended up doing it while Grant was asleep and when only half the family was ready for church.  Which is why all the kids in the pictures are dressed for church and all the adults are still in pj's. The kids took extra care in decorating the tree this year, which is why some of the tree branches at least initially had 2-3 ornaments on it. The choosing and decorating of the tree is a favorite Christmas Tradition.

Family Picture

We were able to squeeze in family pictures this year. I love having a family picture every year.  But I actually hate the process of taking them.  There was a lot of yelling going on at the picture taking this year.I loved how they turned out, but I am not sure it is worth the stress and aggravation to continue taking them myself..   Hopefully the kids won't remember angry mom when they look at this picture.  

Lily starts soccer

We put Lily in soccer this fall.  She did great!  She has been to a lot of sporting events so she knew the drill and what was expected of her.  She was probably the only kid on her soccer team who stayed in the game the entire time it was her turn to play.  She definitely wasn't afraid to chase after the ball and be aggressive.  I think she scored a goal just about every game.  She and her cousin Eve got to be on the same team, which made it extra fun.  Lily loves to do stuff with Eve.  Lily did great!  There will definitely be more soccer in her future.

Lincoln's first season of football

Lincoln played his first season of football this Fall.  His team was the Raiders, which also happens to be my sister and my dads favorite team, and that made Lincoln feel extra cool.  Carson and Nate's games were frequently during Lincoln's games so I had to keep the little kids entertained.  Grant was a dream most of the season and was content to chill in his car seat most of the time.  Lily ended up sitting through about 3 hours of football every Saturday.  She really was a trooper, but it did take a decent amount of treats and phone time to get through it.  Her favorite thing to do with the phone was to take pictures and video of what was going on.  By the end of the season I had a ton of pictures to delete off of my phone.  Lincoln had a great season!  He played center a lot, which he was well trained for, because Nate had him be center at all of his practices with the Chargers.  Lincoln scored a touchdown the second game of the season off of a "Statue of Liberty play."  He was so excited, it was really cute.  Lincoln had a great first season.  I was so proud of how hard he worked and how he always kept a positive attitude.

Fall Football

We had a flurry of fall sports this year. All of the walking talking members of the family participated in some kind of sporting activity.  Carson's team this fall was the Chargers.  Nate was the coach and he had a great group of kids.  Carson had 2 kids from his school class on his team, which made it extra fun.  The team was pretty good this year and made it to the championship game.  The team had to win some really close games to make it that far.  One game they played was a triple overtime!  I was seriously pacing the sideline the last half of the game.  It was really intense!  Carson's  team lost the championship game, but the kids were proud of what they had accomplished.  Carson has really embraced football this year, and had a blast.  It was a really fun football season.!