Christmas 2009

Our Christmas started with our trek to the mountains to cut down our own tree. We may not find the perfect tree but the memories made as a family make it so worth it!

Here is a La-La showing off our incredible backyard! Technically it is not "our" backyard but it is only a 10-15 minute drive from our house!

Our family's perfect tree. When we got it home, we had to trim a little from the top and a lot from the sides. It was so full it almost took up our whole living room!

Just enough snow for a small snowball fight. Ready...aim...FIRE!


Care Bear "helping" daddy tie the tree down.

It is not complete until the star is in place.


Sparkly, beautiful, and our own Christmas tree!

La-La was in a Christmas program for the 1st and 2nd graders. Here she is with her teacher! The video is one song from her program.

Jaco has continued playing the violin for 5th grade and has improved so much! He is now able to read music and is learning so much. I am so proud of him! Here he is in action for his strings Christmas concert.

Care Bear's preschool class had a short program where they sang some songs and spoke about the Christmas story.Doesn't she make a cute Rudolph?

This is Care Bear's small preschool class!

Our trip to see Santa! Care Bear was so excited to go but once we got there she would have nothing to do with the Jolly Old Elf...unless I was holding her and she didn't have to touch him! La-La really wanted a DS but I managed to talk her out of it because Santa did not want to spend that much and more importantly, I don't see her playing one for more than a few minutes! She has never been a kid content to sit still playing video games. She is too busy and active!

I am our ward's primary chorister and I helped the kids learn "Star's Were Gleaming". Jaco has been asking to play his violin at church so I let him learn "Stars were Gleaming" on his violin and another primary child who plays the viola also learned the song. They played together in our ward Sunday the 20th while the rest of the kids sang along. They did so good! I can not wait to see how far Jaco goes with the violin. He is excited to be able to accompany me someday and I will love that! I sang Sunday night at our Stake Christmas devotional. I was able to find the sheet music for the arrangement of "O Holy Night" that Josh Groban sings. It went really well thanks to a great accompanist! On Sunday the 13th I sang "Silent Night" in spanish with piano, organ, and violin accompaniment. It was the arrangement Josh Groban sings and is now my favorite Christmas song to sing. I can not wait to do it again next year! For me, Christmas music is the best part of the whole season.

Here is La-La in her Christmas dress. Care Bear was dressed the same but refused to let me take a picture! This is the same white dress we used for family pictures; I just changed the bow from blue to red, added some flowers and the red shoes and viola...a beautiful holiday outfit was born!

Cody loving his Christmas present!


All 3 kids working to open one present!

Christmas day was quiet with just our family. La-La tried to wake up at 5 but I was mean and made her wait until 6. I swear I spent so much less this year but the kids still managed to make out like bandits. Jaco asked for a nerf machine gun and was so excited to shoot anything in his way! La-La made her own cake in her new Easy Bake oven and relaxed while drawing with her new art set. Care Bear wanted a boy Barbie and a tea set and was thrilled when Santa delivered. They also got games, pj's, and too many other toys! My favorite gift request was when Jaco wrote his letter to Santa and asked for a dictionary! I was able to find him a cool electronic one that he LOVES! After a nap for me, we went and saw "Alvin and the Chipmunks...the Squeekwal" while our ham cooked in the oven. We ate a late dinner and called it a day! Another Christmas come and gone. Thank you to our Savior for choosing to come to this earth. Merry Christmas to all...and to all a good night!