Christmas 2010

  We had a great Christmas!  It was so fun just to be together as a family and relax and enjoy the day!  This year we had a 1st.  Mikele woke me up Christmas morning at about 5:30!!! I am so proud of her.  I am usually laying there awake bugging Jason about when we can wake up the kids.  Mikele and I waited until about 6:00 to wake up everyone else.

Stockings 1st and then Santa gifts (wrapped in gold)

I think Allie thought it was a little early.

Allie loves the books that Uncle Denny sent.  They play music.

Thanks Grandma and Papa Murdock!

Zhu Zhu mania!

We have the kids draw names each year.  Mikele had Kassie and Kassie had Mikele.  They were so excited to pick out a gift for one of their siblings.  I was really proud of how thoughtful they were. Mikele bought Kassie a Webkin and Kassie gave Mikele an umbrella.

Brock picked this phone for Allie and Allie picked a Hero Factory for Brock

Kassie's new dress from Grandma and Papa Murdock.

The aftermath!

Brock spent pretty much the entire day playing his new Wii game "How to Train Your Dragon."  He actually beat the game that day.

The girls played with their new Dolls and new barbie cloths.

My gift that came about a month early was a treadmill.  I have loved it!

Brock left the game to put together and play his Foosball game.

I gave Jason a new media center computer. For you non-techy people it is a computer that is connected to our TV that will connect to the internet so we can watch Hulu or shows from online on our TV.  It also sits in the entertainment center so we don't have a computer sitting on top. (big bonus for me).  It also has a blue ray player in it.  He had to put it together.  We have both are really enjoyed it!

We had a great Christmas and feel very blessed in so many ways!  Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve 2010

It was Christmas eve and we had not been to see Santa!!!  That is just another example of how fast this month and whole year has gone by.  Jason had the day off which was really nice so we headed on over to the mall to see the big guy.  As you can see we have made a lot of progress.  This year there are no adults in the picture and only one child is crying.  It is also Kassie's first time that she willingly sat on Santa's lap.  The kids were very vague on their Christmas wishes.  Santa reminded them that they were running out of time.  Really they were out of time because everything was pretty much wrapped and ready to go.

  We traditionally have a fancy Christmas Eve dinner with candles and the Christmas china.  We had ham, funeral potatoes, fresh rolls, salad and as a special treat jigglers.  I make plenty so that on Christmas day we can just graze over the left overs and I don't spend my day cooking.  It was very yummy and fun!

  The kids each get to open a present on Christmas eve.  We use to give them pj's but then there were a few years that they didn't need pj's so we switched to a family game that we would play together on Christmas Eve before bed.  This year they all needed pj's so we did both.

  Mikele wanted to have each person tear off one piece of paper and then pass it around.  She had done something similar at her school Christmas party. The game we got was Toy Story Mania for the wii.

 I know what you are all thinking, there was a big consumer report saying that kids under 6 should not wear/watch things in 3D.  Most of the game isn't in 3D but this was the picture I took so that is what I am posting.  We had a great night as a family.  The kids were in bed by a decent hour and Santa's work was done before 11:00.  Jason and I didn't know what to do.  Usually we are up until 2:00 in the morning getting everything set up and ready.

Our Christmas Adventure

On the Thursday before Christmas Jason and I took our kids on an adventure.  We didn't tell them what we were doing or where we were going.  We left the house and headed to Ogden to catch Front Runner (the passenger train that runs from Ogden to Salt Lake City). They were all so excited to be riding on a train!  The conductor was talking to us and I told him it was our first time on the Front Runner so he invited us to come sit up front with him and taught the kids all about the train, lights, signals and what he does.  They LOVED it!

From there we jumped on the light rail and headed down town to Temple Square.  We had a great time seeing all the lights, nativities and fountains.

 One of the highlights was seeing the Christus.  Mikele had heard about it in primary and was very excited about seeing it in person.

  Baby it was COLD! The kids handled it pretty well.  On the way back to catch the front runner we stopped at Bear Country and bought some warm cookies to enjoy on the train. Yummy!  By the time we got back to Ogden most of the kids were pretty tired and fell asleep buy our night owl was still going strong.
  It was a ton of fun and I would highly recommend this trip to friends.  For our whole family the round trip tickets were only $12 total.  We didn't have to worry about parking or traffic.  Jason was able to enjoy spending time with his family instead of focusing on driving. It was really slick to get to downtown Salt Lake.  I wouldn't recommend going to temple square that close to Christmas.  It was CRAZY busy with people.

Candy Making Slave Driver

  Kassie was so excited to make Christmas candy this year. We finally picked a day and got to work.  We started with the pretzels.  Kassie was so funny about the candy making.  I wasn't allowed to leave the kitchen. Once we finished one kind of candy she had me immediately start a different kind.  I asked if we could take a break and she was adamantly against the idea. We had a great time working together and made dipped pretzels, fudge, toffee, peanut brittle, turtles and coconut balls.

Piano Christmas Recital

On Sunday, Brock and Mikele had their Christmas piano recital.  They both did a fabulous job!  Mikele's song was a duet and against my better judgment I volunteered to play the duet with her.  I think we were both pretty nervous and glad to have it done.  This was Mikele's first recital and she has been taking lessons for 6 months.  Brock has been taking lessons for 2 1/2 years.

We rerecorded videos of their songs at home.  Enjoy!

Mikele's Birthday

  Mikele is SEVEN!!! We had a fun filled day on Saturday celebrating Mikele's birthday.  We started the morning with Mikele baking her own cake.  I know that I always say to make your cake in advance then freeze it because it is easier to decorate but frankly I never got the chance.  The night before was our Ward Christmas party and Jason and I were in charge of it.  Needless to say we spent all of Friday decorating, picking up food and putting on the dinner and program with the help of some amazing ward members.  Also, Mikele didn't decide on what kind of cake she wanted until Friday.  She was debating between a cougar which is the mascot for her elementary school and a castle.  She did finally decide on a chocolate cake with a cougar on it.  Oh and yes do you see the cake box. Yeah I really am slipping. I usually make my cakes from scratch.
  Now after that long narrative back to the birthday girl and her day.  Oh well. Mikele did everything including cracking the eggs for her cake.  I just supervised the project.  She did a great job and her cake was yummy.  For breakfast we had German Pancakes.

   After breakfast and the cake was baked, Jason and I took Mikele shopping for a new shirt to go with her black skirt.  She wanted to wear it to the piano recital on Sunday.  She ended up with a few more items then just a top for her skirt. She bought 2 other tops and a jacket.  It is really tough to choose when everything looks so adorable on Mikele.
  When we finished shopping we picked up the other kids and took them to the new Disney Movie Tangled.  It was really cute and I would recommend it. The kids thought the whole movie was pretty funny.  Kassie was funny and during serious or quiet moments in the movie would ask in a loud not theater appropriate voice "when is this movie going to be over."  It wasn't that she didn't like it she just needed a time frame.  After the movie we picked up Allie and headed home for presents.  I think Mikele was going to self com-bust if we didn't open those presents!

I think she was pretty thrilled with everything she received. Thank you Grammy, Grandma and Papa!  After presents we had dinner, Chicken Alfredo, and then cake and ice cream.  I totally forgot to buy ice cream so Jason ran to the store and picked some up while I was decorating the cake. It is not my favorite cake but Mikele loved it and that is what counts.