Future Architect and Interior Designer

 For Christmas Brinnley made these lovely origami decorations that we hung in the hallway.  They were there the entire month.  She is always creating or building or designing.  I love that girl's imagination!

 And Miss Ainsley decided her pet lizard Leo needed a home.  I think we have a future architect on our hands.  She thought of it all, even a remote for the television and a bowl of food.  He is a well cared for pet!  Love my creative girls!

Taking a moment to brag on them, Brinnley won 3rd place out of all the 4th graders in our school district in an essay contest about Martin Luther King Jr.  She will be getting her award next week.  Ainsley also has an exciting thing coming up.  On the 24th she gets to spend the day at the college for a writers convention.  One student form each class was chosen to attend and she's the lucky lady from her class.  She was chosen based on an opinion essay she submitted.  She is very excited and has been working on a series of stories to take with her.  So proud of my girls!

Family Christmas

January 2 was Family Christmas, when we get together with my parents all of my brothers and their families in Ashton.  We weren't able to go home this year and I was really upset that we were going to miss it.  Mom told me to Skype so we could talk to everyone while they were there.  I was thinking everyone would gather around the computer and say a quick hi and that would be it.  But my amazing brother, Kasey, answered the call on his laptop and we were there for the entire program and present opening. We were able to get updates on everyone and hear about the highlights of their year.  That is the part I love the most, sharing what we are grateful for and what we learned over the previous year.  We also got to "meet" the fiances of two of my nephews.  So exciting!  I was glad that my kids took up the whole screen because I did shed a tear or two off to the side with gratitude that we could share in the moment and heartache at missing it in person.  

 My parents gave all the girls skirts and all the boys hats from Route 66.  We were all pleasantly surprised when in the middle of February we received a package of skirts and hats.  Thanks Grandpa and Grandpa, we love them!

Christmas!

Christmas morning came to our home at 6:00 a.m.  I was thankful this year it wasn't earlier.  This is the first time ever since having kids that I haven't woken up before them!  I must have been tired after all those cheesy Christmas movies Chant and I watched after putting them to bed on Christmas Eve.  Per tradition we made them wait till we were all ready and went out together.  Santa remembered to bring a box of cereal to each of the kids.  Sweet!  Breakfast was done!

I've never met another kid who gets so excited about Chex before.

Santa brought each kid a search-a-word book.  He was hoping they would use them in church for a quiet activity :)

Brinnley received a box of all things sewing.  It has scissors, needles, thread.  You name it, she got it.  Now she is all set.

Ainsley got a ream of paper and gel pens.  She should be set for a while.

Santa brought Porter a CD player (which worked for a day and then decided it was done.  But Santa brought a replacement a few days later.)

Chant made fun of me for this one, but Porter constantly complains that the girls have a real laundry basket and he has to use a box from the move.  So I figured for 98 cents we could make the boy happy.  And he was!

His awesome new coat from Gran.

Jen made each of the kids a book with a hidden compartment inside.  She did it with old books, so they are super cool looking.  The kids love them! In each book was their own key to adventure.  Love how creative she is!  

Jack and Vic sent some new friends that moved into the kids' beds that night and haven't left since.

Ainsley's big present was an art kit.  It has everything from stamps, ink pads, different shaped scissors, to paper design cutters and different patterns and shapes of little decorative papers.  

And Brinnley hit the sewing jackpot.  She got a sewing machine!  Can you see the "YES!" she's doing with her hand?  Yeah, she was pretty excited!

The Saturday before Christmas I went with the youth to the temple and was gone for the entire day.  Chant took the kids downtown and they wandered through the antique stores.  She found this box at one of them and Chant said she was completely in love with it.  She stared at it and lovingly stroked it and when it was time to leave without it, she was very somber.  Normally Ainsley does loud when she's angry, so this was a new reaction.  Jen sent some money to buy her a gift and Chant knew exactly what to get.  When she opened the shoe box and saw her wooden box inside, she smiled big and said, "It's my box!"  We had to go rearrange her dresser so this new box held a prime spot front and center.

Brinnley spent the afternoon sewing, and Ainsley spent the afternoon putting together bracelets.  One of the sets of beads came with paint so she could paint the beads different colors.  Pretty cool.

And Porter spent the afternoon jamming to his new tunes and playing cop.

Brinnley sewed a shirt for herself and her doll.  She learned that you have to use specific fabrics for certain things.  But I am so proud of her!  She did an awesome job.

Around 4 we had two couples from the ward, the Honors and the Mitchells, come over for dinner.  Again we carried out of tradition of shrimp and twice baked potatoes.  Weird?  Maybe, but it wouldn't be Christmas without those two food items.

One of the couples brought chimes and we played Christmas carols on the chimes for about an hour.  That was so fun!  The kids loved it!  That is the Mitchell's Christmas tradition, so again, I am glad they shared it with us.

It was a wonderful day!  We got to Skype with family and talk on the phone.  Even though we were far away, we felt their love.  It was a beautiful day!  

Christmas Eve

 Our great friends the Platts invited us to be a part of their Christmas Eve tradition.  It was awesome!  I am so glad they asked us.  Their tradition is to have pizza and this AMAZING sausage dip with chips.  Seriously so good!  We went over about 2:00 and stayed till 7:00.  The kids played, the adults talked, and we ate yummy Gordy's pizza, bread sticks, and sausage dip.  The highlight of the night for me was watching A Claymation Christmas.  Love the dancing walruses and the California raisins.  I remember watching that when I was little.  It was perfect.  Before heading home we read "The Night Before Christmas."  It was such a fun evening with great friends.

 When we got home before putting the kids to bed, we had to open our Christmas Eve present.  Which was of course Christmas Jammies.

 Christmas Jammies on and ready for their sleepover in Porter's room.

Christmas Cookies

Kyle, Cory, James, Chant, Porter, and Brinnley

 This year the kids were feeling sad not to have Sam, Jennie, Stockton, Gracie, and Canyun to make cookies with.  It's been our tradition since Missouri to spend an evening having dinner and decorating cookies with them.  So I suggested we could continue the tradition and invite new friends.

Kyle, Cory, Jame, and part of Porter

 We invited Kyle, Danielle, Caleb, Cory, and James over a few days before Christmas to eat soup and make cookies.  It was awesome!

Sweet little James wanted to be right there in the middle of the action.  He is so cute!

 Danielle made this yummy dough that had a hint of lemon to it.  SO good!  We had 3 different kids of cookies.

 The dads got really into it.  Danielle and I stood back and them do their thing.

Ainsley, Caleb, and Cory

And of course the beautiful mess of sprinkles.  But the floor was pretty and the cookies tasted awesome.

We were all so happy that we didn't let a tradition die.  Although we still missed the Young's!  I actually got a little teary-eyed thinking about my little buddy Canyun and missing him.

School Stuff

 In December the girls had a choir concert at school.  They were so excited and worked really hard to memorize their songs.  (Bad picture, but Ainsley in the top photo and Brinnley in and bottom.)

 Brinnley has been learning how to play the recorder this year.  She was did great playing at the concert.  She practiced for us at home, so I know she can actually play it :)

 December both kids were also awarded with the student of the month award for their class.  What I love is that the teachers each said individual things about why the girls were chosen.  Both of the girls' teachers said such sweet things about them.  It warmed my heart and I am so proud of them!

Gingerbread and Candy Canes

 Dec 4th our church had an activity for girls 8 and older.  The girls got to make gingerbread houses.  They were kind enough to bring a kit home for Porter.  He was so funny when he was making it.  He would put a candy on the house and then two seconds later he would take it off and pop it in his mouth.

 The masterpieces.

 This town has so many cool activities.  One that is new to us was that Santa visits all the neighbors in town while riding on a fire truck.  They sent out a newsletter saying what day Santa would be visiting your street.  We looked forward to December 11th for a few weeks.  We were his last stop.  Santa started on the opposite side of town and gradually worked towards us.  A few nights before he came to see us, we heard sirens going off.  They would go off for a while and then stop only to start up again.  The girls were so scared.  They though it was the tsunami siren.  We said our prayers and I put the kids to bed.  When Chant got home I told him they were really worried.  He got in the car and followed the sirens just to see what was going on.  (Probably not smart but oh well.)  And who did he find but Jolly Old St. Nick riding on his red fire truck.  He came home and told the girls and they were finally able to sleep soundly.  The next few nights we knew what was going on.  And when it was our turn, the stress was all worth it!  So cool!

Tree Lighting Ceremony

 Saturday, November 29 was a busy day for us!  About 3:30 we headed downtown for the tree lighting ceremony.  We thought it was at 4:00, but the entertainment started at 4:00 and the tree lighting wasn't until 5:00.  The weather had been pretty mild but that day it was freezing!  So we wandered up and down the streets for a while and stepped into the occasional store to warm up.  We took a few pictures in front of the big tree that would later be all aglow.

 Then we listened to the entertainment.  First was a gentleman singing Elvis Christmas songs.  It was knee bouncing fun that made me miss my Dad.  Next was a family of strings players.  The music program here is amazing and those young boys did an incredible job.  I'm not sure how they did it because their fingers had to be frozen.

 Speaking of FROZEN... We had a visit from Elsa, Anna, and Olaf.  They were quite literally frozen in their thin dresses.

 Ainsley learned a hard lesson.  She thought just a heavy sweater with a puffy vest would be enough instead of a coat.  After fighting with her about it for a while, we left the house.  And, she realized sometimes parents do know what they are talking about as she sat there with chattering teeth.  Good thing Dad was nice enough to share his sweatshirt.

 Santa was the man of the hour that we had all been waiting to see.  He had a police escort and arrived in style.  Then he had the honors of plugging in the lights.  We "oohed"  and "awwed" for a few minutes and then hightailed it to the car for warmth.  The kids decided they would rather write Santa a letter than stand in line to sit on his lap and get a candy cane.  I was okay with that choice!   It was a fun night, next year we will just come wearing more layers!