A Christmas Post before January, Woo Hoo!

So I thought I'd share some Christmas pictures. Christmas was wonderful this year. It went pretty smoothly with only a couple of glitches. First we had "Christmas Eve" at Chris and Sara's house the Sunday before Christmas. They just finished their basement and it looks great, I'm glad they were able to show it off to all of us. The food was tasty and Grandma Harding was able to come so that was great. Of course we did our infamous Nativity. Nathaniel was Joseph, Jonathan was a wise man, and Brigham was a shepherd...sort of.


I got him to put on the costume but he didn't really like it and he certainly didn't go with the other shepherds. Sorry for the picture quality, it's my phone and it doesn't do as well inside, especially when everything is moving so much!


Except for Maddy, everyone is holding relatively still, so this picture turned out okay. Brynna was baby Jesus and kept trying to climb out of the manger. I think my favorite part of the night was when we sang Christmas songs after the Nativity. When we sang the Primary version of Away in a Manger the women/girls sang the first "asleep" and the men/boys sang the second one, and the difference in sound made all the little kids laugh. It was priceless.

Rachel also brought her puppies to sell show off to everyone. The boys in my family - including Jaaromy - all fell in love and wanted to take one home.




How can I say No to these cute faces? Pretty easily actually. Don't get me wrong, the puppies are exceedingly cute and they are more my type of dog, but I'm the one who would have to take care of it and I'm just not ready for that kind of commitment. So Rachel, if Chloe ever has puppies again and I'm done having kids, then maybe we can work something out.

So back to Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Penny's and visited with cousins and grandparents and ate delicious food. It was fun. When we got home we opened our presents from me and Jaaromy and read some Christmas stories. We also discussed the sign of the birth of Jesus in 3 Nephi chapter 1, and to illustrate it we left the Christmas lights on all night. I loved the idea but I don't know if the kids noticed because they went to bed so much earlier than we did. I think we'll still do it next year, it will be a great tradition.

Now for Christmas morning. The boys did as they were told and waited in their room for us to come get them. Aren't they great? Don't worry we didn't make them wait too long.


What did Santa bring?


A shapes puzzle, and a cool Doodle-pad.


A space puzzle, Lite-brite, and a neat volcano lamp.


Games, and books!

After we played with our new toys we went over to Grandma Bonnie's for Christmas breakfast. The best meal of the year. Since we spent so much time playing with our new toys at home we didn't see any cousins there, but it did make it less chaotic and easier on my parents. Later we went to Grandma Patti's for dinner. We got to see Kelly and Megan who were up visiting for Christmas. It was a great visit.

Thanks for sticking around for this long Christmas post. It was a great season for us and I hope it was for everyone reading this blog as well. Merry Christmas everyone!

Brigham's ABC's

Brigham is, as you may have noticed, the shy, silent type. But did you know that he loves to sing? It may sound like babbling, but really he is expressing himself through song. He sings several times a day, and he even sings when he is sad. Music is part of his very soul.

Many of you were able to witness Brigham absolutely angelic singing of the alphabet recently. But I'm not satisfied with just a few witnesses, I must share it with everyone.



Every time he sings it he says his letters a little clearer. He will also sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and also some of the Backyardigans greatest hits.

I. LOVE. IT!

Jonathan's Birthday

Last night we celebrated Jonathan's birthday. I had asked him that morning how old he was and he didn't seem to understand the question, he kept answering "No, I'm just Jonathan." I think he'll get it next year.

We started out the day with the school Christmas concert. Since Nathaniel is in the 4th grade, they learned the recorder.



Jonathan sang too, although he was a little distracted.


That night Jaaromy's parents came over to give Jonathan some birthday presents. First was some socks and a pair of jeans which were very much needed. Also they got him a Moon in my Room.


He absolutely loves it and carried it around all night and then when it was time for bed we hung it on the wall and he wouldn't let there be any other light except for the moon. Poor Nathaniel had to find a small reading lamp so he could see his books.


It cycles through all the phases of the moon. It's pretty cool, thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

After dinner it was time for Mom and Dad's present.


We could only ride it a little since it's cold and dark outside, but Jaaromy is going to help him ride outside today. He still likes the moon better, but when it's warmer outside I think he'll really like this one too.

And what would a birthday be without cookie-brownies!


All my birthday posts are looking exactly the same because we always have these for a treat. Try them yourself and I think you'll understand why it's a favorite at our house.


We love having Jonathan in our family. He's always so cheerful and happy to see us. He's always willing to share a hug. Happy Birthday, Jonanthan!

School Concert

Yesterday was a first of what I hope will be many more music concerts to come. Nathaniel played the cello in his first concert at school. He's been playing the cello for about two years now so everything they're learning is review for him, but I'm so excited for him to play with other kids. Even though they sound exactly like you'd expect 1st and 2nd year band and orchestra students to sound, I loved every minute of it. It was beautiful to me to see so many budding young musicians, even though I know most will probably drop out.
I didn't get any video because Brigham insisted he sit on my lap the whole time, but I did get some pictures. My dad also took video but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a copy and I didn't want to wait to post about it.


They had the celli in the very back sitting down and everyone else standing up so it was really hard to see him. I only got this one because the kids in front of him sat down for a bit.

I can't wait until the Spring concert!

Since it's December Now...

It seems pretty sad when it's December and my most recent post is all about Halloween. This has been bothering me since December began and I've been trying to figure out what to post about. Nothing particularly exciting has been going on. Our dog hasn't had puppies, my kids don't really like to play in the snow, Thanksgiving was nice but not much to post about. I would have posted about making gingerbread houses at Grandma Bonnie's but I forgot my camera so it wouldn't have been as interesting(of course, I realized later that I could have taken pictures with my phone, Duh!). I'll get some good ones next year.

After Thanksgiving I really had to fight the urge to decorate for Christmas. It's always been a rule of mine to decorate on the first day of December. It was hard to wait this year. I had to remind myself that I have a lot of cute Thanksgiving decorations and they deserved the whole month to be on display. I did have to cheat slightly and set up the tree on November 30th because I had a dress rehearsal on December 1st and I needed Jaaromy to help me with the tree. Because of my concert that week and my Primary calling, it took me three days to decorate for Christmas. It was such a busy week and all I really wanted to do was decorate for Christmas. Why does everything have to happen all at once? So we are all decorated for Christmas now, and here's the proof:


It looks a lot like last year, I know. But this time I have the stockings up on the railing!

This is the corner I usually put all our instruments and so I had to find other places to put them...


My living room is crawling with instruments. I've got a violin, a trumpet, and a guitar back by my cello, and my bass with Nathaniel's cello up front. I don't usually have my bass at home but I'm playing in the Messiah with a small orchestra this coming weekend. I'm not sure why I said yes to that one, but I think it will be fun.

Well, now that I've taken care of the decorations, I'm free to enjoy the rest of the month. I think I'm going to buy all our Christmas presents online so we don't even have to leave the house unless we want to.

P.S. I'm currently wearing the most comfortable pants in the world and I couldn't be happier!