Kevin and Sonja's Joys

Our neighbor knew how much Ashleigh loved making crafts so she invited her to make Christmas dough ornaments. (one of Kevin's favorite memories as a child). She painted them a solid color and then coated them with paint glitter. They turned out so nice and she loved hanging them up on the tree.



She played an "I spy" game with me and I had to try and find them all on the Christmas tree. She is such a creative little girl.



Ashleigh was so excited for her school Christmas party that she had to wear her new Christmas dress. Brynn just loves being with Ashleigh. Her favorite part of Ashleigh's school party was eating the snacks with her.



Ashleigh adores her teacher Mrs. Sarver. She is such an amazing teacher. We love her so much.



On Sunday we acted out the nativity and read Luke 2 since church was cancelled for the second time because of the snow storm. The kids had fun dressing up.



We told the children during family home evening that Joseph Smith's birthday was on December 23rd so they thought it would be fun to make a cake for his birthday so we did. Ashleigh also shared a piece of it with Santa.



Santa stopped and visited the children at the Y and Ashleigh loved sitting on his lap. She was asked what she wanted and she said, "whatever he gives me I will be fine with". She is such an easy going girl. Brynn still just likes to wave and keep her distance from him.



Kamren loves sports so he got to do a three day mini camp at the YMCA during his Winter Break. He was excited to have Carl from our church be his leader for the few days. He got to play basketball, la crosse, floor hockey and other sports. The girls and I had fun swimming at the Y while Kamren played sports.



The Smiths invited us over for our third reunion of Christmas Eve together. It was such a special evening. We had our traditional ham dinner, sang Christmas carols to their neighbors, acted out the nativity, and read the Polar Express. They really have a neat spirit in their home and they take such good care of us.



One of my favorite parts of the Christmas Eve dinner is the 12 layer jello that Cathy makes. I think it is beautiful and it tastes yummy.



When we were going to the Smith's house last night for Christmas Eve Brynn reminded us to bring baby Jesus. She has carried around baby Jesus throughout the whole month. She constantly reminded us of the true meaning of Christmas.



Here is our family on Christmas Eve. We are so grateful for our children.



The kids loved being the angels as we acted out the Nativity at the Smith's house. Kamren had a creative idea to throw the garland down to show they were coming from the sky. I was Mary since I have the baby in my belly and Kevin was Joseph.



The kids were up bright and early ready to come down the stairs youngest to oldest to see what Santa brought them. Kamren woke up at 3 a.m. but went back to sleep until 5:50 a.m.




Kamren has spent all morning putting his lego kits together. He is one amazing lego builder. He can never get too many legos to build. He was glad Santa brought him a lego set with a horse in it.



Brynn loved her scooter from Santa. She had to have one like her siblings.



Ashleigh was so excited what Santa brought her. She got lots of sewing things.



We had a yummy breakfast together. Ashleigh decorated the table for us. We had monkey bread, scrambled eggs, and orange juice. This has become one of our traditions. We love this season that we can be together on this special day.

Every year Kevin's work puts on a Christmas party for the children. They are very kind to make children friendly food, give each child a gift, and they have lots of crafts and games.




The girls loved doing the crafts at the party.



Brynn was okay with Frosty but she didn't like Rudolph. Everyday in the car she asks to play Frosty the Snowman and she sings along with the CD. It's too cute.





Ashleigh and Brynn love to dress up alike. Today they are in red and pink. They truly are good friends.



Kamren just started basketball at the YMCA and he loves it. I love watching him play sports. He loves to be active.



He has a few practices and then in January he will start to play with other teams.



These are all the amazing women I work with at church in the Young Women's. We got together for Christmas and it was fun to just chat. They always inspire me to be better.



We have been trying to find ways to make Sundays more meaningful so Kevin thought of doing journals in the morning before church. I didn't think it was going to work and I was wrong. I'm grateful for Kevin's inspiration for our family. The kids love writing in their journals each Sunday. Kevin and I get to do a little bit of ours also. I just think it's so cute to watch Brynn try and write like her siblings. She really looks up to them.

Kamren asked us to ring the bell for the Salvation Army so we tried it one night and we had a good time. We just sang Christmas carols for an hour in the warm foyer of the store. We made sure we chose a location that we could hang out in the foyer instead of outside. We loved that!



Brynn had the time of her life ringing the bell. So many were kind to give her money to put in the bin. She made us laugh so much when she would point to the red bucket for people to put money in so people would stop and give money.




Kamren and Ashleigh had fun decorating our traditional Christmas sugar cookies. We didn't have church today due to the snow storm we had.




Our favorite part was eating them. The kids loved the gingerbread best because they were the biggest.



I love the snow. It justs gets me in the mood for the holiday. It's so pretty.




Brynn and I went on a date to have breakfast with Santa. Brynn didn't want to sit on Santa's lap but she gave a smile and a sweet Merry Christmas!




She loved eating her pancakes and especially having her orange juice.




Brynn loved sitting with her friends Ethan and Luke. They are so sweet to invite us to this event.



We also had a fun time at the community Christmas party. We ran into lots of friends. We sure love that part.



She didn't want to sit on this Santa's lap either but she sat next to him.

Every year we have to do our Gingerbread Houses. This year we made them with our neighbors Luke and Ethan.



The kids had fun putting the candy on the houses.



Kamren made his all by himself this year. He loved putting big blobs of frosting everywhere.



Ashleigh made sure everything was in a perfect line and she didn't make a mess.



Brynn enjoyed eating the candy much more than putting it on her house.

I went to a Christmas get together last night and they were asking what our favorite Christmas Traditions were so I thought I would post what traditions we have for Christmas.

* Decorate the home inside and out the week of Thanksgiving. Each child gets a new ornament to put on the tree. They have a kids Christmas tree they put up in the basement.
* Bake goods throughout the season. Our favorites are fudge, peanut brittle, magic bars,sugar cookies with frosting, and reindeer droppings
* Deliver goodies to neighbors (This year we thought it would be fun to sing Christmas carols to them)
* The children each make their homemade Gingerbread houses.
* Candy Countdown Jar. Each child gets to pull one out each day. Every year it's a different candy and this year it's Andes mints.
* Go visit a Santa.
* Give a gift to Jesus chain - Starting December 1st we try and do a service or services to give to the Savior for His birthday each day. The kids set a goal of how long they want the chain and they write on the red or green paper what they did.
* Send out Christmas cards and a letter with a picture.
* The children each place a Nativity scene in their room.
* Secret Elves or Pixies - The first week of December we draw names from the family and the name you draw you do little secret services for them that week.
* 12 Days of Christmas - Every year we choose a family and leave them a gift each night for the 12 days before Christmas. We become the secret elves.
* For Christmas Eve we always act out the Nativity and read Luke 2. We have a ham dinner with rice pudding for dessert. Each child gets to open one gift. We play games and watch a Christmas movie together.
* One night we drive around town to see Christmas lights. (Christmas Card lane is really fun to visit)
* For Christmas the kids come down the stairs youngest to oldest to see what they got from Santa.
* Each child takes turns opening presents from the family so we can see what they get. Every year each child gets all their presents with the same wrapping paper.
* For Christmas breakfast we have butterscotch balls (http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1913,157184-238192,00.html) for breakfast with eggs and orange juice.
* For New Year's Eve we have a Swedish Smorgesbord since I am Swedish. When I was growing up we did it on Christmas Eve but we have changed the day we do it.

If anyone has a tradition they would like to share, I would love to learn what others do. I love doing traditions because it really unifies our family and they look forward doing it each year. Most of these traditions come from both of our families which has been fun to carry them on.

Brynn had a blast doing Thanksgiving crafts and treats with her friend Jadyn.



We were so excited to get a package from Grandma Staples. We had fun doing Tim Tam Slams that we did in New Zealand.



They couldn't remember doing the Tim Tam Slams when we were in New Zealand but they sure loved trying it out. How can you go wrong with chocolate.



We try to make a tradition to help out with the Thanksgiving Meals with the Salvation Army. Kamren loved serving others.



Even Brynn got to help pass out food and put them in boxes. The canned foods were a little too heavy so she helped me pass out the stuffing.



I was so grateful to see the children serving and enjoying it. It brings so much joy. We filled 600 boxes in 21 minutes. That was a record for Salvation Army.



For Thanksgiving we had a family over. We made pilgrim hats and Indian headbands to decorate the tables. The kids loved celebrating this special holiday.



The kids loved getting their package from Grandma Woolwine. They get a dollar for each holiday and they love saving it.






Kamren had his first piano recital after taking a few months from Sarah. Kamren loves his teacher and he loves playing the piano.



He chose to play a Halloween song, Thanksgiving song, and Christmas song. He was able to memorize all three songs. It was so fun to listen to him.



We were able to take a temple trip this weekend and the kids loved it. The weather was so beautiful. It was a much needed trip for Kevin and I.





After the temple we went to Frankenmuth. It's a cute little German town. We had fun walking the streets and watching the beautiful horses pulling carriages through the town.



We stopped at the World's Largest Christmas store. Wow, was it amazing. It felt like it was a free museum for us to visit. I loved watching the children just be amazed at all the fun things you can decorate with.



They wanted to see Santa but it was a two hour wait so the statue had to do. There were alot of people there getting ready for the Christmas season.