Christmas Sunday

The Sunday before Christmas is when the kids all wear their Christmas church clothes and we try to take a few pictures before church. That's a little tricky when you have church at 8:30am!

Here are some of the pictures from our hurry-up picture session yesterday.

We'll start with McKay. McKay got new zipper ties for his birthday last month as he had definitely outgrown his smaller clip-on ties. He did get a red one, so that made up his Christmas outfit! McKay said he wants Santa to bring him some hovercraft thing he saw a commercial for on TV (our kids are easily influenced by commercials!).

Then there's Hannah. She got a new Christmas dress this year, which she's already worn to church several times. She was excited because it has a jacket with it. Hannah said she wants the "littlest" of the Littlest Pet Shops for Christmas.

Courtney did get a new Christmas dress this year with a little jacket as well, but she opted to wear last year's Christmas dress for church yesterday. Courtney is the most easily influenced by TV commercials -- anytime she sees a commercial for any type of "girl" toy, she immediately tells me she wants that and to add it to her list. Her latest request (this one she actually saw at the store) is a My Little Pony toy that can be decorated.

Hayley loves her red Christmas dress (a hand-me-down from both older sisters) and has been wearing it for a couple of months now. Her request from Santa is a mermaid costume and also Littlest Pet Shop toys.

Here are the three girls together (Hannah kept trying to pose for me).

Then we try to get them all in a picture together. This is what typically happens:

Finally, we manage to get a shot with all four in one picture. And then hurry, hurry out the door so we're not late for church!

After church, Hannah didn't wait until after lunch to eat the sticky candy cane she got from her Primary teacher.

And the girls all enjoyed playing with the little bells they got from the Primary presidency.

Christmas Recital

Last night was the Christmas piano recital for McKay & Hannah. They were both excited to go and I think McKay was a little nervous (Hannah doesn't seem to get nervous about performing in front of other people).

Their piano teacher has a LOT of students -- both piano and vocal -- the majority of the piano students are in the beginner range like McKay & Hannah. Needless to say, it was a long recital (over 2 hours). Brian stayed home with Courtney & Hayley this time -- when we have all gone to past recitals, he always ends up out in the hallway with those two because they just can't sit quietly that long (especially late in the evening).

McKay was #9 on the program and Hannah was #10 (out of over 40 numbers). McKay played "Over the River and Through the Woods" and Hannah did "Up on the Housetop." They got called up to the stand in a group of about 10 kids. Here's a picture I took of them waiting for their turn:

It's not the greatest picture and it's the only one I took during the actual recital. I wanted to videotape their playing, so I didn't get any regular pictures taken.

They both did great! McKay did his piece practically perfect (he claims he made a mistake, but I didn't catch it). Hannah had a few pauses while she found the right notes, but it didn't seem to faze her at all. She was thrilled at the end when she looked at and noticed "people smiling" at her.

I was tempted to sneak out early, because even these two started to get restless, but they really wanted to stay because they knew there were refreshments and trophies waiting for them.

Here they are with their teacher:

Now the big question is whether or not McKay is going to continue piano lessons. He has really been fighting to quit the last several months and we agreed he'd at least stick it out through the end of the year. I asked him today if he still wanted to quit and he said "sort of" but then decided he wouldn't quit just yet. We'll see how his practice motivation is -- it is a huge battle most days to get him to practice even 5-10 minutes. As much as I want him to learn how to play the piano, I've decided I don't want to force him to do something he really dislikes (plus pay all that money for lessons when he is not getting much out of them). At the same time, I want him to learn that you sometimes need to work and practice at something to reap the rewards and you can't always quit just because something is getting harder. So, we'll see!

Holiday Treats & Sweets

There's been lots of baking going on around here the last few days, so I thought I'd take a few pictures to share. (Wish I could share a plate with y'all too! I'm eating way too many myself!)

You've seen some of the sugar cookies (gotta make sure we leave some for Santa)...

And we can't have Christmas without our favorite-ever gingersnaps...

I tried two new recipes this year. The first was an easy, easy one with square waffle-style pretzels, Hershey's Hugs and M&M's on top (we did both regular and mint M&M's)...

And the other new recipe was called Chocolate Oat Squares (you cut them into bars). If I make them again I think I will leave out the walnuts.

And here's the reigning queen of all things sweet at our house...

This silly little girl has the biggest sweet tooth of them all -- I have to hide things from her!

Toothless Queen

Hannah had her big trip to the dentist yesterday. She was actually really excited to go and drink the "magic juice" and watch TV (while the juice worked its magic), but I don't think she really knew what she was in for. She came home missing 5 teeth!

They sedated her with an oral medicine that had to work for about 45 minutes (the other kids were getting their regular cleanings and check-ups during this time). Then they took her back into the room and got to work numbing her gums and pulling out the teeth. They pulled out one baby front tooth which was under a permanent one coming in. Then they also pulled out two top teeth and two bottom teeth to give her mouth a little more room for all the other teeth!

She was a trooper through the whole ordeal and was so excited to find five $1 bills under her pillow this morning! Brian's been calling her the "toothless queen" today.

Pump It Up!

Yesterday afternoon we got to spend a couple of hours at a place called Pump It Up at a birthday party. It is one of those party places that has a huge room full of "inflatables" for the kids to slide and jump on. Courtney actually got invited to the party (from a girl in her preschool class) but siblings were also welcome to attend, which made the kids all so excited.

I think the favorite activity was the big slide. I even went down it (at McKay's insistence)!

Hannah...

Courtney with her birthday-girl friend...

McKay going down his favorite way -- on his back using the mat...

And Hannah finally got Hayley to come down by pretty much pulling her...

(Hayley did go down more on her own later and decided she liked it).

Other activities included climbing around the obstacle course...

And just another cute picture of Courtney...

The last half-hour of the party is spent in the party room for cake, snacks and present opening. The birthday girl gets to sit in a big throne and the parents had each kid sit in the chair with her while they opened their present (and the mom took a picture). Hannah decided she really, really wanted to sit in that throne so when it was Courtney's turn, she climbed right up next to the birthday girl (who she doesn't even know). I had even talked to her beforehand about how it was Courtney that got invited to the party so she was the one that got to sit in the chair with the present. Courtney got stuck trying to squeeze in on the other side, and she slid off after a minute. There were too many people around for me to pull Hannah off (and I knew she'd probably make a huge scene about it) so I was glad Courtney wasn't upset about it all.

I talked to Hannah about what happened afterward and had her tell Daddy when he got home (she explained she was being "selfish"). It's frustrating and discouraging sometimes to watch your kids make selfish choices like that around other people. I don't know if she learned anything from the experience or not. I guess you just keep trying to set an example and do your best to teach them how to be considerate.

My Weakness...

Today we managed to bake and frost one of my favorite holiday (or anytime!) treats -- sugar cookies! Oh man, I eat way too many of these things, which is why we don't make them very often.

The kids were excited to help cut out...

and frost the cookies...

(only McKay forgot to come inside after getting Courtney and help frost even though he had just been in helping put food coloring in the frosting -- he claims his doesn't "have a good brain" and was quite upset that he missed out)

Hannah and Courtney did pretty good at spreading the frosting on their own (and managing to eat some along the way)

Hayley's favorite were the sprinkles (which she kept calling frosting). At first, she would take a plain cookie and just try to dump sprinkles all over it. And she actually did pretty good at restraining herself from too many sprinkles once we got started. That's not to say we didn't end up with cookies with lots of sprinkles!

(These were done by Courtney...)

YUMMY!

A Girl and Her Books

Peeked in Hayley's room last night on my way to bed and saw this...

She managed to stay asleep even with a book fallen over on her head. This girl LOVES her books and insists on a big stack in her bed every naptime and bedtime. She "reads" them out loud (don't ever try to tell her that she is only "looking" at them and not "reading" them) and makes a neat pile on the other side when she's finished. We often struggle with her about how many books she can take with her -- some nights there is not much room left for her!

I had all the kids at the pediatrician yesterday afternoon for McKay and Courtney's annual well-check exams. Hayley sat in the room with a pile of books (from the book basket in the room) and read them out loud to herself. The pediaitrician commented a couple of times about her expressive reading.

(And FYI from the check-up -- McKay now officially weighs 103 lbs! We do need to start watching his weight more as this time his height and weight increase weren't as proportional as they've been in the past.)

Preschool Program

Today was the last day of Courtney's preschool before the Christmas break so her class had a little Christmas program and party.

The parents were invited to come and watch a little program they had been practicing. They did it in their main "chapel" area of the church where the preschool is. The kids sang a few songs and said a few lines from the scriptures about Christ's birth.

Courtney had a short line and did a good job -- although she said her part super fast! (It was "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you.")

Here's a shot trying out my new zoom lens...

She was kind of funny during the program. Every time she would look over at where I was sitting and notice I was taking a picture, she would stop and "pose" for me (even in the middle of a song).

Her class after the program in the church lobby area...

After the program, the kids went back to the classroom for their lunch and then the party. After lunch, they get to play on the rug while the other kids finish eating. Courtney decided to do puzzles.

(I'm not sure why she was scrutinizing this piece so closely!)

They had a craft (which I was in charge of -- a popsicle stick reindeer ornament), snacks & cupcakes and then a little book exchange.

I managed to attend without Hayley this time (she had a playdate with a friend) so it was nice to spend the time with just Courtney!

Winter Wonderland

Tonight for FHE we took our annual trek over to "The Woodlands Winter Wonderland" light display. It is a small display area they have set up near the ice rink where you can walk around and see several light displays.

They have a huge tree...

And the traditional dove symbols that The Woodlands uses throughout its holiday displays (street light flags, etc.)

Here is McKay running ahead under the light arches...

As I mentioned, this light display surrounds the ice rink that they set up every winter (it's in a big tent). Hannah really wanted to go in and watch the ice skaters, so we did for a minute. Hannah got very teary watching because she really, really wanted to try it herself. (McKay was also begging to go ice skating, but at least he wasn't crying about it.)

We told her we couldn't go tonight because it was too late but maybe we'd try to come back when we had more time. She kept telling me how it looked so fun (and I told her it's not as easy as it looks!) and then she got worried about falling down, etc. We'll see if we end up going back. Can you just see Brian and I trying to herd our 4 kids around on the ice? Makes for an interesting mental picture at this point. :-)

Here's a last picture at the light display (you can tell Hannah was still upset about the ice skating).

And also tonight, I got copies of the pictures the designated photographer took of the kids with Santa at the ward Christmas party. They turned out cute!