December

December is one of those fun, exciting, stressful, awesome, awful months that you thoroughly enjoy but at the same time are relieved when it's over. 
Christmas decorations are down, school break for me and the kids is in full swing.  We are enjoying days of sleeping in and having free time. 
The kids all asked Santa for a group present-a new TV.  Our old one was, well, old.  They are loving it.
Brenna and Braelynn's school has a secret Santa shop that they can bring money in and can pick out a present for a family member.  I sent each of them with a little money they had earned to buy a present for the family member they had this year.  They each asked me separately and secretly if they could buy a present for the other twin.  My heart swelled when they each asked me that, but I laughed when they came home and showed me what they had bought for each other.  Identical purple rings.  We wrapped them and hid them under the tree.  The look on Braelynn's face Christmas morning when she opened her present from Brenna was priceless.  A mixture of confusion and excitement.  We all laughed when they figured out they had bought each other the same gift!

Braelynn and the purple ring.  The picture of them together was too blurry. 

Shirts that Aunt Vera make all the nieces and nephews.  It says "If at first I don't succeed...I just go ask my Aunt Vera! 

Sam 

Brenna 

Braelynn 

Tyler 

Veronica

Graham Cracker Houses

 

Talents



 

I just wanted to show off one of Samantha and Veronica's tallents.  The video of Sam singing is awful, it was noisy and hard to hear but she has a solo around 1.25.  Veronica played her violin in church at the end of November, we recorded her practicing with the pianist one day.  She is playing the violin my Grandpa Smith MADE for her.  It sounded awesome and was extra special to have him and my parents there to hear her play.

For some reason,  I can't get Veronica's video to load so here is a picture of her and my Grandpa afterwards.

Special Visitor

We have a friend who helps Santa out in this busy time of year.  He is always nice and stops by every year to see us.  I wasn't home when he came this year but asked Joe to take pictures for me.  Even those that didn't want to sat on Santa's lap!

Breaking Tradition

This year Thanksgiving was different than we have ever had before.  Different but good!  We take turns with the two families every year and this years' turn was my side of the family  We weren't able to be with them this time, so we decided instead of spending all day cooking we would go to a restaurant instead.  Since it was supposed to be beautiful weather we went to St. George, hiked Snow Canyon, relaxed a bit there and enjoyed the sunshine then went to Golden Corral.
Without the travel and cooking/baking that comes with the holidays we were able to spend some time cleaning, playing, and having fun.  We thoroughly enjoyed our break!

One of the fun things we did was have a hot chocolate stand.  I am not sure where the idea came from,  but Brenna and Braelynn have been wanting to do this since the summer.  It wasn't really cold enough for hot chocolate but they had fun and spent the entire afternoon one day selling hot chocolate to neighbors and people passing by.

Birthday and Football

Tyler turned 13 this week.  He is a fun, pesky, happy teenager.  For example, as I am typing this, he has spent the last 1 1/2 hours teasing, bugging, poking, prodding and just being a pest to everyone in this house.  Yep, sounds normal.
He just wanted to have his friend, Nate, over for dinner and dessert and to hang out with him so we ate Navajo Tacos and cheesecake and watched Macgyver.

He needed a new Denver Broncos hat (his old one was falling apart) and he didn't have a Broncos shirt, so that's what he got this year.

He had an exciting football season this year.  After loosing every game miserably last year, they were able go to playoffs and actually won the championship game!  He scored a few points this year, but what was most exciting is that he scored a touchdown and the extra point in the championship game!  He played full back and middle line backer and played both offence and defence almost all of every game.
Being the awesome mother that I am, I forgot my camera for the championship game.  Luckily, my dad came over to watch the game so we used his phone to take a few pics.

Wrestling season started a week before football ended.  He had one day that week that he didn't have football practice so I told him that if all of his chores and homework were done he could go to wrestling practice.  When he got home he said that he has loved football all season but it was sooooo fun to wrestle.  Funny, that is the same thing he says every year when he starts football.

Costumes

Since it is almost Thanksgiving it might be time to post pictures of our Halloween costumes, right?!

Veronica had a few occasions she had to dress up for and she chose Cruella Deville.

Tyler changed his mind about 100 times then decided on an injured dirt biker with some dirt biking clothes we had in the costume box (thanks, Cristie).  I didn't get a picture of him, though.

Brenna and Braelynn wanted to be Thing 1 and Thing 2.  I love the wigs, they were so fun to make!

Samantha was Sam I Am with her green eggs and ham.  So fun!

 

I thought about being the Cat in the Hat to go along with the theme, then decided I just didn't have the time to make a hat for me.  The day of Halloween I decided to go ahead and dress up because Samantha hadn't made plans yet to go with her friends and I knew that it would be the last year she would go with us.  I had everything in my sewing stash to make one so I hurried and made myself a hat then she ended up going with her friends after all!  It is so fun to watch them grow up and going out on their own but a little bitter sweet now that over half of my kids are doing that now.  It was still fun and I am glad I decided to do it.

Hide and Leaf

I Love Fall!

For many reasons.  Pumpkin most of all.  And falling leaves and cooler weather.  I have to admit, I don't love Halloween.  (Matti, don't hate me.)
But the things leading up to Halloween like the annual pumpkin patch and pumpkin carving I do love.
This year our pumpkin patch added a hay maze!  It was quite a splurge so we weren't planning on going but Brenna and Braelynn went with their school class and loved it.  They told me about it at least once a day for over a week and when we got there they were so excited about it we just couldn't tell them no.  It was fun.  And the family that plays together stays together, right?

And pumpkin of course you have to carve those pumpkins afterward, right?