Almost ready for Christmas and Ensign Symphony and Chorus Concert!

We love Christmas around here. It is so fun! Here are the kids ready for church the Sunday before Christmas

Oh, and here is a picture of a proud Katelyn....she figured out that if she put jingle bells in her back pockets and jumped up and down she could sing jingle bells and be ringing at the same time. Justin came home from work that day to a chorus of Lindsey and Katelyn singing and jingling.

We are very happy to report that Weston can now scale the stair safely in both directions. He picked up coming down the stairs very quickly, which I am grateful for!

Love the way Katelyn wrapped this gift she bought for Dylan.

Justin and Brandon made swords out of PVC pipe and swim noodles and duct tape. So now we have sword fights in the dining room

A sweet family in our ward made gingerbread people for everyone in our family

Our Christmas Eve was a bit different this year. I had a concert with the Ensign Symphony and Chorus at 4:00 up at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. So I spent the afternoon up there, and Justin brought the kids up for the concert (minus Weston). It was a marvelous experience! Totally amazing to sing Christmas songs on Christmas Eve in a place like that!

It was beautiful.

Here is a picture of us rehearsing that someone snapped and put on the website. If you want to check it out go to seattleensign.net

My super supportive family after the concert!

We came right home, and had a warm dinner awaiting us. Then we opened our traditional Christmas jammies! The kids were so excited, they kept on finding poses that they wanted a picture of. So here are a few of them....

 What a busy, fun day!

Snow!

It doesn't take much snow around here to create mayhem. On this particular morning, I think we probably got an inch. Maybe an inch and a half. Justin tried 3 different ways of going to the train station and finally got there late. The roads were super slippery and icey and he slid down a hill and almost played bumper cars. So on this day, the kids had a 2 hour late start. They played their little hearts out with some neighbors before they had to go to school. And as you can see, we don't need much snow to be able to go sledding on our driveway!

Snow angels

My geraniums finally died. But here's our Christmas-y front door

I like Seattle snow like this! It's fun, we play, and then it melts. It was gone by dinner time. :)

Christmas Trees, Concerts, and December Fun

We love going to Coates Christmas tree farm. It is beautiful, and the kids love it. And free hot chocolate and Santa are a bonus! We took a hay ride around the property to scout out the trees to start things off....

Brandon found the winner this year. It's harder to tell how tall it really is when it is trimmed up from the ground like that. We estimated that it would fit in our house just fine. Things always look much smaller when they are outside. Brandon wanted to cut it down all by himself!

The girls made sure that people driving in knew which way to go

Posing like a tree

I think he's breaking a sweat!

Victorious at last!

Another year, another Christmas tree success.

Lindsey and Katelyn had such a fun time taking a little ballet class in the fall with their friends Karissa and Brynlee. Here they all are with their teacher, Ms. Ann. They loved her and both earned their pink "ballet belt." They were very proud, and are sad that we're done with ballet now.

And thank you to Katelyn for this next montage. She took my camera and took lots of pictures of Christmas from her point of view. So here are a few.....

And here is Dylan at preschool making a gingerbread house. Justin worked from home that day so that he could be there.

And here is Miss Katelyn at her school Christmas show. She looked kind of nervous as she waited for it to start.

Here is our cutie singing "Up On the Housetop"

Here are my silly kiddos!

And here is Brandon after his first band concert with his band teacher. They have learned a lot in the last couple of months! He is playing the trumpet. And can I just say.....quit growing up so fast!!

This "guy hug" makes me giggle!

Here he is playing a solo at his concert.

And here is our family performing a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells at our Ward Christmas Party. Someone got thirsty backstage before our number and drank some of the water in Katelyn's glass. So her not is WAY off. I think it's so cute that she knew it was off!