Grandma and Grandpa Hoopers

We drove to Ryan's mom and dad later on Christmas day. It was fun to see everyone. The kids were having a ball feeding the cows and climbing on the hay. Grandma Hooper has awesome costumes for the Nativity. My favorite picture is when one of the Angels (Shelby) discovered that baby Jesus was HER doll! So Olivia (Mary) shared.

Christmas morning

Christmas morining was super fun. Only a few times did we have to send the kids back to bed because it was too early...midnight, 2am, and 3am. A little after 5am we decided to let the kids stay awake. Here are the kids with some of their favorite toys.

Nativity

Our kids LOVE acting out the Nativity on Christmas Eve. This year we had two Josephs, (to avoid a fight) and Mary. The kids were really good, and I think they listened to the story pretty well.

Gingerbread House Competition

We started a friendly gingerbread house competition a few years back. The teams are boys against girls. You can decide the winner yourselves. The biggest mess made was a tie....it was a HUGE mess, but lots of fun!

The boys team: Innovative

The girls team: Traditional

We had so much fun, and it was a great way to kill time on Christmas eve, aka the longest day of the year. (according to the kids atleast)

Grant-man's big day

Here is Grant poppin' a righteous wheelie. He asked me to post this one for his Uncles and Grandpas.

Grant's kindergarten class sang a Christmas song at his school assembly. He is on the next to top row on the right end, in a maroon shirt with orange stripes on the sleeves. He was very proud of this song. Me too, and can you belive it...one of MY kids tall enough for the next to top row! Happy times!

Temple Lights

We went to see the Temple lights. Beautiful as always! We also went in the visitors center to see all the nativity displays. Our favorites were the oragami, the huge one from USA, and a white one that I don't remember where its from. If your in town, you'll have to check them out.

Gymnastics Show

Climbed straight to the top!
Coming back down
Getting ready for an awesome routine
More routine
Hand stand dismount

We went to Olivia's gymnastics show. It was so fun. I am so proud of her. It was hard to take pictures of most of the events because they go so quickly, but I got a few from her beam routine. I LOVE the picture of her doing her handstand before she dismounts!! Olympics here we come!!! J/K. :)

Christmas Questionnaire

My mom sent this to me. I thought I'd post it here and hopefully some of you will post your own!!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper!! One of my most favorite things to do at Christmas time is wrapping gifts. I make myself space the wrapping out over the whole month, or I would do it all in a night and then be sad that I didn't have anything else to wrap.
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial...too many allergies.
3. When do you put up the tree? As soon after Thanksgiving as I can.
4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime between the day after Christmas and the day after New Years.
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but only a few sips of it, then I get sick of it.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Too many awesome ones, although my first cabbage patch Shandi Marie, and my electronic keyboard stand out right now.
7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Yes, but a few of them are headless thanks to alllll the help I have aranging them.
8. Hardest person to buy for? Ryan's dad
9. Easiest person(s) to buy for? Any kid
10. Worst Christmas Gift you ever received? Can't think of a bad one yet...no pressure Ryan! lol
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. Yikes! I need to get those sent out!!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? August or September usually
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No, but I do recycle a good bow, or box. He he he (where did I get that from MOM!!!)
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Depends on where we go at Christmas time...Spudnuts, egg rolls, lil' smokies...I could go on and on.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? I love both.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, For Unto Us a Child is Born
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We stay home, and then travel to Grandpa and Grandmas
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yep, and even some extra ones my kids created...Comed, Fixen, Blixten...etc.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? If something is annoying, you're not listening to enough Christmas music!! lol

Christmas over the years

Christmas time is here!!

The kids begged me to get the Christmas decorations out on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The best part for them is allll the Christmas bears. I have to wait to get those out until after everything else is put up, or else there'd be some major kid/bear chaos!

Huge Swing

We went to Snowflake for Thanksgiving. It was really fun. The kids played outside all day. My nephew Kyle built a HUGE swing in their front yard. Seriously, it was the biggest swing I've ever seen. Thanksgiving morning we had to go and try it out. Olivia and Grant LOVED it, Isaac wasn't too sure about it. It was a great weekend, super fun to see family, and I loved not having to cook!!