christmas....

we have had a fabulous past couple weeks!

PRE-CHRISTMAS:

family christmas party at aunt joy's house. we played all sorts of games and just hung out with family.
the tootsie roll game: the kids (and a few of the teen cousins) got tape wrapped around their waist and then got to roll around on the floor and try to get as much candy to stick as they could....it was obviously a hit!

 pepper is getting SO BIG so fast!

 jett has a habit of wanting to eat play doh so i made some salt dough and it did the trick....he was gagging for quite some time after he stuck a huge clump in his mouth and got it in his teeth. YUK! 
notice all the gagets he got out to play with and all he really used was the pizza cutter.

 jett loves cheese and chicken nuggets with BBQ and ranch sauce....

 we attempted a quick family picture of all 4 of us together....i thought it would be a much simpler task....HA!
neither kid cooperated and when they did it was only because mom and dad wern't looking at the camera
but i just wanted something simple to use in a christmas card. then when i went to get the cards printed....the lady messed up and only printed 10. it was too late to go get more by the time i got home and had a chance to cut them out and put them together so only 10 people ended up getting cards from us this year. so much for my first attempt at a christmas card....crash and burn! we ended up using the picture below in sepia....

CHRISTMAS EVE:

we watched a quick little video about the birth of Jesus Christ. we have been acting out the nativity story each week with our little nativity for jett. i'm not sure he has learned anything other than one peice is a baby, one is a mommy and one is a daddy. Oh and of course the animals say baa, hehaw and that the camel spits. and the wisemen came by jeep or train in his version.  he is so fun to have around.

 pepper got to stay up late with us....as she does every night since she is a little night owl! we go to bed when she does....
we played hand and foot (just so everyone knows....i beat sam by 3000 points! usually i start out ahead and then i cant even get into my foot the next 3 hands) pepper was on my team!

 we didn't get a tree this year....after observing jett destroy everyone else's trees/ornaments....we just got some garland and put the presents up high!

CHRISTMAS MORNING:

we had a lovely christmas by ourselves at home! we were asked to speak in church the day after christmas and our topic was on christmas traditions to remember Jesus Christ. i really appreciated being forced to come up with ideas on how to keep Christmas centered on Christ. our kids are young but we still tried to teach jett what we could. it is amazing what that kid retains. but i gathered some really fun new ideas for traditions that we either started this year or will start as soon as jett is old enough to participate.

jett and pepper watched daddy get presents down....although neither had any idea what was to come (both still dont know what that was all about)....

 new PJ's

should have eaten first cause jett wouldn't stay focused. he kept running off to the kitchen to eat pomagranite seeds. oh and then he would get mad when we made him put down a new toy and open the next present. he helped open all of peppers gifts and now thinks they are all his too.

 new tractors!

 new swing from grandma miller

 the kids with all their new toys, books and pjs

 jett loves his mega blocks....thanks grandma brady

 later jett helped me make an angel food cake for jesus' birthday....but i almost burned the house down in the process. i have made angel food cake dozens of times and this time it spilled over the pan and created A LOT of smoke.

 peppe is now big enough to take baths with her brother. jett is suprisingly really good with her in there too!

 pepper also got these adorable tights with built in mary janes! SO CUTE!

POST CHRISTMAS:

we went swimming one day. peppers first time. she did so good! she was just content and happy to be there (even tho she was turning purple) and barely even fussed both times i dunked her. jett is still as fearless and ever but he is starting to learn how to kick his feet a little.

 and she got her own lunch box from grandma van tassell. sam and i got 2 player blokus....it has already gotten a lot of use out of it.
we also got a jcpenney gift card from my grandma hamner and were able to get sam some jeans and i got a rug for our kitchen and we still have a little left for another time!

we also went to temple square one night so show jett the lights but it was so cold we didn't stay long and only have pictures on sam's ipod....i dont know how to work that thing to get pictures off it.

one afternoon we went to trafalga since we had some leftover tokens from a previous time going. well we almost spent the night there cause we couldn't get out of the parking lot due to a blizzard that hit while we were inside.....then 30 minutes later after we got out of the parking lot we were few blocks down the road and were stopped at a stop sign and got rear ended. pepper didn't like that much!....but other than some whip lash and what not we are all fine.
then the next day we witnessed a little hit and run accident. we were the only ones who saw it that were able to get the guys license....i dont know if we are good or bad luck in the car lately?

happy new year!