Christmas Day

Christmas Eve we have the same tradition as everyone else! Pajamas! This year the kids got Character jammies and matching slippers...Hannah Montanna, Spiderman, Disney Princesses, and Cars!Christmas morning the kids have to wait on the stair landing for the ok to come up and see what Santa Brought! This year they thought Grandma and Grandpa Hafen took way to long to get there. Ten minutes is a long time on Christmas morning!Santa got really wrap happy this year and decided to wrap everything...down to the packs of bubble tape in the stockings-and Cam's new bike too! It was pretty fun and made the morning last a little longer...by maybe 5 minutes! Lincoln got a new rocking horse! Cam got a new bike and helmet! Ty made him a jump and he had a blast, even out in the cold! As he would ride his bike up the street to his runway, Ty would try to hit him with a snowball made from what's left of our skiier snowman!
Even Morgan tried to hit the jump! She didn't get a lot of air-her bike is very heavy..really!-
but look at her cute outfit and boots!

Lainee got some fun toys for her magnet board and lots of barbie stuff!!

Morgan got some fun cd's and a cd case from Grandma Kassie.

Santa brought her an ipod and decorations for her room!

Ya gotta love a baby right out of the bathtub with his Grandma in her Christmas Sweater! What a great Christmas!!!

Some other highlights of Christmas were dinner at kami's house! We do soups on Christmas Eve! We missed Clark and Kassie and our newlyweds but had lots of fun! Christmas morning Eric and Kim came over for waffles...Christmas breakfast we started last year and I'm really liking it! We had a turkey dinner/lunch at my mom's and went to a movie in the evening! Are my highlights all about food?? Sounds like me...Merry Christmas!

Tuacahn Festival of Lights!

On the Friday before Christmas we bundled up the kids and went out to Tuachan to the Festival of Lights! The lights out there are amazing! Our first stop was Santa so we could get a picture with all of the kids this year! None of them are shy when it comes to the Jolly old man!

After Santa we went to the Live Nativity! They did a great job and it wasn't too long (we were glad cuz it was really cold) Then we took a ride on the train which had lights all over it too! It was a fun night!

Winter Fun

We are having a real winter! It's been so fun! Last night it was snowing like crazy and at 8:00 (when the bedtime Nazi's - aka Ty and Nat - usually come out) we decided the kids needed to build a snowman! How often do they get this chance? And we were so glad we didnt' make them go to bed because at about 10:00 we got a call that school was cancelled the next day! A cancelled school - Snow day in St. George?...I don't remember it ever happening before! So usually when we make a snowman it takes all the snow on the grass to make a 3 foot snowman. This dude is 7 1/2 feet tall (Ty is 6' 3") and we woke up this morning to the grass completely covered again! So the kids are out enjoying more - in the sunshine!

Cam' throwing a snowball at me! He's smiling even though he lost a tooth just before trying to pull his glove on with his teeth! "It wasn't even loose and now I've lost 7 teeth." Yeah-the kid keeps track of everything, he doesn't forget numbers!! Our steep driveway came in handy!!

That extra little guy is our 5th child, I mean neighbor, Michael!

Linc didn't last to long in the snow so we went inside and cuddled for a bit with a bottle. I try to really enjoy the times he'll just lay in my arms and stare at me. He is getting way to busy to have time for that very often!

Other Winter Fun!Last week was the Santa Social at the kids school! Morgan and some of her classmates acted out "How the Grinch stole Christmas!" Morgan was Cindy Lou Who and said, "Santy Claus, Why are you taking our Christmas tree, Why?"Ty and Linc hanging out at the Santa Social! The line to see Santa was to long but Linc was happy to sit on his dad's lap, as long as he had a cookie!
Monday at school was Festive Sock Day!

Tuesday was crazy hair day! Morgan's class did their play again for the school during an assembly so she had "who" hair again! Wednesday was snow day! You saw their snow clothes in the Snowman pics! They are currently missing green and red day...I don't think they mind. Tomorrow is Pajama Day...I hope!

Lincoln's New Favorite Person

He has bells that jingle and a twinkle in his eye! Linc couldn't get enough of him, it was so fun to watch his little hands jingle the bells and grab at his beard! The cute Santa Claus Ho Ho Ho'd through it all! And how did we get our baby to leave his new best friend and come back to us...a Candy Cane of course!

49ers Football Champs

Cam's flag football team won the Championship this weekend! After beating the Colts, the only team we'd lost to ,- (it was our first game and we got an e-mail from coach Cody apologizing for losing and promising it would never happen again - he was right) - by a large margin, including a touchdown by Roni, we were the Little Valley League champs and got to the play in the final playoff game against the Santa Clara league champs, the Saints! In the final game we got an early lead and it was smooth sailing from there! Go 49ers! Check out the Hardware!

We Read the Book of Mormon

This year in our ward we had a Book of Mormon Challenge. It ended this week and amazingly - so do our little family! We started at the first of the year and read 5 chapters a week. We started out reading 5 chapters each Sunday and that got to be a little much. The last few months we've had the kids ready for school in time to read for ten minutes! It has been so neat to watch their reading progress. Cameron really struggled at first because, even though he is an excellent reader, he has to have things make sense. The scriptures speak so differently than we do that it didn't make sense to him and it would seriously take him almost 5 minutes to read one verse. Now him and Morgan are both better readers. It was good for Ty and I to. We were paying so much more attention so that we could explain to the kids what was going on. I know pride isn't good, but it was a challenge and I have to say it...I'm proud of us!

Happy Anniversary to us!

On Tuesday I got an exciting text from Ty that said - don't make any plans for Friday night or Saturday morning! I was so excited..I love surprises and Tyler finally figured that out! I am glad he told me because I believe the anticipation makes the realization, in other words, knowing there is a surprise is the funnest part. Not having to make the plans or arrange the babysitter is the next best part.

So Friday afternoon we dropped the kids off at my mom's and went to the new James Bond flick - always entertaining! And Ty had gotten me chocolate covered cinnamon bears to enjoy during the movie, mmmm! After the movie I still didn't know where we were going and was just enjoying that the surprises were still coming. Tyler pulled into Cafe Rio and ran in to get a Key Lime Pie (one of my favorite desserts but I could never really pick a favorite). Next we headed to Pizza Hut to get a thin crust plain cheese pizza (We got one of these on our honeymoon and ate it in the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse at the Anniverary Inn. It's become sortof an anniversary tradition) Our next stop was the Hilton Garden Inn where Ty had gotten us the suite and had already snuck in and had sparkling cider chilling! Everything was perfect! We talked a lot about how quickly 11 years has gone by and how unbelievable it is that we have 4 beautiful children! We know we are "seriously so blessed!" (check out that blog sometime-seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com - so funny) But really we are and we just have to acknowledge it every once in a while. Saturday morning we had a really yummy breakfast at the hotel that gave us the energy to dive back into reality! Thanks Ty - Love you tons! Here's to 11 more plus eternity!

A Special thanks to my mom for watching the kids and taking Lainee to her 9 a.m. soccer game where she dribbled the ball all the way down the field to score the last goal of the season!!