Saturday Was A Busy Day!

Saturday was a busy day for us! Mommy was up by 5:30 to exercise, shower and get the grocery shopping done before kids started to wake up.  We spent the morning finishing up homework, chores, made dessert for Zeke's baptism, and got everyone ready for their different activities. We had several things going on, so we had to divide and conquer. 

Daddy took Gwen and Caleb up to Bountiful for Zeke's baptism, and Mommy, Adam, and Tessa got to attend Christmas Around the World at BYU with Ma and Pa. It was such a great show this year! They had some new dances and countries and we loved getting to spend some time with Ma and Pa. 

 After the show, Tessa went home with Ma and Pa and Adam and I headed over to the Santa Run at the Riverwoods. We cut it really close on time and looked pretty ridiculous changing into our Santa suits in the car, but we had fun laughing about it. 

We missed the beginning of the race, so we waited by the route for Aunt Gillian and Aunt Katy and then joined them. Well, Adam joined them. I remained a supportive cheerleader from the sidelines. 

Adam about died laughing when we pulled up and some kid yelled, "Look Dad!! It's Santa!" 

 I might wear the beard more often. It hides the scary braces quiet well.

 Adam made a cute little Santa, but his pants would not stay up. We laughed so hard when he would find his pants down around his ankles. Luckily, he wore basketball pants underneath. 

 It was a lot of fun and very festive. We will probably have to do this again some year.

 We got home from our day, tired and worn out, but there were still things to be done! The kids all wrote their letters to Santa and put their shoes by the tree. Father Christmas was supposed to stop by the house sometime that night and they wanted to be ready!

Christmas Activties

Our first few days of December have been busy! We have our countdown activities ready and waiting for us. Our first couple of activities have not been a disappointment!

We had a candy cane hunt around the house. It took the kids a lot longer to find candy canes than it does Easter eggs, but eventually all the candy canes were found and a few were devoured. 

 Thursday we had a really wonderful opportunity to go to a Living Nativity. We were amazed with everything they had for it and how real it felt. The kids were crazy excited to see real camels there!

 They had "Bethlehem" set up and running like a city. We got to see people doing their work, taking care of animals, and selling things in a market. The kids all got to try some hammering and they got to bang on a sword at the blacksmith shop. 

 The Wise Men told us their story.

 And then we found Mary, Joseph, and the Baby Jesus. This was such a beautiful and peaceful scene. Everyone who walked in became instantly silent and most people didn't want to walk away. It really felt like you were there and part of the nativity. Such a cool experience!!

 Some of the Roman soldiers made the girl nervous cause they kept asking us if we had paid our taxes. Adam thought they were pretty cool. 

 Ma and Pa were able to come with us. It was a really fun night!

 Friday we attempted another family activity and went to Festival of Trees. While we loved it, we learned 2 things. Don't go on a Friday night, and don't go with a toddler. We haven't been since Tessa was a tiny baby. It was a lot easier to wrangle two kids. We made it through all the amazing gingerbread houses and about 6 rows of trees before Caleb had a complete meltdown. But we loved what we saw and it was a good reminder to be thankful for our healthy babies. 

 Adam and Tessa were amazed by the gingerbread houses. Adam especially loved all of the Star Wars themes that we found.

 Our favorite tree. It was all things Rudolph and so cute!

 The girls wanted to buy this tree for their bedroom.

 Proof that we were there. Gwen did not want her picture taken. And our wonderful Daddy was off chasing Caleb around somewhere. It was an adventure!

Goodbye, Grandpa Lemley

This past Monday, we got the sad news that Grandpa Lemley had suffered a devastating stoke and would probably not live much longer. This was sad and sort of shocking news since Grandpa was doing fairly well lately. As soon as Mommy was finished working on Monday, we headed to the hospital to see Grandpa one last time and to say our goodbyes. 

 Adam and Tessa were very sad to hear the news about Grandpa. They both have loved spending time with him since he moved to Utah this summer. Before we left the hospital, Adam and Tessa both said their goodbye's and gave him one last hug. Adam had a rough time with this. He has such a tender little heart and spirit. Ma was glad to be there to comfort him (while she was giving other family members updates). 

Grandpa passed away the next evening. Ma, Pa, and Uncle Ben were with him when he passed. Even though we knew it was coming, it was still hard to hear he was gone. It's weird to think that all of my grandparents are now gone. My grandparents have always been such important people in my life. I miss them. But we are so thankful to have the gospel and the knowledge that we will see them again someday. 

Christmas Time is Here!

Friday evening we busted out the Christmas decorations and had so much fun decorating our house for the best time of the year. Adam and Tessa love to help their Daddy set up the Christmas tree. Tessa loves to separate all the branches by size and Adam is a good little "fluffer". 

 Caleb wanted to get in on the action. He was such a good "helper".

 Mommy spent most of the evening keeping Caleb off of boxes. He was loving the new jungle gym we had set up for him. 

 Gwennie was so happy to get to put the star on our tree this year.

 But then Caleb noticed Daddy wasn't holding him and so he got a turn with Daddy and the star also. Caleb only wants his Daddy most of the time. 

 After the tree was up, the kids got their new ornaments for this year. They were each pretty excited about what they got. Caleb stole Adam's because it was a ball.

 Everyone did a great job decorating the tree! I loved seeing how excited the kids were to pull out all  of the ornaments.

 You can tell we have a toddler in the house because the bottom of our tree is empty.

 One of our favorite parts of decorating, is reading our stocking notes. We are always anxious to see what our memories were from the previous year and what goals we set and accomplished for this year. 

 Tessa found candy from last Christmas in her stocking. GROSS!!

Our decorations will never be featured on any decorating blogs or websites, but we love our cozy, homemade Christmas and we are so excited to celebrate this special holiday season together!