The Craft Area

MY favorite Christmas present for THEM was their new Arts & Crafts area that we created in the garage.  After opening all of their other presents, we led them out into the garage for their last surprise.

They now have their own craft table (which you can tell they have already put to good use)

And an easel with a white board on one side and a chalkboard on the other.

They also have a craft supply container with drawers filled with everything they will need to be as creative as possible.  They have crayons, colored pencils, glue, scissors, paints, brushes, sketching pencils, oil pastels, markers, paper, and lots of other little crafting supplies.

My mom helped out by giving them a whole load of things to add to their supplies as well.  Awesome!!!!

And she also gave Layton an art desk just his size.  He’s been loving it!

This gift had several purposes.  First and foremost, we want to encourage our children’s creativity as much as possible.  I love seeing what they create!  Secondly, my dining room table has had about as much creativity as it can stand.  I needed to have a place where they can paint and do all the creative projects they like to do that wouldn’t end up ruining my table completely.   And third now we have a nice 6 foot table and four chairs to use whenever we need it.  Win-win all around I think.

Dallin also received a couple of step by step drawing books.  From the instructions in the book (no tracing) he created this picture of our family:

I love it.  Mandy is sticking out her tongue.  Layton has monkey ears.  And Dallin is chubby.  It makes me giggle every time I look at it.  I think he has some serious potential as a cartoonist!

Christmas Morning

Santa was very good to us this year.  He snuck into our house and set out all of this:

The kids were so happy to get the the one thing they really really wanted – SCOOTERS!  So fun!

After a moment enjoying their scooters the present opening began!  Layton was so very happy to get more cars and even the Cars 2 movie.

And of course he loved getting his very own set of Legos, which happened to be from us not Santa.  That was one smart purchase!  All of the kids have spent hours playing with them during the last week and a half.

Mandy got a microphone, magic clay dough, a new board game and a jewelry making kit.  She loved it all!

Dallin got a new video game for the PS3 and a few new games for his DS, plus some legos of his own. 

But I think his most exciting gift was a BB gun.  This BB gun was extra special because it belonged to Nathan when he was a kid.

The kids also wanted to give presents to each other.  More than just empty chocolate milk cartons :)  So I gave them a list of extra chores they could do (you know stuff like clean out the van, vacuum the van, dust, scrub the tub, organize the bookshelf, etc.).  They earned 50 cent for each chore they completed.  And then I took them by themselves on a shopping to trip the dollar area at Target and AC Moore.  They LOVED doing this.  The had so much fun with the secrecy of it :)  Somehow with the craziness of that morning I didn’t get pictures of what all they gave to each other, but here are a couple.

Dallin gave Mandy some glow stick earrings (which she loved, even if she does look funny in that picture) and a little art project thing and to Layton he gave a tiny stuffed animal and a Lightning McQueen paint set (you can imagine how ecstatic Layton was!)  Mandy gave Dallin a miniature Lego set and to Layton a little car.  Again they LOVED it.  Layton gave Mandy a slinky and to Dallin a mini-Knex set.  These were among their very favorite gifts.

After the present opening we headed to church for a beautiful service.  Nathan sang a solo portion of the first verse of O Holy Night.  It was wonderful. The whole program was wonderful and just perfect to bring the spirit of Christ to our Christmas day.

We followed up church with our annual crepes.  And then the real playing began!

Dallin is getting pretty awesome with his aim.  These little targets also used to belong to Nathan when he was younger.

One of Layton’s favorite gifts was a stomp rocket.  I have to admit – it really is pretty fun!

I have to say – this has to be one of my most favorite Christmases.

Dallin thinks he’s SOOOOO funny….

A couple weeks before Christmas, Dallin came home from school and told me that he had made some gifts for Mandy and Layton and he wanted to wrap them.  He wouldn’t let me see what the presents were because he wanted them to be a surprise.

Christmas morning rolls around and Layton opens the present Dallin had made him and it was a cute little construction paper reindeer.  Mandy opened her gift…

and it was an empty chocolate milk carton.  Nice, right?  Isn’t that what every little girl dreams of receiving?

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with Nathan’s family.  The kids did their usual gift exchange and loved all the things they got.

Especially Layton.  He loved it so much it was more important for the gift to be in the picture rather than his face.

Then it was time for opening presents from Nana and Grandpa.  Talk about chaos.  Whew!!!!

Dallin was super excited to get a mini-video recorder and Mandy has been loving her new magic set.

Then we had a bit of a crazy hair moment.  Don’t you just love their new looks?

I think it looks particularly awesome on Nathan.  He could totally pull off a look like that, don’t you think?

And then it was time for the annual nativity.  Dallin was a wise man, Mandy the Angel, and Layton was Joseph.

Nathan even good naturedly agreed to be the donkey and carried Ryan in on his back while Layton “led” him.

Then it was time for Mary to have her baby.

Oddly enough, it came out the wrong way and looked like a stuff animal.

But then magically it looked like a baby again.

The angel came and told the shepherds of Christ’s birth.

And then the wise men came from the east

and gathered close (and I mean really close) around to worship the child Jesus.

 

It was a super cute Nativity!  Even if Annabelle was giving us the evil eye!

It was wonderful being together with everyone!

My little crazy children…

I tried to get of nice picture of my kids with some of their cousins at Haley’s baptism.  This is what I got instead…

So I tell them to please straighten up and be nice for the camera.  Mandy complies, but Layton…

Oh well.  At least he’s always good for a laugh.