Little Christmas Eve

In our family, for the last few years, we have been celebrating Little Christmas Eve. (It is Christmas Eve's eve) Most of our kids go to the inlaws on Christmas Eve, and then Christmas day is so busy, that we have really enjoyed doing our Christmas a few days early. Tonight we had a delicious dinner of chicken rollups, rice, yummy salad, darling Santa rolls, (see picture below) green bean casserole, amazing caramel brownies and peppermint icecream.

 

Here's a shot of everyone who came to dinner

 

It was fun to have all the grandparents and Lani, besides our kids and grandkids.

 

It's so nice to fit so many people in our kitchen!

 

Look at the camera Katie,(I think she is trying to make bunny ears on Abbie.)

 

Our big 3 girls

 

I was surprised, they really ate pretty well for being so excited for the evening activities

 

Here's the girls right after opening the presents from mom and dad, I love how excited they were about everything, and I especially love the look on mom and dads faces. These tiny girls are so blessed to have so many grandparents who just adore them!!!

 

Abbie is so cute, as soon as the girls opened the outfits we gave them, she had to put hers right on. I hope the rest of the girls look as cute in theirs as Abbie does in hers!

 

Lani brought a fun white elephant game with enough presents for everyone all in paper bags. Everyone had a great time trying to decide if they should keep their gift or trade it for the one someone else got. Jamie got an awesome chocolate orange.

 

All the girls were so excited when we brought out their doll houses! I think they are going to really enjoy them!

 

It was so fun to listen to them as they played with their houses.

 

Here's Aida testing out her new car.

 

Grandma Cline gave all the girls Barbie dolls to play with in their doll houses

 

Lani gave all the girls the cutest red wool coats! They loved them and they LOVE her! Mom and Dad gave them Clifford the dog books and stuffed animals, sooooo cute!

 

Just before the girls left, I told them the story of Teach the Children. I had Santa's bag filled with all the Christmas things, a tree, wreath, candy cane, ornament, etc. We talked about what each of them symbolized and asked them to try to remember what they mean when they see them. I think their favorite was that a candy cane not only symbolizes the shephards hook, to bring back the lost sheep, but if you turn it upside down, it is a J for Jesus who is the reason for the season!!!!
Right before everyone left, Jordan called and was at the airport in SLC for a 20 minute layover. We were so wishing it would have been longer so we could have all gone to see him! He got to talk to all the kids, and it made it fun to have him join our celebration, even though it was just on the phone! We sure miss him and Jamie, but are happy for them to be spending Christmas in California with Jamie's family. I hope everyone has as wonderful a Christmas as we did!!!

3 Adorable Doll Houses

For Christmas this year, we got our granddaughters cute wooden Barbie Doll Houses. I have had so much fun putting them together and getting them all ready for them. I made some chair pads, and recovered the couch in the one for Hailey and Aida, (it wasn't as cute as I knew it could be.) They are nearly 4 1/2 feet tall by almost 3 feet wide so they are pretty big!!!

The beds weren't too attractive, sooooooo

I had fun making mattresses, sheets, blankets and pillows.


Merijane and Emily chose this doll house for their girls.

Hailey and Aida's play room is done in bright colors, so Krista chose the bright colored doll house for them. I can't wait until Christmas!!!!!

 

Aunt Rosella's funeral

My Aunt Rosella passed away last week and her funeral was held up in Nampa, Idaho. Mom, Dad, Lani, Ric, Kathy, Mike and I were all able to go. We had a great trip up there.
I enjoyed getting to see all of Rosella's kids at the funeral.

I have such great memories of staying at Aunt Ruby's house and playing with all these fun cousins. Gayle was the only one that wasn't able to make it.

All of dad's brothers and sisters that are still alive were there.

This is a picture of all my cousins that were at the funeral. It was so nice to see so many of them. Even though we don't get together very often, we love visiting and catching up on what's been going on in their lives.

 

A temple trip with Mark and Lyndi

Our niece Lyndi is leaving on a mission tomorrow for Boise, Idaho! Mark will be dropping her off at the MTC. On Sunday, we had a big family dinner to say good bye to her. She is such a darling girl, she will be a GREAT missionary. Today, Lyndi, Mark, Mike and his dad went to the Salt Lake Temple together. Good Luck Lyndi!!!

Lyndi and Mark

 

Our new table

Krista has started refinishing furniture and selling it. A few weeks ago, she and Matt refinished this beautiful table. Her neighbors were getting rid of it, and put it on the side of the road for the garbage man to pick up. She asked them if they cared if she took it and they said that she could. One of the legs was broken, and the top was in terrible shape. Krista sanded it and Matt painted it, and it turned out amazing. She was all ready to sell it, and took this picture of it in her living room to put on KSL. When I saw it, I LOVED it and wanted to buy it. My table seats 6, so every time our kids come, we have to add a card table to our table. This one is huge, you can put 2 on each end, and 3 down the sides, and you can add a leaf for even more. I told her I wanted to buy it, and she called all our kids, and they went in on it, and gave it to us for Christmas!

We then refinished all of my chairs, bar stools and side table to match. Krista sanded them, Matt painted them, I glazed them, and Mike did the final finish spraying.

I am sooooo happy with them, they turned out great!

Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, this was a really great Thanksgiving. We had lots of family, 29 people, and it was a little cozy in our basement, but lots of fun. Unfortunatly, most of my pictures were messed up when I downloaded them. I forgot to turn the printer off, and for some reason, if it's on, it makes the pictures download with CRAZY colored lines all through them. I only had a couple that worked.

Mike and I were so glad everything turned out well.


Mom and Dad finishing up their dinner

After dinner, everyone read the ads to check out what they wanted to shop for on Black Friday! It was a great Thanksgiving and one of the best dinners I can remember, thanks everyone for doing such a great job!