Lights on Temple Square

December 25, 2010

Our Christmas day ended in the perfect way by going to Temple Square to see the lights. We started off with Aunt Carlie and Uncle Jeffrey, then met up with Aunt Rosa and Uncle Alan.  Seeing the lights on Temple Square is a wonderful part of my childhood and I was so glad I could share it with my children.

Christmas in Salt Lake

December 25, 2010

Grandpa High has an annual tradition of taking Cinnamon rolls to the fire station on Christmas morning. Now that he has a bunch of grandsons, this tradition is all the more fun!

Arriving on Christmas morning at grandma and grandpa High's home was the first time we were seeing family. Aunt Carlie and Uncle Jeffery snatched our kids right up for some serious catch up!

Grandma High always puts on a delicious Christmas morning spread. Cinnamon rolls, fruit, Queen's mix, and of course egg nog and orange juice. Yumm!

It's always a treat to see the cousins banter a little!

Lexie found grandpa's bells.

Porter was such a good baby.  I'm so grateful that he didn't fully understand what is going on around him so we could put him down for a nap in the middle of present opening and Christmas can go on without him!

We have 3 little chefs who are SERIOUS about being in the kitchen.  Who needs toys when you can have prongs, whisks, bowls, and measuring spoons?  Aunt Carlie got them each a shopping basket, cooking bowls, a brownie mix, and an apron.  It was love at first sight!

Christmas day was a special one for us as we were able to spend time celebrating with family!  We love you Ellingson and High families!

Surprise Christmas in Utah

December 23, 2010

We decided on a last minute whim to go to Utah for Christmas. It has been 7 years since we've been "home" for Christmas and everything just seemed to fall into place.

Lexie has been asking me a lot lately if we can spend the night in a hotel. So on the day we were leaving, I took the kids to Kate's house for a 2 hour playdate (bless her!) and told the kids I had a surprise for them when I picked them up. During that two hour playdate, I packed the car, presents and all, and went to pick the kids up. They saw how the car was packed and knew we were going on a trip. I told them that their surprise was a trip to spend the night in a hotel. They were so excited! Poor kids, they didn't know it was going to take us 9 hours to get to the hotel! We picked dad up at the hospital and off we went!

The next day was Christmas Eve. That morning we gave the kids the rest of the "surprise" and told then we were going to Utah for Christmas.  They were all very excited! We drove the second half of our trip into the Salt Lake Valley. I always love this part of the trip because the closer we get, the more mountains we see. We were very blessed to have excellent weather for this trip. It seemed as though the clouds parted for us.

When we arrived, the Ellingson side of the family did not know that we were coming.  6 of the 8 brothers were there having Christmas Eve festivities at grandma and grandpa's house.  We just walked up to the door and started singing Christmas carols.  It was a lot of fun surprising them!  We brought their numbers up to 7 of the 8 boys and I think I saw a tear in grandma and grandpa's eyes. It was really neat being there with with so many of Derek's brothers and their families. We definitely missed Jonathan and his family!

The Elliingsons have a big Christmas Eve family party where they open a game or jigsaw puzzle.  Here are all the great Ellingson minds hard at work on the 2010 jigsaw puzzle!  (Tanner was right there with them and quite in his element!)

Christmas morning started off PERFECT with Ellingson BULLETS!  (aka crepes)

Here's the CHEF! You make 'em the best grandpa!

Grandma was on baby watch.

There were lots of young moms there. Some helping children...

Some eating as fast as they could before the baby needed something.

Then the opening began!  With so many people in the house, we had lots of gifts to open.  We opened our stockings at Grandma and Grandpa Ellingsons then went up to Salt Lake to open more at Grandma and Grandpa High's house.

Christmas Party

December 22, 2010

Another fun party at Tanner's school! This time for Christmas.  Here are my cute party favor bags.  The parents were great about donating items to go in the bags.

Mrs. Horn read the kids a Santa book while we got the food ready.

The food for this party was a nightmare.  We have one student who is HIGHLY allergic to peanuts.  Try as we might to send message after message home to the parents NOT to bring in any food items that may have traces of peanuts, we still had problems.  Here are these darling cupcakes we mascaraed by putting them in plastic baggies and sending them home with the kids.  We could not prove they were peanut free, so out they went.  A father brought in boxes of fruit juice and insisted we serve them up after we already advertized and had cups of apple cider out on the tables. Another parent brought in a tray of sugar cookies.  (Not peanut free.) There were not enough to go around, so we had to take a poll and find out if there were enough kids who didn't want one to be able to serve them up. Awful. Awful. Awful.  I vowed the next party would be different.

Here's my sweet boy. He's such a good eater, he ate it all and loved it all!

One mom brought in this cute craft for all the kids to do.  Simple and fun!  A great idea!

Afterwards we played a couple of fun games.  Here they are playing musical chairs to Christmas music. The kids loved this.

Lexie turns 5!

December 17, 2010

There is something magical about turning 5 years old. From the instant Tanner and Lexie have turned 4, they have anxiously awaited the day they could turn FIVE. Today was Lexie's big day!

We did a family party this year and filled it with lots of pink.  Here's her pink heart-shaped cake complete with pink ice cream and candles that had pink in them.

Lexie's BIG gift this year came in a small box.

Lexie got a cheap green CTR ring in primary this year.  She wore it faithfully for months and didn't loose it.  So when I was out in Utah for Time Out For Women, I went to Deseret Book and picked her up one that wouldn't t turn her finger green. Yes, it's PINK!

Lexie, we are so blessed to have you part of our family!  You bring a sweet cheerful spirit into our home.  You hold your own with your brothers.  You are a mother-in-training in all you do.  You love to daydream and role play.  You are a wonderful example to your friends. We love how you are always singing.  Your simple melodies make our spirits smile. You are beautiful and we love you! Happy Birthday Lexie Noel!

Christmas Concert

December 16, 2010

Last year I missed Tanner's Christmas Concert because I was in charge of our Enrichment night. I wouldn't miss this year's for the world! It was a cold, blustery night, so we all bundled up and enjoyed listening to our sweet children singing!

Presenting............ The kindergarten and first graders of Two Mile Prarie!

Look who we found in all those faces! It he was so excited we were there to hear him perform! His music teacher told me later that she really loves Tanner because he is such a great singer. We really love him too! Way to go Tanner!

2010 first snowfall

December 12, 2010

Our first snowfall of the season! We got dumped on! We love all this white stuff! Colin thought he would come out and ride his scooter in it.

Tanner and Derek did all the walks and drive way plus a few extra.

Colin taste tested the snow.

Tanner was in heaven.

Camping

December 11, 2010

As part of our advent calendar this year we camped out under the Christmas tree! We all loved this and I think it is a tradition that is here to stay.

Visiting Santa

December 7, 2010

We stopped in to see Santa in his workshop this year over at Bass Pro. They know just how to deck him out with all the right elements from the North Pole to help him feel right at home.

The only one who didn't quite feel "at home" was Porter here, but this picture just makes me smile, so it's getting posted anyway! Thank you Santa for letting us come visit you!

Thank you Bass Pro for letting us play with your toys! Colin in particular had a grand time of it this year!

Lexie's do

November 28, 2010

It started to become a bit of a craze at church for the little girls to wear their hair in a side pony tail.   I noticed this, but since I sometimes try to avoid crazes, I wasn't interested in participating.

Lexie noticed the trend and began begging for this particular hair style to be worn to church one day.  It took some time, but okay, fine, we'll do it. Well, it turned out, that in all my hair-styling "experience and expertise" (ha ha), all the braided crowns, and basket weaves, all the french braids and rag curls, the combination of Lexie's hair and style of ponytail were not meshing well. It took me some time to finally get her hair to do what I needed it to do. In the end, she looked the look and we were pleased.

Honestly, I had no idea what the messages were that day in Sacrament meeting because no sooner did we get to church, then Porter AND Colin seem to be attracted to Lexie's new do. They spent the hour trying to grab at it, snarl it, and sabotage everything I'd just worked so hard to accomplish. Derek and I both just held our breath over the whole thing.

Once Sacrament meeting ending, I knew it was all over. She was off to Primary where Derek and I would not be there to protect her little head from any interceptions. I thought to myself, "Its over. I'm already fascinated to know how I'll see her at the end of Primary in TWO hours. Oh well, we tried."

To my complete shock, at the end of church I found my sweet Lexie with the same hair do as when we left the house 3 hours earlier! Somehow, some angel must have guarded her little head and she made it out just fine. Well, it came to the end of the day. Church had been over for hours. We'd had dinner and playtime with the kids. I put Lexie in her pajamas and noticed that still hours later, her do held strong. I took a bitter sweet picture because I knew, I'd want to forget this day's do, and yet, never want to forget it!