We had our 3rd annual homemade chicken noodle soup on Christmas Eve. The noodles came out wonderfully:
And the soup was so yummy that we barely had any leftovers from this huge pot.
This photo is out of order. The kids actually did this on Christmas Day in the afternoon. They put on a Christmas talent show where they dressed up and performed their version of the nativity and then sang us some Christmas songs.
And this too, is out of order. This was Kaya's reaction after she opened her Unicorn Pillow Pet. She's had her eye on them for months now and always made me stop at the display in the store so she could hold them. Lynnsey was thrilled with her Ladybug Pillow Pet too.
Christmas morning, before the whirlwind began:
Santa brought Taylor a Native American flute, Kendall a pottery wheel, Lynnsey a pink digital camera, Spencer Moon Dough, and Kaya got Baby All Gone.
The kids drew names among themselves this year which worked out really well. Kaya loved her bubbles from Taylor.
And here is Spencer holding the one casualty of Christmas so far. None of us had seen Toy Story 3 yet but I managed to snag a copy for Spencer at Rite Aid using my +Up Rewards and coupons for around $5. We watched it in Christmas evening, (and loved it!) the kids watched it again a couple of days later , and the day after that we discovered it sitting loosely in it's case with a giant crack running right down the middle. Kaya was quick to volunteer herself as the culprit. Big surprise. She is one of the most distructive kids I've ever seen. (Just broke my little collectible teapot this morning!) Sigh. All those wasted +Up Rewards... (You couponers will understand.)
And our little crafter girl was ecstatic with her giant scrapbooking kit. 
And here's our kid with the great reactions. I believe this was over his ELO CD. He watched a concert on TV a few months ago and has been asking for their music ever since. We had a fun little dance party that afternoon.
We spent the following week enjoying our gifts (and trying to find a place to put them all), eating lots of chocolate, watching movies that we'd received, sleeping in late every day, and enjoying finally having time together. For New Year's Eve we joined some friends from church at their house where we ate lots of snacks and played some super fun games. The kids all made it to midnight and probably could have gone longer if we hadn't dragged them home to their beds. Kaya has been begging every day to go back to their house to play. (It actually is pretty amazing; they have 8 kids and their last 5 match up perfectly in age to our five.)
On New Years Day, we played some of our new games that we got for Christmas: Blokus, Apples to Apples, and Uno.
Sunday the kids all moved up in Primary. Sort of. Spencer's class still doesn't have a primary teacher but he was pretty excited that he got to move to the second row. And Lynnsey is a bit disappointed that because her birthday isn't until January, she has to stay in my class for a whole year and be separated from her best friend who is only two months older than she is. I also still have my one little challenging boy again. He was looking so expectant and excited as they were calling out the new classes and when they told him to come with me, his shoulders dropped and he said: "Again?!" But then he laughed and came and gave me a hug, so I guess he'll deal with it okay. Gotta love a branch with combined classes and a shortage of teachers. Oh, and Sunday was Testimony meeting and after Kendall and I had both gotten up, Kaya decided it was her turn. So Kalen took her up and she sang "I am a Child of God" for her testimony. Cutest thing ever!
And now the kids are all back in school and we're trying to get back into a routine and I'm just trying to keep up with it all again while I'm just wishing for a couple more weeks. Can't wait for summer vacation...
5 comments:
Oh, my gosh! Were you in tears listening to Kaya sing her testimony? I would have been. That is just precious!
Bentley was thrilled to announce he moved to the second row in primary too!
Christmas sounded lovely. I really, really need to catch up my blog.
Oh my goodness, where to begin? With the loss of Toy Story 3 that is so reminiscent of when Ian busted our copy of Ichabod Crane the day I bought it, before we could even watch it? Or is it the wasted +UP rewards, reminding me that Brent got shafted out of $1 +UP last week but didn't want the hassle of asking them for it? Or is it your lack of teachers and having to combine and finagle because you simply don't have enough bodies?? Amy, have you channeled my inner being? Or have I channeled yours? If so, let's work on finding some more teachers and then we'll both be set. :)
That sounds like a really nice Christmas and New Year. I am looking forward to summer vacation too. Christmas break just wasnt long enough.
I also have a very destructive daughter. However, I think Jenna has Kaya beat. Not only does she run through the house like a whirlwind destroying everything in her path. She has managed to break the unbreakable. We have corelle plates (you know break a chip resistant) The other day my daughter managed to shatter one. The only big piece was the one that said break and chip resistant on it.
Sounds like a great Christmas! Thank you so much for the family fun night stuff. We are really enjoying the music and are having fun playing dominoes. The treats were gone fast too! Thanks again!
So I have to say that the plates Melissa is referring to are in fact breakable! Rebecca has already proved that to be the case!
I love all the pictures and I am sorry to hear about the movie. I don't know what the point thing is that your talking about but I would assume that it is a sad thing to have used them and then have the movie broken!
I was almost in tears to read about Kaya singing as her testimony! Very cute!
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