Christmas Catch-Up!

Life is BUSY!

What has kept me so busy that I haven't even had time to blog?
Let's see: besides the daily chores like keeping a clean house, doing laundry and dishes, there is also the home repair we've been doing such as tiling our kitchen and painting it (again!) I've also been working on Primary and Relief Society lessons and a talk for Sacrament meeting. Not to mention homework every night for Ty and play group and activities for Caleb and Mara! I barely find time to sleep, yet alone blog!!!

So let me begin by saying how nice it was to celebrate the birth of Christ and be able to focus our festivities around his life.

My parents and brother Blake came down to Price for a visit on Christmas Eve! It was a lot of fun to have them there to celebrate the holiday with us.

Christmas Eve
I found a fun activity for us all to participate in. It was a Nativity set that came with paint, glitter, glue & gems! Everyone was given one (or a couple) of the pieces of nativity to paint.

Mara painted the angel and Mary! Very nice choice of colors Mara!

I painted the donkey.

Mimi helped Caleb paint the sheep! He really got into the project and tried putting as many colors as he possibly could on the one animal.

As for the older boys (Nate, Blake, & Papa) they were very detail oriented and spent several hours on only one figure!

It was fun to see Blake's creativity! He mixed several colors before finding the perfect color for his camel!

Our wise papa painted a wise man! I can't tell--is that papa or Santa?!

Ty loved this project but his goal was to paint as many figurines as possible! He painted the stable, Joseph, and baby Jesus!

Annual Lewis Family Christmas Eve Pageant

This is our homemade manger. The kids had a fun time hammering it together and painting it. For family home evening we had a special lesson on service. We had a story about a family who did service to members of their family and each time they did a good deed they put hay in the manger for baby Jesus. I encouraged each member of the family to do good deed and help fill the manger for baby Jesus. This was a great experience for our family because as we did service not only did the manger get filled but our home was filled with the Christmas spirit!
The kids and I also worked really hard on making a stable, and the inn!! We enjoyed working together to paint and color the props for the play. I stayed up countless nights sewing costumes for the big production and the kids had a fun time helping me make crowns and cloaks!

Here is Caleb--our little Inn Keeper!

Joseph leading our 'valiant steed' or donkey towards the stable with Mary on it's back.

Nate's will participate if he can be the donkey! I made him some ears and tail this year so he too could have a costume!

What a beautiful angel!

Two little shepherds hearing the message from the Angel.

Caleb, Mara and Ty did a great job acting out the scene! They didn't have to say much, we read the story from Luke 2 and they just acted it out.

The shepherds went with haste to visit the new born Babe!

Here we have the '3 wise men'! They carried a gift to baby Jesus.

What a cute little wise man!

Well, she wasn't exactly a wise man, but she sure is a pretty wise girl!

The wise man just checking out baby Jesus! Give him lots of loves!

And that was about it to our pageant this year!

After the production the kids got to open the presents for baby Jesus! Which actually were new jammies--a favorite Christmas tradition of mine! I had a hard time finding the same jammies in all three sizes so instead they got all different jammies but each had something special on them! Mara's said: Sweetie because she is our little sweetie. Caleb's said Sports star because that's exactly what he is, he loves sports! And Ty's were camouflage because Ty loves camo!

Christmas Morning

What a great morning! We thought the kids would never wake up! Caleb was the first kid up and the others slept in til way past 8! We had a great breakfast and then we opened presents! (Usually we open presents at the crack of dawn and then eat a late breakfast!)

We kept Christmas simple this year! Each kid got a couple things from Santa.

It was nice to focus on the true meaning of Christmas but still have fun with the jolly elf!

Caleb was one happy boy opening presents! He would go around and find unopened gifts and start tearing them open whether they were for him or not!

Santa brought Caleb a new sled! Can't wait to try this bad boy out!

Caleb also was given this Thomas the train lego set! He loves 'choo choos'!

But I think this was Caleb's favorite gift! The laundry basket! Now every time he sees it he wants a ride in it!

Because this kid wants to be a 'king cowboy scientist' Santa brought Ty a cowboy set!

Caleb's favorite word is 'turtle'! He was pretty excited to get a new bib with a turtle on it!

A perfect gift for Mara: new clothes for her doll Megan! She is such a good little mom to her dolly!

Two brothers! Merry Christmas boys!

The famous pistachio tradition! Ever since I was a little girl I gave my dad pistachios on Christmas. Now that tradition has changed to my kids giving their grandpa pistachios on Christmas.

Christmas is so much more fun with kids! They make it magical and special!

Mara was happy with everything she got, and I never heard anything about not getting the pink telescope she wanted! Instead she got binoculars and she was thrilled!

Is that a monkey shirt?! It's true! I made each of the kids a "I love Uncle Monkey Face" shirt! And who is Monkey Face? Well, it depends who you ask! Sometimes it's Uncle Blake and other times it's Uncle Scott! But this time it's Uncle Blake and he too got a Uncle Monkey Face shirt!

Caleb loved wearing papa's Santa hat and saying 'ho ho ho!'

Here they all are: The Uncle Monkey Face and three little monkey kids! It was fun making the shirts, even if I was up most nights before for long hours of the night!! We sure love our Uncle Blake! It was fun to have him come visit us in Price! Wish we lived closer and could see him more often!

Christmas Evening at Grandma Lewis's

After we played with our new Christmas toys and packed up our car we drove up to spend Christmas evening with the Lewis family. The kids were happy to open more presents and see their extended family.

Is that Zorro I see?! Grandma Lewis gave Ty a Zorro costume! Ty loves dress up and now we have a black masked Spaniard to keep us safe!

Well---can you believe this one post is only two days?! Yikes...still so much to catch up on but it's a start!