Christmas Eve Night

After the party we came home to start our own family Christmas Eve tradition.

 The kids always get to open one gift from us and as they say "of course it's pj's".

 

 They all went and got dressed and came back looking really snazzy.

 We have a Nativity movie put out by the Church we like to watch so we can talk about the true reason for Christmas and that always puts us in a nice calm mood.

John read us The Night before Christmas book and we sent everyone to bed.  It was a fun and busy day but we got to bed as soon as we could to be ready for Santa's arrival that night!!

Christmas Eve Party

 Christmas Eve we always have a party with the Shattuck side of the family at John's parents.

 The kids always have a good time and they were able to play with Seany before anyone else came.

Its nice to see our family and spend some time together during the holiday. We have good food and just hang out for a while.

The kids always open gifts from Grandma and they always get what they wanted! It was a fun night spent together with our extended family.

Nativity

At Church on the Sunday before Christmas the kids did a special Sacrament Meeting where they read the Nativity Story and sang some songs. All of the kids dressed up and they looked so good.

Katie was a Sheppard, Zach was a Wise Man, and Aaron was Joseph. They did a great job and they looked so cute when they along with all the other kids stood up and sang Away in a Manger.  It was a nice meeting and it was a great way to start the holiday week.

Christmas Cookies

 We were a little late at making our cookies this year but we still had just as much fun as always.

 All of the kids helped me roll out the dough and they each got to choose which cookie cutter to use.

 Once the cookies were cooked and cooled the kids were eager to help decorate them.

 They did a great job and some came out better than others but we had fun making a mess together.

We had a fun day and the cookies were so yummy! Can't wait to make them again.

Christmas Concerts

 Both Katie and Zach had special Christmas Concerts this year so we were very excited to be able to go to both of them together.

 Katie's was during the day at school so we were able to go to hers first.  They did a little play from the 1930's. Katie's part was to be a hobo and she even had a small speaking part, along with singing some Christmas songs. She did a really good job and we were able to sit in the first row so we could even hear her when she sang.

 Later that night it was Zach's turn.  He looked so nice all dressed up so Katie wanted to dress up too so she could look as good as her brother.

 The Middle School Chorus is all grades 5th through 8th and they only have 9 boys.

Zach was in the front row so we were able to see him really good.  He did a good job and he knew all the words to his songs.  They sounded pretty good for the age of the kids. We are very proud of Zach for joining even though none of his friends did. Great Job Zach!!

Normandin Christmas Party

 Every year we get together with the Normandin side of the family around Christmas time and this year we had a great time at the party.

 We do a potluck dinner so we can all share our favorite dishes.  I also make up some kind of game for the kids to play as well so they have something to do beside just run around and be crazy.

 Zach helped me make a big snowman and we cut out his center snowball to make a fun bean bag toss game. We also cut out carrot noses to play pin the nose on the snowman.

 On John's side of the family my kids are the oldest so they are very big helpers and had a blast playing and teaching the games to the younger kids, they even came up with prizes to hand out when they played each game.

 John's Mem and Pep started this family party many years ago and its fun to get all together at least once a year with everyone and I know they love to see there whole family at once.

We were able to get a really nice family picture since we were all there together.  There are 44 of us with 15 kids.  It was a nice night to visit with cousins, aunts, and uncles.

Skating on the Frog Pond

 We wanted to go into Boston to see some Christmas lights and found out they had an ice skating pond at the Common so we decided to try it out.

 Katie was the only one who had been before so we were all learning together. Zach is a very fast learner so he took off and got the hang of it pretty easy. Katie took a little time to get back into the swing of it but she was picking it back up after a few times around.  Aaron and I were slow learners and didn't leave the wall to much but we both got the hang of it near the end.  John who is to good at everything like Zach was our life line and made sure we all stayed on our feet as much as he could and took turns going around with each of the kids. 

We had a lot of fun and everyone got pretty good after a while.  We all got pretty tired so we decided to take a walk and look at the lights around the Common.

 Aaron was tired from skating so Katie was nice and carried him up the hill for a while.

 We went and saw the big tree that was across from the Capital so pretty all lit up.

 We found a pizza place to fill our hungry tummy's before heading back to the car.

 I took a couple videos and though I would share this silly one.  We had a lot of fun and its so cool to say we went ice skating at the Boston Common. I think we might have just started a new family Tradition. 

Katie's Friend Party

 This year we decided to let Katie have her first friend party.  She invited 6 girls but 2 were only able to come but we made the best of it and had a good time with the 3 girls.

Amanda was very kind to come over and help me by doing the girls hair and nails since Katie wanted a make-over party.

 We played some games, like pin the candle on the cupcake.

 Somehow the candles ended up on the girls faces.

 They played twister and musical chairs for a while.  They ended by playing freeze dance and were so silly they ended up on the floor most of the time.

 Katie got these really cool fuzzy slippers and earmuff head phones.

 We ended the party with ice cream sundays. Even though it was small we had a really fun time and Katie had a good party.  What a great way to spend  your birthday with your best friends and no boys in the house!!

Happy 9th Birthday Katie

 After the Nutcracker we went to Johns Parents and had Katie and Papa's Birthday party.  We got Papa's favorite pizza for his gift from us and then went right into opening Katie's gifts.

 Most of her gifts were Lalaloopsy things and she loves them.  She now has a village and a bunch of girls.

 Katie is known as the skunk around our house so when we found this hat it was a perfect fit for her.

 Katie is back into swim team again and taking it very serious this year so we got her a team bag, cap and a new swim suit.

 John's gift to Katie was a Freebie and she loves it.  Seany didn't really understand what it was for but he wanted to carry it around the house.

 Katie wanted an ice cream cake this year and it turned out to be pretty good.  It was a fun and busy day but its nice to be able to spend some time together with our extended family.  Happy 9th Birthday Katie!!!

Annual Nutcracker Outing

Every year since we moved here we have had a girls outing for Katie's Birthday to the Nutcracker and this year was no different.

We got all the girls together and had a wonderful day together.  Katie was able to get her picture taken with the Sugar Plum Princess before we headed into the auditorium.

We go and see a local youth company and they do a great job and every year it gets better.

We had a great time together just us girls and its a great way to start the Christmas Holiday.