Christmas concerts

Christmas season means that our kids have lots of Christmas concerts.  First was McKenzie's school choir, the Mini Mustangs.  Their performers was entitled "Flakes" and they sang some of the cutest songs about snowflakes and snirt (snow + dirt).  McKenzie's buddies Aubri and Brielle also sang in the concert and Brielle even had a cute little speaking part.

Next we had McKenzie's piano recital.  She was very nervous for her first recital but you couldn't even tell.  Her song was entitled Atacama Desert, and is supposed to be played nice and relaxed.  She was so excited that she started playing faster and faster and started bouncing up and down as she played.  Her piano teacher, Owen, literally started laughing watching her bounce.  She did a great job.

Lastly we had Cambrie's school orchestra/band/choir concert.  She's been playing the cello this year and has been having a lot of fun with it.  The boys and I arrived to the concert a bit late because we were trying to get all of the kids to all of their activities, and ended up sitting on the ground in the very back of the gym.  The boys didn't mind.  They had room to wiggle and had an easy escape route to the cookies in the hall.  

I didn't get a recording of Cambrie's performance since our sightline was so poor, but for a brand new orchestra they did very well.  The audience could tell which songs they were playing and that is success!  Pretty proud of these girls and how hard they've been practicing.

Christmas train

I love this new tradition my family has, the Georgetown Loop Railroad Christmas train.  I procrastinated getting tickets so our time options were very limited.  We ended up on one of the night trains in the middle car which ended up being perfect.  Daxton loved the train ride (can't you tell by his hot cocoa covered smile?)  

The lights were pretty, but the best part were the carols they had playing over the radio, Santa singing with us, and the snacks we munched on as we traveled.  With the dimmed lights almost none of my pictures really turned out, but that's ok.  

I had a blast, the kids had a blast, they were able to see Santa, drink cocoa, and ride a lighted Christmas train. 

Baby Bumblebee

My fingers are crossed but I think we have reached another milestone in this house, kid four is potty trained!  He is such a stubborn kid that the potty training thing had to be his idea.  For two days in a row he started taking off his pants to go to the bathroom in his little potty.  I decided to go with it.  He was awesome for about a week, then started to fall off the wagon.  I bought him a Transformer Bumblebee and we started his potty chart.  Well, it only kind of worked.  He kept carrying around the toy in it's boxed and tried to sneak it when I wasn't looking, even though he hadn't earned it yet.  We took all of his supplies to Utah over the Thanksgiving holidays but that didn't work at all.  There was simply too much going on.  After breakfast with Santa we decided to try again.  This time Daxton finally grasped the concept of potty=sticker=Bumblebee.  He was so proud when he put that last sticker on his chart.  Now he finally has his Baby Bumblebee.  I think it should stick this time...I really hope so!

Breakfast with Santa

We did something absolutely crazy and drove back to Utah five days after our last trip out for Thanksgiving.  We needed to retrieve our boys, but we also needed to make it out for Breakfast with Santa.  It was really funny to watch Daxton this year with Santa Claus.  When Santa came in, Daxton ran up to him and followed him around using his eye glass he had just received from his popper.  Santa wasn't quite sure of what to make of this little boy who followed him all the way from the front door to his chair just staring through his glass, and just laughed.  

When it was Daxton's turn to sit on Santa's lap he hopped right up and snuggled in for the best seat in the house.  He was even brave enough to ask for a Mac truck for Christmas.

  All my other kids also hopped right up without delay.  Kelton asked for a Wii. 

McKenzie asked for a bow and arrow. 

and Cambrie asked for a surprise.  

I was very impressed that the kids were still smiling when it came time for family pictures with Santa.  (Except for McKenzie who decided to pull a face, rotten kid.)  

Our family. 

 The Rogers clan.  

After pictures Santa read a bunch of stories to the kids before heading back to the North Pole to finish up some Christmas preparations.  

The cousins exchanged gifts, and everyone ended up with what they wanted.  

During all the craziness I glanced over to see the boys all piled on top of Liam, he is so great with the kids.  They adore him.  

The grand finale was a reading of the mismatched nativity by Jan.  

I'm glad the kids had smiles on their faces because we had to turn right around and drive back to Colorado the next morning!  At least they're dressed for the occasion!

Gingerbread Village

It's gingerbread house time!  Since I have enough kids who want to be completely hands-on for our gingerbread house project, we decided to try something new this year and build a village.  Each kid was able to design and build two houses.  The original idea was that the village was going to be attacked by giant gummy worms, or gummy frogs, or abominable snowmen.  That idea worked great since we had a lot of broken house pieces that needed to be puzzled back together.  I was super impressed by the ideas each kid had for their houses, and how well they put them together.  Even Kelton was determined to do a great job and put on every single shingle on his roof by himself. 

 Daxton slept for most of the creating, which was frankly a lot easier than having him eat all of the building supplies.  When he woke up however, he was very surprised to see a bunch of little friends for him to play with.  

We beat every record this year and finished our village by 8:00pm.  I was so happy we weren't up until midnight finishing.  

Dantley and Cydney also finished theirs pretty quickly.  They did Godzilla destroying a city. 

 Alysha made Spiderman hanging from the side of some apartment buildings.  Both she and Bruce were up until midnight finishing theirs.  (Don't have a picture of Bruce's Florida home).  But it was worth they effort, they both looked great.  

Somehow Cydney's photography skills can even make frosting gingerbread trees look romantic!  

Cambrie was thrilled that we were able to add the abominable snowmen to our city.  They definitely top off the whole thing.  Great job kiddos!

The Nutcracker

This year we talked the Rogers into joining the Stratfords up in Ogden for the Nutcracker.  I knew that some of my Stratford cousins were going to be there, but I was so delighted to see not only the Mark Stratfords, but also my Grandma and all of the Kennedys!  We took a long time making our way to our seats because we just kept chatting.  While we were chatting I looked over and saw McKenzie trying to nap on the bench in the lobby.  I admit, at that point I didn't have very high hopes of her being able to make it through the entire performance without falling asleep.  Cousin Matthew to the rescue!  He had wisely stopped at a gas station on the way to the ballet and picked up a couple bags of candy.  He gave one to McKenzie with strict instructions to savor every bite to make them last the entire performance.  They were miracle gummies and she made it through the whole thing. 

 It was Ballet West's debut year with their new costumes and scenery.  It was enchanting.  I loved the changes with the the waltz of the flowers costumes, the flying sleigh, and the little puppet theater.  While much of the choreography remained the same, it felt like an entirely new experience.  Neither Alysha nor Cydney have been to the Nutcracker since they were kids, so for them it was entirely new.  I wish we would have taken a picture with the whole crew, as my mom and Camille were there too, but alas we'll just have to use our memories!

Thanksgiving dinner

Fast forward now to the feast we all earned after our morning run.  We look pretty good all cleaned up when we're not sweaty huh?  

The spread.  We may or may not have eaten most of the vegetables sitting out before we officially began dinner.  We were a bit peckish!  

Happy kids!  

Happy adults.

While Jeremy and I were eating our kids started coming up to us asking to be excused.  We glanced at their plates, saw they were more or less cleaned off, then let them go play while we kept eating.  Daxton came up last and wanted me to look at his volcano.  One look at his plate is all it took for me to realize why the other kids' plates were so clean....they scooped everything onto his plate!  He was so happy with the size of his volcano that he had no idea he was being used as the scapegoat!  Cute kid.