Christmas Day!

We had a wonderful Christmas and feel so grateful for all of our many blessings. Our kids did great this year and didn't wake us up until 7:15. Jason came into our room and asked if we could open presents. We actually had to wake up Anne and Eliza but, they were soon ready to get going with Christmas. They each got what they wanted from Santa and then they got a couple of gifts from Mom and Dad. Part of our kids Christmas is we are going Disneyland in a couple of months so Santa left Mom and Dad money to go to Disneyland. We spent the day at home and my parents and Jill stopped by to see how our Christmas went. We then spent the afternoon and evening with the Schwitzer side. We opened presents with Mike's family and then had a very yummy Christmas dinner. It was fun to be with everyone again!

Jason's Christmas wish came true when Santa brought him a Wii. He has been playing with it all day!

Anne got the Loving Family doll house and she loves it. I wasn't sure if she would like it as much as she has. She sits and plays with it for hours!

Eliza got a new doll cradle and baby doll. Eliza enjoys playing with dolls and hugging them. She especially loves pushing them in the stroller.

We hope all of our friends and family had a great Christmas and we are so grateful to all of you and for your love and support to us! Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve!!

Christmas Eve was with the Young side of the family. We got together and had a great dinner and stuffed ourselves. In my family we have the tradition of playing bells on Christmas Eve. My Grandpa Davis made them and wrote a bunch of Christmas songs that we can play. I have been playing these Christmas bells every Christmas Eve since I was 5 years old. It's fun to watch my kids now enjoy playing them and each year my family gets better and better at them.

We welcomed a new member to the Young family on Dec 19th! My brother and his wife had a new baby boy named Parker. He is so handsome and Anne really enjoyed holding him on Christmas Eve.

We also did the nativity with all the cousins. Anne was Mary and Jason played Joseph. Allen was a wise man and Hayden was a Shepherd. Eliza was a sheep but, she wouldn't keep on her costume. We were lucky to have baby Parker play the part of baby Jesus and he truly played the part well being only 5 days old!

Our family Christmas Eve

On December 23rd Mike and I decided to have our family Christmas Eve. We love our extended family and want to be part of everything but, felt like our family wasn't forming our own Christmas traditions. So, on the 23rd we officially started some fun ones. We started out with a nice Christmas dinner with Ham and all. For dessert we had some Chocolate pudding and in one of the puddings there was an almond in the pudding. Whoever had the almond got to open the present that was set as our center piece in the middle of the table. Mike got the almond this year which meant he will have lots of luck this year and he got to open the present. ( This is a Swedish tradition and I thought because Mike and I both come from Swedish back grounds this would be fun.) Mike opened a Nutcracker which my kids were excited about. After we read our new Christmas book and the kids got to open their Christmas Pajamas. They then got to sleep out in front of the Christmas tree and watch a movie. We had such fun night and it was so much to be with our little family and hopefully start some traditions that will stay with our kids forever!

Christmas Pajamas!!

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house

The Saturday before Christmas both Grandparents had our kids over for some Christmas fun. My kids started out at Grandma and Grandpa Youngs where they made gingerbread houses. My kids look forward to doing this every year and they enjoy having one on one time with my parents. It's nice because we leave our kids and then Mike and I get an afternoon for a date. The pic above is of Eliza and my Mom with her stocking. My Mom has cross-stitched all of my kids stocking and she had just finished Eliza's this year. It is a beautiful stocking and I know it took my Mom hours. I think that it's something my kids will really cherish having their stockings made by their Grandma. Thank you Thank you Grandma Young for all your hard work!!

Jason with his gingerbread house!

Grandma and Grandpa Schwitzer have the Grand-kids over to make salt dough Christmas tree ornaments. My kids enjoy doing this also and like doing something with all their cousins. We also as a family did a humanitarian project by filling plastic bags with soap, toothpaste, shampoo and other essentials to give out to people that need it around the world. It was a fun day with both sets of Grandparents!

A white Christmas!

We have gotten so much snow the last couple of weeks. On Christmas we got another foot of snow and it is snowing again today. These pics of the kids were taken 2 weeks ago but, I thought they were cute of them playing in the snow. The snow is now as high as our back wall in the picture of Anne. We bought a snow blower this year and Mike is so happy that he isn't breaking his back shoveling! The pic above is Anne eating a snow cookie.

Eliza wasn't sure about the snow this year. She would just stand and watch the kids play. After a while, though, she started playing and enjoying the snow.

Jason built this snowman all by himself. It's not a 3D snowman it's just one flat on the ground. He was so proud of it!

Jason is the Shining Star

Jason was the shining Star at school this past week and he was so excited. On Monday, I went into his class and introduced Jason and told some neat things about him. After that every kid in the class can ask Jason a question. Here were some of the most memorable.

Question: Jason what do you like to do for fun.

Jason: Looks over at his teacher and says "Homework."
The kid already understands how to brown nose and what answers are good answers in front of certain people.

Question: What is your favorite animal?

Jason: Penguins.
What in the world? I thought that was pretty random.

On the drive home from school he said, "Mom I do not want to eat anymore bad foods like cookies and candy. I only want to good food like apples, chicken, and oranges." I said, "Well, bud it's okay to eat cookies and candy every once in a while. He said, " No Mom, My teacher said only good foods and my teacher knows everything." Great so, now his teacher trumps Mike and I!! So, once he got home and I had made some cookies he forgot all about eating good things. All he wanted where some cookies and I let him!! Ha Ha Ha

Young Cousin Party

On Sunday we had the Young Cousin party. We missed having Brad and Melanie there but, the party still went on. My Mom had us all over for a nice turkey dinner and then we just talked and we exchanged some gifts. I am grateful to have fun cousins and it's always fun to talk about old times. Merry Christmas to all my cousins! We love you tons!

Every girl needs a Sister!!

This past week my Sister Jill graduated and got her degree in Physical Therapy Assisting. I am so proud of her and I know that she worked very hard to accomplish this goal. I just wanted to take moment express my feelings about sisters. My Sister and I are seven years apart. I am blond,white, and have freckles and she has brown hair, dark skin, and no freckles. Some people do not believe that we are sisters. My Mom has always said that she got her blond girl and her dark girl so she was happy. Growing up I think I took on more of a mother figure to her but, now that we are older she is one of my greatest friends. She is someone I can talk to and know that she will not judge me or think badly about me. She helps me with my kids and loves them to pieces. In return my kids adore their Auntie Jill. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father sent me a sister because it was really lonely with all of those boys. She is a lot of fun and we can spend hours laughing about the dumbest stuff. I love her so much! She isn't dating anyone at the moment so anymore with cute brothers send them our way. She is a great catch. Anyways, I am just grateful for my sister.