Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always one of my favorite nights, the excitement of things to come and all the craziness in preparing for it. We had Christmas Eve at Jeff's parents house, it was wonderful. The food was delicious as usual and we shoveled it all in as usual. The kids then did talents for the first time this year and Jaxon gave the whole Aunt Mandy poem! This poem was Great G-pa Hawkins favorite poem and since he has passed on we had Jax memorize it. He had it memorized in less than one week and the poem is 30 lines!!! Amazing. The boys then did "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth". The cousins did their parts and it was wonderful. We then did the nativity and it went a little smoother than last year, at least the kids wore their costumes for longer than a minute. Bev then had these new chimes and we tried our best to play Jingle Bells, maybe next year. It ended with the kids opening their pjs and then these amazing boxes!

Our little nativity, baby Jesus (Hunter) only cooperated for a minute though

Our shepherd boy (Jake) and Wise Man (Coop)

Jax had been looking forward to being Joseph for weeks and Jadyn was Mary as usual.

My boys on the donkey with their Christmas jammers!

All the cousins in their pjs wrestling as usual with those cool boxes in the background.

These are the boxes each one was personalized according to each grandkids interest. Bev's friend Janna is absolutely amazing and painted each one. Her brother-in-law actually made the boxes. Jake is all about saving the princess and being the hero with a sword usually. His is a pirate theme, with a map on back (pictures don't even do it justice) with a pirate ship on front. Jaxon has always been into sports especially baseball. So his has a baseball jersey on top with a bunch of balls on front and a baseball diamond on back. Thanks Beverly! We love them!

Blessing Day

We blessed Hunter today, and everything went great surprisingly. Minus my skirt zipper breaking there were no mishaps. He was so good the whole time, I am always afraid they will be screaming in the middle of it, but that has never happened and I've never heard it happen to anyone else. Maybe he knows how special it all is. If only I could remember all that he probably still can. Someday I suppose. Thanks to my great families for all of their help getting everything ready. Hunter, we love you and couldn't ask for a sweeter little guy to add to our family!

I had to tell the story of this quilt. We were at Grandma Hawkins house and she had just finished it and brought it out to show everyone. Jaxon was particularly interested in all the animals on Noah's ark. We all talked about it and then she put it away. Well, about 10 minutes later Jaxon went up to her and said, " Great Grandma, can I see the blanket again with all the animals?" She said sure and got it out. Then he went on the tell her, "I think my mom needs that blanket for her new baby!" (That was when Hunter was still in my belly.) Grandma thought that was so cute that she gave it to us. She is so talented and it is beautiful! I am thankful Jax was so bold to ask her because it is my favorite blanket. It almost tempts me to change our nursery from surfing to Noah's ark. Thanks Grandma H!

Polar Express and Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we went up to Ogden this year. We tried to figure out how long it had been and we don't think we had ever been up there for turkey day officially, we were in Hawaii last time. It was so fun to have all of us there together which doesn't happen very often! Thanksgiving day was busy! The guys went golfing for free at El Monte Golf Course. While we started our day of cooking and boy was it a lot of cooking! The turkey was our biggest fear as usual and it turned out great, thanks to Jeff who kept a close eye on it. All of my cousins on the Squires side came over for pie later that night and it was fun to catch up with them and see all their cute kids. On Friday Mitch and Cami went at 4:30am to shop with all the crazies! We then went up to Park City and shopped a little, next time we should go there earlier, they had some killer deals! Then for our final event we went to see the Polar Express! It's the Heber Creeper turned into that and it was amazing! Next time I am going to put the kids in matching jammies just like the story. It was decorated all Christmas like. We drank hot chocolate, ate cookies and read the story the Polar Express! Mrs. Claus came to visit and give us her cookie recipe and than who stopped by!? Santa himself came and gave the kids bells from his sleigh! We sang Christmas carols to top it off. When Santa came Jake closed his eyes and didn't want to see him, while Jax was all about it. Then when Santa gave him a bell he brighted right up and said I want a motorcycle and a Woody! Jax told Santa he wanted a motorcycle and a Buzz. Jaxon was so cute with the bell, he kept holding it up to his ear and shaking it just like in the movie! This was a great way to kick off the Christmas season! Hopefully we can do it every year or every other year. Thanks mom and dad!

This is Jaxon so excited and you can barely see Jake in the background with a sad face which immediately turned happy when he got the bell! Hunter was more than great the whole time! They are ready to Go!

 A Family pic by the Engine!