It's practically here!

 
Christmas is upon us! It has been full of all the things little kids find exciting and magical. The daily advents, Christmas lights, and the never-used-enough "you better watch out, you better not cry" to lure them into cleaning their rooms and behaving at church.

We have had fun listening to Mc mispronounce the traditional carols: "good tithings we bring to you and your kids" and keeping Kingston from touching all the ornaments on the tree. We have watched countless hours of the original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", made sugar cookies, delivered neighbor gifts and played in the snow.

Mc wants a "soup case" (suitcase) and the Ston is asking for motorcycles and "struction site" (construction trucks).  Mark and I wish for a day to sleep in past 7 am and maybe, just maybe a potty trained little boy before the end of 2014! Here is hoping Santa brings you all you ask for!

Cindy Lou Who. Alex far exceeded herself with this hairdo.

Dickens Festival 2013 with Father Christmas. Mom brought a picture of me from 1984 to show him. He is still the best and cutest Santa around.

Preschool program poser.

Snow lady made with Alex. As you can see, Kingston was totally interested.

Filling in for "The Man in Red"



This is what happens when I say, "I need to take one to see if this works".



The fam- minus Brayden and Alina. They had left for the night.

For the past few Christmases, we have had the chance to buy gifts for children who are part of the Adoption Exchange of Utah. Kids who don't have homes, or families and move from place to place with everything they own in a garbage bag. My friend Lindsay heads up the project and every year, I wait for an email to carefully pick a family of kids that we can support. It has been a fun tradition and it always gets me that even my brothers (the gangster, too hard core for Christmas type) always get involved. This year we had a family of 4- two boys (6 & 7) and two girls (5 & 11 months). We had dinner and then hit the Target to buy their wants and needs from a list. My favorite part is thinking about these kiddos on Christmas morning. My brother Tyler says he always wishes he could "be there to see them open their presents"- I couldn't agree more.
We are SO blessed- my kids want for nothing and our family is so close. It only seems right to want to help these kids have what we have all had (gifts and people who care) since we can remember.