Another Christmas come and gone-we had lots of fun while my parents and brother were in town. On Saturday evening after going to the indoor Nativity at the church I had to go to work for an hour. While I was at work the missionaries came caroling to the house and sang "Joy to the World". After they were done they asked the family if they had any requests and Mike said how about "Joy to the World" and my mom agreed. The missionaries then said they just sung it but they would do it again if they wanted. On Sunday my sister and Nick came out to join all of us at church and then my mom made us a yummy dinner.

The Brady family came over to drop off a couple of gifts for the boys so we invited them to stay for dinner. Mike had left to watch the big 49'ers vs. Seahawks game on the big screen at his folks house so we watched the game here-Cody and I were outnumbered with the amount of Seahawks fans in the house. Afterwards when Mike got home he commented on how we had people in his house that were not 49'ers fans. I think the words "irreconcilable differences" came into play:) The kids had fun decorating cookies and also making a craft where they put candy canes on a little candy bear so it looked like a sleigh.

Chrismtas eve we went up to Tacoma for Mike and Juliet as they were entered in a 5k Christmas Eve run. Mike ended up placing 1st and got a certificate for a free pair of running shoes. His time was 18:00. That evening we went over to Desi and Nicks for a little party. We played some games, ate, and did a white elephant exchange. The boys all got items that they were excited about.

I was lucky to have most of Christmas day off. I only had to work from 7-8 p.m. We got up about 6:30 and started unwrapping around 7 a.m. The boys had lots of fun and said this was the best Christmas yet. (of course they say that every year) We went over to Mike's parents to have Christmas dinner and unwrap presents with them in the evening. We got one big gift for the kids to share this year: an xbox 360 kinect. Needless to say the boys have been having fun playing. I even beat my mom bowling once so all in all we had lots of fun before they left. The boys are having their cousin over tonight for a sleepover so we'll see how that goes. They sure are excited.

December 22nd!

Another fun week here and almost gone. The boys had a busy week with their Christmas parties at sschool, playing in the first snow of the season, delivering different goodies for our advent calendar, appointments, Christmas shopping, a gig, and work.

Dallas had lots of fun yesterday spending the whole day with Grandpa Stone while he learned how to make a horseshoe cowboy. It was a really fun opportunity for Dallas to be able to spend time with Grandpa and learn how weld. He made the whole thing himself with the supervision of the expert Grandpa Stone. We are looking forward to Grandpa and Grandma Cooper and Uncle Derek arriving this afternoon for the Christmas holiday. We are planning on going to the Nativity at the church this evening and seeing the wonderful nativities they will have on display there.

One more week down

This last week went by really fast while Jason was visiting and Michael was busy taking finals (which as of today, he has A's in three of his classes!) Jason and Mike actually did quite a bit of things together even though Mike had to spend some time studying. Jason was able to finally see Mike play in one of his bands, Idol Eyez, for a gig in Belluevue. Played guitar a bit, went swimming, got busted talking during Sunday School and Jason even volunteered to babysit one night so Mike and I could get out for a couple of hours. Dallas was even able to go on a run with Mike and Jason one morning. The day Jason left Mike had his biggest and hardest final, so he took Jason with him so he could take him to the airport right afterwards. Well as luck would have it, Jasons flight was delayed so they were able to go to lunch together too. Yesterday for our advent our fun thing to do was make cookies so I gave all the boys a glob of sugar cookie dough and let them have fun making their own tray of cookies. The night before we had made cookies and taken them to certain houses where we would ring the bell and run. The boys had lots of fun running before the door would be answered by the recipient.

Happy December 8th!

We had a super fun day today. Mike, Jason, and the boys helped put up all the Christmas lights on the house and the blow ups on the lawn. Our house is officially decked for the holidays.

Tonight we also went to our ward Christmas party at the church and mom Stone was able to come with us. The boys were able to see Santa and Mrs. Clause -Mrs. Clause asked Brandon what he wanted for Christmas and he said that he already mailed Santa a list;) There was a yummy ham dinner and a really nice musical program. Dallas, Cody, and Elijah all sang in the primary choir which sang "Away in a Manager". I love this season.

Merry December 1st!

The boys helped me make an advent calendar this year so we could count down the days until Christmas. On the back of each day I put something fun for us to do as a family or do for service for someone. I spread them around my menu calendar in the kitchen and the boys get to take off one each day. Brandon got to take off the first one this morning and on the back it said to make a gingerbread village so that is what we did. It was a little messy with the frosting but the boys had fun and can't wait to eat them (don't think they will make it to Christmas like I had originally intended). The kids are already excited to see what tomorrow's brings.