Grandpa & Grandma Visit!!

 The best present of all came day after Christmas--Grandpa Ben & Grandma Kaye came to stay for almost a week!  We felt so spoiled--we've never had them to ourselves for such a long time, and the kids were in heaven.  Mom & Dad let them play Star Wars Angry Birds for a bit . . .

 . . . and we enjoyed a second sprinkling of snow!  This one didn't last.

We had fun opening more presents from Grandma & Grandpa, including this beautiful picture painted by Grandpa Ben for our entryway: 

 It is amazing, and almost as big as me!  He used Baby's Breath for the trees and tried to match the colors of the mountains outside our new home--without having seen them before.  It's truly a masterpiece.

 On New Year's Eve we enjoyed a little family party eating yummy treats (Evie scraped her nose hiking in Snow Canyon--poor girl!) and playing games.

 Gabe and Grandpa playing Rack-o on the same team (Gabe can be a very controlling partner--Dad was really patient . . . )

 Grandma & Eleni teamed up.  I thought I had more pictures of Momma with the kids!  She was so good to the kids and played with all of them in turn.

Grandpa spent hours putting together puzzles with us.  We all discovered that we like doing puzzles--we come by it hereditarily from Grandpa Juan, I guess.  I think we did at least 4 big ones throughout the week.

We had so much fun with them and really appreciated them sacrificing their vacation for us.

On Christmas Day in the Morning!

 Bless their patient little hearts--the kids let us sleep in until 7:30!  They are such good eggs.  We needed that sleep . . . 

It's always a challenge to get Daddy up, so a four-man massage was in order . . .

 Eager kids, waiting for Daddy to check for presents!

 Evie had not idea what was going on, but she was happy about it!

 Waiting patiently . . . . the kids have to open their eyes one at a time to see their presents.

 A few hours later, after everyone has enjoyed their gifts, it was time for a rousing game of Hungry Hippos.

 Evie's all-time favorite--Santa gave her a package of "Lella's!!!!!!" (there must have been a good deal somewhere . . .) and a stroller.  She spent the day strolling all over the house with all of them in tow.

Gabe enjoyed his new speed race track, and Jacob spend hours putting together his Legos (you can see them in the background before he opened them).  Lydia wished mostly for new clothes, and now looks fantastic, and Eleni got a new Princess Merida doll that Santa had a devil of a time finding.

Merry Christmas to all, and God bless us, every one!

Nativity, Elves, and Snow!

 The week before Christmas, our kids were asked to participate in our church's live nativity.  Eleni was thrilled to end up being Mary!  I guess the original Mary didn't show up.  Jacob was a shepherd, but Gabe (terrified of anything resembling a dog in size) wouldn't stand by the sheep, so he was sent to be the 4th Wise Man.  They had a lot of fun!  Donkey's, sheep & goats--you can't see it all from the picture, but it was pretty special.  I love how the park gazebo made a perfect stable backdrop.

 We all enjoyed hot chocolate, wassail, and cookies afterwards, gathered around fires in barrels.

Would you believe it--snow in St. George!  It came at 9:45 on a school night, and the kids happened to notice just before they hopped into bed.  It's such a rare occurrence around here that we ever get snow, so I decided to let them bundle up and go out and play in it.  You never know if it will last until the morning!

 Evie didn't want to come in--she was mad at me for making her, and wouldn't wear a coat.  Oh, these silly desert-dwelling kids!  I loved seeing them notice all the snow-ish things I love, like watching snow falling from a street light, seeing the "light-speed" effect of snow falling straight at you from the sky, catching it on your tongue, and having snowflakes in your wet hair.

 The next morning the snow was still there!  It actually stayed on our front lawn in the shade for almost a week--unheard of!  We were glad, because Daddy missed it, being in Washington for his brother Brian's wedding.

 Our elves noticed the snow the next morning.  The kids love seeing what the elves do each day (Grandma Lou's elves are much better than the Elf on a Shelf elves you see in stores).

 Listening to the I-pod . . .

hiding in the bookshelf and reading Christmas stories . . .

and on Christmas morning, keeping watch on the stairs, making sure little kids don't peek at their

presents!

 Of course, they needed a good game of "Authors" to pass the time (thanks Lou for this idea!)