Feels Like December

Add freshly fallen snow to the already potent mix of carols, garlands, and twinkle lights, and it is officially Christmas time here in Utah. When Livs went down for her morning nap today, the kids and I bundled up to face the cold. And yes, I put those nimble little bodies to work. Turns out that they love shoveling snow and actually helped a lot this year. Plus, it's much more fun to work with 2 little buddies at my side. Looks like we'll being doing more of the same tomorrow...

Bentley and Cares cleared this whole stretch all by themselves--that's a lot of shoveling
for such little kids!

It wasn't all work out there today...

Building our gingerbread house this evening

Who do you think was way into the whole process?

Dancin' man

Carrie told me she didn't want two posts on her blog in one day, but I think this is worth it for a couple of reasons.

1. I wanted to try posting video taken on my new phone
2. Ethan presented me with the perfect recording opportunity, a song and dance extravaganza sung to the tune of mele kalikimaka.

It's a slightly lesser known version of the song. In case you can't make out the words they are:
"Banditos chili peppers" is the thing to say
on a bright Mexican holiday

If you've ever wanted to see some awesome dancing, I proudly present Ethan. Cec, this was mostly for you since you're missing out on all this important "growing up" that is going on while you're gone.

Olivia Crawls

Our baby is on the move! As of last weekend, she has mastered the army crawl. I think the twinkle lights and ornaments on our Christmas tree were too fascinating for her to resist.

Highlights of the 2 minute movie:

--Cares' scratchy voice (as always)
--her cheer for Olivia
--Bentley swooping in to get his stuff away from his sisters
--Olivia's baby sounds
--and her half-downward dog/pike right at the end

...oh, and the movie The Santa Clause playing in the background and providing some very nice ambiance. Enjoy!

Sorry about the grainy light--we bask in the glow of our tree and hate to turn on real lights during December!

My Favorite Letter

Bentley wrote this to Joseph and me the day after Halloween:

Translation (in case you aren't familiar with my five year old's phonetic spelling):

"I can't wait for Christmas because I will get tons of presents from you and Santa"
The bottom pictures are of Caroline and him opening presents ("Be" for Bentley and "Ca" for Cares)

So, we're working on remembering the true purpose of Christmas, but I still love this letter. And love that it took Bentley about an hour to create it. He is turning into such a little speller and writer and reader. Kindergarten is the coolest!

And we made snowflakes yesterday. Why are those still so fun to make even though I'm 30?

A New Tradition

Joseph and I bought a wooden advent calendar with darling little doors and cubbies about 5 years ago. As Bentley has grown, we have had fun finding little treats and prizes to hide for him during the month of December. Just last year, Cares was old enough to discover the fun of it too and so we went all out--and had too many tiny "thingees" floating around the house at the end of it all.

This year I am copying 2 fantastic ideas to revamp our tradition:

1) My sister uses 24 scripture passages all about the Savior's life and teachings during the days before Christmas. She sent me her list and I have filled each door with a scripture reference for us to read as a family each night before the kids go to bed.


2) I read about this on my sister-in-law's cousin's blog (see--I practically know her so it's not like blog stalking...) and I decided to embrace the same idea and add activities to each day as well.

Our list of activities (if you care to know the ins and outs of the LeBaron family):

1. Family Movie Night: Elf
2. Make snowflakes
3. Family Movie Night: The Santa Clause
4. Nursery Rhyme Festival at school & family pictures
5. Choose out a tree with Grandma & Grandpa and Smith cousins
6. Make cards for cousin gift exchange
7. Build gingerbread house
8. Family Movie Night: The Polar Express
9. Nativity coloring pages
10. Mommy daughter date to see The Nutcracker
11. Family Movie Night: Santa Clause 2
12. Take TRAX downtown for dinner at the Gateway and lights at Temple Square
13. Make cards for Aunt Cecily's birthday
14. Read and watch DVD of Luke 2
15. Christmas music program at Bentley's school
16. Decorate sugar cookies
17. Zoolights
18. See Princess and the Frog at the movie theater
19. Ward Christmas party in the morning
20. Make Christmas tree ornaments (button snowmen OR bead snowflakes)
21. Dinner at The Dodo & Christmas Street Lights
22. Create homemade gift wrap & use it to wrap sibling and cousin gifts. Extended smith family party.
23. Open 2009 books (digital scrapbooks I made for each kid)
24. Christmas Eve! Open sibling gifts during the day & head to Grandma's in the evening.

There seem to be a lot of movies on there--but we love Christmas movies at our house and thanks to our DVR, they will all be recorded and waiting for us by the end of this week. Except for Elf. Because we adore that movie and own it for real--like in a tangible, hard copy way. So old school...

So, my kids are excited but I am actually quite excited too :) I love this time of year.

Up on the Housetop

After helping Joseph string lights last year, Bentley has decided it is his new tradition.

And Cares has too.

Bentley loved practicing his "hohohos" and dropping toys down our "chimney."

My kids are sooooo excited for Christmas--are yours? ;)

**Just adding that no one was hurt in the hanging of our lights this year...and it freaks me out to have my kids up there but doesn't seem to worry my hubby one bit. He's the one in trouble if we ever break our kids...

Our Thanksgiving

It was an off year for both my family and my in-laws--and luckily for me, we combined efforts and enjoyed our feast all together up at my parents' cabin. Then we all spent the night in the mountains and enjoyed games, yummy pies, silly kids, more pie, cooing babies, turkey sandwiches at 10:00 pm, Beatles Rock Band, and finally some sleep.

Ruth Ann and Mary

Grandpa Neil and Bentley

Tillie, Bentley and Caroline

Thanksgiving baby

Marshall, Bob and Joseph

Jim, Mary and Seth

Cousins cuddling up with Nanny

Classic apple turkeys (made this morning before we all headed home)

To live a life of gratitude is to open our eyes to the countless ways in which we are supported by the world around us. Such a life provides less space for our suffering because our attention is more balanced. We are more often occupied with noticing what we are given, thanking those who have helped us, and repaying the world in some concrete way for what we are receiving.

-- Gregg Krech

Happy Thanksgiving