Grandma Whimpey

  Grandma came out to visit us in February. She stayed at Brad's house for a few days and visited us everyday since we live so close! We took her out to Saltgrass for yummy dinner, Incredible Pizza for lots of fun, and hung out at the apartment playing games and watching TV. 

Katie measuring up! So close!

 The entrance to Incredible Pizza

 The starting lineup! Matthew, Katie, Emily and Uncle Brad driving Bex

 Emily is trailing the pack!

Katie fighting Matt off to stay in front! 

Katie gets 1st place! 

 Matthew came in 2nd

Emily fought to hold Uncle Brad off! 

 Bex had such a great time riding with Uncle Brad!

The older crew got to do a round of lazer tag 

 While the younger crew played on the kiddie rides

Uncle Brad, Matthew, Katie and Emily on bumper cars 

 

 So much fun bumping eachother!

 Everyone turns to gang up on Katie!

And of course with all the games are tickets! They love trading in all their tickets for toys! We had such a fun night out with Grandma and Uncle Brad!

Christmas Eve Dinner

We celebrated Christmas Eve at the Long's house with an awesome yummy dinner! We enjoyed our cousins, Aunt Amy, Uncle Brady and Uncle Brad! Here we are at the adult table.

 The kiddie counter

Jake and Bex playing on the floor

 Bex, Maren, Emily and Jacob hanging out

Katie and cousin Jake checking out the Christmas tree 

 Jacob checking out all the presents!

 Time to sing our favorite Christmas tunes!

 More music!

 Aunt Amy the accompanist 

 And of course we had to witness Brad and Matthew trying to light up this place!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

Magnolia 1st Ward Christmas Dinner

This year we were blessed to be able to double dip in the Christmas celebrations at church! We had breakfast with the Magnolia 2nd Ward this morning and now dinner with Magnolia 1st Ward.

Needless to say, Jacob was not a big fan of Santa this year! This is as close as he would get!

 Rebecca was a complete angel for Santa

 Emily sat on the jolly fellow's lap!

And shared a good laugh! 

 Matthew got to share his short list of gifts he wants for Christmas

Even Katie got to sit on Santa's lap!

What a great group of kids! 

 They were so excited to get awesome candy from Santa!

 In the end, Jacob came around to at least look at Santa without any tears!

 We were the VIP crew as Sam's friend Freddy Youngblood was Santa that night! He was fabulous and none of the kids knew who he was so it was special awesome for everyone! Thanks to Freddy and his wife for sharing that evening with so many great people! 

Mag 2nd Ward Christmas Breakfast

What a fun way to celebrate Christmas this year! All my kids are ready to dig in to their yummy breakfast!

 The older girls were ready to help the younger primary children decorate their Christmas tree ornaments!

 Katie helping Bex craft

Super cute gingerbread man ornaments! 

 Emily finds time to work on one also!

Matthew telling Santa what he wants 

Rebecca waving with Santa 

 The whole crew gathered for one quick photo with Santa! Everyone had a great time!

Katie's 7th Grade Christmas Performance

The 7th Grade Choir performed a couple beautiful Christmas songs - Katie's favorite to sing was "The 12 Days After Christmas" 

  Mrs. Hehli directing the choir - Katie is just to her left

After the 7th grade choir performed, we listened to the 8th grade choirs and also the Magnolia high school choirs. It was a wonderful concert!

And of course Matthew was a stinker and wanted to leave as quickly as possible, but we made him sit through the entire concert!

5th Grade Christmas Play at Ellisor

 Emily had a huge part in her Christmas play this year as the narrator and she NAILED it!!!

 Here she is in her singing spot

But she mostly stayed in the giant red chair at the Christmas tree 

She spoke so confident and clear and we were all impressed with her performance!

 Making her pose next to super tall Santa

 This was her comfy spot!

And of course her #1 fans afterwards!