Merry Christmas

This was suppose to be Baylen's year to work on Christmas.  We were pretty bummed because not only was he scheduled for Christmas day, but they scheduled him for Christmas Eve, too.   Well, Christmas eve rolled around and as we were doing last minute things to get ready, Tanner was outside playing hockey.  He accidentally rolled his hockey ball into the sewer.  Baylen went out to try to retrieve the ball.  He pulled the grate off without realizing how heavy it was and ended up dropping it on one of his hands.  It hurt bad enough that we took him in to get it x-rayed.  Long story short, he ended up with a doctors note that he shouldn't work that night.  Yay!!!  We had a really fun night.  We had a delicious dinner, played games, and then the kids did a little program.  Here they are in their nativity costumes...

 I love Christmas eve for many reasons.  One reason is that my kids go to bed better than any other night of the year.  Jared looked up on his computer that Santa was in New York all ready.  That's all it took to get them off to bed.  As I was putting the kids down, Ashlyn turned to me and said, "When I said my prayers tonight I prayed that Santa would be safe as he travels."


With the kids asleep super early, the adults actually had time to watch a movie without any interruptions.  (I forgot to mention that we stayed over at Grandma and Grandpa Whipple's house!)


Here are the piles of presents (not including what Santa left)

 Here are the excited kids in the morning.  It was super fun spending Christmas morning with cute Bailey!  We were lucky, they all either slept in or laid quietly until 8:00!

 Our big gift this year was a wii.  The kids each asked Santa for a different wii game.

 A popular gift this year was these wiggle cars.

 It was actually really nice that Christmas was on Sunday this year.  We were able to break up the present unwrapping with celebrating the real meaning of the day.  Here are the kids and grandma after church.

Celebrate!

So, I'm realizing now that I didn't take very many pictures during the holidays.  Now that Baylen does the majority of picture taking, I think I'm out of the habit.  We had a great Christmas break.  It was even better this year because Grandma Betty flew down to spend it with us.   We got together to do something just about every day.  Here are a few of the things we did...

We went to see the Up house again.  This time we got to walk through the inside.  It was pretty awesome!

 We made gingerbread houses.  Ashlyn ate most of her candy before it made it to her house.

 The houses got super creative this year.  Tanner and Baylen made the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

 Leslie got back from Russia two days before, so she decided to make Russia's famous Spilt Blood building (I can't remember if it's a cathedral or not).  She wanted to make it as close to the real thing as possible.  I think the picture of Jesus on the front just completes it :)

 The Kiddos... minus Jackson

 One evening we went with Doug's family to This is the Place Heritage Park for their little Christmas thing.  They had a lot of fun things to do.  This is Mickell and grandpa learning how to dance- pioneer style.

  Watching a puppet show about how Santa ended up with reindeer...

                                      
         
                                      
And of course, we had to visit Santa.  Here is my proof that Grandma was flirting with the old man (of course, this was after she wrote her name on the naughty list).  I think she was trying to redeem herself.

 Ashlyn insisted on giving her letter to Santa in person.

The Lights

Baylen had to miss temple square last year because of work, so it was top on the list for this holiday season.  We had a fun night together as a family!

 We took a couple of indoor breaks to warm up!

 The reflection pool is so pretty!

Christmas with the Sillitos

We did our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and nativity in early December this year because Boyd and Terry were going to be on a trip in  Mexico over Christmas.  

We started out with the usual french bread, cheeses, and clam chowder and then did the nativity program.  With 18 kids participating, just trying to get everyone in costume is a huge ordeal.  Grandma was super organized and had all the costumes laid out.  She also had a sign up for parts which worked out really well.  Usually there are tears because EVERYONE wants to be Mary and there can only be one.  However, this year's production was tearless.  Yay!!!

I have to laugh at all these pictures.  Poor grandpa likes to have a nice, spiritual production.  However, it was almost a comedy act with all the kids.  

 The kids always wait on the stairs until it is their turn to "perform".  We'll call this the peanut gallery :)

 You mean you've never heard of a sword fight in a nativity production.  Well, ours had one!!!  Love it!

 Ashlyn LOVES babies.... sometimes a little too much.  Here she is with little Josh.

It was a fun evening but we sure missed seeing everyone over the holidays!

Tis the Season

Here are pictures from our much anticipated "Sleep around the tree" night.  We ate dinner at Golden Coral, saw the movie Puss and Boots, saw the lights at Layton Park, saw Santa at the mall, played games, danced, ate goodies, read the Polar Express, and watch a Christmas movie.  We fit a lot of fun into one night!!!

The kid's favorite game is the Night Before Christmas Right/Left game...

 We decided to keep our sibling gift exchange pretty simple this year.  Each of the kids took a dollar they had earned to the dollar store to choose a gift.


Mickell got Tanner a basketball game...

 Tanner got Ashlyn these jewelry connectors...

 Ashlyn got Hailey glitter glue...

 Hailey got Mickell glitter nail polish...

It was such a fun night.  One new game that we kind of made up was musical gift bows.  We put several different colored gift bows on the floor.  Then we turned on Christmas music and danced around until the music stopped and then we had to grab a bow.  It was so simple but we played and laughed about it for a long time.

This is Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween. Our ward put on an amazing Halloween party the weekend before. I wasn't able to participate in most of it because I was in charge of the hot chocolate booth. I wish I would have taken a picture of the booth. My friend (who is an amazing decorator) helped me put it together and it turned out better than I ever imagined it would. We had Halloween marshmallows in a cauldron and whipping cream and hot fudge that were in different potion bottles. It was fun, but A LOT of work! The one thing I was able to participate in was the haunted hayride. It was amazing!!!


This pirate ship was part of the haunted hayride.  There was another ship across the street.  The cannons really shot foam balls out of them.  There was pirates of the caribbean music playing, too.  I felt like I was on the ride at Disneyland!
                           
We were also able to go to the Parker's Halloween party. It was a costume party which really threw me off. I haven't dressed up in probably 10 years. The plan was for both Baylen and me to be hippies. However, I spent a good 5 hours the day of the party trying to make us bell bottoms. I thought it would be an easy project. For most people, it probably would have been.   However, sewing has never come easy for me and it was a disaster. So, we pieced together everything we had to make Baylen a hippie and then at the last minute I threw on an old prom dress and went as a fairy princess. We had a lot of fun eating delicious food and playing Halloween games. 

On Halloween day we had my family over for dinner and trick or treating. The weather was perfect for trick or treating this year and we hit lots of houses. Our neighborhood is definitely the hot place to be on Halloween. Everyone gets so in to the holiday!

Tanner went trick or treating on his own with friends this year. I'm kicking myself that I didn't take a picture of all his candy. He got enough to fill over half of a pillow case. I'm sure he had at least 15 pounds of sugar!The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousins. I guess we never got a picture of them all together, though.

Tanner was Zorro...

 Ashlyn was Cinderella...

 Mickell was a bee...

 Hailey was a ballerina... 

 Here are the princesses.  I wish we had a picture that showed their costumes better.  Oh well.  You would never know that Raylee and Ashlyn are only 3 months apart in age.  They are definitely on the two extremes of height :)

My Life

My life is full of little moments that make me smile, laugh or feel very grateful. I just wanted to write down a few of these moments...so I can keep smiling, laughing and feeling grateful for them for years to come!

A few weeks ago Ashlyn asked me if I would play fairies with her. While pretending to be fairies, she decided we both needed names. I asked her what she wanted her name to be and she responded, "I'll be the yellow snow fairy." It would probably make more sense if I explained that her very favorite color is yellow and she was being a winter fairy. But it really was too funny!

Last week for family home evening we were talking about the scripture in Matthew about, "In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." I started the lesson by talking about birthdays and what we like about birthdays. I then related it to how we celebrate Christ's birthday at Christmas time and how it would be neat if we could give him a gift. Ashlyn immediately chimed in that of course we could give Jesus a gift. She said, "All you have to do is get a present, wrap it, and tie a balloon to it so it can float up to heaven." She was totally serious as she said this. That definitely wasn't the point I was trying to make, but it sure made us smile.

Tonight for part of family night we watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas. I don't think there are many things that will get you in the true Christmas spirit more than that show. I was so impressed by how much it touched my kids. Tanner mentioned that he always wants to take his wallet with him when he goes places so that he can give his money to people who need it. Hailey asked me if an old homeless lady that we saw in Salt Lake last March might still be there so that we can help her. These little comments kept popping up all night. Later tonight Tanner brought his letter to Santa up to me. He typed it up a few weeks ago but we haven't gotten around to mailing it yet. I'm sure glad we haven't because tonight after the movie he decided to revise it. At the bottom, he penciled in, "P.S. The number 1 thing I want for Christmas is for all the lonely people not to be lonely."

Feeling Blessed

I have a journal that I keep of the little miracles and tender mercies that I see every day in my life. Most of the things I write about are too personal to put up on the internet. However, I do want to include this experience so that I have it in my blog book.

On Thursday, since Baylen was home to watch Ashlyn, I decided it was a good time to go to the temple. Several things came up that morning and I kept thinking that I couldn't let them get in the way. I didn't make it to the temple in November and nothing was going to get in my way that day. So, I got ready and headed out. Well, by "nothing getting in my way", I didn't even imagine that category 2 strength hurricane intense winds actually just might.

I first noticed something different as I drove up 200 North. There were several semi trucks parked on the road. I thought it was strange but really started questioning what was going on when I turned on to the on ramp and had to squeeze between AT LEAST 25 semis parked on both sides of the on ramp. If I would have been smart I would have realized that something was wrong and backed off the on ramp. However, I drove through the semis and onto the freeway. It took me a whole 3 seconds to realize that my life was in serious danger. The wind was more intense than I had ever experienced in my life. I didn't know whether I should stop right there (like many other vehicles were) or try to get to the next exit. Terrified, I decided that I needed to get off the freeway, so slowly I drove on. I made it to the next exit but then realized that I didn't know what to do next. The winds were even more intense on the off ramp because it was higher and totally unprotected. I knew that if I tried to cross over the freeway, I would blow off the bridge to the freeway below. As I was stopped, waiting for the light to turn green, I think I experienced one of the most terrifying moments of my life as the mini van in front of me was rocking back and forth on the sides of it's tires. I could feel that I was doing the same. I called Baylen in a state of panic and asked him what I should do. He confirmed what I already knew... I needed to turn left and go across the bridge to the other side so that I could take the back roads home. To say that I was beside myself would be an understatement. How was I going to cross that bridge and live? However, a few seconds later I had a prompting that I should turn right. I had no idea where I was going but I turned right and somehow made it into a neighborhood. I thought I'd be a little more protected there. As I looked around, I was in total shock. It seriously looked like a hurricane had gone through. All of the fences were scattered in streets, every stop sign I passed was bent in half, most of the houses had all of their siding torn off and there were countless huge uprooted trees fallen everywhere. I assumed that I would be trapped on the west side of Farmington for several hours. But, another little miracle occurred when my mom (with the help of map quest) was able to help me find a way to get home. As soon as I got home I immediately turned on the tv to learn that I was in Farmington at the exact time that the worst winds were pulsing through there. I saw video of flying signs, branches and power lines. The building that I was stopped next to had one of those huge construction trailers blow away. My mini van is way lighter weight than one of those and I feel really blessed that I wasn't in the same situation as that trailer or dozens of other semis, cars, and mini vans that were tipped by the wind. That area was actually declared as being in a state of emergency. I know that I was inspired to turn right. With as bad as the destruction was on the west side, the east side was so much worse. I feel like Heavenly Father really protected me and helped me know what I should do to get home safely.

They canceled school on Friday because of all the damage. They also had us go home early from church today so that the guys could go help clean up from the damage before another huge wind storm hits tonight. Pretty crazy stuff!