{Catch-Up~ Christmas Eve}

Christmas Eve is always a busy tradition filled day! We always go to my parents for a candlelight dinner. None of us really remembers when or why we started eating by candlelight, but it's been a tradition almost as long as I can remember. You would think candlelight=fancy, right? Not for the Beckstrand clan, we feast on pizza!
We always have to hurry and eat, so we can make it to the Ward Christmas Eve Program. I love that our ward party is still on Christmas Eve. I know some people would like to see it changed, but I LOVE it! That's what we've always done, the same thing year after year, it's our tradition. A quick program, a few fun Christmas songs, a special visitor and some goodies. Quick, easy and fun! This year was a bit more stressful for me as I happened to end up in charge of the program (one of the "perks" of being in the Primary Presidency). I tried to keep it simple and thought it turned out pretty well.
The kids each got one last chance to tell Santa what they hope he'll bring them, (like the poor guy could really do much about it if they change their minds at that point) and he gives them a bag filled with goodies.
We headed home to decorate cookies for Santa. No milk for Santa round these parts, it's Coke all the way!
Then we open one gift..... Jammies! (can't be wearin' old Jammies on Christmas morning) This year Santa emailed each of the kids a special video from the North Pole, so we watched each of those and then it was off to bed to try and get some sleep!

{December Catch-Up #2}

Every year all my siblings get together at my mom and dad's for Christmas Festivities, usually on Christmas Eve, but this year we changed things up and got together for Family Home Evening the Monday before Christmas. The kids act out the Nativity.

Yes, this was the best picture we could get..... after many tries!

(Addie, Carlie, Kamryn, Tylie, Carson, Brock, Kaleb and Bryson)

Gram reads us a story. She chooses a new one every year, and for the life of me I can't remember what this years story was? When I remember (or more likely, I'll just call and ask her) I'll post it. This year we also watched Christmas Oranges. Addie and Carlie looked so cute sprawled out on the floor together. We open the presents from the cousins name drawing.... Youngest to oldest of course!

and then the "adults" open the gifts from the sibling and spouses name drawing. Katy got me the cutest new purse.... I can't believe I don't have a picture of it. Take my word for it, it's adorable..... it's red with a satiny chocolate and cream zebra lining!

I'm so thankful for my family! I love that we all live close and cherish the time we get to spend together.

{It's Catch-Up Time}

Once again, as usual, I'm playing catch up! Hopefully I can get done fast and keep caught up. One can always hope, right?
Just had to share Kaleb's battle wounds from Thanksgiving Day (which I never blogged about). The kids were playing downstairs at my sisters, after dinner while the girls visited and the guys watched football. They'd been told to stay off the treadmill, and Lis even hid the key, but somehow they got past us with it. We never really got the entire story, but Kaleb ended up with a few really sore looking battle wounds which are now pretty tough scars!
The Saturday after Thanksgiving Carlie and I went to see the Rockettes with Grandma Sheri and Sydney and some of Sheri's family. It was great to have a girls day, and Carlie loved every minute of it and was in heaven spending the entire day with her Syney. In fact, ever since then she's been obsessed with dancing and is pretty sure I'm going to sign her up for dance class any day now.

Carlie and Syd waiting for the show to start!

The next weekend was the Beckstrand Party here in Meadow. I look forward to our get togethers every year. We very rarely are all together anymore, but there were just a few missing this year, and it was nice to spend a few hours together.

We played a few Minute to Win it games and had some good laughs!

The kids wanted to do every game, and most of the adults were content to sit back and watch them.

Brock and Carson with their Great Grandma Beckstrand.
Sweet Miss Carlie

For the last few years my cousin Brian and his family have stayed at our house (Grandma's house tends to get a bit full) the night before the party. The kids all get along really well, and MaryAnn always makes me laugh. We really look forward to their visit and wish they'd come more often. Carlie always talks about her friend Allie for months after they come stay.

A few weeks later it was the Ainge Family party.

After eating and visiting, the kids sang a few songs while they waited for a special visitor.

Santa brings one gift to each of the kids. Brock made sure to tell Santa all about the remote control car he wanted, right down to the 1/10th scale and speed he wanted it to reach.

Carlie surprised us and asked for a Funmaker (Easybake oven that day). Every time before and after that she Santa she asked for Zoobles, but not that day.

Kaleb never wavered, the only thing he was hoping to get? A bearded dragon Lizard.

Carlie wouldn't let me leave until we took a picture with the other Karleigh. She just couldn't believe that they had the same name, and for her that sealed the deal.... they had to be best friends!

The highlight of the family party had to be when Karleigh jumped up on Santa's lap and announced that her dad needed a carburetor! HILARIOUS!

{Procrastination at it's Best}

I'm not sure how many of you have noticed, but I'm a pretty great procrastinator. I'm hanging my head in shame as I type that last line, but, really it's true and I'll be the first to admit it. I have great intentions, but I leave most things to the last minute and then scramble to get it all done in time. In fact, my friend Emily once told me that she's pretty sure I work best under pressure, thus the reason I leave it all to the last day..... so subconsciously, it's a purposeful thing? (not sure if that's totally true, but it sounded good, right?) Anyhow, I always put off getting my new calendar for the year. This year that wasn't going to happen. I got the Lang catalog out, and even sat down to order, in like Nov. But, something came up and I didn't complete the order. Fast forward.... it's now January. Do I have a calendar? Nope! Can I function without everything written down? Not so much! Run out and buy a calendar you say? Did you forget I live far from shopping establishments? Derrick offered to bring me a Polaris calendar from the garage.... thanks babe, but that really doesn't go with the kitchen decor. My solution....

Looks great right? Not really, it's TACKY, and I know it. But guess what? After 2 days of looking at that, I sat myself right down at the computer and ordered not one, but TWO calendars (one for the kitchen and one for the office/scrappy craft room). And guess what..... they were on sale! I got both of them plus shipping for less than I would have paid for one if I would have finished my order in November! I just may plan to procrastinate next year, and if it's planned is it really considered procrastination?

I just had to add one more picture. I asked the preschool kids to write their names on their papers the other day. I heard Carlie say something about curlies, but didn't know what she meant until I saw this..........

Who, but my daughter would fancy up her writing on her preschool papers? It must be in the genes.

{Busy}

It's been busy round here with Christmas and now New Years, snow and more snow, kids home and cleaning, not to mention getting ready for the new year in Primary.
I want to blog, I have things I need to blog about, I want to read blogs. I miss you all. The kids go back to school on Monday, and I WILL find time to blog then, I promise! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and wish you the best New Year ever!

{Shutterfly Savings}

I have always heard good things about Shutterfly and I had looked at their Christmas cards and picked some cute ones out, when I ran across a promotion they are running if you blog about Shutterfly and their Holiday Cards, you can recieve 50 free cards.... SCORE! What could be better than free cards? If you want to check out the details and try it for yourself go HERE. I've been playing with different combinations of our families photos on Christmas cards and now I have too many choices and don't know what I want to choose as my final product? I love that the cards are printed on quality paper and there are so many designs to choose from. Plus, they offer all kinds of other products from blog books to photo calendars to custom cards, and of course it's a great place to order your prints. The possibilities really are endless!

As much hassle as sending out Cristmas cards are, it is one of my favorite traditions. I love recieveing all your cards in the mail and seeing how much things have changed for you over the year!

{Surprise Vacation- Day 6}

Since day 5 ended with all 3 kiddos crashing in the car, we decided we'd enjoy the peace and quiet and get a big chunk of the driving home done.

We made it to Primm, NV at around midnight. Slept in the next morning, got breakfast and wandered around and checked out the outlet stores there. The kids had one last stop that they really wanted to make as we went through Vegas.....

we HAD to stop at the PAWN STARS pawn shop! The boys love the show (ok, we all like it), and couldn't wait to check it out.
The boys were so funny. They kept picking out things from the displays that they had seen on the show and telling us all about them.

Of course, there were a few things I would have loved to bring home. That Coke machine would be fantastic in my basement... too bad the price tag said $5,000!!!

The store is pretty small, and was VERY crowded and to the boys dismay, we didn't see Rick or the Old Man or Big Hoss, or ChumLee. But they were still excited to say they'd been there!