Christmas

We started off our christmas celebration with the Seljaas family party. It is so fun to get together with everyone and was especially fun to welcome home our nephew Nathan from his mission. (I'm so mad I forgot my camera for all of our christmas parties!) We had lots of fun exchanging gifts, playing christmas songs on handbells, and playing games. We even had a visit from Santa. The next day was Christmas Eve and we had a fun party at Eric's Aunts house where we Danced around the Christmas tree and sang a Norwegian song. We look forward to this party every year and love getting together with Eric's cousins. After that party we went to my sister's house for my family party. They had a wonderful ham dinner that everyone enjoyed. Kristi had put together some really neat christmas mormon messages that we watched and then the kids each sang some christmas songs. When it was Brinley's turn we heard a knock at the door and Santa left his bag full of toys for the kids. They were so excited to see what he brought them. Brinley was excited that her singing brought Santa to them! The kids had lots of fun exchanging cousin gifts and were not disappointed with there gifts. I am so grateful to have such wonderful family on both sides and enjoy so much when we get together. We were anxious to get home so the kids could get to bed! They were so wound up they came out 3 times! They all slept in the same room and had a fun night together. Christmas morning when 7:00 hit and they still weren't awake, we decided to go and wake them up! They were very excited to see what Santa brought them. They were very excited to see new American girl dolls, pillow pets, and a new dog!(this is the only dog we will ever have at our house!) Sadie was very excited with all of her cooking supplies and has been cooking us treats ever since. We have been loving our new WII game Just Dance for kids, and Brinley has been everyone's school teacher over the break. Aunt Brooke new just what Brinley loves to do, play school. It has been so nice to have a break from our normal routine and we have been loving staying up late and sleeping in!

Christmas Traditions

This time of year is so fun with all of the family traditions that go on. We started the month off with remembering my Dad on the day that he passed. It is amazing that it has been two years. We always go and visit his grave and the girls make a special card to put on it. We still miss him so much and our conversations frequently include memories of grandpa. My mom is so amazing and she told us that she didn't want that day to be a day of longing but she wanted it to be a day to look forward to each year. She has started a tradition of giving me and my siblings a gift each year on Dec 4th as a gift from my Dad. She is always thinking of her children and we are blessed to have her.

The next week we had fun at Grandma Alldredge's Gingerbread party. The kids love this party and look forward to it each year. Grandma read them a christmas story and they all intently listened. We have quite a group now and it can get a little chaotic! We ended the party by playing christmas songs with hand bells. They were all sad when the fun was over!

Of course each year we ride the front runner and trax into temple square to see the christmas lights. We decided to go on a monday night for FHE. We weren't the only ones that had that idea! It was so crowded but we had fun and it was actually a pretty warm night.

With Christmas approaching soon the kids are excited to have 2 weeks off of school. There excitement of christmas is infectious and we have lots of fun together baking, going to christmas parties, and being with family. I love this time of year and the special feeling of Christmas.

Festival of trees

Hailey and I took a little field trip to the Festival of trees with my sister's and mom. She had lots of fun with her cousins, making fun crafts at the kid's corner, and especially sitting on Santa's lap. She was so excited to tell him she wanted a dolphin pillow pet and polly dolls! The tree's were amazing just like they are every year. There are some amazing people and stories that were told.

Christmas Jingle!

I have just finished a big order of Jingles and had a few left over. If anyone is interested in one let me know. I am selling them for $25.00

Our Angel's

We started our Holiday season off by choosing 3 angels off Woods Cross City's angel tree. The girls have been saving their money and doing extra jobs around the house so they could by their gift's with their own money. Sadie's Angel wanted hair accessories. We bought a couple of things for her but we also had fun making a few of our own hair clips for her. Brinley's wanted Zhu Zhu pet stuff. Hailey's wanted a new doll stroller. We had lots of fun shopping for our Angels and I think the girls learned a important lesson about giving and helping others. I think we have started a new tradition and look forward to doing this each year.

An Attitude of Gratitude

Ever since General Conference I have had President Monson's talk on my mind "An Attitude of Gratitude." I loved this quote that came from his talk.

"Do material possessions make us happy and grateful? Perhaps momentarily, However those things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us. Unfortunately, these are some of the things we allow ourselves to take for granted... A grateful heart, then, comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all they bring into our lives. This requires conscious effort-at least until we have truly learned and cultivated and attitude of gratitude."

A couple of weeks ago for FHE we made gratitude wreaths. The girls wrote down everything they were grateful for. It was fun to think about all of our many blessings. President Monson's talk is so true. It is easy to get caught up in all of the materialistic things of the world, but the things I am most grateful for money can not buy.

BYU's #1 Fans!

I think BYU has some new #1 fans! Sadie and Brinley were so excited to go to the BYU game over the weekend. It was definitely the game to go to BYU won 55 to 7. We had tons of fun watching the game but the girls really loved watching the Cheerleaders do all of their fun stunts and cheers. By the end of the game we were pretty good at the Rise and Shout Song! IT was perfect weather and a fun day of football!

The newest craze in our family is Jump roping! Sadie came home from school the other day with this and ever since I have someone jumping in my house! A week ago they really didn't know how to jump rope, now they are pro's at it!

Halloween!

Last week was a little bit crazy! The girls were so excited for there Halloween parties at school. Brin was sick all week with Croup but thank goodness was feeling better by thursday and was able to make it to her party. She was excited to wear her M&M costume. She came home with a spider in a Jar. They told her to watch it each day and it would grow a little bit bigger. She thought it was the coolest spider ever! Hailey had her school program and it was so fun to watch her. They sang some really cute songs and then went trick or treating to all of the parents. It was really cute. She loved being Dora and had fun singing the Dora song to everyone. Sadie was a Dead Bride and loved her costume and party. She came home very happy too! We decided to try something new this year and we went to Colonial Square and trick or treated around to all of the stores. We then moved on to our Ward's trunk or treat and luckily they made it around to most of the cars before the down pour of rain started! It was a little crazy and we got really wet but it was a lot of fun. We came home and took a little break before going out again. Sadie was really excited to go trick or treating around our neighborhood with her friends. It is really weird she is old enough to do that by herself. Eric took Brin and Hailey out and they all had a good time. A funny story that happened with Hailey was I told her that her Uncle Jason ( who is her dentist) told her she had to throw all of her candy away. The next thing I know she is bringing me the garbage can to show me all of her candy! I felt so bad and told her I was teasing! She thought it was pretty funny and was really happy to get her candy back! It was a fun Holiday but I kind of glad it's over!

Brinley and her Spider
Sadie cooking up a Spooky Halloween Dinner
Hailey's School Program
Hailey got to dress up as Sleeping Beauty for her friends birthday party. She loved it and got to meet Cinderella!

Grandma Alldredge's Halloween party

The kids anticipate this Halloween party all year. They love their Grandma but they especially love that she dresses up just like they do! This year she dressed up as a Cow. She even had a cow bell around her neck! She had to do a little explaining about the Utters hanging off of her! lol. After group pictures were taken they were off to their first activity which was the Pumpkin Pinata. They each took a turn with the bat and eventually got it open. Tons of Candy bars fell out and they were grabbing to get some in their sacks. Then they had to eat a donut off of a string without using their hands. They moved on to making a spider web out of string, playing don't drop the ghost, doing a fun cake walk with Kristi's fabulous cupcakes. Hailey didn't like this game so much. She cried the whole time because her number never got called out. We fixed that problem quick and all was well! We finished off with pass the rat and a fun fishing game. Grandma always goes way above and beyond and we love her so much for it. She has a special relationship with them and they love her a lot.

Brooke's family was so cute we had to take a family picture

baby Seth was such a trooper!

Cabin Fun!

We had a really fun weekend up at the Bear Lake Cabin. The drive up was so beautiful and we loved looking at all of the different colors of the tree's. We were sad that Eric couldn't come with us this time because of work but we still had lots of fun. We had the best weather and loved carving our pumpkins. Sadie did her's all by herself, Uncle Jason helped Hailey carve a pumpkin tooth in her's and Brin did most of hers by herself. They turned out cute and loved carving them. Some of the kids then went on a hike while the older girls and mom's made some cute mummy sucker's out of oreo's. They were so fun to make and tasted even better. Kristi made us a delicious soup dinner and had orange pumpkin bread bowls to put our soup in. It was a really fun weekend and the kids were sad to leave but we were happy to come home and see Dad. We missed him tons!