New Year's Eve!!

We had our New Year's Eve party Monday night with Shane and Alicia's family, two other families from our ward, and some of the kids' friends. It was nice having more adults at the party this year so that we could all visit! We had the traditional dance party, snacks, and games. Josh invited the neighbor boys over and Tanner (age 8) rocked it on the dance floor with the Orange Justice and the Floss! I think we pronounced him the winner! 

Jaiden and her friends, Lizzie and Emily, and her cousin Adria participated in our party for a couple of hours and then they all headed to the the Stake dance. Janelle went to a party at her friend, Brea's house, and then met them at the dance too. The New Year's Eve dance was Neon 80's dress and so I brought them to the DI to pick out some brightly colored outfits today. They looked great and had a good time!  Josh stayed at our party with his friends for a while and then joined the Phillip's party (hanging out with their grand-kids who used to live here). 

 

Snow and Overnighter

The kids were SO excited to wake up to SNOW!!! The cousins had a blast playing in the snow together and Rick took the kids over to the common area to do a little tubing. Meanwhile my mom and I went for an exercise swim in her pool. My mom invited Derek and Jen's families over and the kids played in the snow and we all played several games: Left, Right, Center; Pirate; and several games on Jackbox!

In the afternoon Rick and I left for American Fork for a much needed over-nighter! We stayed in a theme room (the Tahiti room) at a place called 5th East. We went out to dinner at a barbecue place called "The Holy Grill." We watched a couple of movies and just relaxed. It was nice to get away and just spend some time alone!

 

Christmas Day -- Skyping Elder Jared Jensen!!

Janika sent us this cute picture of her and Brandon in matching pajama pants that Brandon's mom made for them!

We headed to Grandma Jensen's house in the morning and Janika and Brandon came from Bountiful. We opened up these beautiful pillows the Grandma made. She always goes to a great deal of work to make something special for all of the grand-kids to save in their hope chests! The kids were starting to get dressed for snow play, which is why Jenna has snow gloves on!

We then got to skype our missionary!! Elder Jared Jensen looked great and was upbeat and animated as ever! He had us all engaged and laughing! We were able to do a three way call with Jase too. Jase had to work on Christmas Eve day and again the day after Christmas and so he decided it just wasn't worth driving clear to SLC and Ogden for only one day. Rick got everything hooked up so that we could all talk to one another and it was wonderful! Jared is having a great time and doesn't seem homesick at all!

The rest of the day Grandma played games with the kids and Rick and I read through Grandma Jensen's history that she is working on. We drove back to SLC that evening and the girls and their cousins had fun with face masks. All in all it was a great Christmas!

 

 

 

 

The girls doing facials...

Christmas Eve Party

Rick and I headed to SLC this morning in two separate cars. Rick took Janelle with him and had her drive part of the way (a couple of hours) in order to get some of her driving hours in. The party started at 4:00 with the traditional yummy soups! We then watched the fun family slideshows that Jen put together. Every year all of the families submit photos for an annual calendar (that Alicia puts together) and video slideshow (that Jen puts together). We always look forward to seeing everyone's pictures! 

After the slideshow was the candy bar game, which has become an annual tradition! Then we exchanged gifts with the family whose name we had. Chris and Kim had our family's name and gave us a soft fuzzy blanket, the left-right-center game along with a bag of candy for it, and movie passes for Rick and I! Wow! The cousins all had a great time playing together. My favorite thing about Christmas besides reflecting on our Savior's birth is just being together with my family! 

 

Early Christmas

The kids actually slept in until about 7:30 -- yay!! We gathered in Janelle's room for prayer and then the kids opened their stockings and gifts!

Janika and Brandon got a comforter blanket, her missionary memories book, and an Anniversary Inn gift card. Jase got clothes and some money towards his laptop. Janelle got a ukelele, earrings, and clothes. Jaiden got some dance shoes, earrings, and clothes. Josh got a hover soccer ball, shin guards, magnet game and clothes. Jenna got several stuffed pigs, a pig t-shirt, clothes, an art kit and an LOL doll. The family got a big screen TV and a couple of games (El Dorado and . Janika and Brandon got our family the Party Pack 3 games which everyone plays on the TV using their devices. Everyone had a great time trying out the games!

Rick fixed everyone a big breakfast of ham, bacon, hasbrowns, and eggs. We all went to church and Jaiden and Jenna sang a duet -- Shauna Edward's "I'd Sing You a Song." They did perfectly! The primary also sang several songs and the Young Women sang Shauna Edward's "Do You Have Room." They did a nice job also. After church we took naps and basically snacked all day on leftovers. Everyone packed up for Grandma's house and we watched a Christmas movie together. It was a nice Christmas day!

...

 

 

 

Our Christmas Eve

We celebrated our Christmas Eve tonight. We were grateful that Janika and Brandon were able to come down from Logan! They arrived yesterday afternoon and went out to dinner with Jase. Josh and I went to Pizza Pie Cafe to meet up with the carolers for their last show. We watched them sing and then we all enjoyed the all-you-can-eat buffet! We were hoping that Janika and Brandon could join us in order to hear the carolers sing, but Janika wasn't feeling well and so they went back home after dinner. The rest of us headed home after our dinner and the carolers sang one of their songs for Janika and Brandon. Then Rick had them check in all of their costumes and the caroling season was officially over!

Saturday was a little stressful trying to get ready for tonight. This month has been SO busy and stressful and I didn't feel at all ready for Christmas. Janika and the girls were a huge help getting the meal ready for tonight. They prepared pretzel jello and cheesy potatoes for tonight. I brought Jaiden and Jenna over to our neighbors to practice their duet for tomorrow. We all headed over to St. George Musical Theater to see Beauty and the Beast. Our of our friend's was directing the show and was able to get us some discounted tickets.

They did a fantastic job on the show! We really enjoyed it. The only problem was that it started fifteen minutes late and the show was a little long and I was worried about overcooking the ham which I had put in the oven before we left. We hurried home and got the rest of dinner put together. The dinner turned out well. The ham had cooked a little longer than I would have liked, but it was still good.

Rick taught a nice lesson on the doctrines of Christmas and then the kids opened their gifts from each other. They draw names and are supposed to make the gift. Janika had Josh's name and she and Brandon made him a beautiful blanket! Jase had Jenna's name. He broke the rules by not making his gift. He gave her a cute little piggy bank from his work. Jenna is obsessed with pigs and so she loved it. We still gave him a bad time about not making his gift though.

Janelle made a cup in her ceramics class for Jaiden. Jaiden made a cute framed picture for Janika and Brandon. Josh made a little comic book for Jase and Jenna drew a picture of "Janelle, the Christmas Fairy." Jenna is really into fairies lately and often draws extremely detailed pictures of various kinds of fairies. The kids went to bed and we put the presents out. We got a big screen TV for our big family gift and so there were not as many gifts under the tree as usual. It was plenty though!