Christmas 2012

Christmas has come and gone, and the kids are back in school.  It was a fun break and I really enjoyed having the kids home.  Nowhere to be, no schedule.  It was lovely and a much needed break from "busyness" for me!  I think Ellie is having the hardest time with the big kids gone.  She got extremely spoiled with all of their attention for two full weeks!

Here are the annual "kids on the Sunday before Christmas" photos.  I wish I could say Ellie kept her hair like this but pretty sure the clip was taken out before we stepped foot in the church.  It was cute while it lasted.

Recognize her dress?  It's her blessing dress!  I bought it on clearance at Old Navy for her blessing and the only size they had was 12-18 months.  It was a bit large on top but you couldn't tell when she was wearing her little 0/3 month sweater.  Plus the length was perfect for a longer blessing dress.  Now it fits her perfectly as a normal sized dress.  I found the red sweater at Kohl's this year and thought it would be perfect for Christmas.  Crazy to think these pictures are just a year apart.

Christmas Eve Jammies!  I couldn't find any pajamas in the store that I really liked and it's a tradition to get new pjs for Christmas Eve.  They aren't always matching and aren't always sewn by me but this year that's the way it happened.  I went to Jo-Ann's the Saturday before Christmas and found this flannel and it was perfect.  A little mad dash sewing during the day on Christmas Eve but I finished them all by early afternoon while Rob took the older kids sledding and Ellie took a nap.

Ellie was being really silly that night.  One of her newest tricks is "jumping."  You say "Ellie, can you jump?" and she squats down like this...

And then "jumps" up, although her toes never leave the floor.

She knows she is the center of attention and eats it up!

Making snickerdoodles for Santa...

This year for Christmas I decided I wanted to do something I had heard about in previous years but hadn't done yet.  When buying presents for the kids, I followed the "something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read" idea.  I told the kids when they were making their Christmas lists about what I was doing so they helped me out thinking of things in those categories and most had a few things in each category that I chose from (or some items could be used for multiple categories).  It really made the gift buying process so much easier and I didn't feel like I was buying tons of toys that wouldn't be played with the day after the Christmas excitement had worn off or just buying more stuff so everyone had an "equal" (whether in dollar amount or number of items) amount of gifts.  I bought them all books from a neighbor who does a book sale a couple of times a year and has really cheap books...sometimes cheaper than Scholastic Book orders.  My mom sends money for me to purchase gifts so they had those to open as well.

Ashlee's gifts were (in order of the theme) a CTR ring, a metronome, a ballet skirt and a couple paperback books (The Little Prince and Star Girl).  Santa brought her a Kindle Fire.

  

Brynlee got colored pencils, silver sparkly Converse shoes, a leotard and gym shorts (purple sparkly zebra striped!), and a couple of books as well.  Santa brought her a Salon Doll....a doll with REAL hair that you can wash, dry, curl, crimp, etc.

Landon got Nerf swords, a sleeping bag, 2 pairs of pants and 2 long sleeve shirts (yes, technically more than one thing BUT he was in desperate need of something to wear!) and the whole Magic Tree House series.  Santa brought him a watch and Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 Wii game.

Trevor was a hard one to buy for this year.  One, his birthday is just days before Christmas.  Two, whenever you asked him what he wanted, he would look around the room and say something he saw.  Totally didn't get it! The only thing he did say was that he wanted a red dragon.  Santa made that wish come true.

Lame mom moment.  The kids were taking turns opening gifts.  The other kids still had presents to open and Trevor was done opening his.  I couldn't figure out how.  I went back and looked at my list.  I crossed off the gifts as I wrapped them and noticed that I had crossed off what was listed under his "want".  I then realized that I had decided to give it to him for his birthday (the Nerf swords) and never ended up buying a "want".  Doh!  He didn't seem to mind and got to open the family gift from Jeremy and Clytie.  He also got a sleeping bag, some pants and long sleeve shirts (same situation as Landon, although shorts and tshirts are still his first choice, silly kid!), and two books.  Who knew a book about bears would create such an awesome reaction.  That's Trevor for you.  He gets excited about everything and I love that about him.

Miss Ellie got a PINK Radio Flyer trike from Santa.  She climbed right on.  She can't quite reach the pedals but I'm sure by summertime she'll be cruisin' the neighborhood.

I took the liberty of her having no idea what presents are.  Of course she doesn't "want" anything at this age and I didn't really want to buy more toys since we have plenty.  I could have wrapped up the Little People Farm or Dollhouse that we already have but in the end, I chose not to.  Instead she got a sippy cup, plates, Strawberry Shortcake toothbrushes that were even scented! (she steals everyone else's) and a new Sunday dress.

  

After breakfast and presents, Ellie helped herself to more coffeecake while everyone else was enjoying their new things.

A winter storm came through on Christmas Eve so we definitely had a beautiful WHITE Christmas! 

I feel so blessed to have my beautiful family and to live in such a beautiful valley surrounded by such good people.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Trevor the FIVE year old

Trevor's 5th birthday was a big event at our house.  Bigger than Christmas....well, the countdown to it at least.  Starting about 3 weeks before his birthday, Brynlee would remind us how many days there were until T's big day.  The day finally arrived.  He turned FIVE!  When Trevor woke up, Landon said he wasn't five yet because he had to wait until the time he was actually born, but I assured him that, yes, he was born at 4:30 in the morning so he was officially 5.  Landon thought that was totally unfair since he had to wait until 3:11 in the afternoon (for some reason that fact has stuck with him).  Oh Landon.  If only life was fair.

The night of the 20th was a very busy evening and we ended up not having his cake that night since I got home from work pretty late.  Grandma Barton came over after work to give him his present....a fleece cheetah print blanket.  He loved it and was happy to have a blanket to keep him all warm and cozy.  The blankets he had on his bed were baby-sized ones that barely covered him.  Poor kid.  I don't know why I didn't ever get him a bigger one sooner!

Opening presents the night of his birthday...

The Nerf swords can be two separate swords or combined into a double sword.  The look on Landon's face pretty much explains his attitude the whole night as Trevor was opening his presents.  We called it birthday present envy, kinda like Woody had laser envy.

Ellie enjoyed his presents as much as Trevor did!  She kept taking them over to Grandma.

The next day we had cake and ice cream after the kids got home from school.  It was a half day so he just had to wait until after lunch for his cake.  He wanted a chocolate cake with white frosting and red "emma ems" (M&Ms).  Because red is his favorite color.  And Angry Birds.

I want the piece with the WHOLE five on it, mom.  You got it, birthday boy!

 

He loves to tell everyone he is five.  Of course now his favorite number is 5 and he wants five of everything.  The best thing is when he eats five carrots or five apple slices because who would want to eat 4 of them when you are 5.

Barton Christmas Parties

December 15th was the big day for the Barton family Christmas parties.  We headed down for the festivities, stopping first in Centerville for the extended Barton family party, complete with food, white elephant exchanges and decorating trees.

Brynlee didn't decorate a tree because she was given a challenge by her gymnastics coach to not eat artificial colors for the month of December.  That is also the reason why should looks so thrilled about her white elephant gift.  Pure artificial color in a package.

At least Trevor made up for her lack of excitement...

Then it was off to Chris and Cheryl's house for delicious appetizers and desserts.  Talk about yumminess!  We opened gifts from cousins, siblings and grandparents.  Grandma sure was busy sewing this year.  She made pillowcases for the grandkids, except for the girls who had dolls.  They got doll clothes that she sewed.  All so very cute!

This is the best picture I got of the cousins.  At least most are looking.  I think Jane was running from creepy Santa.  :)

Christmas Piano Recital

The girls played in their Christmas piano recital on December 10th.  Brynlee played Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.

Ashlee played Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker. 

Ashlee's Nutcracker Pictures

Shanda Call Photography took these pictures of Ashlee in her Soldier and Dew costumes from the Nutcracker.  So beautiful!  (and so grown up!)

 

Busy Saturday!

Saturday was a busy day. We started out in the morning with Brynlee and Rob going to her intrasquad at Altius while I took the rest of the kids to a Breakfast with Santa put on by the National Children's Study. 

 

Trevor kept telling me he wasn't going to sit on Santa's lap.  I told him that was fine and that he could just stand next to him so I was pretty surprised when he sat on his lap AND smiled!  Looks like he is finally warming up to the Jolly Old Elf!

 



 

 

Never too old to sit on Santa's lap...

Classic...

Brynlee has made huge improvements on bars since the Rock Springs meet.  She has her kip!!  Wahoo!


She was the only one to stick her landing on vault!


Still needs to get her cartwheel on beam...


Her back has been causing her problems lately.  She hurt it going down a slide one day.  Since then she says she hasn't been able to do her back walkover.  Hopefully once her back heals, she won't need a spot on her floor routine.


Then Rob and I went to the American Festival Chorus Christmas concert.  Rob's mom sings in the choir and it was, as usual, amazing!

We quickly ran out of the concert right at the end so we could go to Ashlee's Christmas ballet recital.  This will be the last year she will perform in this recital since there isn't a performance class after Level 6 (only technique, which she'll continue, plus Jr. Company classes and performances).  We forgot the video camera so Rob got this high quality video on his phone.  :)  She starts out in the middle and ends on the far right.

Chimneys

Me: How does Santa get into our house?

T: Through the chimney.

Me: What's a chimney?

T: I don't know. What is it?

Me: It's that thing on top of the house where the smoke comes out.

T: Oh yeah, is it connected to the fireplace?

Me: Yes. So how does Santa get in through there?

T: He goes into the chimney. What if the glass was in there and the fire was on?

Me: What do you think what would happen?

T: Santa would burn his bum.