The Week Before Christmas: We sang carols, made gingerbread houses, sat with Santa, saw the temple lights, did a Pokemon Go day at BYU, and had a big Mitchell get together the week leading up to Christmas.
Christmas Carols: Chloe and Blain learned a lot of the Christmas songs in Primary and School this year so caroling with them around the piano was even more specialbecause they could sing along. We sang Jingle Bells (Avenlea's favorite) a bunch as well as Away in a Manger, Jingle Bell Rock, Rudolf and lots more!
Chloe playing the 12 days of Christmas for us to sing to. She taught herself about 5 Christmas songs on the piano by sounding them out. I'm so impressed how she remembers the songs even after playing them only a couple times. It was really fun to sing along with Chloe
Gingerbread Village: I bought a little Christmas village so each of the kiddos could
decorate their own gingerbread house. It was a lot harder to get the
walls to stay up than I remember!
Sweet Avenlea so giggly after finishing her house
Avenlea with her decorated house!
Zeyta loving the frosting and candy
Poor Blain had to have his house reconstructed about 3 time before I gave up and did the simple house. It turned out good though!
Chloe's beautifully decorated cottage :)
Seeing Santa: Chloe, Blain and Avenlea all sat on Santa's lap and told him what they
wanted for Christmas. Zeyta cried immediately but loved the sucker he
gave her!
I couldn't take pictures of them on his lap unfortunately but it was a fun memory! We found a really cool play area on the way out so that was an extra fun part of the day! We also caught a couple new Pokemon walking around the mall so of course they loved that!
Temple Lightls at Temple Square: We went up a little early for temple lights so we could visit the church history museum before the lights turned on. I really enjoyed reading and seeing all the artifacts but the kids weren't super interested. They did like some of the movies playing by the prophets and liked seeing the old farm things but we'll probably wait a couple years before going back so we can all get more out of it.
Avenlea all ready to go!
Avenlea sitting nicely for a picture only to get the promised sour patch kid... she was probably the most anxious to leave the museum.
Blain looking at some old instruments that the pioneers played while traveling to Utah
Avenlea lifting a block to build the temple
Blain and Angel Moroni
My Cuties
We met up with Em's family and Trudy's family to look at the temple lights. They were really cool as usual and the TONS of people also meant lots of pokemon for those who grew tired of the lights a little too quickly. As lame as it sounds, I'm glad to have found pokemon go for the kids, it adds a level of excitement to things and brings them something extra to look forward to when we go fun places. I just have to make sure they aren't walking around with their noses in the phone and are actually enjoying the activity!
Pokemon Go at BYU: And finally the day Chloe and Blain have been waiting for! We promised them a pokemon go day after they filled up their good behavior chart. Marie, Aya, Sam, and the Montgomery's also came so that made it extra special. Unfortunately we didn't catch anything new but that didn't stop them from loving every minute! It was so cold that we went into the Wilkinson Center for a bit before heading back to Em and Ted's house.
Poke stop
Playing on the Statues - it was fun to walk around campus again and tell Chloe and Blain which buildings Nate and I had classes in. Maybe one day we'll have kiddos attending there too!
Warming up in the Wilk
Mitchell Reunion on Christmas Eve: It was great seeing so many people from Nate's family get together to celebrate Christmas. There was a lot of yummy food and Trudy put on a little gingerbread house contest that stole the show for the evening. There were lots of funny houses and equally funny awards. I was so happy to get to participate in something Christmasy before leaving for work. It was a lot of fun.
Chloe and I made a house together
Daddy, Blain and Zeyta's house - avenlea made her own but ate it before the competition ended :)
THey needed a little help getting their house to stay up, so I lent my expertise ;)
Blain and Papa Vern
Silly Zeyta loved all the treats and attention
"I just have to get away from Zeyta!!" - Marie was so sweet playing with Zeyta, letting her poke her belly button but after a while she kept saying that while cracking up laughing!
Chloe with her award for best door knob
"Marshmallow penguin wonderland"
Christmas Eve: Nate said all the kiddos loved their jammies and the pageant was cute as ever. The pictures are on Uncle Sammy's camera I believe so I'll have to get those later but I did watch the video and loved it. Grammy also let them open a book to be read before going to bed which will make a nice addition to our bedtime book library.
Sweet Blain got to keep Grammy's littlest elf a couple years ago and now he has the book to go with it!
Zeyta
Avenlea
Cutie Chloe
Getting ready to open their Christmas Eve Present
Wearing their mickey jammies and reading a story with Aunt Trudy - Melissa let us know her family was doing mickey mouse and asked if anyone wanted to have mickey jammies too. Pretty much everyone went along and we all had fun matching PJ's for Christmas!
Em was so awesome to order a batch of tamales so we Moyeda girls could keep with the tradition of Tamales with beans and rice for Christmas Eve. I brought mine to work and enjoyed every bite!!
Christmas Day: The house looked so magical when I got home from work, even though my car got stuck in the driveway because it had snowed about a foot that night! Santa even left a boot print after getting out of our ashy fireplace so that was really fun to see too! It's so fun watching my babies' faces light up with excitement and receive their hugs. Even with zero hours of sleep Christmas is just as wonderful!
Christmas Morning: I came into my room to find Chloe wide awake and almost bouncing with
excitement and a tiny avenlea asleep in my spot. We decided to go wake
Zeyta and Blain up since Chloe just couldn't wait any longer :)
Reading the Christmas story before heading out to the living room.
Stockings! The kiddos got alot of their favorite treats including Tim Tams, chips, sour patch kids and mints. Santa also left them their very own soda which is a tradition in the Mitchell family so I'm glad Santa brings them one too!
Chloe with her pokemon toys and probably chewing her bubble tape!
Blain with his cute sleepy face :)
Daddy scored some yummy treats too!
And Mommy too!
Santa Gifts! The pictures turned out super grainy because of the bad light but hopefully you can still see how happy their faces are. Chloe got her pokemon cards! She has since but them in a binder that Nate and I got her and loved to tote it around and show anyone who will look at it!
Blain with his Superman Set - Superman, Lois Lane, Braniac and Lex Luthor. He loved playing good guys vs bad guys so getting a set with multiple bad guys was perfect for him!
Avenlea with her my little ponies with the hard hair just like she asked for!
And Zeyta got a suprise with a big Farm Duplo set which has quickly become a favorite of all the kids with it's animals and lots of doors
I saved a little bit of money from every one of my pay checks this year to make sure Nate got some really nice Christmas presents because we usually don't do much in the way of purchases for birthdays or anniversaries so it was now or never :) I got him an upgraded Dewalt tool set, some nice game trail cameras and (thanks to Sam) a welder/plasma cutter which was at the top of his list.
This year I REALLY wanted a Cricut Explore so I could make cute things for my scrapbook and Nate got one for me :) I also got a really nice pressure canner that holds 14 jars so in combination with my other canner I can do 21 jars at a time!! I can't wait. Nate also got me a home made cheese press which is still being fabricated but sounds like it will be awesome and even better because he's making it. Can't wait to try some new hard cheeses now that I have a press to make them with!
This year I REALLY wanted a Cricut Explore so I could make cute things for my scrapbook and Nate got one for me :) I also got a really nice pressure canner that holds 14 jars so in combination with my other canner I can do 21 jars at a time!! I can't wait. Nate also got me a home made cheese press which is still being fabricated but sounds like it will be awesome and even better because he's making it. Can't wait to try some new hard cheeses now that I have a press to make them with!
Christmas Gift Exchange: We all drew names and got to buy a gift for one special person.
I think Chloe was most excited to give her gift to Kennady. She made her
a hand sewn stocking and filled it with art things that Kenna likes and
her favorite treats
Summer wearing the gift giver hat giving Zeyta her present
And Blain wearing the gift getter hat! Zeyta had Blain this year and got him a Bizzaro action figure
Group shot after the gift exchange in our Mickey Jammies
The Day after Christmas: Sledding, a trampoline park, and a broken foot... The first 3/4 of the day was tons of fun! Sledding was perfect after all the snow that fell Christmas Eve and even better with hot chocolate waiting for us when we got back to Em's.
Avenlea went down the little hill a couple times by herself but mostly loved riding with mommy, daddy, darius, and other family members
Uncle Sammy took Zeyta on her first sled ride down the big hill! She didn't cry but didn't particularly love sledding
Chloe getting ready for a race against Darius and Blain
She still prefers sledding on her own sled but we did get to go down a couple times together
The Train
Blain was loving going with Darius because they would go SO FAST!
Blain running so fast on the trampolines
This shot is SO Chloe with her little crossed leg
Good handspring Chloe!
There was a big ledge that they could jump off of and I was so impressed with how brave both Chloe and Blain were! Blain would get sucked into the foam cubes every time but he would fight so hard and climb out!
swinging from the rope
Monkey Chloe
Nate stayed home with Avenlea and Zeyta because his achilles isn't quite up to jumping on trampolines. Well now my foot won't be up to doing anything for at least 6 weeks because I broke it trying to make it up the warped wall that they had in the back of the trampoline area. They had a cargo net that I made it across and then on my second attempt up the wall while I was running I just felt a big shoot of pain in my foot and heard a pop. Dave was so nice to help walk me to the car and Nate took me to an instacare after putting the kids to bed. I broke the 4th and 5th metatarsals and will be non weight bearing for the next 6 weeks. I went to see a specialist who suggested waiting 6 weeks to see if the bones will heal on their own but there is a 25% chance they won't and then I will need surgery to screw the bones back together. I would love any and all prayers that my foot will heal on it's own!!
Blain and Darius by the Lions. There were so many! I didn't remember seeing so many last time, there were 2 big males and a few females too.
Posing by the Lion statue with Kiya
Monkeys!
There was a tiny baby orangutan and this adult one hung out by the glass while we were there for a while!
Chloe and Kiya with the Rhino!
Zeyta and Damian with the Polar Bear. I borrowed Papa Vern's wheelchair so I didn't have to use crutches all around the zoo and held Zeyta on my lap the majority of the time. But the Mellars were so nice to help Zeyta see the animals a little bit closer which she loved!
Blain in the Lion's mouth!!
Group shot by the Giant Elephant statue
Jonny and Phillip
Melissa after the blessing with some pups. There were 3 little dogs running around the whole time and the kids loved it!
Games, games and more games! The thing I love most about the Mitchell Christmas year is all the fun games we play together in really big groups! We played lots of mafia, knertz, werewolf, and a new one called the Couch Game. We had 3 giant knertz tournaments and played mafia almost every night. We also played a fun dice game of Trudy's, "I'm going the beach and bringing...", Pit, a voting game, and lots of people played Magic. It was a really great week!
We even let Chloe come up out of bed one night to play and she was
thrilled and was awesome at playing the games! She has a super good
memory for the couch game and even learned the strategy a bit. It was
really fun to see how happy she was and how seriously she took werewolf. She made it until the end and helped us vote out the last werecolf! Good job Chloe!
Pit
Playing iphone games with Milly and Blain in the back taking turns on the Lego Avengers video game
Melissa was so nice wanting to read to the babies everynight to put them to bed allowing Nate and I a little more game time. They loved their Special Aunt Melissa time
The boys got throwing knives from the Kroupas so that was fun after Jonny set up a knife throwing spot. Even Chloe got to try it out!
New Years Eve: We stayed in and ate tons of yummy food and played games for New Years. We put Zeyta to bed normal time, Avenlea fell asleep around 10:30 and Chloe and Blain both made it until Midnight! It was fun playing apples to apples with Chloe and watching Blain do tricks all over the living room. Love my family!
Zeyta enjoying some treats!
Blain impressing everyone with his forever headstand and even pushing up into a handstand!! I can't believe how strong he is!
Avenlea sat on my lap for about 5 minutes before she was down and out for the night. She loved wearing her sparkly shirt for New years :)
Me and My love on New Years
Martinelli's for a toast on the New Year
New Year's Kiss
Family Selfie at Midnight
So fun hanging out with these kiddos
Sledding Round 2: We finally packed up and headed home on the night of the 1st but the next day we headed down to Provo for another day of sledding. It was actively snowing and colder than the first time around so we didn't stay as long, but it was fun watching all the sledders making their way up and down the hill! It was nice that Zeyta only went down a couple times because she kept me nice and warm sitting on my lap :)
Daddy and Zeyta headed down the hill
The sledders headed back up the hill
Kiya playing with Zeyta
We brought out stash of Tim Tams for some Tim Tam Slams afterwards at Em's house.
Em doing her baby belly trick! This was the last time she did it because she went into labor that night! Her sweet baby arrived the next morning and is so cute!
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