Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was absolutely perfect! Spencer and I have spent a lot of time talking about what traditions we want to create with our kids and the things we want them to remember. One thing I always want to remember from this day is Spencer's excitement - about everything! I love how excited he gets about the holidays and how traditions (even the little ones) are such a big deal to him. 

He got up early with the kids and loaded them up to pick up breakfast at Rolling Pin (best donuts around)! Since I didn't want to miss the fun, but also wanted to get a run in, I left at the same time, but on foot. I ran 2 miles out and then turned around for the 2 miles back just as they passed me heading up Las Posas. I made it home 15 minutes later. They had just finished eating their oatmeal (I insisted they eat something healthy before filling their bellies with sugar), and were diving into the buttermilk bar goodness! 

After breakfast I headed out for some last minute shopping - it was nice to have Spencer home and be able to get it done while it was still early. Then in the early afternoon Spencer took the girls to see the movie "Frozen". 

We wanted to go as a whole family, but it was Cal's nap time (he never would have lasted through a whole movie anyway), and a rather large Christmas gift was scheduled to arrive while they were out! I was happy to stay home and get things ready for the evening.

Living in Camarillo, close to family is such a blessing, but it can also be a bit tricky when trying to create traditions for our own family. This year was unique in that it was the first year Spencer's parents had no other kids at home. Since Jocelyn and Michael were here before Christmas, we did an early Christmas Eve celebration on the 22nd at Boppi and Grandpa Al's. Mom made her famous Clam Chowder and corn bread, and Dad read the Christmas Story. We wanted to make sure to act out the Nativity with them so Jocelyn could star as Mary since she recently gave birth to her own first born son just 2 months before. Collin played a perfect baby Jesus. Madi insisted on being the Angel, and Elle was thrilled to be the shepherd.

It was fun for the kids to have a dress rehearsal before their actual performance on the 24th!

On Christmas Eve Mom and Dad joined us in our home. Spencer made sea scallop, clam, and sweet italian sausage chowder that we had 3 years ago on Christmas Eve (the last time we did our own thing) and I made corn bread. The kids liked it ok. Our goal is to find something that we all love and look forward to - which is a hard thing  at this stage of life, with our picky little eaters!

After dinner we headed into the family room for the Nativity. Karlee had sent us the script she'd written with lots of singing and speaking parts. This year I just read it, but it's only going to get better in the years to come when we can assign speaking parts to the kids! 

Cal was the first to choose his costume (Spencer's bath robe from when he was a kid).

Elle wanted to wear what Cal was wearing (since that's what she wore at our dress rehearsal, but Cal wouldn't have it any other way). She grudgingly put on the angle costume since Madi had chosen to be Mary, but put up a stink about it the entire time. 

Finally, I took her out of the room and had her pick out another shepherd costume and we were back to smiles! Phew!

After the Nativity, Spencer read "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids (something his dad always did growing up).

I especially enjoyed watching Spencer's parents watch him read to our children. 

 It was such a treat having them in our home this year!

After the story, we set out cookies and milk for Santa and went to get into jammies when we heard something outside (we'd been tracking Santa's sleigh and knew that he was scheduled to pass by around 6:30pm- something fun they do here in Camarillo)! So mid changing clothes, we grabbed the kids and ran out just in time to see Santa sleigh's, all lit up, flying overhead! We all excitedly waved and yelled for Santa! A perfect way to end the night!

Christmastime

Meeting Santa:

 Writing Christmas cards:

 Madi wrote one to Mrs. Pidduck and 3 for the school crossing guards. Elle wrote 3 for her preschool teachers (she has 2 assistant teachers).

 I love watching Madi's face when she does her fancy writing!

 Loved these cute cards Madi gave with a bag of carmel corn to each crossing guard that helps us get to school every morning.

Teacher gifts with cards inside:

Class parties (we only went to Elle's):

Christmas Sunday with the Junior Primary (Elle front row far left, Madi first row standing on right):

 Senior Primary (we were missing a lOT of kids this week - over half of our Senior Primary was missing - we normally have 35):

 Got this idea from Tisha for a Primary teacher Christmas gift:Christmas lights on Gemini street:

The "Who-Ville" house has always been Elle's favorite! One of Madi's favorites - Santa pops his head out of the window and then goes back in: One of my favorites:Poor quality picture, but it's always fun when family is in town to walk the street with (Mom & Dad Jenkins, Jocelyn, Michael, and Collin met us this year):

 Enjoying the Christmas tree:

 When I asked for a smile . . .

Christmas time with little kids is the best! 

Creating Christmas Memories

My goodness have we been busy! Every year I tell myself that I'm going to be on top of all the Christmas stuff earlier, but every year I'm always scrambling at the end. I love this time of year though and my favorite thing is creating Christmas memories with our kids. Their excitement over the simplest of things is infectious. Ya, many of our events end with a whole lot of whining, crying, and complaining, but it's the memory that counts!

Some of my favorite memories so far this month:
- Choosing that perfect Christmas tree!

It had rained all night, but nothing was gonna stop us from getting our tree! Couldn't wait a day longer!

- Seeing the lights of the temple at night

It was also fun to go into the LA temple visitors center where we ran into Joe and Carolyn Chandler who are serving a mission there. So great to see them and get caught up!

- Decorating the tree! I love seeing our kids faces when I plug the lights in. The girls each get a tray of ornaments to hang and I love hearing their excitement and stories behind each ornament. 

Haven't taken a "finished"picture of our tree yet, but this will have to do from afar! Have I mentioned how much I love hanging out with these two every morning?! We've had lots of great memories this month of shopping/errand running and then stopping by the park to release all our energy!

- Reading Christmas Books! My goal this month has been to keep it focused on Christ, and our "25 days of Christmas" book has helped us do just that. Every night was read a scripture, sing a Christmas hymn, and read a Christmas story. It's been one of my favorite things about the month! Part of our collection of Christmas books:

Big thanks to Aunt Karlee for making us a 25 days of Christmas book. We got to FaceTime with her while opening the gift (thanks Kar for joining the picture)! 

- Getting Christmas cards! It's like Christmas morning every trip to the mailbox! I made to sure thank our mailman today with a bag of carmel corn! :)

- Watching our new movie- "Christmas Oranges" with the kids (thanks Gram Rox!!) and bawling my eyes out with Madi while watching it. I love that I have someone to cry with, and a new Christmas movie to look forward to every year! 

- I've loved working on different photo projects with Spencer this month. He's got such an artistic eye and I really appreciate his help with all these gifts we create.

- Hearing the excitement of the girls run from room to room trying to find "Mr. Elf" each morning is something I'm gonna miss when they get older. The best was when Mr. Elf hid in our blender. Later in the day Elle wasn't feeling good and really wanted a smoothie. So they asked Mr. Elf if he could get out of the blender. Then Elle got into the bathtub and when she got out, Mr. Elf was no longer in the blender! The girls thought that was the nicest thing ever and wrote several nice thank yous for Mr. Elf. 

This past weekend was action packed with all sorts of fun Christmas memories. I'm bummed I only got a couple pictures, but we truly ran from one event to the next the entire weekend. 

-Friday the 13th I set up for our ward Christmas party. I love not being in charge and just going to help!

-Saturday the 14th I took the kids to the Camarillo Christmas parade in the morning while Spencer had a final ward choir practice (yes, Spencer was pressured into joining the choir this year and is a natural)! The kids and I found a great spot but right in the sun (I was excited about getting some on the 70 degree sunshine on my white legs), so naturally I had several complainers about how bright it was!

I loved watching Cal's excitement with each passing police car, dog, horse, band, etc. I believe this was his first parade! He made friends with all the little dogs sitting around us too!

We had to leave the parade early to bring Madi to the church to run through her solo for the ward Christmas program. Santa's float (that the girls were dying to see) was at the very end, so we hiked up the hill to say hi! Then I had to run all the way back down to get to Madi's rehersal on time! Oh the things we do for our kids!

From there we headed home to bake cookies for the dessert table at our ward Christmas dinner. After the cookies were done, Madi and I took off to the Stake Center for our Stake Choir practice from 2:30-4pm. Then ran to the outlets to find a shrug to go with her dress. We got home just minutes before we had to leave for our ward Christmas party! It was a wonderful party - very Christ centered this year. The primary kids sang two songs. We hustled home at 8pm (right before it ended) to get tired kids into bed before our "scheduled" power outage at 9pm. As annoyed as we were with not having power for the next 10 hours, it was nice to get to bed early!

- Sunday the 15th was our ward Christmas program. Spencer sang in the choir and Madi sang a solo. She did a beautiful job and looked like an angel (kicking myself that I never got a picture). After church we had tithing settlement then ran home for 30 minutes before leaving for the Stake Christmas concert. I'm so happy that Madi and I decided to do it this year (she technically wasn't old enough to be in the children's choir, but an exception was made). It was amazing! I feel so lucky to live here in Camarillo and be part of such an awesome stake with so much talent! I saw the local newspaper there, so I'll be sure to include a picture of the article when the paper arrives!

What a wonderful weekend it was! Now to finish Christmas cards, work on teacher gifts, begin baking, and finish planning sharing time for Sunday along with thank yous for all the teachers, and reorganizing primary classes for the new year!! 

Sailing

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Spencer and I got a babysitter for the day and with ten other adults (Bell family and John & Debi Lassen) and 3 teenagers (Hans Lassen and the Hunter twins), sailed out to Anacapa Island.

To be totally honest, sailing ins't one of my favorite things, but Spencer sure loves it, and there are certain things in life that you have support when it's important to your spouse. Sailing is one of those things!  I will always support it because I know how much Spence loves it. He loves it so much that he's willing to totally give up his Directv to pay for an 8 week course to get certified to sail large sailboats and become a member of the yacht club (allowing us to rent yachts whenever we like). It really is a fun thing to do when family or friends come to visit, and I think I'll enjoy it a lot more when our kids are old enough to come along. 

Saturday was a lot of fun though. It was a gorgeous day and we were with great company (sure love the Bells and Lassens)! We sailed out to the Anacapa arch, and had a grand time watching the dozens of seals and dolphins swim along with us. A great way to wrap up the month of November!

Thanksgiving 2013

I feel like I blinked and Thanksgiving was over! Can hardly believe we've already started the countdown to Christmas - only 21 days away (holy moly- more to say on that later!) We spent a nice Thanksgiving here in Camarillo with Mom and Dad Jenkins. Since I grew up spending every Thanksgiving with 50+ cousins, I always feel like the day should be spent with more than just our kids running around. So when I heard about some good friends of ours that didn't have family around and would be eating alone, I asked mom how she felt about 6 more at our table. Spencer's mom is always up for a party and was totally cool with it. I was glad for the extra company that helped make our dinner feel more like Thanksgiving, instead of just a much bigger Sunday meal. 

Really wanted to get a nice table shot, but I always end up taking fewer pictures than I'd planned on. Glad I got the few that I did, even if they're not the greatest quality.

The kid table:

Notice the little turkeys - here's a close up:

They were much harder to make than they look. Thankfully Spencer was a good sport and helped me create 13 of them!

It was fun having the Nelson family join us. It's always nice when your kids line right up in age (except that we don't have an 8 year old)!

We both have a six year old named Madilyn - so we have to distinguish by middle names which are also similar: Madi Kaye and Maddi Mae!

We both have 4 year olds - Ella (on left), Elle (on right). These two love playing together in their weekly joy school group!

Then we've got the littles just two months apart - Macee and Calvin.

I loved how Cal kept running around calling, "Macee! Macee!"

As crazy as it was to have the 7 kids running around, I loved that my kids had friends to play with on Thanksgiving.  HUGE thanks to mom and dad for hosting the party! I felt really bad that we had to leave right after pie, but little kids had bedtimes that couldn't be pushed any later.

I have so much to be grateful for - more than I have the time to name right now, so I'll just finish with a final picture of our thankful tree that we've had fun adding to throughout the month.  I think we'll leave it up and keep adding leaves throughout December. Sure thankful for these cute kids of mine that posed themselves at my request for a picture! Then they went right back to screaming and bugging each other! Oh the joys! :)