We have a tradition where we open new pj's on Christmas Eve. My mom and I picked out fabric and she sewed pj pants for all my kids and then added snowmen to the shirts for the girls so they matched the pants. Ben's were BYU pants which he was thrilled about! We had dinner with Keith, Nancy, Sammie and Dave and Ann Bell. My kids were excited to have an audience for their puppet show while Papa read the Christmas story. We then drove around to look at Christmas lights and see if we could spy Santa in the area.
I had told the kids we would make rice crispy wreaths that my dad made with me as a kid to leave for Santa but we weren't home until 9pm so Santa got notes and sugar cookies with sprinkles and chocolate milk. The girls also remembered the reindeer and left out 9 carrots.
Today has been a great day. We finally went out around 7:30 this morning. I was awake before the kids were...I was always up so early for Christmas so the fact that my kids will actually sleep that late is rather foreign. The girls asked Santa for a rhino (They were talking about a power wheels jeep). Ben and Ella really wanted DS's but mom had vetoed Santa bringing them so they were very surprised when Santa went over my head and brought them anyway! I pulled off my biggest surprise since Robert and I have been married and got him a paintball gun! Becky and I had done a little conspiring so now all the brothers have paintball guns and enough paintballs to shoot each other silly!
Later in the evening, everyone (except for Susan, Jared, and Jackson...We missed you guys!)showed up for dinner, Nancy's annual Christmas Bingo game, and gifts from Nancy and Keith. I was thinking back to the first Christmas I spent with the Hammonds. The family has grown by 16 people (I think...pretty sure)! So needless to say, it was a packed house around here!
I stayed in my pj's (as promised) and just tried to relax. In fact I tried to do as little as possible this weekend. The kids played and played and played! All in all, it was a great Christmas. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to be able to spend some time with Heather and Ashlee and their families and to see my mom. My girls keep asking when we are leaving to go to Grandma's...They are sad when I say that Grandma is in Arizona. So I propose a big Christmas at a cabin all together in the near future!
I have renewed my subscription for my 5 (yes, you read that right) Sunday papers to get my stockpile of coupons built up. I was saving SO MUCH money last winter while building up my stockpiles and I know there are some GOOD sales coming up!
Then the dreaded W store! I curse the people who built a new one on the south end of Cache Valley. Now the 20 minutes to Walmart doesn't seem too bad and I find myself walking out with all kinds of "Deals"!
Last week, my sister in law called me and asked if I had heard about the jean sale going on at GAP. Well, let's just say that since I happened to be in the car and only needed to go 10 minutes out of my way to the nearest GAP, I (well, my kids to be exact) am now the proud owner of 5 new pairs of jeans. Then to top it off, this morning I checked my email to find a 25% off coupon that I could combine with that deal and I am currently resisting the urge to hit the "place order" button that would bring 4 more pairs of jeans to my door. (I mean you can never have enough 'good deal' jeans especially, when my kids seem to kill the knees in 10 seconds flat!)
Well, you get the picture. Basically, anywhere that has deal and then if I have coupons to make the deal sweeter, forget about it. I have been getting some GREAT deals for back to school and we have to eat. Right? The bottom line is I'm a sucker for a good deal. Here's the big place where my competitive nature comes out. I love to see just how good of a deal I can get and have a 'Can you top this story?'. Well, can you?
Ben finished his soccer season up. His coach this year was Jennifer. She did amazing things with his team. It was fun to watch their progression and by the end of the year, it was not just a clump on the field but real positions and great teamwork that resulted in success. Ben's coach played soccer in high school and college. She knows what it takes and gave Ben a huge compliment at the end of their season. She told him that if he continues to work as hard as he did this season, he could do anything he wanted to with soccer. She told him she saw real talent. It's nice to hear other people say things that you already think about your kids, but it was especially important for Ben to hear that. He sometimes struggles as all of us do from time to time with his confidence. Robert and I are really proud of him.
Ben's class had a few field trips at the end of the year. I have to thank Heather for the long days she put in so I was able to go. This was Ben's third trip to the ice rink and he is getting pretty good. He even talked me into ice skating with him for a while. I think the last time I ice skated was when I was around 10. So needless to say 20 years has not helped my ice skating abilities any. I did get a little more steady by the end but realized that I will never achieve my dreams of figure skating ;) ! 
After ice skating, we headed to Willow Park where we ate lunch and the kids played for a while. Sometimes its so surreal to watch my kids. They are playing the games that I used to play as a kid and I wonder at times "How did I get here?" I don't feel old enough to have kids this age! 
We then went to the zoo at Willow Park. It's a small community zoo but just the right size for a small outing.
ELLA
Here are a few of the dance pictures from Ella's dance revue. Like I said before, she LOVES to perform and does a great job at it!
Ella was so excited that Grandma Julie could be there. Thanks for making the trip Mom!
I also got a chance to go with Ella's class on a couple of field trips. One day we went to the American West Heritage Center here in Logan. The kids got to spend some time with the baby animals. Ella enjoyed looking but not getting near. This is a picture of Ella's kindergarten class.
Ella, Missi, and Reagan have become good friends. Ella is excited because they all ended up in the same first grade class for next year! What cute girls!
This was another activity at field day. Gotta love the cold water coming from the sponge!
Ella's class also had a kindergarten celebration. They sang a couple of songs which included an ABC song. It starts out like this, "A your Adorable, B your so Beautiful..." We heard it a lot leading up to the end of school. Felicity has become quite the singer and now I often hear her singing, "A I'm Adorable" over and over again. At the end of the celebration, each child presented Mrs. LaMont with a flower they made. Ella asked to do a flower that Mrs. Lamont could wear in her hair. She picked the colors and the center decoration and I help a little with the hot glue and then we clipped it to a pipe cleaner. 
