Christmas 2012

 "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

Kenadee digging into her stocking for some of the goodies that Santa left for her.

 Yep, there was a whole lot of clowning around our house!

 Natalee was all smiles with all the fun this she got to play with and all the wrapping paper she got to suck on.

 I put together a book of Natalee's experience of being in the hospital. It turned out beautifully and I hope it will be a treasure for her when she is older.

 I also did our family blog book for 2011 and gave it as a gift to the family. This is the whole reason I blog to use it as a journal that my kids will benefit from it. It is fun to go back through the book to look back on all the things we forgot about.

 This is the one thing Brylee asked for, a talking baby. She was so excited to see that Santa brought it.

The girls Christmas breakfast.

 We have so many blessings to be thankful for! During this Christmas season it has been easy to see those blessings. It was great to be together as a family this year.  This was Natalee's "real" Christmas since she was in the hospital last Christmas. We are so blessed to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. And we are so grateful we got to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, and we know this is the true reason for Christmas. And we honor Him this day. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

  This is how Kenadee spent most of Christmas Eve day. She was sick and throwing up most of the day.  I hate seeing my kids this sick especially on Christmas Eve.

Our Christmas Eve dinner consisted of home style Cafe Rio dinner. It is layered by a home cooked tortilla, sweet pork, lime and cilantro rice, black beans, lettuce, chip strips, and drizzled with their spicy dressing. Yum!

After dinner our door bell rang. There were three presents on our door step and a letter from our Elf on the Shelf (Jasper). His letter thanked the girls for being such good girls and how it was time for him to fly back to the North Pole to help Santa get ready for his big trip of delivering all the presents.

 He left all of them a pair of pajamas so when they wear them they will always think of their friend Jasper. Brylee was sad to have Jasper leave.

After dinner the girls found the "Express tickets" found under their dinner plates.  These tickets were for a ride on the Polar express to go and view Christmas lights. Daddy even punched their tickets like the "real" Polar Express.  We went to a park here in Prescott Valley that has a big Christmas light display.  After we got home we had our Christmas eve program and played Bingo. Bingo has been a tradition of the Haws family so we decided we would continue that. The kids had a great time!

Christmas Activities

 December always seems to be full of activities, places to be, things to make, presents to buy, treats to bake. Here are a few of those things that we did in the month of December. The girls got to visit with Santa at our Ward party and they told them everything they wanted him to bring.

 And one thing that was on Kenadee's list was a laptop. Yeah, probably not this year. We still love you Kenadee!

 We took the girls along with the Fish family to go and see the large Gingerbread house display held at Prescott Resort.

 Some of these structures were very impressive. Here is a gingerbread castle with Cinderella and her prince.

 The kids loved it and had a hard time not touching the displays.  They couldn't believe that there were really made out of real candy.

 Kenadee had a school Christmas party and more baking was involved with this.  I wanted to do something special for her party so I made her hair into Rudolph.  Turned out pretty cute! Her teacher asked her to stand in front of her class to show it off. She loved all the attention it brought!

I made this root beer Christmas gift for Kenadee's teacher. It says, "I am 'root'ing for you to have a Merry Christmas." Her teacher loved it!

I made these cute picture frames for my friends here in Prescott.  I think they turned out pretty cute!

Jasper The Elf

 This is the third year that Jasper the Elf has been with us. This year he has been a little mischievous!  Here are some pictures of the fun this that he has done during his visit with us this December.

 Making snow angels in some flour.

Having a party and making Smores with the Barbies.

Joy School Nativity Program

 I have a great opportunity to teach a Joy School which Brylee is a part of.  It really is so much fun! Well this first half of the school year has come to an end and we had the class participate in a Nativity program.  The program was held at Mrs. Natalie's house.  Here is Brylee getting her part whispered into her ear by Mrs. Natalie.  Brylee was an angel this day.

 Mary (Abby) and Jospeh (Dallin) on their long journey to Bethlehem to pay their taxes.

 Everyone gathering around to see the new baby Jesus in the manger.

From left to right bottom: Garrett, Abby, Dallin, Jack, Claira
Top: Brylee, Bailey

Brylee's Christmas Dance Recial

 Brylee had her Christmas dance recital.  They first performed for the Pioneer Home where they have long term residence that live there.  All the residence were so happy to have these little cuties to come and visit them!

 Brylee did really good knowing her dance moves!

 Here is her class dancing.

 We chatted with one of the residence for awhile and asked if we could get her picture taken with Brylee. She was so happy to have a young child sit on her lap. She said it made her day.

 After performing at the nursing home everyone moved over to the church building for the recital.  There were delicious soups and bread being served at the recital.  Here are the girls getting ready to be introduced to the audience.

 Brylee did such a great job on her introduction with her points, twirls, and courtesy. In my opinion she did the best job out of her class with this.  I may be bias, but even so she is an amazing kid!

 Beautiful girl! And grandpa was giving her the bunny ears so I had to crop out his hand. Way to go Grandpa! It was too cute of a picture to pass up. And Kenadee actually took this picture of her. Not bad for an amateur!

Brylee and her dance teacher Mrs. Natalie.  Thanks for being such an amazing teacher.  She always goes way out to make their costumes, create the back drops for their recital, and to take pictures of them to post at the recital.  She truly is amazing! We love you Mrs. Natalie!

Christmas Piano Recital

 Kenadee had her Christmas piano recital held at the Prescott Mall.  This was the first time that it was held here and it was quite nice.  There were a lot of by standers just listening to the kids play.  Here is her piano teacher Mrs. Wiser and all her students.

 Kenadee got to play two duets with her Nana.  They played "Away in a Manger and Deck the Halls." It was beautiful, they did such an amazing job!

 Thanks Nana for creating this special memory for Kenadee!  We love you!

 Love my girls!

Thanks Mrs. Wiser for being an incredible piano teacher!