Christmas

Christmas break has been lots of fun! Some of her favorite things to do for skiing, sledding, to get hot cocoa, going swimming with cousins, and having lots of fun together.

The weather has been good for lots of outdoor activities, lots of snow and sunshine. 

Our Christmas was perfect! It was white Christmas and we went skiing all day on Christmas eve!
The kids like this tradition. We skied all day, then came home for dinner, music, the nativity and opened a coupe of gifts from each other and from the elves. The kids were tired from asking and they went to bed at a reasonable hour.

Santa made his visit, and the kids all were thrilled!

Taylor got an awesome new mountain bike.
Emily got a new rabbit, named Gidget she was so excited.
Isaac also got a new bike, he was SUPER excited!
Lizzie got a new scooter and girl lego's.
It was a terrific day, we had a leisure breakfast, went to church and then spent the whole day at home enjoying the snow.

Christmas eve skiing! Everyone had a great time and lizzie is really doing awesome on her skis! 

One day we went to G & G Wall's house to spend time with them and also with Jennifer & Chandler's and their girls! We had a lot of fun with them.
Also we hosted the young women Christmas dinner at our house, it was a great night and we had a blast! 

We had a fantastic Christmas season!  We love this time of year! 

A group of my friends gathered for a fun Christmas breakfast. We went for a morning winter walk, and then had delicious food at my friend's house. It was a great event! We are getting into the "Hyyge" mood which means staying cozy, and enjoying the winter months. 

My cute little artist! 

Emily had a Christmas choir concert this week. She did great singing and was having fun. 

Isaac'c class did the Grinch play, and it was super cute! Isaac read lines and had fun with it too. He has a great class his year and is really having fun learning. 

Taylor had several Christmas Show Choir concerts this week. His group sings really well! 

Emily went ice skiing with her friends. They are a cute group. We need to go ice skating more to get some practice. 

We went and saw Santa Claus on Friday! I am down only two kids who want to sit on Santa's lap!
Isaac asked for a camera, or a bike and Lizzie asked for a huge beanie boo! It's going to be a fantastic Christmas! 

We had a nice snow storm on friday, and the trees looked beautiful! 

Friday afternoon we headed to the movie theater to see the new Star Wars, "Rogue One".  It is a great movie and we had a fun afternoon watching it. 

Saturday night was the annual Hawkins Family Christmas Party! We had dinner, played Bingo, did Chimes, and had fun catching up with all our aunts, uncles and cousins.

Cute baby james! 

Brett, Emily and Henry all won the candy counting jars! They got a lot of candy 

Only one more week until Christmas!!! 

December fun

We had a fun start to our December with the annual "Neck N' Nog" Christmas party! It was tons of  fun and we all love seeing the ugly sweaters and outfits.
We stopped at Great Grandma Shields house before. We ate dinner with her and then watched the LDS First Presidency devotional at her house. It was a terrific evening. 

Later that week we went to the live Nativity in our neighborhood.
It was a freezing cold night, and but lots of fun to see the real animals and the enactment of the Jesus being born in a stable. WE love this time of year! 

The weekend was full of Christmas parties and fun!
Friday night all the kids had a cousin sleepover and Brett & Teresa's house. Danny and I went to his work party. Then in morning we had our ward Christmas breakfast. After it was done i went to Brett's to pick up the kids. They all had a fabulous time at his house and they all came home sleepy and happy!

After that on Sunday night we had our Shields "Surprise Dinner" Christmas party. We had dinner, opened gifts, sang songs, did a program, read a story etc... the kids all had a blast!

December

Here is our Christmas tree for this year and it's beautiful, and we love it. It's tall and skinny and the kids had a blast decorating it. 

We tried a different type of Christmas lights on the house this year. It's a laser that you post in your yard and it illuminates a laser of lights on your house. It looks cool and it's fun to try something different! 

We went to the German market at "This is the Place" last weekend. Emily brought a couple of friends and we all had a fun afternoon.  

Taylor skipped school on Wednesday and went skiing for the first time of the season. He went to Brighton and had a wonderful day skiing in the sunshine with his friends. 

I had a birthday last week. We had a mellow dinner and cake at home. It was perfect. Happy Bday to me! 

We had a snowstorm and it was beautiful. The kids played outside until well after dark making snow caves etc..
It's a wonderful winter day! 

Thanksgiving break!

We had a wonderful relaxing trip to Santa Barbara, Ca for Thanksgiving weekend. We didn't have any plans for the holiday so we decided to take a trip.
We headed out on Tuesday and drove all the way to sunny SB. We stayed a fun hotel in Goleta, and it had a great pool, hot tub and a huge free breakfast included in the room.
We went to Refugio Beach every day of our time in CA. The kids all had wet suits so they boogie boarded, surfed, played in the sand, paddle boarded and explored a the boast for hours.

We had an early Thanksgiving celebration before we left with the Shields crew. It was delicious and so fun!

The weather was perfect on our trip and it felt wonderful to sit in the sun and relax in the warm days. 

Taylor, Emily, Isaac and Lizzie all did great at these new sports. Taylor has really done great at surfing, he's getting to be so good! Danny loves this certain beach and it was great to spend a lot of time there. It's full of good memories! 

One afternoon we headed downtown and spent time on the wharf and we went to the aquarium. The kids really liked seeing all the sea creatures and exploring at the aquarium, they had fun touch tanks etc.. 

Our trip was full of many, many, memories, good days, laughs a few fights and a nice, relaxing week all together!
These sunsets were terrific and they made us want to linger at the beach even longer. 

We drove home part way on Saturday and the rest of the way on Sunday. It was perfect because there was a lot traffic all along the highway, so it was good to get a head start.

We drove home through lots of rain, snow etc.. Today is snowed all day long! So we played in the snow after school for a long time. I guess winter is officially here!