Merry Christmas!

Christmas Morning and five kids waiting anxiously to see what treasures await them downstairs! But, if I remember right, it was Grandma and Grandpa who were up first, I think they were wondering if Santa would really find them in Chicago.

And down they go...
Carter is a huge fan of balls, so Santa brought him a little basketball hoop which Carter loves to play with!

Candy canes are a must!
Tyler seems to be our official "Writer of the Note to Santa". This year's note said, "Dear Santa, Please make sure each raindeer gets a peice of the carrits and the raindeer food neer the entrance of our front door. The cookies are for you and other people you want to give to. Love the Gordons and Grampa and Grama." Santa must have been hungry because the plate was nearly empty the next morning.
Grandma got a beautiful new scarf in her stocking...
and I got some very comfy new socks...
One of my favorite parts of looking back at these Christmas pictures is seeing the facial expressions. Like when Sydney opened her long-awaited Dora doll...
Spencer inspecting a great new telescope (been a little cold to use it much yet)...
Carter getting into the spirit of things....


If any one person in our family is good at being excited when opening presents it is Sydney. We always get reactions such as, "Ohh! A Pillow Pet! This is just what I wanted!"



Tyler is right up there with Sydney in excitement when opening gifts, especially when the gift is a signed BYU football...

Christmas is awesome! Nothing like time with family to laugh and play and take care of each other. Especially when you get family that comes from far away just to be with you and especially when that family is Grandma and Grandpa! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Christmas Eve! Yes, I know I am late...

I realize it is almost March, and these are Christmas pictures that I am posting, but I don't want to miss these because it was such an awesome Christmas! The reason for it's "awesomeness" was this...
The absolute highlight of our Christmas was having my Mom and Dad join us. We had so much fun, and the kids were so excited they were here!
Christmas Eve holds a few traditions for us. One that seems to have evolved in the last few years is to go see a movie as a family. Mom and Dad were especially excited about this because they got the opportunity to see The Yogi Bear Movie (as voted for by the kids). While it was really a very silly movie, I did hear Mom laughing a few times, and the kids did enjoy it, so I guess all was not lost with that choice.
When we got home we made some sugar cookies so Santa wouldn't go hungry when he got to our house...





One fun thing this Christmas was teaching the boys how to play "Settlers". Spencer had played with us before, but it was new for Tyler and Sam. I was impressed at how well they all caught on, and I really enjoyed playing with them.
We are missing a few pictures here, such as the nativity that the kids did (even Carter participated). The best part of the night was Grandpa reading "The Night Before Christmas" and recording it in a special book for us. The kids listened to it over and over (and they will for years to come. That is really awesome!) Thanks to the elf who helped with that!

Decorating and eating (of course) yummy sugar cookies...

Then it was off to bed in great anticipation for the morning to come!
More fun Christmas pictures to come...

Helping Out

Carter has developed a love of doing the dishes. Every time I open the dishwasher, he comes running to "help". I don't actually think that this love of helping out will continue to the point of actually being helpful, and I have a sneaking suspicion as to the reason for this interest in the dishwasher. It might have something to do with those occasions when he really scores big and finds something like this spoon covered in hot fudge sauce...



It's amazing how quick that kid works!

Snow-pocalypse

Well, I thought we would report that we did, indeed, survive "THE BLIZZARD OF 2011". It is also being called "The Great Groundhog Day Blizzard", "Snow-mageddon" or, Steve's favorite, "The Snow-pocalypse". I have no idea how many inches we ended up with, how does one measure blowing snow? We ended up with snow drifts 4-5 feet tall, but then also had areas of our yard where we could still see the grass. It was a crazy night, only made crazier by all of the anticipation preceeding it. We knew that the Great Blizzard was going to roll in around 3:00 Tuesday afternoon, and it was indeed beginning to look pretty ominous when I walked over to the school to pick up my boys. It almost felt like some living, breathing thing was approaching after all the talk and hype from the days proceeding. I was grateful when Steve pulled into our driveway at 4:00 and we had everyone safe at home.
There was lots of snow, lots of wind, but the one thing I had never seen before was the lightening... that was wild!
Here are some pictures of what we found in the morning...

The kids thought this was fantastic. A nature-made tunnel between the fence and the 4+ foot snowdrift next to it...


This was the sight when we opened our garage door. You can see the imprint of the door panels in the snow. And, you can almost see Steve's car...
Here is Steve attempting to get to his car. And if you look closely you can see our kind neighbor snow-blowing our walks. We took him cinnamon rolls :)...


To look at this picture you would think we didn't get very much snow at all...
Well, there it is. All-in-all, we faired very well. We enjoyed a day all snowed in together with games, hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls. And the kids even scored another snow day today. Tomorrow, we brave the world again!