The Greed Fest

Henry boy on his new ride on scoot scoot. 

Santa brought Benny a bike, just like he asked for! 

A Nintendo DS...yep, Grandpa Benny wins Christmas this year! 

 Henry playing with his fun new toy from Grandma Becky

Sylvia with her new guitar from Santa.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Ben singing "Tick Tock", one of his kindergarten program gems.  Cousin Ryder is singing along. 

Sylvia singing "Jingle Bells" - it was beautiful! 

Grandpa Goodrich playing a Christmas carol by heart. 

Ryder and Henry playing smash the cellophane.

Ben's Christmas Program

Ben is playing Jingle Bells here with some of his classmates. 

Ben had the longest speaking parts because he is the 

only child in the class who is a proficient reader. 

Ben REALLY got into the Christmas songs. 

My favorite was I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas. 

A little family picture opportunity.  

Sylvia stayed home sick from school, so she got to come and watch Ben's program.

* Side note--

I asked Ben the other day if he had a girlfriend.  He gave me an exasperated look, and said, "yes."  This surprised me, so I asked him what her name was.  He told me, "Marissa.  She has yellow hair."  I asked him if he has kissed her, and he said, "No, because Marissa doesn't like kisses."  But he has hugged her!  This conversation was hilarious.  If you're wondering which one is Marissa, she is on the front row in the third picture, wearing a white shirt and denim skirt.  Too cute!

Instagram Christmas Pics

Christmas Fun!

If you don't follow me on Instagram, you should.  Although, honestly I post most of my Instagram pics to Facebook, so whatever.  We have captured some fun Christmas pics via the iPad camera (because it's quick, and it's handy), and these are just a few:

Henry's candy cane face

Henry at the Christmas tree

Ben with our awesome gingerbread house

My cute Christmas tree skirt

The cuties eating cuties watching Christmas Oranges

Sylvia with the coolest thing EVER--

the Lego Advent Calendar from Grandpa Benny

Oh, Christmas, how I love you.  I didn't think Christmas could become more magical, and then I had children.  They have made the Christmas season even more meaningful for me.  I love these kiddos!

Sylvia's Christmas Recital

 Sylvia, the organist!

Ben and Tom doing who knows what.

This Fall, Sylvia has been learning about the organ at her piano class.  It has been a lot of fun having her tell us all about the organ, with comments such as, "Mom, did you know that you play the organ with your FEET?  Seriously, I'm not joking with you."  She has been having a lot of fun.  Her lessons have been at our church, so she's had lots of hands on experience playing the organ, and getting to know all about it. Yesterday was her Christmas recital, and every kid played a Christmas song on the organ.  Sylvia performed Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella.  So pretty!  She did a lovely job.

SAAANNNTTAA!!! I know him!

We visited my favorite Santa at Evan's Gatehouse in Orem last Saturday. We tried putting Henry on Santa's lap--needless to say, that didn't go well.  He cried, as we expected, but he also arched his back and squirmed which made it impossible for Santa to hold him at all.  Oh well!  The kids received candy canes, and told Santa what they really wanted for Christmas (Ben had a much longer list than Sylvia), and Henry stayed a safe distance away in Dad's arms.  Fun was had by (almost) all!

Henry Is One Year Old!

Henry doesn't trust Grandpa Bill at all.

The three crazy kiddos :)

Henry loved his cupcake!

Henry had a birthday yesterday, we celebrated with cupcakes!  We went up to Grandma Susan's house to enjoy our cupcakes and ice cream, and I made everyone wear party hats.  We bought Henry a Fisher Price Chatter Telephone for his special day.  So far, he really likes it!

What Henry's Up To At One Year:

• He is a screaming machine.  Henry will scream when he's happy, excited, sad or scared.  Sometimes its hard to tell what emotion he's trying to convey.  He screams all the time!
• Still eating baby food, but we're adding in sippy cups of milk, and lots of other big people food.  Henry especially likes noodles.
• He's still not sleeping as well as I'd like, but I'm more comfortable letting him cry for a few minutes when he wakes at night.  Usually, the kid cries for only a few minutes, and then he'll go back to sleep. Baby steps, right?
• Henry's new favorite activity is opening drawers.  I came in the other day to my bedroom, and he had emptied one of Nate's dresser drawers all over the floor.  This means a lot of extra clean up for Mom!
• We've discovered he really likes Sesame Street - especially Elmo.  This buys me precious time to take a shower :)
• Still a little baldie in the front, and he's getting more and more handsome every day.  Seriously, this is one cute kid.