Friend Christmas Party

We always host our friend Christmas party and this year didn't disappoint! We had a pasta bar for dinner, toy exchange for the kids, white elephants for the adults, and just played played played all night!

 So fun to see the kids growing up so much!

 We got out this shocking game and it was a hoot to watch everyone get shocked.

Christmas Dance Performance

This year the girls' dance studio didn't have a winter recital, but they did have a little performance for the non-competition teams. I didn't get great pictures of the girls dancing bc I recorded it with my camera. Brooklyn is on a competition team, so she dances 5 hrs a week! Crazy! But she loves it! On Wednesdays she has an hour break between classes and I found out she had been going in to one of the rec classes that only had one girl. So I let her stay in that class bc she loved it so much...so she's been dancing 6 hrs a week! I will pull her out the second it becomes too much, but for now she is on cloud 9 and is doing great. N-e way, so her comp team didn't perform, but she performed a duet with the other girl from that class. I was impressed! They were super cute and she's learned so much this year already! Brynlee also did a great job and was super cute. It's SO fun to have girls that love to dance!

Brewer Family Christmas Party

For our annual Christmas party for my dad's side of the family they always have a talent show. This year the kids sang "Up on the housetop" and did a little dance while they sang. It really was adorable. It was fun to see all the other families and their talents. My cousin is in Madrigals so his choir came and put on a little show for us. The kids loved it and they did a great job!

Preschool Program

Brynlee had her preschool Christmas program while the other kids were off track. So we all headed over to her preschool. It was SO cute to see all the little kids. Brynlee did great and was one of the few that knew all the words to all the songs. Good job Bryn!

Thanksgiving Point Lights

It has become a tradition to go down to Thanksgiving Point and drive through the lights every year. The kids always love it and it makes for an enjoyable evening. This year our friends we normally go with couldn't come last minute so we picked up Josh's parents on our way. It was a beautiful evening and we didn't have to wait long to get in so it was perfect! Afterwards we went to Chuck-a-rama for dinner. Such a fun night!

Ward Christmas Party

Our ward did their Christmas party on Friday night instead of Saturday morning this year. Josh helped them get most of the food from Nicholas so he was pretty busy helping in the kitchen for the beginning of the evening. 

 After dinner the Bishop read a couple of stories.

 Then of course Santa came!!! You can tell by the look on Brielle's face that she wasn't thrilled. She loves pictures of Santa, but doesn't like to see him in real life.

 Love this pic!

 Brynlee got too nervous when it was her turn to sit on Santa's lap by herself. I made her do it for the pic with all the kids, but afterwards she was sad bc she didn't get to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas. Our kids had been the first in line, and I wasn't about to go wait in the huge line that had formed since we had gone, so I told her if she wanted to see Santa she had to go wait in line. I honestly didn't think she really cared and I thought she just went and was playing with all the kids in the church hallway. About 20 minutes later I peeked into the room where Santa was and I saw her standing right at the front in front of him. I ran and grabbed my camera and ran in to take a pic. The girl helping Santa said that she had been standing there ever since it was her turn but about 6 kids kept going in front of her. She was too hesitant to say anything or do anything so she kept standing there waiting. Broke my heart. Mother fail moment for sure! So I quickly urged her on and she sat on Santa's lap (of course another mom that wasn't from the ward didn't understand that she had waited in line the whole time and everyone kept going in front of her and got mad at me, thinking I just walked in with her and was butting in front of everyone. I wasn't the nicest about it and felt terrible afterwards. But I didn't know who she was so I never was able to apologize and explain the situation...still feel bad about that). N-e way, Brynlee finally got to tell Santa what she wanted and we enjoyed the rest of the evening.

Hogle Zoo

The weather has been SO nice we decided to head to the zoo while the kids were off track. Natalie and her girls came with us and we had a great time! It was actually one of my favorite times we visited the zoo. It wasn't crowded and the animals were a hoot! We sat and watched this gorilla for 20 minutes. He kept playing peek a boo with a blanket, and a few times he would jump right at the window and slam his hands on it. The kids got the biggest kick out of it. It's hard to see the gorilla in the pictures, but he's there!

 We walked up to the seal area as the trainers were out working with them. We were able to watch them for about 15 minutes while they jumped, rolled, splashed, and did other fun tricks.

 We sat and ate lunch and of course Brielle had a blow out right after lunch. What?!?!?! That hasn't happened in over a year! Luckily Natalie let us use Oakley's sweatshirt and she went home pant less, but we made it! This picture was taken later in the day when Brielle decided she would climb in the dryer (no...I NEVER let my kids in the dryer. It freaks me out. So when I found her in there I took a quick pic and out she came!)