Ward Christmas Party

We had a lot of fun at the ward Christmas breakfast. We ate breakfast, sang songs, and of course visited with Santa.

This is when things started getting interesting. We were hoping Brynlee would be able to do Santa this year, but it didn't happen. Here she is watching him come in the doors:

Not happy about it:

 Brayden was very excited to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. For some reason Brooklyn started getting shy and having issues, which didn't help Brynlee. So after Brayden we took our chances with Brielle:

 We finally made Brooklyn stand by him and handed Brynlee, kicking and screaming, to Santa. He was such a good sport. It's all about the picture...

Bounce House

This is still one of the best things we ever bought. It is SO nice for the kids to get out their energy while they are inside. The baby has been obsessed with watching the kids and playing with them on it. 

1st Dance Performance for Brynlee

Brynlee has been taking dance with her little neighbor friend, Ryann. They had a fun little dance performance and Bryn did great! It's so fun to see the little ones trying to remember all their steps. She hasn't stopped doing this dance for all of us at home.

Welcome Home Rachael!!!

We've been so excited for Rachael to come home. The kids have really missed her and we couldn't wait! Steve and Kay went to Panama to pick her up so she got home on the 10th. We spent the afternoon decorating her room and her house.

 We went to the airport and waited for her to come! It brought back SO many memories and it was so nice to see her again. We brought roses for all the kids to give her.

 The 3 babies she's never met before:

Elfie

I haven't taken many pictures, but Elfie has been at our house watching over the kids. The kids all love him and love looking for him every morning. One day he left some magic seeds and some sugar for the kids to plant them in. 

 The next morning the kids were all amazed at what had grown! Christmas tree gummies!

Festival of Trees

We decorated the tree on Monday, and Tuesday night they had the auction. Unfortunately there was a snow storm so we heard that not as many people came as they normally have. Our neighbor also does a tree and she bought a ticket to go to the auction so she kept an eye on our tree to see how it did. There were 5 people that wanted our tree! Apparently that is a lot, especially since most of the trees didn't sell that night because there weren't as many people buying. Our tree ended up being one of the highest earning trees that night! We were SO pleased to have found this out as everyone always worries if their tree will sell. On Thursday we went to the festival and looked at all the trees. It was neat, but also sad, to have such a personal connection with one of the trees. We met up with Michael and Natalie as well as Sean and Rachelle. There was a volunteer by our tree reading Sammie's story (on the back of the poster they put in front of each tree) with another volunteer, so I leaned over the chain and told them that Rachelle and Sean were the parents of this little girl. She broke down and gave Rachelle a hug and started telling her how many people stop by the tree and are touched by it. Many read her story and cry and spend more time than average at her tree. It was really neat to hear the volunteer talk about how special Samantha is and how the tree has touched so many. I'm glad we did it and I think we were all very touched in the process.

 The kids wanted to watch the dancers and they were completely enthralled by them. We all headed to Johanna's Kitchen for dinner/scones to finish out the wonderful evening.

Festival of Trees - Decorating Day

Back in March after Samantha passed away, I had the idea of doing a tree for the Festival of Trees in her honor. My mom, sister, and aunt were all on board and we have been planning it ever since. We knew we wanted to do a butterfly tree so for months we were on the lookout for butterflies. I randomly was at a garage sale this summer and found the perfect butterfly, only it was green. It still had the tag on it so I was determined to find out where it came from. It took an hour of searching online, but I found them! And they had them in gold!!! I couldn't believe it. So we planned the tree around these butterflies and the day finally came to take the tree to the expo center and decorate it. My aunt's friend has decorated trees professionally, so she was kind enough to come and help us. You had to wire every singe thing to the tree, so it took the entire morning. I got a babysitter for the other kids and brought Brielle once Josh had to go to work. She did pretty well.

 I love this picture of Rachelle working with Samantha in the background. We sure miss that little girl.

It's hard to see all the butterflies on the tree, but it turned out SO much prettier than I had pictured. We all fell in love with the tree and wanted to take it home with us. Sean's sister made the quilt, and Sean's mom made the tree skirt that is embroidered with butterflies. It all came together perfectly.