holly jolly christmas

our weekend was wonderful, full of family, food (oh, the food I consumed!), and frolic. we hope that all of you enjoyed Christmas, celebrating the great gift of our Redeemer and eternal families. Ian was able to give a talk yesterday in primary and did a wonderful job summing up why this season is wonderful and why we celebrate. His theme was 'I know that my Redeemer lives'. He talked about Grandpa Dan (my father), Grandpa Harry and Grandma Duck how even though they have died and aren't with us anymore we know that we'll be with them again because of the gift our Savior gave each of us. Such a simple subject, but it has had me thinking about how blessed I am and what a wondrous gift the gospel is to each of us. Merry Christmas to all of you and I hope that you feel Heavenly Father's great love for each of you throughout the year. Enjoy some of our picsenjoying the Cementary luminaries.  Grandpa & Grandma's headstone looked beautiful.  They were so loved.

the nativity at Grandpa & Grandma Denie's house a holiday tradition that gets better and better.  we're pro now, we even have costumes.  we're just missing one wiseman and everyone seems to think that means austin & i are supposed to have another baby.  i'm still not too sure about that yet, though it's not entirely out of question either.

Joseph and Mary

Christmas Day at our house.  Busy fun.

Josh got a thumbwrestling ring and was the champ for quite a while till Tyler finally took him down.

Austin got a catapult, which Mick used to bombard the other party goers with cottonballs.  I liked this pic because of his maniacal look picking out his next target.

The whole nativity cast.

pillow pets were a huge hit at our house Christmas morning.

Ian "mantis" Cope

Fiona & Lydia loved the furniture that Santa found for their dollhouse

Fiona, the baby unicorn

 

the boys working on their legos

 On Christmas Eve we played outside and had a great time in the snow.  It was perfect for snowmen, snowball fights, making snow mountains to climb on, sledding and even building snow forts.  Austin worked on his fort while the kids were down for quiet time.  It took him a little over an hour to finish it.  He leveled the ground, made sure it was square and level.  He's quite the builder.  The kids loved it and it only took them less than 15 minutes to totally destroy it while Austin was napping to recuperate.  We had a talk about non-destructive play.

 

they really brought the walls down fast.

snow day and ornaments

We decided to follow last years ornament tradition and make them at home.  We made paper stars and they really turned out cute.   The kids had a great time tearing up the construction paper and watching it get turned to pulp in the blender.  I found the idea in this month's family fun magazine here http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/homemade-paper-stars-954207/

we couldn't get a family shot to turn out, they were all blurry whenever we used the timer.  The kids were more than happy to help austin & i get a quick pick

with lydia we had to make sure we put our faces in the way of the lens

wesley decided to cut out daddy

ian finally got one that looked pretty good, all of fiona's turned out blurry.

i just wanted to throw this one in for fun.  she did 'fish lips' for the camera and i always laugh when she makes this face.

Today we actually had a snow day. this is the first one i have EVER experienced in Utah. I think we got over 3 feet in one day. austin spent 2 days snowblowing and it just kept coming down. the kids weren't as disappointed about missing their class parties as i feared they would and we had a great time playing in all that snow.

ian sitting on the giant rock in our front yard

beautiful fiona, that face is to die for

lydia helping daddy make a trail to our chickens

we found a great hiding place under one of our giant pine trees out front.

santa claus is coming to town, aaaah! cry!!

 
we took the kids to see Santa. the boys have always liked this tradition and start listing all the things they're going to tell him as soon as we're in the car. the girls not so much. the past years have always produced a crying fiona or lydia and making mom & dad laugh (we are such rotten, mean parents). but this year we've had a break through. the girls actually stayed long enough for not only one, but actually three pictures. there were no tears, no screaming and when Santa asked Fiona if she wanted a unicorn we even got a nod! 
 

these were last year's pics, even with an m&m peace offering it was a disaster.

poor Santa

a christmas greeting

the girls looked so cute i had to get a pick. we went to our last kindermusic class till after the new year. this week has seemed like it's been more than 7 days. monday i got calls telling me about 2 deaths in the family. one of the cousins lost their 2 month old baby that morning. it was a horrible and unexpected tragedy, one that any mother fears. i know the only way i could cope is to remember that families are eternal. the other call monday afternoon came after our beloved grandma davis finally got to rejoin her sweetheart on the other side. since august she's been in pain and suffering, it was a relief to hear that she wasn't having to endure any more, but still sad to think she's gone and now our christmas and other family traditions are going to be very different. her funeral was wonderful, probably the only one i've ever enjoyed attending. the thing i like most about the davis family is their ability to laugh at themselves. grandma davis was a wonderful lady, one i'd like to be more like.

 

i also wanted to share these pics from our FHE building a gingerbread house.  it was a lot of fun, my mom had bought a kit so it was really a no brainer.  the kids had a lot of fun building it and even more fun taking it apart and eating the candy.  lydia was upset when we first started taking it apart, she was still in building mode.  but after eating a few m&m's she quickly changed her mind.