Shaw Family Christmas Party

This year's Christmas party was a lot of fun. Grandma has been putting a lot of time and effort into the planning. We all met up at Grandma's house in Coalville for all the fun & excitement. There was lots of food and chance to get caught up on what is going on in everyone's crazy schedules. The kids loved the chance for playing together.

After a fun "Candy Land" inspired lesson by Katie, Natalie helped the kids get into their costumes to act out the nativity. Luke was trying to be a shepherd. But as you can imagine, that hat only lasted a few seconds!

Mikey was the most adorable shepherd I have ever seen. He did a good job herding his pretend sheep to see the baby Jesus.

This was the whole crew posing for a breif moment before the "special visitor" was about to come.

When Santa came, Kiersten's heart lept. She came and told her daddy, "He IS real. I knew it. I knew it." She spent the rest of the night trying to ask him questions, and trying to make sure that he knew she wanted a baby mermaid for Christmas. Mikey asked Santa for a Pokemon board game, and Luke just wanted to get as far away from Santa as possible.

It was quite special this year, because Santa had his list and he made sure that the kids knew that he had been watching them. He even told them some of the good things they had been doing to encourage them not to get on his naughty list.

Even cutie Grandma took a turn sitting on Santa's lap. She insisted that she had been too naughty to sit on his lap, but he knew bettter. Santa reminded her of Christmases past and what had brought her so much joy.

Play Day with the Porters

This is one day of the year that Mom always looks forward to--Play Day with the Porters. Once a year I get together with Darcy and we do a Christmas craft together. We have done snowman bricks, S-N-O-W blocks, jolly picture holders, snowman candle holders, and jingle picture frames. This year we decided to mix it up a little and we made candy- meaning fudge, chocolate pretzels, and toffee. Our kids love our play days because they get to hang out and play all day. So this past Friday (12/14) we did just that. Darcy took us out to lunch, so we didn't have to cook, and then they came to our new house to start the project.

The kids had fun dressing up in all of Kiersten's dress up clothes, playing pretend everything, watching movies, eating pizza and icecream (as doing above in their dress up clothes), and running and screaming galore. It is fun to see them play together, and we can hardly wait until the new Porter can come play, too!

Luke just loved playing with Lucy. He is almost the same size, even though she has almost a year on him, but that won't stop him from having fun!
Here is Darcy working so hard on our project this year. I had to sneak the picture or otherwise she would have killed me- that is why it is so crooked! Hopefully she had as much fun as I did.

Even around eleven o'clock, the kids look like they are tired, but only Mikey & Luke ended up falling asleep. The girls got up and started dancing and playing around until they ended up leaving around midnight! We had so much fun. It was a learning experience with some new recipes and putting all the planning into action.

We may have ended up smothered in chocolate by the end of the night, but the fun memories will last on with all the fun we had. May this be the continuation of things yet to come.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Reminder of years past

These pictures were taken the first year we moved to Spanish Fork. How little they were. We had so much fun taking these pictures. The kids loved being part of the manger scene and we loved the fun pictures and memories that day. We even enjoyed the funny looks we got from people driving past! Notice the cow in front? The kids were so upset because the cow was dead! They thought it had gotten so cold the head fell off! Silly kids.

You may recognize this one! We used it for our Christmas card that year. We used the saying "Wise men still seek Him". I hope that our kids will always seek Him.

Even if the camel wasn't real, Mikey had so much fun sitting on that silly animal.

Kiersten was already looking for her perfect Prince. I believe she found a great one to refer to.

20 Questions: Christmas Style

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Definately wrapping paper

2. Real tree or artificial? We love the smell of real trees, but Lance is allergic to them and can not setup or take down, so we will have artificial.

3. When do you put up the tree? The day after Thanksgiving

4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime before New Year's.

5. Do you like eggnog? Love it!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Lance- Nintendo system Rachel- Cabbage Patch Doll

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Several, but the only one out is a Precious Moments set made of plastic! We prefer to make our own nativity scenes.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Travis

9. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Mail

10. Favorite Christmas Movie? Lance- Elf Rachel- Christmas Shoes

11. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? sadly, yes.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Lance- nuts and fruits Rachel- fudge!

13. Clear or colored lights on the tree? clear

14. Favorite Christmas song? Lance- couldn't come up with just one. Rachel- Silent night

15. Traveling at Christmas or staying home? Traveling

16. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Lance could name 5, until Rachel reminded him of the rest.

17. Angel on top of the tree or star? star

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One Christmas Eve, the rest have to wait 'til morning!

19. Most annoying thing about the time of year? Long lines with impatient people.


20. What do you love most about Christmas? Both- Spending time with family & the spirit of giving.

Forgotten Carols

What an amazing night! Lance, Carolynn, and I went to the forgotten carols last night at the McKay events center in Orem. I had never been, and Lance had only ever listened to the music and books on tape- so what an opportunity to see it in person. The performance was amazing and we loved the spirit that was felt, the wonderful message, and especially the excellent company! I know that this will be a night that we not soon forget!

Grandma Rogerson's Christmas Party

It has been a few years since we have made it to Grandma's Christmas party. It was fun to see Lance's side of the family that we have not seen in a long time. Grandma made us a wonderful lunch, homemade candy and helped introduce Christmas BINGO to our kids. What a great afternoon! It was great to visit with everyone and to see how much everyone has changed since we saw them last.

Ty and Lance could hardly wait for Grandma Rogersons special candy that has been a tradition in their family since they were small children. Carolynn even told us that they (Lance & his siblings) use to stuff their pockets full before their long trip back to Springville as kids.

Kylie and Grandma Hansen were paitently waiting for their turn at BINGO. They were nice enough to give some of their prizes to my kids, who were not so patiently waiting.

Lance even approves of Kiersten's new book that she got as her first BINGO prize! Kiersten was ready to quit right then so we could start reading her new book.

The favorite "white elephant" gift that we got was a silly pair of teeth. Mikey, Kiersten, and even Luke laughed and laughed as they played with these silly teeth!

It was sure fun to see Grandma Rogerson and the rest of the family. Grandma is such a great example of love and patience to our family. We are sure lucky to have her in our life!

ABC* Cookies

For Christmas this year, Grandma Hansen has been giving us weekly gifts to get us into the Christmas spirit. Week one was a countdown to Christmas that the kids look forward to every night. Week two, was a little more sentimental. Our clue was, "Grandpa Hansen's memory will be sweet if on week two you make up this special treat!" So what does that have to do will the silly cookie cutters? She gave us the perfect cookie cutters to remind us of Grandpa Hansen! Lance was proud to tell the story of how whenever Grandpa Hansen would eat his gingerbread cookies, he was always careful to eat the head and then put the rest of the cookie back for someone else! So what better way to make these cookies, than to have the head already gone!

As you can tell- Everyone was quite exicted about the idea of making Grandpa Hansen's cookies!

Everyone did their part to get the cookies ready- Mom made the dough, Daddy rolled out and cut out the men, Kiersten and Mikey got to put the dough on the cookie sheet!

Luke's part was just a little more tasty than the rest.

Of course, Daddy was the first to get his gingerbread man, and in honor of his dad- the headless gingerbread man was his for the taking!

Mikey chose the gingerbread man that was missing a leg!

Kiersten was quite excited about her gingerbread man with no arm!

Luke absolutely loved his gingerbread man, piece by piece!

Snow Day

The kids were so excited to see the snow all over the ground when we woke up last Saturday (12/1). I thought for sure the kids thought we were just joking when we told them that it should snow soon. What a great start to the Christmas season!

Everything was covered in snow and made for the most beautiful morning.

Even Lance was excited to get outside into the snow!

What great helpers!

I know Lance appreciates all the help he can get! Between snowball fights with her daddy, Kiersten pauses to try and catch something other than a snow ball.

Mikey was trying his hardest to get the perfect snowflake to land on his tounge.