Stilson Family: 2011

Christmas Day!

Christmas morning at our house was really fun! Mason was the first one awake, but only because he had to use the bathroom. He would have gone back to bed but on his way he noticed that Santa had visited our house. We told him to go wake up the other kids. They only had a little while to play with their things because we had church. We only opened a couple of presents and then went to church. When we got back they finished Christmas. The boys kept saying, "This is the best Christmas ever"! Santa brought them football pads and uniforms for Christmas. They loved them.

Elly got her Buzz Light year, a microphone with speaker, swimsuit, tangled doll and sparkle hat. Drake got a crib set for his bed, a book and a toy.

We found this little guy hiding in Mason's shoulder pads. The kids thought this was pretty funny.

Some of the pictures of Christmas morning at our house.

Mason got a BB gun for Christmas from Jay.

Elly and her baby got a new Christmas dress from mom. Jay and I gave Drake this push car. We had one with the older three but it got trashed because we used it so much. The kids have all loved this car when they were little. Drake spent most of the day just playing with it, so it was a hit again this year.

The boys with their shoulder pads and shirts on.

Elly and her sparkle hat and the sparkle purse that Tyler gave her. She got that cute dress from Santa. Drake had fun pushing his toys around the room and playing with all the boxes.

The boys had to try out their football gear. They loved their uniforms. Jay gave the three older kids each some Bogs. Elly's looked good with her dress.

We got a ipod touch for the family so the kids will leave Jay's phone alone.

The best present our family got was a new tent. We have been sleeping in a four man four years and finally upgraded. Now I can't wait until camping season comes again.

My favorite part of Christmas was when the boys opened up their new suits. Mason has wanted one since Tyler got one from my brother, Ammon. He was pretty excited when he opened it and saw what it was. Tyler was excited about his because his old one was getting way to small, but I didn't want to give him his new one until Christmas. The kids all looked so nice for church. The boys were so excited to wear them they were ready for church early enough they had time to walk. They looked so cute walking down the street together.

We had a great Christmas and I thought it was nice to have it on a Sunday so we could remember the real reason we celebrate this time of year.

This year has been a great year and we are looking forward to another one.

Christmas Eve

This year we did something new for us. We got to spend Christmas Eve with just our little family. It was fun to be just us. Tyler and me planned a good dinner of; mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken and ham, stuffing, jello and rolls. The kids were good to help get it ready. We watched a movie together. We talked about what present we were going to give to Christ for the next year. We wrote it down and put it in a sock to hang on the tree. Next Christmas we will see how we did with our gift to Christ. We also opened the traditional Christmas pajamas.

Elly with her new pajamas.

Mason with his pajamas.

Tyler with his pajamas.

Our cute little kids in their new pajamas on Christmas Eve. The kids were so fun during this Christmas season. They are at a fun age which makes the season so fun.

If you notice the little elf on the shelf by Mason's head, well this guy came all the way from the north pole to keep an eye on the kids this Christmas season. Every night the elf would tell Santa Claus if the kids had been good during the day. The next morning he would be hiding somewhere else in the house. The kids would look for him every morning. It was the first thing they would do. When they would find him we would put him back on the shelf to watch the kids all day and make sure they were being good. Elly would say every morning, "Where is that monkey hiding"? It was cute. One morning it they didn't find him until after lunch. It was fun to hear the kids talk about how they thought he got to each of his hiding places. The over all decision was that he is magic. The elf stayed for a day or two after Christmas so he could tell Santa how much the kids loved their Christmas. They are hoping the elf comes back again next year.

December activities

During the month of December we did some fun things with the kids. I wish I would have been better at taking pictures of more of the things we did. I have always wanted to do gingerbread houses with the kids and never have so this year we finally did. The kids loved it and we found it was a good way to get rid of the last Halloween candy we still had laying around. We made a gingerbread village. Hopefully we continue to do this every year.

The kids went with me to pick out a Christmas tree. We only had an hour before it would be dark so we were in a hurry. We stopped once to look at a tree and decided we would get it if we didn't find a better one. We ended up finding the perfect one all by its self. The kids and me walked through the snow and cut it down. Tyler helped me get it load on top of our suburban and strap it down. The next day Mason helped me get it in the house and in the stand. We had cut it the perfect hight. I got the lights on it that day. When the kids got home from school they put the decorations on the tree. It turned out to be the prettiest tree we have had. The kids were as proud as me of our tree.
We took the kids Christmas shopping for each other, which is always fun to see what they think the other one will like. They always do a good job. They just need to be reminded they are looking for someone else.
We made count each of them a count down chain so they could cut their own and there wouldn't be any fighting over who got to cut it.

We made sugar cookies and the kids actually ended up wanting to frost their own this year, which was a first. Normally they just want to put the sprinkles on.
We made a pretzel treat for the kids school teachers and the girls at dad's office. We finally figured out how to make them way faster then we have the years before.
We made chocolate dipped pretzels for us one night. The only kid that didn't want to help with that was Mason.
We went to the town Christmas party so the kids could sit on santa's lap and tell him what they wanted.

Elly told Santa she wanted a Buzz lightyear for Christmas.

Mason told Santa he wanted a Green Bay Packers jersey number 25 the TB.

Tyler told Santa he wanted a Tim Tebow jersey for Christmas.

We also took the kids bowling one night. They loved it. We only had time to play one game. They had so much fun. The kids had bumpers in one lane and then Jay and I were on a different lane. Mason beat everyone. He wouldn't let us forget it either. He was so excited. Tyler wasn't very happy about it and told me, "Mason needs to be a better winner." I thought it was funny. We went bowling again during the Christmas break with some of their cousins and then out to pizza. We all had a good time.
This Christmas season was one of my favorites as a parent. The kids were so cute and excited about everything. It was fun to hear their thoughts on the whole thing. I taught the kids some of the Christmas songs. It was really cute to hear them singing them all the time. Elly loved "Santa Claus is coming to town." She sang it all the time. The boys love "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." We have some cute video of them both. Every night they wanted me to sing "Away in a Manger" to them before bed.
It was fun to do these things with the kids and spend this time with them.

Drakes first OREO

I finally gave in and let Drake have his first whole Oreo. He has had a few little pieces but today he got his own. He loved every little bit of it. He really is one of our kids. All of us love Oreos. I have kids that need one first thing in the morning and one that has them everyday when he gets home from school. It is a favorite cookie here at our house.

As you can tell he really enjoyed it.

Temple Square

We took the kids to see the lights at Temple Square one Sunday. We decided that would be the best time for us to get there this year. We left church thirty minutes early so we could be up to SLC right when the lights came on. We couldn't have planned it better. We were able to get free parking across the street from temple square. We had time to take the kids to the bathroom and walk to the Nativity scence just as the lights came on and the Nativity started. It wasn't busy and the weather was perfect.

We watched the Nativity first, which was nice because the kids could stand in the front since there weren't many people there yet. The last time we went the kids could hardly see it and we didn't have time to come back later.

The walk around the assembly hall was very pretty.

The boys pushed the strollers and everyone was happy the whole time.

I loved the lights with the Temple in the back ground.

All of us at Temple Square. It was fun with just our family because we were able to walk through it as fast or as slow as we need and wanted to.

Drake didn't like the stroller but once Jay picked him up he was good the rest of the time.

This is one of my favorite trees there. It is hard to tell how pretty it is but it has red lights on it and I have a picture taken here almost everytime I go to Temple Square.

This is the best part of Temple Square. I love during the Christmas season when they have this Nativity scene sitting on the reflection pond and you can see the temple in the water.

It is so beautiful! I just love this part of Temple Square.

The kids and Jay in front of the temple.

The kids loved all the water. We had to walk around this whole thing. The kids went right along it the whole way up and back down.

The temple from a distance. It was such a beautiful night and a fun thing to do with the kids to help them remember the reason for the season.

Tyler really wanted to walk in and see the statue of Christ so we took the kids up to see it. I think this was the first time the younger two have seen it and Mason wouldn't have remember it, but Tyler did. It was busy in here so we didn't stay very long.

After that we headed for home. We put the kids in their pj's and so they could fall asleep on the ride home. Seeing Temple Square the way we did it this time was probably the best way we have ever done it. We will probably do it like that next year.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my family this year. We had a great time together. We spent time at the gym playing basketball, football and some volleyball. I didn't take any pictures of this event, which I can't believe. I did take pictures of families and individual pictures but that was it. While we were all together we had a family picture taken. Everyone made it except for one person, who we just photoshoped in. This was a much needed picture. The last family picture we had taken and put on the wall my little brother wasn't even in.

I wish it would have turned out better but I guess we can try again this summer. It was fun to have everyone together.

Our 2011 Family pictures

This year we tried to get the same lady to take our pictures as last year but she was packed until after the year. We decided to see if I could do good enough pictures for us and if they turned out great and if they didn't we would just go somewhere and have them taken. These are the pictures I took of us.

Mason five and a half years old