Snowflake Lane

This year we took the young women to Bellevue Square to watch the Snowflake Lane Parade and even though it was freeeeezing cold it was so much fun and totally worth it! The girls had so much fun. It was awesome to watch and everywhere you looked was holiday joy. It's the first time I've gone and I loved it. I will definitely go again. My favorite part was when the snowmakers went off and it felt like a winter wonderland for a few minutes. Awesome.

Frosty totally photo bombed our picture!

The most amazing group of girls!

Christmas Day | 2011

Christmas was super fun and super laid back this year. Since it was on Sunday, we did things a little differently this year. The kids slept in until about 8 o'clock, so we rushed downstairs to see if Santa came and went through our stockings before getting ready for church. After opening our stockings, the kid's were so excited we let them open their one present from Santa before we left.

After we got home from church, we all climbed back into our pajamas and opened up the rest of our presents!

Audrey's big gift this year was a digital camera. She took pictures and made videos all day. She seems to love the video feature the best and some of her "shows" are pretty funny.

Ethan was soooooo surprised to get a DSi XL. He really wanted a DSi, but didn't think he was going to get one and the fact that he got an XL made his day.

Ethan was being so polite when he opened up this present, but when I asked him if he liked it, he said..."yeah. It's great. I kind of already have it, but that's cool". Whoops... I can't believe I didn't realize he had that one. I assured him we could exchange it for something he didn't already have!

Both David and Ethan got remote control helicopters and got pretty good at flying them all over the living room.

Audrey checking out her squinkies... it's about the only "toy" she wanted. She still loves anything little and cute... probably always will!

Audrey showing off her new boots!

Save the biggest for last! David was super excited to get his new pump scooter!

... and the aftermath! Such a fun day. We were able to just hang out, play games, visit with Grandma & Grandpa Kidd and eat yummy food. It was fun just being together!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Look who stopped by the Kidd's home on Christmas Eve! The kids have been so excited for Christmas this year... especially David who is my last Santa believer. He even told me a few days before Christmas that he knows Santa is going to come to our house first. So cute.

Santa ate all of the goodies left for him! (Or maybe it was Mrs. Clause that ate them all. I can't remember).

Look at those happy faces opening up their Christmas stalkings. Makes me want to cry... I love those smiles so much. They are just so sweet and they were just so happy and so appreciative of everything. I just love that about my kids!

Christmas Eve snapshot. Can you guess which of these cool presents I bought for myself but disguised as a gift to the kids. Hint: It has a huge arrow pointing to it. I hope I can master it again! (Jason is totally mortified that we now own one. He thinks I'm such a nerd!)

Christmas Eve we continued our yearly tradition of having the grandkids dress up and act out the story of Jesus' birth. Aren't they all so cute?! We had quite the limited cast this year due to Tommy, Blake, and Brody being out of town this year, but we managed and Audrey was very agreeable to being one of the wise men. We were going to use Matthew as our other wise man, but he prefered to stay in daddy's arms! I guess no myrrh for baby Jesus this year. Alley also decided this wasn't her thing yet.

David and Catie make such a cute Mary and Joseph.

Ethan is such a trooper and didn't complain once about having to be part of the story and dress up. Unfortunately, his body language gives him away a little. haha.

It was such a wonderful few days and it has been so nice just living in my pj's and hanging out with the family. We feel so blessed and love this time of year to remember the birth of or Savior and what a miraculous gift his life was to us.

Christmas!

My kids say it every year... "This was the best Christmas ever!" Some of the highlights of our Christmas this year were...

First off, I wanted to share this beautiful Christmas card my mom gave us this Christmas. I just loved the picture so much.

Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa Stringhams complete with the nativity story acted out by the grandkids, waaaay too much food (yum!), opening presents, and lots of fun. (This year Ethan graduated from dressing up for the nativity to being the narrator.)


Christmas morning came bright and early with the most excited, cute, and most grateful kids ever. This Christmas neither Jason or I were the mood to sit behind the camera. We just wanted to hang out and play with the kids. I took three pictures this Christmas, but I think they tell the story well. A big mess, new toys, and lots of FUN! The big surprises for the kids this year were a new Nintendo DS for Audrey, remote control helicopters for Ethan, and Buzz Lightyear for Davie!



Christmas evening we went over to Aunt Julie & Uncle Stan's for more yummy food. We even got to see Gregory, Alex, Melissa, and Maddy! It had been so long since we've been able to all hang out together and we loved it.

I really can't believe that Christmas is already over. We had so much fun that we still can't get back into the groove of normal living. We still have new toys scattered all over the house, Christmas goodies piled on our kitchen counter, dirty dishes in the sink, and kids playing till late hours every night. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Gingerbread houses in Seattle

The night before Christmas Eve, some friends of ours invited us to go with them down to Seattle to check out the cool display of giant gingerbread houses. We got there a little early and had fun hanging out at the Space Needle. We checked out the cool giant Christmas Village in the food court area, watched the jump roap competition, and then road the monorail (the highlight of David's trip) to see the gingerbread houses over at the Sheraton Hotel. We all had so much fun and it's always so exciting to be in Seattle at Christmas time!

David watched the train in the Christmas village for f-o-r-e-v-e-r! He loved it!

Just a few of the amazing giant gingerbread houses. Wow.

Happy Holidays! Love, The Kidds

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We hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season and we love you all!

*These are the cards I had printed up to send to everyone, but unfortunately the company who printed them did a horrible job and I decided to return them... but we were thinking of all of you this holiday season and we love you very much!

Christmas Creche

Every year our stake puts on a beautiful Christmas Creche event for the whole community. They display well over 400 different nativities. I find it amazing how differently artists can create just one moment in time. They are all so amazing to look at... wooden nativities, porcelain nativities, stuffed nativities, toy nativities, lego nativities, paper nativities, glass nativities, life size nativities, nativities from all over the world, and even a live nativity are displayed.

This year I was asked to help during the set-up by photographing each and every nativity as it was brought in and set up. (For security reasons) I really enjoyed getting to see them all and to even learn the stories behind some of them. It was very cool and made me appreciate them even more.

This year Ethan and Audrey decided to join the children's choir. They have been practicing for over a month and they did such a GREAT job. I was a little surprised when Ethan said that he wanted to do it, because he barely even sings during primary, but I was so proud of how well he did and how excited he was to be a part of it. The songs were beautiful and the children sang wonderfully. I look forward to this every year. They were so glad that both of their grandmas and grandpas could come and hear them and they felt really good about being a part of this event.

A white Christmas...

I've always wanted a white Christmas..... and I lo and behold, take a look... my wish came true this year! We woke up to the most beautiful white Christmas and it continued to snow off and on throughout the whole day. What a beautiful backdrop to our fun day.

I am going to be so sad when my kids grow up and Christmas isn't as magical as it is right now. It is so much fun. Late Christmas Eve they kept sneaking downstairs and then complaining that they just couldn't fall asleep because they're too excited!

This year was especially fun because we surprised the kids with a Wii. My kids weren't even expecting it... it was just one of those things that we found a great deal on months ago and couldn't pass it up. Below is a picture of their complete SHOCK when they opened up our family gift! Fun times...

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Nativity

For Christmas Eve we always get together with the whole Stringham Family to spend the evening together eating, playing, chatting, opening gifts from each other, and eating some more! It is one of the days I look forward to most out of the entire year... almost as much as Christmas day! It just gets more and more crazy and fun with all the kids. This year everyone was here except for Jason's family in Pennsylvania. We missed you guys so much!!!

My mom has worked hard putting together the cutest nativity costumes for the kids to get dressed up in every Christmas Eve and act out the nativity story. It is so cute and I think this year was our best yet. It's always a bit chaotic... but what else can you expect with all these little ones!

Here are some fun pictures from our evening.
*Note: This is picture heavy... I put most of these up for the benefit of my family!

Mary & Joseph accepting a gift from one of the wise men.

Joseph trying to cheer up the sad little angel.

How much longer is this "play"?... I'm getting tired!

Tommy as Jospeh

Audrey played a beautiful Mary.

Blake as a Jedi Knight!... whoops... I mean a wise man.

The Whole Cast of Christmas 2008
Catie, Blake, Ryan, Jenna, Ethan, Tommy, Audrey, Emily, and David
(Baby Brody was sound asleep and we decided it best not to wake him to play baby Jesus this year!)