Opening more gifts

Of course, after the Nativity we opened more gifts. Julia had asked Santa for an American Girl Doll a little too late. Luckily, Grandma was able to find a mini one for her.

Emma got another princess castle set, and about popped a blood vessel trying to pick it up for me to get a picture.

Andrew's big toy from Grandma and Grandpa was a Diego train set. It ended up being the hit of the day. We got it set up when we got home and the train ran for about 5 hours straight.

We had a very nice Christmas and felt very blessed for many reasons.

Tuckett Christmas Nativity

After our traditional family breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa Tuckett's house we acted out the nativity. Even Eldon took part as the donkey:) As soon as Andrew and Emma saw Julia riding on daddy's back, they wanted a turn too. It was a really spiritual reinactment of the Christmas story.

We couldn't talk Emma into being a certain part for the nativity, but for a while she was the guardian angel to baby Jesus.

Andrew stood half-heartedly holding the star of Bethlehem with one finger up his nose.

When Andrew quit the star-holding job, Emma was proud to take over for him.

The wisemen worshipping the baby Jesus.

Christmas Morning

Emma was having a hard time seeing everything in her stocking so Julia suggested she dump it out. She was excited to see everything in it.

Santa always puts little boxes of cereal in the kids stockings. Andrew was checkin out his box of cocoa puffs.

Our kids are into Little People. Andrew got the Noah's Ark set.

Emma got a princess castle set.

Julia loves Calico Critters. She was really excited about the new playset Santa brought her.

Christmas Eve

We had the traditional cracker dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Hult's house. Yummy salads, crackers, cheese, deli meats, chips, and of course, several different desserts. Our kids acted out the nativity and then we opened presents.
We had to convince Andrew to open any presents after he opened his first one, but eventually he opened his Cars sleeping bag and was really excited about it.

Julia opening her gift from Grandma. She was most excited about the drawing pad since she's decided she wants to be an artist when she grows up.

This is the classic Emma excited face. She is always very animated when opening gifts. She usually inhales loudly and shouts "WOW"!

Julia's Christmas Program and Decorating Gingerbread Houses

The second grade did a Christmas Program. Julia got to be one of the dancing reindeer. She was so excited to be a part of this. I'm sure you can't see her, but she is in the gray sweater about 5th from the left.

After the program we joined her in her classroom to decorate gingerbread houses.

When she was done she sucked the remaining frosting out of the bag. Yum!!

Family Christmas Party

Last Saturday was our family Christmas party with my mom's side of the family, The Daybell's. Emma was sick with the stomach flu so Eldon stayed home with her. It was a Polar Express party. Each family got to decorate a cake train.

Julia went right to work.

Andrew helped a little, but he really just wanted to eat the candy. Too bad the cake decorating was before dinner.

Julia and Andrew got to have another visit with Santa.

ultrasound

I had my 20 week ultrasound today where we found out the gender of our baby. Julia had wanted me to take her out of school to go with me to the ultrasound, but I decided it would be better if she stayed in school. I wanted to tell her the big news in a fun way so I stole the treasure hunt idea from my friend Sonja. Julia just loves treasure hunts. She was very excited to do the treasure hunt. Here she is reading the first clue.

She had to unscramble the letters It's a boy! She got a little confused because she lost the s somewhere.

She's getting it!

She finally figured it out and here is her pouty face. She had wanted a baby sister:)

I know this isn't the best picture. I don't have a scanner so I just took a picture of the ultrasound picture. There he is #4 and #last!!!!!

Santa came to our ward party Friday night. The kids were excited all day to see Santa until they actually saw him enter the building. After that Emma was begging to go home, and Andrew had changed his mind about sitting on his lap.

Andrew worked up enough courage to stand next to Santa and actually talk to him.

After watching her sister and brother visit Santa, Emma ran up to him, but when he reached out to pick her up she turned and ran away. With her daddy's help she took the candy cane out of Santa's hand, and stood there with her siblings long enough for mommy to take a quick picture.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. We had our feast at my brother, Jon's, house. Of course I was too lazy and also too excited about eating the yummy food to stand up and take a picture of our spread, but it was all delicious. After stuffing myself I felt like I wouldn't need to eat again for another week.
We had a ping pong tournament and it was fun even though I lost twice to my 14 year old neice. We also decorated gingerbread houses. The kids, both young and old, really enjoyed decorating their houses and eating the candy.


Emma decided the frosting was better than any of the candy. She wasn't shy about digging in either.


We had so many extra houses I even got to decorate one.

Look at that concentration!

Piano Recital

A couple of weeks ago Julia had her first piano recital. On the way to the recital she said she was nervous, but you couldn't really tell when she was in front of everyone. She did a great job! She started piano lessons in June and has really enjoyed lessons. She doesn't even complain much about practicing. She is such a good girl.

Halloween

We went to Trunk-or-Treat at our church. Emma thought it was great! She kept wanting to go around and around. Plus she did a little happy gallop after every piece of candy she received. She was probably the happiest little trick-or-treater there ever was.

We couldn't get Andrew to dress up. Wearing his Monster shirt was as good as it got for him. We had borrowed both a horse costume and a cow costume, but when we tried them on he got nervous and asked if they were going to "neigh" and "moo". Maybe we'll try something besides an animal costume next year.

Julia and her cousin Max wanted to be bats together. Grandma Tuckett added wings and ears to a black sweatshirt and we had a cute little bat girl.

Emma didn't wasted much time digging in to the candy.

We met all the local Tuckett cousins at Grandma's house for some yummy soup and to take pictures. It was fun to see everyone's costumes!

The Grotto

Lisa and I took the kids on the Grotto hike one of the days they were out of school in October. We had intended to see all of the beautiful fall leaves, but we were a little late. Almost all the leaves had already fallen to the ground. There were even patches of ice on the trail.

One of the kids favorite parts of this hike is crossing all the log bridges. Andrew tried to do it himself, but this is about as far as he got before he asked to hold my hand.

Painting Pumpkins

A few days after we went to the Pumpin Patch we painted our pumpkins.
Julia is very creative. She ended giving her pumpkin blond hair with bows and everything.

Three brushes are better than one!




I think Emma may have gotten more paint on herself than on her pumpkin. The big brown splotch on her forhead isn't paint, but everything else is:)