Cannon Christmas Party

Unfortunately I didn't take hardly any pictures at the Christmas party at my Grandma Cannon's, but I do have a few.  We had an amazing dinner, as always.  I'll definitely have to get the recipe!  The party was for my dad's side of the family.  Liesel and Jason wore the elf jammies at the end.  They weren't very cooperative for photos, but we got a few impromptu keepers, like this one of Jason smooching Liesel.

 Liesel was rather upset about the hat and kept trying to take it off.

 I was trying to get them to smile for the photo, but it wasn't working.

 Here are a few shots from the talent portion.  Here are five of my cousins reciting "It Couldn't Be Done" by Edgar Guest.

 My Dad's cousin's husband, Ed, played the accordian.

 There were other musical numbers and poetry recitations.  Jason and Parker performed too.  Jason mumbled "Jingle Bells" and Parker shyly sang "I'm Getting Nuttin' for Christmas".  They were both adorable.  My sister Angie had memorized, "The Foolish Fir Tree" by Henry Van Dyke.  It's quite long, but very good.  She has an impressive memory.

We finished off the night by passing out sheet music to Handel's Hallelujah chorus and singing along with the CD.  What a wonderful tradition!

Kindergarten Program

On Monday Parker's kindergarten held a Christmas concert.  It was highly amusing, as of course most children's concerts are. 

 

Here are some video clips of some of the songs:

 Parker's grandparents were able to come up for his program.

Daddy had to rush off to work before photos, but here is the rest of us.

 Here's a photo with Parker's nearly large-as-life soldier.

Great job singing, Parker!

Gingerbread Houses

This year with Brad's siblings, we decided that instead of drawing names we would just spend time together doing something fun.  We made gingerbread houses.  Here Eric and Adam are working on their house.

Brad and I each made a graham cracker house for the boys and let them decorate it however they wished.

Here is Parker's mid-way through decorating.

 Kade loved helping Chase with their house. 

 Liesel and Will ran around eating popcorn and cookies.  The day previous we'd made real gingerbread cookies to bring to the party. 

Brad's parents had A Christmas Story playing in the background, classic!

 Chase let all the kids jump on him for a while.

Bellsie helping Jake with their house.

 Kade is such a cutie!

 Brad's wonderful parents. 

 All of the kids migrated to our table...because the candy wasn't being closely monitored, ha, ha!

Here are the final houses!  Ours our the two bottom ones...sweet!

Kangaroo Zoo

Parker received a free admission to Kangaroo Zoo for participating in the Reflections contest this year.  Our friends Rylee, Bentley and their mom Jane came along too.  The Kangaroo Zoo is a place full of bounce houses, so of course the kids had a blast!

 Liesel is such a good sport just to watch from the stroller.

 Here's our cute friend Rylee:

What a crazy fun afternoon!

Santa and Christmas Village

 We took the kids to see Santa in his little North Ogden Cottage.  He's a great Santa and there's hardly a line.  Liesel wasn't nervous about it at all.  She just sat on his lap like it was no big deal.

 Parker asked for a toy gun and a toy sword and Jason asked for a red light saber.  Apparently my kids are into violent gifts...we'll have to see if they get their wishes.

 Outside of Santa's cottage, there are lights and a little train.

 Afterwards we headed over to Christmas Village in downtown Ogden.  They have tons of little houses set up with lights and decorations inside.  The boys were too intrigued to turn around for the photo.

 This one with the Grinch in jail was Parker's favorite one.

This is what happens if I ask Brad and the kids to pose for a picture...he stares blankly while the kids look in all directions.

Finally the boys were willing to smile for a photo.

 This house looked like a gingerbread house, complete with Hansel, Gretel and the witch. 

The boys started licking this metal candy cane, even after they tasted it and we asked them to stop.

Here are the kids and I in front of the nativity scene.

We ended our fun evening with some hot cocoa. What a fun evening!

Summa Cum Laude

Brad graduated with his MBA on Friday! Hooray! All of the business students getting graduate degrees were able to invite a few guests to come for a little brunch and the hooding ceremony. Here is a video of Brad receiving his graduation hood.

Afterwards we took photos to commemorate the exciting day.

Here is Brad with his parents and grandma.

Our crazy little family.

After the graduate hooding ceremony, we went to Weber University's graduation. The kids did amazingly well considering how long they had to sit mostly still. Parker and Jason were marching and dancing during the procession to Pomp and Circumstance.

Here is when they read Brad's name. We were sitting clear across the Dee Event Center, so it's amazing this video turned out as well as it did.

I'm such a lucky girl! Brad worked very hard for the last two years working on his MBA. He excelled and has a 4.0! Congratulations Brad!

Pleasant View Creche

A neighboring stake center hosts an amazing creche display every year. We really enjoyed it last year and so were happy to attend again this year. They had over a thousand nativity displays decorating the cultural hall. Choral groups were performing in the chapel that connects to the cultural hall. They had a seek and find list that Parker enjoyed. He had fun searching for each item among the beautiful nativities.

There was a children's room that had fun activities for the kids.

Jason was thrilled when he saw they had puzzles.

Parker loved playing with these balance blocks. The object is to see how high you can stack them before they fall.

Liesel had fun touching everything too.

Jas finished his puzzle! My boys are notorious for either smiling, or looking at the camera, but rarely both simultaneously, ha, ha!

They had a little puppet show stage. You can kid of see Parker peeking through.

Liesel would pick up each thing and show them to me before moving on to the next figure.

They also had a live nativity room. They had lots of costumes and this stable scene.

Here are some closer views of the kids in their costumes.

What a fun and spiritual night viewing depictions of the Savior!