Paigey's # 7

Paige's birthday always sneaks up on me because it is right after Christmas.  This year though, we told her that she couldn't have a friend party (trying to do the every other year on friend parties), so that took a lot of pressure off of me.  She begged me to do the same kind of birthday that Lydia had with the clues, so I thought, why not?

This is her working on her first clue...it was a dot to dot picture.  It was a close-up picture of a fingernail getting painted.  It was clear to me what it was, but they all had a hard time figuring out what the picture was supposed to be...oh well.  The clue led us to "Georgeous Nails and Spa" for manicures.  Paige was absolutely thrilled!!  This is right up her alley...she is always playing with her play make-up kits and always giving her and Bella makeovers.  She was really excited.  Lydia on the other hand, wanted no part of it.  She thought it was "too girly" for her to participate in.  Despite all of our pleadings and heartfelt invitations, she still chose NOT to participate.  So, I took the other 3 girls.  She was totally fine hanging out with dad watching football while Noah napped.

The finished products.

Paigey working on her 2nd clue.  This one was a word search that took her to Toys 'R' Us to pick out a toy.  We didn't take any other pictures at the store. 

This was in the car after the shopping trip at Toys 'R' Us working on clue #3. 

Clue #3 was a crossword puzzle that I made with clues all about Paige and then the last clue led us to .....Chuck E. Cheese!!! 

 (What were we thinking??  Going there on a Saturday night??  We WEREN'T thinking...it was a mad chaotic mess.  Hardly no tables at all and people everywhere!!!)  But, it's for the kids and the kids had a great time.  Garrett and I were ready to pull our hair out, but that's a different story.   

Noah rode on the Clifford and Bob the Builder rides pretty much the whole time...he loved them!

The birthday queen

Noah was freaked out by this ride

Clue #4 was an encoded message that she had to solve that led her back to the house for presents and cake.  She got a mini-van and more furniture to go with the doll house that she got for Christmas; a play-doh pizza maker; a Flynn Rider "barbie" and a new make-up kit.

Paige's birthday cake.  No, she's not 67.  The "6" is an upside down and backwards "P".  Garrett made the cake this year while we were getting manicures.  He tried to use the rest of the left over cake from the 7.  I thought it was cute!

Happy "Golden" Birthday Paigey-girl! 

(She turned 7 on the 7th which is her Golden birthday)

Christmas Day and a very relaxing Christmas Break

The kids woke up around 7 am and since we had to be at church at 9am, we did let them go downstairs and check out what Santa brought before we got ready for church.  We got quite a bit opened before we had to hurry and get ready in record time.  We were even early for Sacrament meeting.  A rare thing for our family! 

Noah's stuff.  He loved the trucks that he's holding in the picture.  Hardly put them down all morning.  They have really loud sirens when you move them though, so they were slightly annoying.

Bella and Paige both got to share this cute little doll house.

Maggie got a keyboard, even though we already have a piano.  This is so she can practice when Noah's sleeping (she can plug in headphones)

Lydia got this really cool medieval castle.  It's big and sturdy.  She loved it!

We were all surprised with a cool circus train going around our tree.  Garrett and I have always wanted one.  The kids all loved it!

The fam after getting home from church.  After we all changed (most of the kids got back in their jammies), we had a yummy brunch with muffins and breakfast casseroles.  Then we opened the rest of the family presents and played all day. 

My parents got the girls these hoodies and hats.  My girls LOVED them and practically wore them all day-esp. the hats.  They all got new Uggs from Garrett and I so they were wearing those, too.

Bella in her new Dora tent.

We let Maggie and Lydia stay up later that night to play some new Wii games that we got.  One is this fun detective/mystery one. 

These next pictures were taken during the rest of the week.  It was absolutely fantastic to just hang around the house and play and hang out together.  We played lots of games and did a few puzzles and watched some movies.  It was so fun...I loved it!  We didn't really go anywhere, except Garrett did take some of the kids to see "Puss in Boots" with some friends of ours, the Kelley's.  I guess the movie wasn't that great though. 

Garrett and I got the "Star Wars" boxed set and introduced Maggie and Lydia to the original three movies.  We let them stay up late to watch them and it was a lot of fun to see them react to it.  We love those movies and we haven't seen them in years, either.  So it was fun all around.  The girls really enjoyed them and can't wait to watch the next 3. 
Just on a side note, for New Years Eve, after playing some games with the other kids, that's pretty much all we did was finish watching "Return of the Jedi".  We didn't feel like being party goers this year.  Plus, most of us were sick with colds, so...it worked for us.

From Santa, I got an awesome 1000 piece puzzle all about Yellowstone.  (One of my families favorite places to go on vacation)  I finished it in about 4 or 5 days with Garrett's help here and there. 

Sometimes I like to call Noah, Linus because he likes to carry around his blankies everywhere he goes.  None of my other kids ever did that, so I'm kind of enjoying it. 

Speaking of blankets, I was finally able to finish Noah's quilt over Christmas vacation!  I am so glad I finally finished it.  It's always calling at me from the back of my head, but I'm too busy with other things to actually sit down and do it.  I've been really close for a while--all it needed was the binding.  I thought it turned out really cute.  It's really busy and bright, but I love it!  Thanks again mom for finding the pattern I was searching for!

This is the back--I love the material that I finally found!  I think it fits perfectly with it!

Here's a little close-up shot of some of the cars.  It was fun to make and he likes being able to drive his cars on the roads.  He loves cars!

Getting Ready and Christmas Eve

For Family home evening a couple of weeks before Christmas, we made our own Nativity scene out of paper dolls. I found the idea on the blog, The red Headed Hostess. I thought it turned out cute.  We also watched a cute little video off of youtube about the nativity with a little girl narrating.  It was so cute!  Here is the link:
http://youtu.be/PURToRRq7gM

Making Christmas sugar cookies on the 23rd.

We decorated them on the 24th.

 Garrett's parents are on their mission in Tacoma Washington and they were able to come down on the 24th and then stay for Christmas day.  They left again on Monday to get back to work.  On Christmas Eve, they took us out to dinner at a Mexican Restaurant as our gift for Christmas.  It was nice to not have to cook!

When we got home, we began the festivities by acting out the Nativity and singing hymns in between scriptures.  Jim was the narrator, Lydia was Mary, Garrett was Joseph.  I was a shepherd and Noah and Bella were my sheep.  Paige was the angel and Georgia and Maggie were the Wisemen. 

The complete cast

 After "the program", we watched Luke 2, a short 5 minute video on the Savior's birth.  I love to watch it every year.   Then we had Grandpa Jim read, "The Night Before Christmas"

We started a new tradition this year, that I hope will continue.  I had the 4 girls draw names between themselves and they had to make and create a present for that person using their skills and talents.  The girls kept asking if we could just go and buy something for their person, but I really wanted to emphasize that this be a homemade gift.  Something that they put some thought into and really work hard for, using their talents and trying to really think about the person that they drew.  For Paige and Bella, I helped quite a bit, but Maggie and Lydia did it all on their own.  The girls were really excited about the things that they made.  We opened these on Christmas Eve, so that these special gifts wouldn't get overlooked the next morning.  They all did a great job and I think they all appreciated their gifts. 

This is Bella's gift from Maggie.  It's a little skirt for one of Bella's dolls that Maggie sewed on her own.

 Paige's gift from Lydia was a packet of Christmas puzzles with mazes, dot to dots, word searches and coloring pictures. 

 Paige made a 2012 calendar for Lydia and drew all the pictures for it.  I helped by adding all the dates and birthdays and things to the calendar, so that it was personalized for Lydia.

Bella and I made a recipe book for Maggie, since she really likes to cook.  Bella picked out the paper and helped me cut and glue it all together.  She was very excited to give it to Maggie.

Then we opened the jammies from grandma and grandpa Hansen.

Everyone loved their jammies!!  Then we put out some sugar cookies and milk for Santa Clause and sent the kids off to bed!

Noah had a little snack before he went to bed and enjoyed sticking crackers on his face and in his hair.  What a goofball.