Christmas

Austin's Snowflake face mask that she made

Samuel and Caleb in their sweater's that Grandma Hardy made them

Joseph and Samuel next to the damaged car

Christmas Eve saying goodbye to our totaled car

the kids waiting to go down the stairs christmas morning

Caleb got yogurt pretzels from santa

Samuel got a hex bug from santa

Austin got gum from santa

Caleb's cheesy grin with a yogurt pretzel in his mouth

Joseph got a pocket knife from santa (dangerous)

Austin made a face mask out of putty, sitting in front of her bear

Betsy made a manger out of her putty

Joseph made an eye mask

Caleb loves his little people track

Angry bird kids

Caleb loves his horse

Samuel and Caleb playing with the hex bug habitat

Betsy playing "Dance Disney"on the Wii

Yesterday morning, I got a call from the insurance company telling us our car was a "total loss".  So Travis is really excited to go car shopping for a new car this week.  We worked hard all morning cleaning the house, and the kid's did a really good job doing their chores.  We finished making sugar cookies, and got all our cookie plates ready, and left in the rental car.  We drove down to the auto body shop and got all our personal belongings out of the car, and our license plates, took a picture and said goodbye to our car.  Then we did all our Christmas caroling with our hand bells and sang away in a manger.  We learned that the cold changes the pitches of the bells, so we had to be careful not to have them out of their case for too long.  We had tacos for dinner, and then FHE, we talked about the Christmas story and each opened one present, and sent the kids to bed.  I was exhausted so Travis and I quickly finished the Christmas preparations and went to bed.  The kids woke us up right when the sun came up, since they were instructed not to get out of bed until the sun came up.  We went downstairs and opened stockings and presents, all the kids were super excited and happy about everything they got.  Travis' big present was an air hockey table, that we're keeping in the garage for now.  I made bacon waffles for breakfast, and then Joseph went out and shoveled driveways and sidewalks for a couple hours, since we received several inches of snow last night.  He earned $24 from the neighbors and was really excited to have some money again.  Everyone has been playing together and having a lot of fun.