Christmas!!!

Christmas was a wonderful day!! Of course Christmas Eve night we read the Christmas story and the kids got to open their new PJ's!!  Grandma Leetham read us a cute story about a reindeer and wishes and started a new tradition of what we wish for every year!

This year we had a family Elf that we named Kindle.  The kids loved him! He went to the North Pole to tell Santa how the kids were that day then he came home and hid in a new spot and the kids had to find him every morning!!

On Christmas morning the kids got up at 530 waking everyone up in the house!! We came and opened presents where we were spoiled again!! Jake got a new smoker and a jerky maker where he had to restrain himself the rest of the morning from just going out and using them both.  I got a new camera and some cute boots and a makeup case that i wanted!!  The kids got guitars and clothes and barbies and monster trucks and blankets and magic eight balls (remember those!!) and movies!! They were definitely spoiled.

Then we went to church and had a wonderful meeting!! Christmas night we had the Merritts over for dinner.  It was Delicious as always.  Then the Berrys came over for dessert and Games!!  Abram is the master at the games!! It was a great day spent with family and friends and a great way to end the 2011 year!!

Tagg opening his PJs

Kate opening hers

Papa and Brystol

Stocking goodies

Presents

Jakes toy

Brystols present

Kelsey and Grandma Leetham

Brystol and Tagg in all the Christmas mess

Kate in her new blanket Grandma Leetham made.

Halloween

Halloween is such a fun Holiday for the kids!! This year the kids went downtown and went trick or treating!!  They loved it and had so much fun.  Kate was a cat, Tagg was a bat, Brystol was a lady bug, Kash was superman, Kali was bat woman, and Kori was a bunny!!!  After downtown we went to the Merritts and had soup and bean dip and waited for the 5 trick or treaters that came to get candy!!

Kate Brystol Kash Kori Kali

Kate and Brystol

Kori Kash Kate Kali Little Sunny Brystol Tagg

Carving pumpkins

We love carving pumpkins!! Tagg got to carve pumpkins in twice this year.  First was at his preschool.  He made a bat pumpkin! They drew pictures of their pumpkins and guessed if a pumpkin seed would sink of float in water and drew what the insides of their pumpkins looked liked!!

Then we got to carve them at home too with Dad.  The kids had a fun time picking out different shapes for the pumpkins.  Mom did a spider, kate did a dog, Tagg and dad did a vampire and little Brystol did a silly pumpkin face!!

Kali with her pumpkin

Tagg with his pumpkin

Sunny and Kali

Kate helping Brystol with her pumpkin

Tagg cleaning out his pumpkin

Brystol just had fun with the stem of the pumpkin

Our big gut pile, Tagg and Dad

Easter

We had so much fun at Easter!!  Before we left Utah we colored eggs at grandmas house!!  The kids loved it.  They missed having Dad there but he boiled some eggs so when we got back we could do it with him!!  After the eggs were dry the kids put eyes and monster stickers on the eggs and thought that was way funny!!
Then we drove back to Wyoming just in time for Easter.  The Easter bunny came and the kids had so much fun.  They both got bows and arrows for Easter and had so much fun finding eggs in the pasture. Then they shot their bows all day long with their Dad!! It was such nice weather that the kids had a water gun fight with Jake.  They thought that was so awesome! They ate so much candy I finally had to hide it so they couldnt just have it when they wanted.
I made a ham dinner for Easter and was very proud of myself for getting a holiday dinner together by myself.  I may just be able to do this after all!!  Ha ha.

Kates Tongue after a ring pop

Kate filling up her water guns getting ready for a water fight

Tagg Getting his water gun ready

Kates getting squirt by her Dad

Kates new bow

Tagg and Kate

Tagg has been wanting a bow for so long

Finding Easter Eggs

Tagg happy to be coloring Eggs

Kate coloring Eggs

Lots of Eggs

First Tooth

Katelynn lost her first tooth!!! She wouldn't let anybody touch it or even come close to it so it was loose for almost 4 months!!! She finally got it to come out one night when we were reading scriptures! She was playing with it and then just spit it on the floor and we had to find it again!
Its amazing to me that such a small thing in a child's life can bring such joy!! She was so excited that the tooth fairy would come and i am pretty sure she went to bed at like 6:30 just so she could fall asleep and get money!! But I don't think that she actually fell asleep until like 9:30. It was almost like Christmas morning!!
She is getting so big and growing up so fast. Kate loves kindergarten and is such an amazing reader! She loves to read and write anything she can get her hands on. Last month she got the academic and caring award for her class at school! Her teacher tells me all the time how sweet and helpful she is to her and the other students!

Christmas "Morning"

Christmas morning was fun and early for the Stephens household!! We were driving to Utah so we decided to wake the kids up early and do presents!! They had alot of fun!! Kate took a little while to wake up and get into but Tagg was ready to go the min we told him Santa had come.
They are at the perfect age were they were so excited about everything they got and loved everything. It was a great Christmas and everybody got what they wanted!!
I love Christmas time and finally I was at the point in my pregnancy that I was feeling much better and almost completely over the morning sickness so it was a good time.
After everybody opened their presents and we played for a little while and then loaded everybody into the car and headed to Utah!! Jake and I drove all night so that we could surprise our family Christmas morning!!!

Santas presents to Tagg

Santas presents to Kate

Tagg

Tagg

Kates new dog

Kate opening presents

Santas visit

Santa came to our house to visit the kids!! They were scared of him at first but warmed up at the end! They were so excited that he came to visit them!! He brought them a little present and they loved it. Kate even got brave enough and drew him a picture to take home to his elves!!

Tagg and Santa

Kate drawing santa a picture

Chase, Tagg, santa, Jake and Kate

Kate not liking santa at first

Kate and chase

4th of July fireworks

We did fireworks that night and had so much fun!! Wyoming is just a fun place to have fireworks!! We did lots of fun little ones at out house. Jake almost killed us twice but we eventually survived and that night we went over to our neighbors house to light off big fireworks. The kind that you see at the firework shows in Utah!! It was so much fun the kids loved being so close to the fireworks and it was awesome to see the night sky just lit up with fireworks all over the place. You could see them for miles away!!! We loved it!!

Tagg loved the sparklers

Kate

Tagg and Kate both loved getting the GI joe men that we shot up in the sky.

They also loved helping Dad get the fireworks ready!!

4th of July Parade!!

Jake and Kate

Kate eating her HUGE snow cone!!

Tagg and Kate, Sorry I forgot to turn it!

My kids love going to the Parade! We went Saturday morning! The kids loved it! They had so many horses and alot of old cars!! It was about 21/2 hours long but the kids were so excited about all the horses they say that they didn't even care it was that long! We had fun with dad who told us all about the horses!! Tagg got a snow cone as big as Kates!! I think there eyes were about as big as the snow cones!

It is just so fun seeing my kids learn new things and have new experiences!! I love that they are starting to ask questions and enjoy being anywhere new!!