Christmas in the cabin

This year for Christmas, the Brown family gathered together at a cabin near Park City, Ut. I love spending time with my family and this trip was no different. With my brother in law likely to be deployed next year and with missions coming up soon, this may be our last Christmas with all of us together. It was a blast!!

It snowed the almost the entire time. It even kept us there longer then planned. I didn't seem to upset over it.

Luke was in charge of breakfast....well I was but since Luke makes breakfast much tastier then mine I thought he would appreciate the challenge. He did great!

Mark smiling so cute like. To bad it didn't last!

Christmas even jammies!!! They were all about angry birds! Caw CAW!

Mark loved them! He is still wearing them. Yes they have been washed!

present time! present time!!!

James received a remote control helicopter from Grandma and Grandpa Brown. It is still working and he still plays with it every day! He loves it!

Luke recieved a new mp3/planner. His old one was broke and he really wanted a new one. This one even has a few movies on it so he is SET!

Grandma and Grandpa Brown gave Ben a mobigo2. They are pretty sweet. Ben pretty much has it with him all the time.

After three presents Mark stopped feeling well. He became ill and soon was asleep before opening all of his presents. Thank goodness it only lasted about 8 hours.

Cory wins best gift award. He took our family picture and blew it up poster size...but...

...when you look up close it is made up of thousands of pictures that he has taken over the years. If you would like Cory to make you one. let me know and I'll get you a quote. :)

We also decorate REAL gingerbread houses. It smelled SO yummy. The gingerbread was WAY better than ANY of the candy. My mom (Grandma Brown) made all of the gingerbread! Way to go mom!

 And now for some pictures simply because I can. Its my blog. And my family has to forgive me because..well..they are family!

Happy New Year!!

Random Christmas activities

Here are some of the activities that we have been busy doing this past month. There are so many of them that that I wanted to include, that all of them are going to be squished into one post. Lucky them!

Christmas present for my mother in law Gayle. I am blessed to have such supportive in-laws. This chair was so fun to do!! Gayle loved it. :)

Sutton Christmas party. Watch out for a wicked white elephant party full of snatching hands for the best present!

We were so excited that Crystal's family was there. They moved to Salt Lake City this year. It was nice to see them again!

Luke chillin with Grandpa Sutton. Those glasses were a HOT item. ;)

Choir Christmas concert. My favorite!

I decorated a booth for the Night of Bethlehem for our Ward Christmas Party. Mine was the least decorated but I still think it looked really nice. 

James was a shepherd for the ward nativity. I even washed the bathrobe.

Our commonwealth has a New Year's ball each year. It is a family formal. I love seeing all of my commonwealth friends there!

Ben LOVES to dance. With girls. Heaven help me!

Scary dragon in the parking lot! Look out!!

At the dentist, not only were there ZERO cavities, but we discovered that Luke's feet are exceptionally large.

We started a new Christmas tradition. We wrote down our favorite memories from this past year and wrote them on a large bulb. It was a lot of fun to reminisce. AND this is proof that ideas that I find on pintrest I am able to complete them.

Christmas cracker houses

Hmm...that title just doesn't seem right....

Every year at Christmas time we feel the need to eat tons of candy so we tend to create traditions around that need. Hence, we decorate "Christmas houses."

Yes, we have graham crackers, frosting and lots of candy. We stick them all together and try to make it look in the fashion of a house.

Then we eat them...the houses not the kids.

This was Mark's real atempt at structuring a house. It wasn't to bad for a three year old. But as soon as he realized that he was able to keep the candy that was on his plate and/or crackers, it became a pile on the candy session for him.

Ben was so serious about it. He wanted it to look great!!

Luke is now a pro at the cracker stacking. I think he likes to show off his artsy side of him with these sculptures of candy.

James also is very proficient in getting the most square footage for complete candy coverage.

He totally knows what this is all about.  "But I just want to eat it already!!!"

 

Cory says he's not very artsy. This is proof that he is LYING! It was amazing!

Bravo Luke! Bravo!! >insert padded opera clap<

James was ready to eat whatever he could get in his mouth. The light photo bombing his picture has become very common since he has grown 4 inches since August!! Seriously!

Fantastic attempt Mark! I'll just squish your cute, dimpled cheeks and call it good. muah!

Ben worked on his house right up until bedtime. He wins the award for getting the more candy on his house. It was amazing. And it was eaten in less then 12 hours. And people say my kids don't have any initiative! Ha!

My modest abode. The cinnamon bears were delicious, but, strangely the rest of my sugar slowly disappeared without my help. HHhmmm....

 This is one of my favorite traditions that I look forward to doing for as long as I can. I love it!

Awards Night

This post will not be the normal, exciting post that I generally have. A post full of witty writing and subtle humor sprinkled delicatly throughout the post. Nope. This post is just to help me get my post numbers up. I really want more posts this year then last year. >sigh< I don't think I'm going to make it. ..sniff sniff...

Ok it is also to say that James finished his first semester of Shakespeare class!! He finished seventeen plays and is well on his way to finishing the ten steps of the class.

Yes. They look so...thrilled.

 Luke finished TJYC level 1 at our Washington County Commonwealth. Hallelujah! There should be an award for parents of these kids that take this class. It is intense! Remember that stack of books that Luke had to read? Well he did it! He actually finished the day of the deadline. He also had a paper to write with several of those books. Not to mention the oral exam at the end of the semester and an 11 page essay final that made me more nervous them him! Woo! Way to go boys!

Ah thank you for gracing us with your smile, Luke! Remember that smile when you are knee deep in TJYC level 2!

James just thought it was awesome that it looks like he had light shooting out of his nose. We are a classy family.

Redemption photo for James. He is such a cool kid. :)

Ben just wanted in on the photo action. Silly kid.