Christmas 2010

Santa filled the stockings to the brim with all kinds of goodies.

Jax is all ready to start opening the gifts on Christmas morning, but apparently no one else was ready.

"Wow, I actually got a gift?"

Catie is showing Aunt Ann one of her Christmas, oh sorry "Holiday", projects from school.

 

One can never have enough soft cuddly stuffed animals!!!

Abby was so excited to get her own jewelry box. Then she figured out that it was empty and that Catie has a large collection of jewels in her room and went upstairs to "borrow" some. Not a pleasant scene once Catie found out what she was up to...

Jackson loved the marshmallow crossbow that Uncle John got him. It shoots marshmallows over 30 feet! He/we loved shooting the squirrels in the backyard. The best moment of Christmas was when dad turned around and was hit from point blank range right between his eyebrows with a big white marshmallow! Where is a video camera when you need one?

Mom and Abster... or as Stiv likes to call them... Velcro!
 

Catie and Stiv worked hard on their snowman and enjoyed the white Christmas night outdoors until just before bedtime.

Don't be fooled, Abby and Jackson are just posers!

These magical jackets really do keep us warm!

Catie Cooper was proud to have her Grandma Moe and Mom visit for her Kindergarten class party.

Oh, Dad was there too...

Midvale Elementary School makes sure to be all-inclusive for the holiday season and incorporates many difference varieties of religious songs into their holiday program. 

Pancakes, PJ's and Santa

Hurry, Santa is coming!!!

Everyone in our household is excited for Christmas to finally arrive. Our elf Scout has been sending back daily reports to Santa, the Christmas parties are over and we have enjoyed all the cards from friends across the county.   

All that is left is church on Friday and Santa will finally deliver the kids coal Saturday morning!

The Schwartz children with Santa...

Do you think Santa knows how naughty Catie was just before they were to meet?

Catie is getting a bird's eye view of the book Santa was reading to the kids...

We were really thankful to be included in the Wilson's Pancakes with Santa this past week. Tricia put on one of the nicest Christmas parties for children you will ever see! The kids can't seem to figure out how she got Santa to attend the party during his busiest time of year!

Scout Arrives and The Party

 Well we broke out the Elf on the Shelf book on December 1st in the hopes that our elf "Scout" would keep the kids behavior in check. A bad report to Santa is usually all the motivation we need for a major behavior modification.

While we have grown fond of Scout over the last couple of years, we need a more menacing elf! Scout is just not getting it done. The kids enjoy finding where Scout appears every morning after his journey to the North Pole to update Santa on their behavior, but they don't seem to think that they are in any danger of receiving coal for Christmas. 

Jackson had to wait a couple of weeks to have his birthday party because the soccer season prevented almost everyone from attending in November. Good things come to those who wait! Jackson and his 18 friends had a grand time at Q-Zar laser tag.

The party was for eight people. We sent Jax to school with his eight printed invitations to hand out to his agreed upon friends. Well, in typical Jax fashion he started hand writing invitations and handing them out to "the rest of his friends"! As we always say..."the more the merrier"!

The custom Lego cake that we had made was a big hit!!!

A rare picture with Mom, Dad and the Birthday boy. Catie was at a friend's house and Abby stayed home with Grandma Sandye and Grandpa Jim.