Oh, the big month is come and gone

 Wow.  December.  What a month it has been.

Stephanie went through the temple in Manti

 

Barrett went skiing for the first time.  It was a class trip!  How cool is that?!  

Here he is with his friends, Jeff and Gavin.

The roses I bought.  

I was in the mood to see some lovely flowers, and these were extremely lovely.

 

On Christmas Eve, Parker did a lot of shoveling!  He even did some shoveling without his shirt.  Just because he could.  He even had a passerby honk at him when he didn't have his shirt on.  Funny stuff.

 

 We went to dinner with the Grandparents on Christmas eve.  We picked them up and drove them to the restaurant, because the snow was coming down so hard! 

Barrett and Lucy were hanging out in the cubby under the stairs a lot this week.  They were preparing to spend their Christmas morning making plans about present opening strategies, and so they needed to have their own place to think and be excited.  They took the video game chairs and a television/dvd combo to keep them passing time.  They watched the first season of "Full House".   Too funny!  But they did let the rest of the house enjoy Christmas morning!  Thanks, kiddos!

It's all fun and games until someone gets ticked off.  

I'm glad I got a great picture of them all enjoying their time together.  

I love this laughing!!

 Barrett got new shin guards.  He's pretty excited.  

He'll get to try them out tomorrow at the soccer tournament.

Robert got new hot sauce.  He's pretty excited.  

He got to try it out this morning at breakfast.

Lucy also was excited to try out her back scratcher.  

I think she tried it out pretty soon after this picture was taken.

 I was SUPER stoked about the Swarovski crystal snowflake ornament that Robert got for me!  

SO PRETTY!

The kids ready to leave the Grandparent's house.

The Schafer grandparents.

 Barrett not wanting to go to bed yet, on Christmas night.  What a handsome kid.  He stayed up and had dad help him with his new bike lock, and his new head lamp. 

Robert trying to beat the Angry Birds on Christmas night.  I have never played that game, so I just don't get it.  I do know that he had some sort of thing that unlocks new stuff everyday, as a countdown to Christmas.  He said something about getting 3 stars. 

We had a lovely day today.  I hope you all did, too.  I am so thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ.  He loves us each so dearly and so personally.  I am thankful for His birth, His life, His sacrifice, His resurrection and His love.

Merry Christmas, dear friends.