Is it Christmas yet?

I always say this, but the days between Thanksgiving to Christmas seem to drag on forever. I guess I get excited to go to my parents for Christmas and can't wait to get out of town.  Even with that anticipation, we had a great pre-Christmas month.

 Jason and the kiddos looking at the lights at Ethel M's.

Me and all the kiddos.  They loved the lights.

Kimball ran and gave Santa a hug, before her brothers could even get up to him.  Then we finally got them all to look at us for this picture.  Santa got a little nervous that the kiddos were going to break down his little house, because Jack and Tod kept jumping up and down on his little platform.  Very entertaining for us to watch Santa get a little flustered.

 And, what kind of mom would I be if I didn't take bathtub pictures of my kids.  I can just see this picture in their wedding slide show.  Hehehe.  Danny is growing so fast.  He's just as tall as he is chubby... Jason keeps 

saying he's well proportioned.  Whatever he is, he is a big boy.

 And Tod is continuing to show us how clever he is.  He's learned how to climb up the stools to up on the kitchen counter, and I saw him tip over a little garbage can and step up, to get something off my dresser.  He's always finding ways to keep up with his big brother and sister.

Not to be out down, Danny learned how to sit up in December.  Very big accomplishment for him.

 

I just loved this picture.  It just captures our boys so well.  Jack w/ a pirate face, Tod just happy to be there, and Danny a little concerned about having to figure out the other two.

It has been a fun month getting ready for Christmas.  I didn't procrastinate, having learned that hard lesson last year, and got all of the shopping done on black friday.  It was so nice decorating and wrapping, and getting to focus on the Christmas season w/o as much stress as previous years.

Thanksgiving and Jack's Seating Arrangements

We spent Thanksgiving this year in town with the whole Hafen family.  We started out the day with the annual Turkey Trot.  This is very serious, as you can see by line up.  Kimball and Jack were determined to run around with their cousins, alas, it wasn't meant to be.  Jason was also ready to run, but before he could even make it around once, Kimball decided she needed her dad to cheer her up, when she couldn't keep up with the older cousins.  I had a very leisurely stroll with Danny in the stroller, and even picked up a few stragglers during my one lap.

Runners, take your mark.... I can't remember who won, but it was a good race.

 Tod decided to hop out of the stroller and make a run for the finish.

 After the trot, we got right to work with some delicious pumpkin cookies.

And this lovely bird, is Jason's turkey.  It was as delicious as it looks, and we even managed to make gravy from the drippings, after a few phone consultations w/ our cooking experts, thanks MOM.

It was a fabulous Thanksgiving w/ over 80 Hafens.  There are so many of us that we had to meet at a church building.  After dinner, there was very fun game of bingo.  It's always fun to catch up w/ family members that we don't get to chat with very often.

And now, here's Jack.  He's been choosing some very interesting seating for himself lately.  Here's a few I was able to capture on camera.

 And now that Thanksgiving is over, the Christmas decorations came out.  As Jack is so kind to display.

Temple Trip and Nana and Papa's House

Jason and I were getting a little stir crazy and felt like a road-trip, so we headed up to Midway to visit my parents.  It was a mellow weekend of just hanging out with the family, and enjoying their house before the snow hits. Abbey and Bill came up for one night, and then Cally and Nate and their kids joined us.

 Here is Papa and his crew.  

I think he was just as content watching the Backyardigans as the kids were.

 Kimball's best "Nana" impression. She even figured out to grab the kindle and her glasses and sit in Nana's chair.

 Jack got the idea too. So here he is in Papa's chair pretending to read one of his books.

 Lots of people tell me Jack looks like my dad, either way, Jack sure has fun pretending to be him.

The kids love to climb up this one branch like little monkeys. 

 And of course, it was only a matter of time until Kimball (and then Jack) started to jump off of it.

Oh, to be so fearless!  I wonder who these kids are sometimes.

The primary from our ward planned a trip to the temple. We figure we'd take the kids and teach them about how special the temple is. So we got the kids dressed in church clothes, combed their hair, got them all buckled and situated in the car, and then tried to start the car... nothing.  Our battery was dead, and we couldn't find our cables.  Jason drove to the store, got cables, jumped the car, we got back in the car, recombed hair and then went to the temple.

 The whole process of getting there took it's toll.  Both Kimball and Jack passed out on the way there.

 Once we got there, it was very fun to walk the kids around the temple.  We met up with the primary on the inside just as one of the temple presidency was finishing a little chat with the kids.  It was fun to see how all of the kids stayed reverent, or at least tried as best as they could.

 

At one point, we did pile all of the kids in the double stroller as we were walking around the grounds.  Let me tell you, life doesn't get much better than this! I love these little kids (and the man pushing the stroller that you can't see). I'm so blessed to get to be a part of this crazy little family.  I thank Heavenly Father everyday for this, and for the temple that lets us be a family forever.