Our Ward Christmas Party

Every year we attend a Christmas party at church. However, in the past, it usually hasn't pertained too much to CHRIST.  For the most part, it usually goes something like this: eat sandwiches, sing a few Christmas songs, and then sing "Here Comes Santa Claus" before Santa can arrive. However, this year they did it differently, the kids went and saw Santa as soon as they arrived. Hayden wasn't a bit shy about visiting with Santa, and Santa tried joking with him a little bit by asking him if his name was "Soccer" (notice it's printed on Hayden's hoodie) and then after Hayden told Santa his name, Santa went on to say "Hayden Soccer". Later that night, Hayden started worrying that maybe Santa would go to the wrong house because he didn't tell him his name was Hayden Hoover. 

Kayla wasn't so sure about visiting with Santa, so she and Hailee visited with Santa together.  But she did tell Santa that she wanted a baby doll. 

After the visit with Santa, we went and waited for awhile until the CHRISTmas program part of the party started.  The program started with every family being given a food basket and a bag of coins.  We then walked through "the marketplace".  There were six booths set up and at each one you could purchase a part of your meal for your family: water, bread, meat and cheese, fruit/veggies, cookies, and then a booth that sold toys for the kids.  You had to be sure to leave enough money to pay your taxes when the guards came around collecting.

Here we are eating in the marketplace:

Then, they read the story of the birth of Christ, with breaks in the story to sing CHRISTmas songs, and  Joseph and Mary strolled through the marketplace, followed by the shepherds, then the three wiseman (which included Waylen's uncle (in red) and his dad)

Sorry that this next picture is so blurry, but it's the best I got of the "Nativity":

The program was good, it wasn't too long and drawn out, and those who planned the program did a great job in making costumes, and in decorating/making the booths for the "marketplace".  The party this year allowed us all to remember that CHRIST is the reason we enjoy Christmas every year!!

Snuffy's Party= FOOD, FUN, & FAMILY

This past Saturday we were able to enjoy the family Christmas party with the Snuffy's (Waylen's grandparents). It is another Christmas tradition that we look forward to every year. It is nice to get together for a day filled with FOOD, FUN, and FAMILY!! First, we enjoyed eating all the FOOD (sandwiches, potato salad, baked beans, chips, cookies, and more), then the FUN began with the traditional talent show.
Hayden with cousins Hailee and Ethan singing Jingle Bells

My niece, Paige, performing for talent show

Next, some of the FAMILY provided entertainment while playing a Reindeer Game

Then, came the opening of the gifts from the Snuffy's

Next, the FUN continued with a pinata

Then, more FUN as we all had a few laughs while we watched Ethan take on his uncles in a silly string fight

And that pretty much concludes our party filled with FOOD, FUN, and FAMILY!!

And if you may wonder what Katie did the whole time during the party: she took it pretty easy being held by all of the FAMILY, but was all partied out by the end of the day!!!

Christmas: A time for traditions

I think everyone would agree that Christmas is a time for traditions. Even though they may be small and simple ones, our traditions are something that makes Christmas so fun.  It's a family traditon to put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving, so that is what we did!! While Hayden enjoyed putting all the ornaments on the tree......

Kayla enjoyed checking out all of the other Christmas decorations that we have and loved trying on the reindeer antlers and.....

the stockings too!!!!

It is tradition to try to get a picture of the kids in their Christmas best.  And this year wasn't much different from any other (well, except for the fact of having three kids in the picture now)!!

 Take one:

(As you can tell they weren't quite ready for the picture taking!!)

Take two:

(I love Kayla's smile in this one, she was so excited to hold Katie for the picture. But not sure what Hayden was looking at.)

Take three:

(I think this would have been the cutest one, since Hayden & Kayla both were actually smiling, but Katie's hand was covering Kayla's face.)

Take four:

(Thought a new pose might turn out better and this was the by far the best one!!)

Take five:

(And I love Hayden's smile in this one, but Kayla was done by then, and Katie had had enough too!!)

I did get a few cute ones of Katie by herself after we got home from church that day. Isn't she a cutie?

No pictures for this next tradition but we always have a Family Home Evening lesson the first week of the month on the first Christmas. Last year after Christmas, I bought a Nativity set for the kids that they can play with and so what I did for this year's lesson was I hid all the pieces except for the stable and then after the kids found all the pieces we talked about the story of Jesus' birth.  They both loved it, and even took turns hiding all of the pieces again. Hayden hid them all so good, that it took me, him, and Kayla about 10 minutes or longer to find Joseph!!  Then, on Thursday night of that week, we went down to the church in Sanford where they were acting out the first Christmas. It was a great experience, but it was pretty cold that night!!  Hayden commented on the way home that it was neat, but he didn't want to go back again next year because it was too cold. We (me and the kids) had went last year too with Waylen's mom and sister, and it was really cold then too, and I'm sure every year will be pretty cold. We do live in Colorado!! But I think it is something that I would like to do every year because it is a good way to teach your kids and remind them and yourselves the true meaning of CHRISTmas.

And those are just a couple of the traditions that we have in our family. More to come in the weeks to follow!!

One Month Update

Katie celebrated her 1 month old birthday on Monday. It seems like that first month just flew right on by.  She is doing great, growing more and more every day, and has changed so much since she was born. 

She spends most of her time sleeping, and her favorite place to sleep is her carseat. She will fall asleep but if we put her in her bed, she doesn't sleep very long. However, we can put her in her carseat, and she'll usually snooze for hours.  She does tend to get a bit of colic at night, and has a harder time going to sleep. We have tried giving her a pacifer (which Hayden and Kayla both loved and took from day one), but she does not like it at all. It usually just makes her more mad when we try giving her one and/or she'll just gag on it. Even though, she does get colicky at night, she usually settles down around 10 or so, then she'll sleep until about 2, eat, and go back to sleep until sometime around 6 or later. Although, a lot of nights when Katie wakes up, she and I end up having to sleep in the recliner because our bed gets to crowded with two other kids who for some reason have both decided that they need to get in bed with us during the middle of the night.  So, I'm sure she's going to get spoiled and want to sleep curled up on my chest like that every night!!

She still isn't sure if she likes her swing or not.  If you put her in there when she is crying, chances are she's going to keep crying. And if you put her in there when she's happy, (so mom can get a few things done, like this blog), sometimes she will sit there and sometimes she'll just get really mad. We can put her in there when she is sleeping, and she will sleep for awhile, but she doesn't sleep as long in there as she does her carseat. We sat her in her bumbo chair for the first time the other day, and she seemed to like it. But then I tried it again the next day, and she wasn't having it. She's still pretty little though, so maybe she'll like it in a month or so. Only time will tell.

Kayla and her cousin, Lexie, just love Katie and I'm sure are going to be two little mother hens to her as she gets bigger. 

Hayden even likes Katie. He never did really liked Kayla (and that is still questionable), but he seems to like Katie. He and his cousin, Hailee, were talking the other day about having to go to the hospital and get stitches (not sure why they were talking about it) and Hayden said, "Yeah, we don't want that to happen to baby Katie because she's so sweet!!" (And that is one of the few times that Katie has kept her pacifer for more than a few seconds!!)

That's a little about how our little princess is doing.  We love you, Katie Sue!! 

"Who does she look like?"

This is the question that everyone loves to ask about Katie, and I'm just not sure how to answer it. When Kayla was born and they showed her to us, she looked identical to how Hayden looked when he was born.  We wanted to say: We already have one just like that, can we get different one! But it wasn't like that with Katie. Although, we have gotten lots of comments on how there is no denying that she belongs to us too!!
Yesterday, as I was putting old pictures of Hayden & Kayla into their keepsake boxes, I had to stroll down memory lane for a minute and check out their baby pictures. I think the girls look more alike, mostly because of their eyes and nose.   Take a look and see what you think:

Hayden: 3 weeks old

Kayla: One month old

Katie: 3 weeks old

Bath time for Katie

Katie was able to have her first "real" bath last week

and she wasn't very happy about it. She cried and cried while in the bath

and continued crying while getting dried off and lotioned up

and she stayed mad until she was dressed!!!

Meet our New Addition

KATIE SUE HOOVER

She's finally here!!! Our sweet little baby girl, Katie, arrived on November 7th at 4:40 in the morning. She weighed in at 5 lb, 14 1/2 ounces and measured 18 1/2 inches.  We are excited to have her here and are enjoying every minute with her. She is just so cute and sweet. She is already spoiled from being held pretty much all the time.  Hayden has even held her a couple of times and gives her kisses more often than we thought he would. Kayla is pretty bossy about who gets to hold her and worries about if someone is going to take her home with them. The other night, Martha Finehout, who is my visiting teacher and Kayla's nursery leader, brought dinner over and was holding Katie when Kayla came home with her dad. She tells Waylen "It's not Martha's turn, it's my turn to hold the baby!!" She has been pretty helpful with getting diapers, wipes, burp clothes, and such and she will sometimes ask her "what's the matter?" when she is crying. Katie sneezed the other day and Kayla said "Bless you, baby." I thought it was pretty cute and sweet!!--Katie is doing great, and does just what every newborn does EAT, SLEEP, and POOP. The other day I was changing Katie and Kayla tells me- "Tatie just poops and take a nap, poop, take a nap!!" It was pretty funny, I guess she thought she would be able to play with her right away or something. Katie has done really good with nursing, she usually eats to the point that she's so miserable she doesn't know what to do.  She is quite the spit-upper at this point though, and gets the hiccups a lot after she eats too.  She has done great with sleeping the last two nights, she woke up only twice both nights, and it was more so me waking her up so she could eat than her waking up on her own!! I'm sure it's too good to be true, but I'll enjoy the nights that she does sleep that well.  --Keep checking back with us to see more pics and updates on our new little princess, Katie Sue!!!

Halloween 2009

Our Halloween was just like last year- it seemed to last for days. The Friday before Halloween the kids were able to enjoy going to the ward Trunk-or-Treat. Then the day before Halloween, Hayden was able to dress up for school and parade himself down Main Street during the school's Halloween Parade.  After the parade, he had his class party, and then that night we went to the school's carnival. Then, of course, we took the kids trick-or-treating the next night on Halloween.  So, like I said, it was a week long event, and the kids got more candy than they needed, but they enjoyed every minute of it!!!

Kayla was so excited to go to the Trunk-or-Treat:

Hailee (Cheerleader), Hayden (Batman), Lexie (Little Red Riding Hood), and Kayla (Elmo) ready for the trunk-or-treat to begin:

A big smile from Batman during the Halloween Parade:

Carving up Some Fun

Just a few pictures of the kids carving the pumpkins - which has turned into a family tradition that the kids love. The kids do all the cleaning out, and Waylen does all the carving.

The final projects:

Can't really tell in the picture, but Kayla's is a bat:

Such a cute picture of Kayla that I couldn't resist including it too:

It's SNOW time!!!

So, yesterday we woke up to it snowing, and it snowed all day long.  The kids were both really excited about the snow. I, on the other hand, not so much, I could do without it. Yes, it is really pretty and all, and it provides moisture. However, it is a pain to drive in, it takes twice as long to get everyone all bundled up and ready to go, and it causes the biggest mess on my kitchen floor from all the snow being tracked in!!!
But like I said the kids were excited, can't you tell:

Hayden had to take a few minutes before heading off to school yesterday to make a few snowballs

Kayla made a few of her own too!!! 

A Future Mechanic???

Last Saturday, Hayden decided that his truck needed some tuning up, so he had his Daddy get it all ready to be worked on!!!