December Trip to UT: Crump Party with Paintings

Grandpa Randy & Grammy had a get-together tonight for us to see everyone. We got a special treat when Grandma Karla brought Bestemor with her.
We had a yummy dinner and visited.

Played some games:

and Grandpa gave the kids their Christmas present. He painted every grandkid a painting of their favorite animals with a card explaining their meanings. They are so amazing!!! Thanks Dad- We love them!

Here's closeups:

Liberty's Wolf

Justice's Eagle

Victoria's Horse

Glory's puppy

December Trip to UT: Draper Temple

Brett and Shauna took a few of the teenagers to do Baptisms for the Dead at the Draper Temple yesterday. So neat! How awesome will it be when we can get a huge group together? We have lots turning twelve in the next couple years.

Then we decided to take our family up to it today so we could add it to our Temple Touching Experience. Yeah!

December Trip to UT: Molly's Baptism

We got to participate in Molly's Baptism today. It was so special we could be there. We're really proud of your decision, Molly!

December Trip to UT: Sadler Family

We visited Uncle Bud's house to check out his train set. The kids loved it!!!

December Trip to UT: Sledding

Charlene planned for us to do a little sledding while we were there. We had lots of people join us for a couple hours. SNOW much fun!!!

And a little hot chocolate afterwards at Grandma & Grandpa Seamons:

December Trip to UT: Family Pictures

It has been somewhere around 10 years since all of Brett's family has been together for Christmas. We took the opportunity to take some family pictures. Man!!! There are a LOT of good-looking people! ;)

December Trip to UT: Seamons Christmas Party

We decided to head down to Utah for the rest of the week to spend some time with extended family. Shauna planned a HUGE Seamons Christmas Party hosted by the Davis family. It was amazing!!!!
We started with a crazy fancy dinner. Cheri never disappoints. ;) It was complete with an Italian Soda Bar ran by the Davis boys and a delectable Cheesecake Dessert bar on the fanciest table you've ever seen.

Shauna had every individual family plan something for the Christmas Program. It was a hoot! The Laroccos planned Reindeer games and a Stocking Guessing game. The final Reindeers looked awesome! Us Seamons were on Music. We did our Bell Chimes and Name that Tune. It was very competitive and funny. The Hills put all the Griswald Light Houses together on a slide show [we all sent some to her] and we voted for the best one. The whole night was so much fun!

Garold finished the night by sharing a spiritual message. He read us The Living Christ. In between paragraphs, we sing songs. It was really special.

Afterwards, the Davis set up their Karaoke machine. It was hilarious. They even got Garold to sing a song. So fun!

Shauna had gifts for everyone. She gave each family a Nativity hand-made from another country. They were so unique and neat. She also got all the kids a pair of socks. They loved them!!!

What a fun night!! Merry Christmas family!

A-PART-of our Holiday excite-MENT

With us being in a tiny APARTMENT- We didn't get much out for Holiday decor this year. (which makes cleaning up way easy!) But somehow lots of things became APARTof our Holiday exciteMENT. Fun how it turns out that way!
We made some art projects. dressed up and used things we wouldn't usually use.

We missed our Fargo cupboard for all our Christmas cards but found an ugly wall to cover up with all our love letters.

I (Shay) fought about setting up a tree since it's so squishy but so glad I lost! We didn't get ANY of our regular stuff out but our tree turned out so darling! I loved it! It was from things kids made, our RS Christmas party, gifts we got and our Ornament Exchange.

Christmas Morning Magic

Christmas Day is Here!

Each Christmas Morning at the Seamons' home begins in Mom & Dad's bed. Snuggling, picture taking and a family prayer. Fun Memories!

Next, we checked out our new, awesome Christmas Stockings. They are way bigger than our previous ones but still managed to get filled to the top. LOL

We have been so blessed this year! We love to be able to see the kids excitement for presents and hope they also remember the true meaning of Christmas as well.

For breakfast, we decided to swap our regular Christmas Cinnamon Rolls Wreath for something more crafty this year. They turned out way, way cute but we had tons of leftovers. So I guess next year it will be back to the wreath. Guess we'll have to find a party to be invited to so we can bring our Christmas Donuts! LOL

The rest of our day was filled with playing with our toys, snacking, watching movies, eating an awesome Turkey dinner and hanging out together. What a nice day!

Christmas Card 2013

Here's what our cute Christmas turned out like this year! 

An Apartment Christmas Eve

We celebrated our Christmas Eve with our traditional 7 Layer Dip made by the kids. Yum!

Then a new thing we got to participate in this year was the Live Nativity. So special!
After we got home, we had our annual visit from the Wise men. Their normal crowns are hidden away deep in a garage so we had to make new ones this year. They did a great job!!!

Of course, one of our favorite Christmas Eve traditions is to dress up in our PJs and do fun pictures on the couch. Love it!!!!

Happy Christmas Eve from our family to yours!

Christ, the Savior is Born!

On a Cold Winter's Night...
Away in a Manger...
Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night...
Here came the wise men from Orient land...
Silent night, holy night!
All is calm, All is bright
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child...
Joy to the world! The Lord is come!

We spent part of our Christmas Evening acting out the scene of the Savior's birth for our Stake Live Nativity. It was really special to be a part of it. We dressed up and sang Christmas songs together as people drove by and donated canned goods to the local Food Share. What an awesome way to honor Jesus Christ tonight!

We hope we can participate every year. This year they had real goats. The kids were so excited! Afterwards, inside the warm Church- they served us chili, cookies and hot cocoa while we visited with some of our Ward Family. What a fun night!

The Nutcracker

We took the kids to the Premiere Dance Company's production of The Nutcracker tonight at the Helena Civic Center. We knew several people in it so it was fun to see them perform. The costumes were beautiful. We loved the music and all the dancers did a great job! Way to go, Kris, Mikal, Quinn and Callie!

Liberty ran into a few of her friends and got to sit by them after intermission. She was in heaven! It got a little long for the younger ones but it was fun to participate in a Christmas Tradition.

White Elephant Ugly Sweater Party

The Coils invited us to their annual White Elephant Gift Exchange/ Ugly Sweater Party. What a fun, hilarious night! They had a really large turnout and I took the opportunity to take pictures of all the couples. {along with ShayC.- we are 2 peas in a pod, for sure! Sorry for messing with your flash, lady! LOL} Aren't they so adorable? We have made some pretty awesome friends here.

After a delicious dinner of soups and salad and bread and treats, we started the White Elephant Exchange. At first, Brett and I thought we may have to sneak out before they got to our gifts. ;) Some of the kids stayed upstairs and our gifts are a bit on the funny/ embarrassing side. We were nervous how people would take them. But all the gifts turned out so fun! There was the Guymon's big TeddyBear that they could never get rid of no matter how much they begged people to take it. There was a pair of HAND-er Pants (underwear for your hands), large googly eyes, a few Duck Dynasty gifts, a sweat suit, some chocolates and the Honeymoon version of dice. Brett and I ended up with a pack of Hot Chocolate- Yeah!!! and a singing Mistletoe which we totally LOVE and is annoying as all get out!!! So fun! We thought our gifts [we gave] were hilarious! And we're glad that others did too. (See at the end of the post for closeups of what we did) It was a lot of fun!

We voted for the Sweater Contest. They had 2 categories. The Most Christmas Spirit and the Ugliest Sweater Award! There was some pretty hideous sweaters so it was hard to choose. Although- Reid and Nate, that won- were pretty right on for Ugliest all around! LOL Congrats guys!

Here's a closeup of what Brett and I did for our gifts this year. We are SOOOO funny! We crack ourselves up!
The first was a N'Sync Christmas Ornament from 2000 that we doctored up a little. The funny thing was that I had to point out for them to look a little closer. Apparently I did a good enough job that they didn't know it was actually the MEN from the party that made up the Boy Band. LOL It was fun to have everyone see if they could figure out who everyone was. Several of the men even got to see what they look like with hair. So funny!

Brett's gift was in honor of our Host- Dr. Coil. LOL We did a Info-mercial theme and attached it to a Doctor kit along with a silky white robe and a bottle of Calcium Supplement (ReddiWhip). It was so funny! Shay even exchanged for it so she could have it. [Not sure if it was because she wanted it or because she didn't want anyone else to have it!] She was laughing so hard she was in tears by the end. 

Andy thought our gifts were awesome so I made sure that he knew that this ensured that we would get invited back next year! LOL

Thanks Coils for such a fun evening. We had a BLAST!!!!! You're awesome! Merry Christmas everyone!

Seamons' Sisters Ornament Exchange

I got to participate long-distance in the Seamons' Sisters Ornament Exchange. I decided against trying to put one together here in Helena so I was glad that they did one. I love Ornament Exchanges!!!!

Lana did a recipe book of Cereal Treats & Garold did our annual M&Ms

Glory's Kindergarten Christmas Party

Shay got to help out with Glory's Christmas Party at school today. Mrs. Johnson is such an amazing teacher! She had stations with fun little Minute-to-Win-It Games. The kids had a blast!