The tradition of Christmas injury/sickness

What would Christmas be without the Griggs tradition of injury/sickness that would require a visit to the ER? Four years ago I let a sinus infection go to long and it wouldn't stop bleeding. Off to the ER we go. The next year Logan slipped on some ice and cut his chin open. That was a visit I would like to forget. 7 stitches later we get to go home. Last year we actually didn't have any injury that I can think of! But this year right before bed the kids got a little hyper and were chasing each other up the stairs. Carson tripped and hit his face right on a stair. He had a bloody nose and cut the skin between his lip and gums. It bled pretty bad and his lip got way swollen. It's a good thing we know that they can't give stitches in the mouth.

To grandmothers house we go....

After we had our Christmas breakfast with Nana and Luis we went to grandmas house. There the kids opened their gifts and we ate Jill's famous meatballs! My fav!

Avery got a cute little purse that sings with pretend lipstick, keys, a mirror and a bracelet inside. So cute.
I couldn't leave Parker home alone on Christmas, so I dressed him up in his Santa suit and he came with us.

Carson got the surprise of his life. When ever we go to grandmas he loves to play with Jace and Jackson's batman castle. Grandma decided to get him one for Christmas with guys and cars. He was so excited!

Logan got Star Wars for his DS and a Utah hat! Go UTES!

I didn't get a a whole lot of pictures of Bailey opening gifts but she got hooked up! Lots of lip gloss, hair stuff, barbies and games.

This year we started a new tradition with Nana and Luis. Christmas breakfast!
We had ham steaks, my moms famous french toast, eggs and orange rolls topped off with hot cocoa.

I tried to set the table all cute and made name holders out of candy canes. I realized that with young kids a sit down breakfast just didn't work. But the table looked cute though.

We got to open our gifts after breakfast. Bailey got a littlest pet shop gift set, a butterfly kit and her favorite, a snuggie : )
Logan got a transformer and some bakugons
Carson got a transformer and Zurg from the movie Toy Story
Avery got a fun playskool play set.

What a busy busy Christmas day

Christmas morning started out really early at the Griggs house. When I say early I mean at 3:30 am! Every Christmas eve we let the kids sleep in the same room together. I guess Bailey was so excited she got everyone up at 3:30! I made them go back to bed till 4:30, but Morgan and I could hear them laughing so we decided since we all were up anyway, we might as well start Christmas.

Here is Avery's stalking. About three years ago I saw these cute socks at Target and bought one for each of us except Avery. She wasn't in the picture yet. So last Christmas I was pregnant and needed to get a matching stalking. Come to find out Target stopped making these stalking so I had to look on e-bay. All I could find was a green W. So I bought it and made the W into a letter A

Carson wanted a transformer so bad from Santa and of course a Zhu Zhu pet like his brother and sister. I had gotten a hold of two pets in November but thought Carson would get over wanting one. On Christmas eve Carson was still asking for one. So I looked on KSL and found a black and white Zhu Zhu pet someone was selling who lived in Kaysville. The best part was is that it was only 10 bucks! That was the price I paid for the other two but had to wait in line for hours at ToysRus.

Here is Bailey with her new Robyn doll. She wanted a real American girl doll but you can't tell the difference!

Logan LOVES Indiana Jones. The bad thing is, is that toy companies have stopped making Indy toys. I found this cool race track brand new at Savers for only 17 bucks!! Normally this track sells for 50 bucks! What a steal. He was so surprised!

Christmas eve

Christmas eve is so fun!! We go to Grandmas and the kids get to open a homemade pair of pj's. When have dinner and spend time with the family. When we come home we get ready for the big mans arrival. I caught Carson looking out the window and asked him what he was doing. He answered "looking for Santa"

While we make our cookies for Santa we drink hot cocoa. This has to be my favorite picture of them all. Hot cocoa mustaches!

I have gotten lazy over the years and I now buy pre-made sugar cookie dough. It saves me lots of time and clean up.
Here is a good picture of the kids in their homemade pj's. I save their pants after they have outgrown them and grandma is going to cut out squares from them and make a quilt one day.

Here is Avery in her baby's first Christmas jammies.

We made homemade reindeer food for Santa's deer. The kids sprinkle it on the lawn so the reindeer will stop at our house.

Our Santa loves coke with his cookies :)


On Christmas eve we let the kids sleep together in the boys room. They love to sit and talk about where Santa is and they swear they can hear his bells. I swear one year when I was little, I heard his bells too. Christmas is so magical when you are a kid.
This year we had a close call while playing Santa. We thought the kids were asleep and started filling stalkings and putting out the big gifts when I thought I heard foot steps. I got up to go look and sure enough Bailey was coming down the stairs! I screamed so loud and scared Bailey and Morgan so bad! Luckily she didn't see anything. Next year we need to make sure we are a little more discreet.

Avery's Christmas outfit

GG came to visit and spent the night with us from California. My kids just love to spend time with her.
Here is Avery in her Christmas outfit GGma gave her. Isn't it cute!? I just love the polka dots! I have a lot more pictures of her in this outfit. I just couldn't get enough pictures of her in it. Too cute.

Huh?

She loves to smile.

Finally a frosting that WORKS!

We made gingerbread houses a little different this year. With my many attempts to make them stay up in years past, this year I decided to use a small milk carton for the base. I also got a great frosting recipe from a friend. This stuff is the BEST I have ever tried!

Royal Meringue Frosting
3 T Wilton meringue powder mix
4 C sifted powdered sugar
6 T water
beat all ingredients together at low speed for 10-12 min till icing forms peaks. Cover with wet towel when not using to keep soft

I make it right before I'm ready to ice. If you let it sit the icing gets hard.

I think he ate a lot more candy then what got put on his house Here are our houses. Morgan and I made a "trailer" house. Then it goes Carson's, Bailey's and Logan's.

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Also in the month of December is all of Bailey's Choral Collection performances. It's a singing and dancing group. She loves it! They had a lot of fun Christmas songs they did this year. Here she is at the Kaysville tabernacle.

Our busy month of December

December is such a fun and busy month at the Griggs home. We have so many traditions and activities we enjoy this time of year. We are early birds when it comes to setting up Christmas. It's our tradition to set all of our Christmas up on Thanksgiving. We have two trees on our home. The one in the family room is the kids tree. This tree has all of the ornaments that have "meaning" Homemade ones and baby's first Christmas ones. We let the kids decorate it however they want. In our living room is where I have our "pretty" tree. This is my tree and I get to decorate it all by myself :) I have gold and red ornaments with gold bows and snowflakes. It's pretty!
Doesn't Bay look big in this picture!

Avery really enjoyed eating the ornaments

For some reason Logan calls Santa's beard "Santa's beer" Age 5

It's been a while

I haven't posted anything in a long time because I haven't been able to post pictures! Today I am going out and buying a new cord for my camera!! I have some fun pictures to post. We have done a lot of fun Christmas stuff these last few weeks. I can't wait to share them with you.

A tooth!

Avery has gotten her first tooth!! It's funny because our kids are late bloomers when it comes to getting their teeth. Avery is our earliest at getting teeth. Our other kids have gotten their first teeth at age one. So for Avery to get her first at 9 months is early for us!!! The other kids have gotten their bottom teeth in first, but Avery has gotten her front left tooth in. She will have a snaggle tooth smile : ) I must say, I will miss her gummy smile.

I can't believe she is 9 months old today!!

I can't believe that Avery is 9 months old today!!! Where has the time gone?? She is getting so big. Here are some things that she can do at 9 months old
*clap her hands
*stand and walk around furniture
*pick things up off her tray and self feed
*says hi
*waves hi
*LOVES taking a bath!
*growls at the vacuum when she sees it (lol)
*says dada
*says mama
*reaches for mom when in someone else's arms
*tries to climb stairs......................no!!!!!!!!!!
*stands without help
I'm so glad that Avery is part of our family. She brings so much happiness into our lives. I love that little baby!

Another advent calendar

So here is yet another advent calendar. I have 5 in my house.
I love them!!! I made this one using some wooden block I bought
a few years ago at the D.I
First, I painted the blocks, then I mod podged some cute paper squares
to them. I then cut out numbers using my cricut and mod podged them on.
After looking at the blocks I thought they needed a stand of some sort. So
I cut down a 2x4 for the blocks to sit on. Next I cut out the words, Days til Christmas on my cricut. This time I used vinyl. I love how it turned out!

Elfie

Last night Elfie came to stay with us for the month of December. I started this tradition last year and the kids love it!! I found this elf at the DI last year. I brought him home and left him on the door step. I knocked and had the kids open the door. To their surprise they saw this elf sitting there. There was a note that explained how magical Santas elf is. Once you give the elf a name ( my kids chose Elfie) his magic powers come to life. Every night Elfie goes back to the North Pole to tell Santa how the kids have been that day. By morning he comes back and has hidden in a different place. The kids love to wake up in the morning and race to find him.

Deseret Book has their version of this and it's called Elf on a shelf. It comes with a book and a scary looking elf. It's 30 bucks!! I got our elf for .50 cents : )

"Thanks" chain

Sorry these pictures are so bad, I have to use Morgan's phone to take pictures until I get my new camera cord.

So tonight we made our paper chain out of our "thanks" strips. We had fun reading the things we are thankful for. There was a blank one left over and Carson said he is thankful for hugs and kisses! What a sweet boy.Here we are putting the "thanks" chain on the kids
Christmas tree