Christmas with the Underwood Family

Here are some pictures from the party we had yesterday at Lisa's. We had lots of fun playing games, Wii fit and bingo! We missed Mom & Dad, the Dickenson's & the Cartwright's. Jill & Carter loved holding Spencer's snake and Riley had a great time dragging Jillian's stuffed dog around. All the kids played hide & seek outside in the dark and jumped on the trampoline. It was very cold, in the 40's!

Christmas morning

Christmas Morning at Grandma & Grandpa's! We had a great time and were blessed with way more than we needed. The kids had a great time. They got scooters, connect four, a sit and spin, basketball hoop, care bear, tools, a key board, Hulk punching gloves, Potato heads, and a million other things. Carter got a bunch of new batons (Pencils) which made him very happy along with the turkey baster from Grandpa. He knows what Carter likes. We have been so blessed and we are so grateful for all that we have been given!! Grandma & Grandpa Parke always spoil us:)! I know Carter is on the pink scooter in all the pictures but he actually got a 3 wheeled batman scooter but he picked up Jill's and he was so good on it! His balance and coordination are amazing!

Stockings

Santa brought our stockings to our house but he took all of our presents over to Grandma Parke's house. We left him a note asking him to do that so we could go open our presents with all of the Family. Jillian was so excited when she saw that Santa ate his cookies and brought her a stocking. We could have ended right there and she would have been a happy girl.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma & Grandpa Parke's house. The kids made cookies for Santa then opened their Christmas Eve PJ's with slippers. Jillian is right between little girls and bigger girls clothes so sometimes it is hard to find the right size for her. I bought a pair of pj's that looked to small when I opened them so I returned them for the next size up. Well the next size up happened to go from her chin to her toes. She was so funny when she opened them up and held them up she laughed and laughed. Well, we put them on anyway and rolled the waist, touched it into her under ware and rolled the bottoms about 2 or 3 times. Carter's fit him much better! Then we took family pictures and had Family home evening about Jesus' birth. We sang Christmas songs and read the Christmas story in Luke 2.

Big cousin Jill

Jillian loves her cousin Baby Asher. He is 3 months old and I am having a wonderful time holding him and snuggling with him too. Jillian loves to make him smile, hold him and feed him. She is really good at all of it and very gentle with him. Carter likes him too. He loves to tickle him then say "he likes me"! Asher is a great baby. Calm, good natured, and easily contented. He sleeps really well and eats great. We love having babies around!!

Gingerbread houses

Today we got to decorate gingerbread houses. Aunt Kelsey and Grandma make gingerbread houses each year and get tons of candy to decorate them with. The children had a wonderful time and the adults had an even better time after the kids left the table. There was much candy eating and some screaming when people were cut off from the candy (Carter). Jill would never scream, she just sneaks back when your not looking and gets more.

Santa Clause is coming to Torrance

The city of Torrance does a really cool thing each year at Christmas. They bring Santa around the neighborhoods and the kids get to sit with him. A police car comes around a few minutes before Santa and plays really loud Christmas music and flashes its lights to let everyone know Santa is coming. A few minutes later Santa pulls up in his sleigh with Christmas music blaring and a bunch of middle schoolers passing out Candy canes. Everyone who wants to (or will) gets to go up and see Santa. It is so much fun to bundle up, cause it actually was in the 40's, and hear the music and feel the Christmas cheer! Jillian was fine going up, Carter didn't want to. I took him and when Santa gave him a candy cane he yelled "No Thank You"! Cousin Tennyson wasn't getting anywhere near that guy!

It seems like something you would see in a small town but they have been doing it for 30+ years now. There are a lot fewer children now than there used to be. We were the only ones on our street.

Christmas kids

Here's Carter & Jill on Sunday morning before church. They both looked great!

FHE

For Family Home Evening tonight we went to the church and decorated sugar cookies with some friends. The kids had a great time decorating and eating cookies. We also played basketball and other games when they got tired of frosting.

Ward Christmas Party

Friday was a very busy day for us. We had Santa in the morning, preschool party at noon and the ward Christmas party that evening. There were adult narrators who read the Christmas story and they asked the children to act out the story. It was really cute. The kids did a good job and all the little mishaps only made it more enjoyable. I was backstage with the primary so I didn't get to see much of the program but everyone said it was really nice. Jillian was excited to be an angel.

Friday was the last day of Preschool before winter break so after school some of the children and parents had a pizza party at the schools park. The kids had fun playing for a few hours and the parents had fun visiting. It is a really nice group of kids and parents. Here's Jill & Carter enjoying the park and the pizza!

Santa comes to Preschool!

Santa came to Jillian's preschool on Friday. Each child got to sit on his lap, tell him what they wanted for Christmas & he gave them a candy cane. It was really cute.

Friend reunion!

We had a fun day! We met up with Darci & Gwen and Sara, Drew & Emma. Darci, Sara & I were elementary school friends. I have seen Darci recently but I haven't seen Sara in 8 years. I can't believe we are that old. Anyway, we met at Cal State Long Beach and went to the Japanese Garden. It is small but really pretty. The kids loved running around, climbing on the rails to see the Coi and scaring us by getting too close to the water.

They ran until the mom's got tired of chasing them and then we headed up to the food court area. It was so busy with everyone getting ready for finals. We got some food and ate in the courtyard outside and let the kids play. The boys got along really well and had a lot of fun. Jill was a good helper with the little girls, Emma was an angel and Gwen had to stay in her stroller because she ran away. I feel for you Darci, my kids were runners too. Thank goodness they have mostly grown out of it. Sara and Andrew let Carter keep a toy airplane which he loved. He kept telling me on the way home, "I get to take this home" he loves it, thanks guys!!