Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!

Rudolf is alive and well!

Emma's dance recital with ballet teacher Roxanne. Go ahead, sing the song. We do every time we talk about her.

The grand finale! They danced to Michael Jackson's song "They don't really care about us." It was amazing! Anna had fun with it too!

The boys are so good to sit through all two and half hours of it. The itouch helps a little, I think.

Getting ready to leave for the dance recital. Strike that pose Emma.

Tumbling performance. There's no where like Jolleys. Truley. Kaela's dance recital at the Treehouse. Like the pose Kaela.

Playing the present-dice game at Grandpa and Grandma's house is a highlight.

Sitting on Grandpa Santa's lap.

Once in a while it's nice to take pics of things you don't think to take them of. Thanks Dad. Fun to remember what the tree looked like.

Makin' goodies with the gals! We each had our station.

Even Jordan got in on the dipping.

Emma's First Time on Santa's Lap

The Nutcracker

It was the girls' first time to the Nutcracker. They loved it.

Eating downtown and seeing the sights.

We had to bundle up. It was cold outside!!!

Classic!

This is how it is around our house at Christmas time. I think he was really meant to come to the Scrooge family instead of the Bench family and someone messed up in Heaven--is that possible?

It's a Tradition

The BYU vs. Utah game is, of course, the biggest game of the year. Dad always runs his BYU flag around Draper and we try to take the boys to the game. One of these days we'll start taking the girls. When Anna asked who Cosmo was, we decided it's time to start.

What is it about 4 year olds that makes them so great? Is it their disney sounding voice? Is it their excitement for everything (everything but healthy food)? Or is it their wonderfully trusting, loving, hugging abilities? What ever it is, I wish it could last forever.

Thanksgiving Feast

Digging in.

The spread

Troy, we really have to get you an apron like that!

Grandma B

The teenage table Cece and Emma being silly

Millie and Kaela being even sillier

The football crew

Elena and Matt

Jordan's Eagle Court of Honor

Cute Jord. So proud of him!

This quite possiblly could be the biggest court of honor in all of scout history.

18 scouts received their eagle awards.

Ben Woodruff presented the eagle to us in a whole new light.

Look close to see the eagle behind them.

Getting pinned. Thanks Fred.

Jordan's scout committee.

Bishop Dave Killpack did a great job!

Jord with Aunt Tami

Me and Jord (proud mama)

The cousins. They are always there to supoort us!

Grandpa and Grandmas are awesome!

"The Brothers" as Emma calls them. Check those braces Matt!

Happy Haunting

The costume that never was. Don't you love those costumes that kids come up with that never make it out the door? Matt's mullet version of Stockton was hillarious, but it lost out to Spiderman in the end.

Kaela was a zombie and Anna was, well, I'm sure you can guess. This is the morning of the school parade, so of course costumes will change a few times from now til the end of Halloween night.

Emma finally found a fair replacement for the bunny costume. She was convinced it was a duck costume regardless of how hard we tried to convince her it was a chick. Bok bok or quak quak, which will it be?

Kaela's zombie costume was great until it started unravelling. By the end of the parade she was down to her skin colored skivies, so she called me to bring her some clothes.

Emma walked in the parade with Anna this year. She even lasted the whole time. Way to go Emma.

Anna's loot from her class Halloween party.

Okay, it's Halloween night and the starting line-up is the chick (or duck), Spiderman, a ghost (our first ever), and the football player.

Anna's friend McCall was so funny as an old lady.

Lauren, Bridger, and Emma were making their rounds. Dad said Emma had to be in the lead. Big surprise. We might nick-name her "Emma Incharge".

Sorting the loot. She was first home of course.

Big Emma and Kaela came home for a breather. That's when Kaela switched from a ghost to a princess, all in a matter of seconds. She tried just taking off the ghost costume, but I convinced her that no one would give her candy unless she was in a costume. Thus, Belle replaced Ghost for round two.

Jordan and his buddies even paid us a visit. Funny how costumes evolve as kids get older. Jordan's costume was his orange sweatshirt, grey sweats, and a ski mask. Sam and Jayden were the super hereos.

Emma got tired of sorting her candy and decided to school Caitie and her friends in a little Karate chopping.

We finally made it up to Price's party for some of Teralee's home-made chicken soup and Robyn's lasagna. Pokahantas and Cleopatra were great hosts.

Every Halloween we have our Halloween Hot List (favorite costumes of the year) so here they are:

This kid had a little trouble getting through the halls during the parade.

Greg Matis never ceases to a amaze us.

Bet this guy was tired of carrying that pumkin around all night.

And last, but certainly not least, we ended the weekend with our very own orange snickerdoodles. Kaela and Emma are quite the bakers!