Christmas Vacation!

It has been very busy, so here is an update on this week: Izzy was in the Polar Express play at her school last Friday. She had a speaking part and did great! They all got to wear pajamas to school!

She loves the movie and practiced singing the songs each day as I did her hair.

We decorated her box car like a present and of course threw in some glitter!

Her cousin Zane came with us to watch. He has a blast eating cupcakes and chocolate milk.

grandpa kroff stayed to help me at the party and helped Emily with the food!

Every Christmas Eve, all my family gets together at my mom's house for dinner, and then she passes out her presents! This year we also had a program about all the woman who were involved in the Nativity and their side of the story eg: Mary, Mary's mother, Shepard's Wife, The Inn Keepers Wife.........It was awesome and a different look at things. Then we went to Brad's mom's house and exchanged presents.

I started a new tradition this year. I wrote everyone a special letter to read. Brad helped Izzy and Emily read thiers.

MaKayla made this awesome bench at school for Emily and Izzy. They love it and it is so cute!

Hailey (MaKayla's Little Sister) got to spend Christmas with us this year. Her grandma made her a special frame of her and Scarlet their horse that passed away not too long ago.

MaKayla's grandma made her this shadow box of her with her Buckle and photo of the show she won with Scarlet

This is the AWESOME quilt I made Brad. It was my very first one, and turned out pretty good I think!

Izzy dressed up like the ballerina in her Special Music box from her Grandma.

This is my favorite gift! My new baby Holly Berry Hawker! She is a Mini Yorkie and only weighs 1.5 lbs. She is so cute and smart! I love her :)

MaKayla loves Holly as much or more than me. Who wouldn't? Look at that face!

Today we went and saw Gunlock Lake, they have drained the water out and it looks Awesome! It was freezing cold, so the kids and dog were all bundled up warm!

Izzy was sporting her new Biker Jacket her grandma gave her, we added the bandana for the perfect look! She is so dang cute, now she just needs a Harley!

No Christmas Cards!

I wanted to let you all know that I didn't forget you this year! We are not sending any Christmas cards out this year. We have taken all the money we would have spent on pictures, cards, and postage and given that money for a family who is need this year. I am sure nobody will be dissapointed!! Merry Christmas to all of you and we wish you all Well!! Love, The Hawker Family :)

"Snow Day"

As you may have heard today was a "Snow Day" in St. George. After 3 in. of snow yesterday they decided to cancel school today! The kids were very upset! I know- what is wrong with my children? But today MaK was supposed to go wrap presents for the needy and Izzy was supposed to have her first Christmas Program, it took a long time last night for her to understand nobody would be at school today. We had my nephews over for the day after lunch.

Izzy and Zane had fun playing Moon Sand
Our first Snowman, named "icey" not bad, but later realized he had no arms, oh well.
Building the snowman before getting too cold.


Ryan had fun playing th Wii and Gabe is an Awesome Snowman builder!!

My favorite is at the end of the cuddling under a blankie with hot chocolate and the fire!

A Very Snowy Update!

A lot has happened this past two weeks, and I haven't had a chance to blog about it, so here it goes:

MaKayla had her Christmas choir concert. They sang beautifully! She looked and sounded great!

We decorated our Christmas Trees. Izzy got to put the star on the little one this year!

MaKayla was supposed to put the star on the big one, but it looked too dangerous so she let her dad!

We all got a turn on the ladder to hang ornaments!

Emily supervised the ornaments, and did a pretty good job of it!

Izzy was a big help, it was pretty high up there





We went to Salt Lake this past weekend. The plan was to drive to Tooele and go to my Family Christmas Party, then drive into SLC and go to Temple Square, and then to my sister Lori's. The weather was Crazy, we were over an hour longer getting to SLC than we should have so, we didn't make it to Tooele for the party. We ate and then went to Brad's brother's house (we origionally were going to stay there but they got Strep) and visited for a min. Then we drove to Lindon as our tradition to see a big house with an awsome light show. Then we drove to the Temple. After driving around and getting stuck in traffic we were only there for about 30 min. The Visiting Center was closed, Izzy was dissapointed to not see the big Jesus, so Brad held her up high so she got to see him through the window. Here are some pics:

My favorite tree at the Temple. It reminds me of the Grinch

My favorite Nativity Scene EVER! It is on water, this is the best shot I could get cause there were about 100 people at the same spot!

My beautiful girls trying to be cheerful in the cold for a picture!

Emily with her cold cheeks all bundled up.

Me and Brad hopefully some day we will have a picture of us on the inside!

This random house we saw that had more lights than the Temple. it was in Lindon and took up about a full block. It was awesome, no music or flashing lights, just plain great lights everywhere!

This was the gate to the house (one of many gates) the whole inside was lit up too.

This was looking at the house from a little distance. The house was Awesome!!

This was what we were deriving in on the way up, there is a car in front of us that you can't see. Only about ten car lenghts in front of us, it was cold, slippery, and scary! But Brad is an awesome driver so we made it safe.

Before we got to the storm just past Cedar, I took this picture. The clouds were coming up off the ground, it looked so cool!

Vent...

Sorry, but I must...VENT! I hate laundry. Why is it that there is not a way you can put your clothes in a machine at night and in the morning they be clean, dry, and folded. Even if it skipped the folded part, and be dry. Seriosly I hate it. Why can't the washer, drain the water, and start drying? A load while I am sleeping would be great! Then in the morning, fold it and be done! But no, I have a super sucky dryer, that when I remember to dry clothes, I have to run it at least twice to get them clean, sure something is wrong, cause that isn't normal, but who wants to spend money on a dryer? Not me unless it is a new one, and I know that isn't going to happen. I am so task oriented that I know this is why is bugs so bad. Cause it is never done! You wash dry fold put away, and what happens? there is more laundry dirty! UGH! My sister knows a lady who every night puts in the dirty clothes, and dries them in the morning, then when her teenage daughter gets home from school she is to fold and put them away. She does this with all colors and everything, except whites, so there is never any dirty clothes accept whites! GREAT! But do you think I can even get cought up enough to try it NOPE! And to top it all off, I ran out of laundry softner, so now I have to back to WalMart for the 3rd time in 24 hours! YEAH!
But, on a lighter note, this ismy biggest problem for the day! :)

Oh Christmas Tree!

THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE TO START WITH

EMILY'S FIRST TIME IN THE SNOW! HOW CUTE!!

OUR 3 BEAUTIFUL GIRLS!

MY BIG STRONG HUSBAND!

Yesterday we went up by Brian Head and got our Trees. We got stuck, slid down sideways, drove backwards 1/2 mile, but found 2 perfect trees!

And there were Lights....Lots of Them!

One of my favorite things of the year is our Christmas lights! Yesterday we spent 5 hours setting up the lights on the house. We try to add to it every year. Last year we added 3 strands of lights and the big blow up Santa. This year we added 5 strands of lights, a 5 ft. train, Little Santa on the porch, and a 4ft Blue tree. Pictures honestly do not do it justice, tomorrow I am going to try something diff with the camera! I love nothing more than coming home at night to our house all lit up!! We had an official LIGHTING CEREMONY, Brad's parents came for it and it was AWESOME! I tried to get the video, but it won't upload for some reason, any suggestions?. Then we watched Christmas Vacation. It was a great time!