The Howell's Christmas 2008

This Christmas we did the usual traditions with a few new ones. As we always do we celebrated with the Thompson family at our house on Christmas Eve. I decided to put a little program together for us all to enjoy and I had all the grand kids over the age of 2 perform a talent for us. Kaman sang his ABC's, well, we sang it for him, but he can say them by himself, I think he had a little stage fright. Kayla (Mindy & Trevor's 2 year old daughter) sang a song, Alex (Mindy and Trevor's son) sang a song as well, Ashley sang her school song, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth", and then Danielle told some jokes and read a story for everyone. Then my mom read another story and we played the video presentations I have on my early posts. On Christmas day we wolk up around 8am, opened presents, then headed over to my parents house for breakfast. After opening the gifts we headed over to Duane's parents home to have lunch. The kids FINALLY were able to play with their new toys at around 7:30pm when we got home. They were all tuckered out, but we had a great Christmas and they loved everything they got.

Here are some pictures of our Christmas...

The girls frosting sugar cookies while Kaman eats them as fast as he can.


Danielle reading, "Santa's First Flight", at our Christmas Eve party.


The kids opening their p.j.'s on Christmas Eve.


We've left the cookies out, wrote Santa a note and are ready for bed.


Kaman on Christmas Day.


Duane has always wanted a SLR camera.


Some of Danielle's presents.


Ashley wanted moon sand for Christmas...Mom did not!


The Thompson's on Christmas morning.


Opening gifts at the Thompson's house Christmas morning.


Kaman wearing his "Bob the Builder" tool belt and hat.


Kaman bulldozing the wrapping paper.


This is what the kids played with after opening all their gifts. :)


Danielle getting Duane back for shooting her with the bb gun.


Danielle playing on the keyboard we got for Christmas.


Kaman playing with his choo choo train on Christmas.

Danielle gets her own room!

Danielle has been bugging us for...ummmm...let's see, the past 4 years to have her own room! Ever since we moved into our home in Cedar Hills she has had to share a room with Ashley. And even though she LOVES her younger sister very much, she wanted her privacy. Well, this year, since Kaman was now old enough for his own 'big boy bed', we decided it was time. We had our old queen size bed stored downstairs so we brought that upstairs for Danielle. We took Kaman out of his room and put him in with Ashley. This resulted in everyone having a new place to sleep, which in return, caused everyone to be too excited to sleep. Needless to say, Danielle is a happy camper and because of it we might even get a few extra jobs out of her complain free. That sounds pretty good to me. Kaman on the other hand wasn't as excited as I thought he would be. He doesn't like change. But, after about an hour, he finally fell asleep. I was suprised I didn't get a tap on the shoulder in the middle of the night, but we did find him asleep on the floor this morning. I even tried to put him down for a nap today - didn't work. I'm afraid that means I may have eliminated his nap times. Oh, no!

Here are the kids helping Duane take down Kaman's crib and putting up Danielle's new bed.



Kaman's not too excited about this change.

Check out that HUGE smile!

Girls school Christmas program 2008

Last Thursday, Danielle and Ashley had their Christmas school program. They love performing their songs every Christmas and LOVE driving me crazy practicing them around the house. I always know when they start learning their Christmas songs at school because they come home singing them ALL day long. Their school usually has the same grades sing the same songs, so they get really excited each year older they get because they FINALLY get to sing the song they've heard the older kids sing. My favorite, and Danielle's, is the 6th grade song, "Holiday Lights". They give each person in the 6th grade their own flash light fixed with colored paper over the lights. Before the song begins they turn off all the lights in the lunch room and incorporate the flash lights in their song. It is really cool! Danielle is very anxious to get to 6th grade for this reason only, well, I'm sure there are more reasons but this is on the top of the list.

Here are some parts of the two girls singing in the Christmas program. Notice Danielle is having a hard time singing because she is smiling so big. Ashley is just glad to be on camera.

Merry CHRISTmas!

Last year Duane found some videos on youtube.com with pictures of Christ put to music. If I'm ever feeling overwhelmed with the Christmas time of year, I turn one of these on and remember that it's not all about me. These videos are a good reminder to me of what the greatest gift that was given - Jesus Christ and his life.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!
(to view video, click on the link below)

"Breath of Heaven" by Amy Grant

"Mary Did You Know" by Donny Osmond


"Christmas is not about the presents but about his presence."

like father, like son...

Does anyone else have boys that do this?

Duane says he remembers having a dump truck like this one when he was younger and would run around the house pushing it all day.

Well, like father, like son...


I think we have tire track marks worn in our hardwood floors now. He runs around the house several times a day with this dump truck, and it's not the quitest thing in the world either. But you gotta love the joy he has on his face when he's racing his truck. Ready, set, go....