.: 2015

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Burkholder Family Christmas Party 2015

We started the party off with a bang getting our car stuck at the bottom of the Stevenson's driveway. Good thing we showed up early! We made it fun giving the kids four wheeler rides up and down the driveway:) The kids were in heaven literally sledding down the side of a mountain when everyone showed up. It was like a bobsled track to them it was so long and deep! I'll add pics when I get them off Dan's phone....

After the yummy dinner, the kids did their white elephant exchange. Levi scored a big box of hot wheels car and he was on cloud 9! Zack got an every flavor bean game, and Makayla got bananagrams and she could not have been more excited!

The kids opened their beloved book from Bada! We love that she does this!!!!

Our stash that they dove into the next day!

After the gifts, we had the kids watch a movie and the adults played a game. It was a fun night with family and one I hope to repeat soon!!!!

Christmas 2015

We caught Santa!!!!

We hung a sheet this year so the kids could not peek! They didn't even sneak up and look...or at least that is what they told us! Levi's teacher told him he couldn't wake his parents up until 7 o'clock. So he came in our room at 7:01am. HA! After a half hour or so we sent Levi down to wake up Zack. He told him that we caught Santa, he ran up yelling, "Why didn't you wake me up!?"

Christmas morning after unveiling the tree!

Stockings

We took turns going through the presents to extend the open time a little! They did pretty good and it was so much fun to see their surprised faces!

The boys noticed at the end that there were little Lego mini figures hidden throughout the tree. Santa was sneaky this year!

Zack's loot

Levi's loot

Makayla's loot

Nathan's loot

The boys spent the next at least 3 hours building building building. First race tracks followed by Legos

Homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast!

Later, after all play play play all day. The boys took there pieced together Legos and we watched the 4th Star Wars, the New Hope. They loved it. Zack sat and imitated the characters with his ship and guy. He even tried to cut my arm off with his light saver.

Our Santa baby

They literally stayed in their jammies all day playing their guts out. We had fun building playing and being together. Grandma, Grandpa, and aunt Krista stopped by to see there presents. It was fun to have some visitors up!!!!

Monday, December 28, 2015

Christmas EVE

We had a pretty relaxing and nice Christmas Eve this year. It was fun to do all our traditional activities and get the kids all excited for Santa!!!

We busted out the puzzles!

Dan helped the boys build an igloo

We played lots of board games. The older couple Dan home teaches wrapped up Bingo with some smarties and gave it to us. The kids LOVED it!

We got given some cute books but I loved this one. They gave us some rocks and the kids now refer to their thankful rocks!

We got spoiled by neighbors this year, and this is only half of it! We have the best neighbors and ward. I really feel like we are blessed to be around some of the most selfless and truly caring people. We love this ward!

We had the kids give their presents to whoever they drew. We also had them open up their Christmas jammies!

Zack gave Levi Whimpy kid books

Levi gave Nate a shapes game

Makayla got Zack a Lego book kit

And Nate got Kayla Sheriff Callie!

We tracked Santa, set out some cookies, and wrote him letters!

We stayed up way too late wrapping and watching Christmas movies AND eating too many of our treats!

December Christmasy Activities!

We had our ward party one Saturday morning. Santa came and the kids were so excited! Levi got to be his special helper and rand the bells while they sang Jingle Bells and got to hand out the candy canes for Santa to the kids.

I was told again that Kayla is the cutest little kid as she sat with all the primary kids and pretended she knew the words to the songs they sang and tried to sing along. It was super cute.
She was scared of Santa, and I had her stand in line with Zack a little ways back so she could watch other kids go first. After she showed me the candy canes, I had turned to talk to someone. I turned back around and she was gone. She had cut the line and was getting on his lap!!!! Nate didn't cry and they all sat on his lap and asked for what they wanted. WIN!
Levi-Hot wheels track
Zack- Hot wheels spin storm track
Makayla-Paw patroller

We have the sweetest people in our ward. An older couple Dan home teaches gave us these stocking holders. They are so cute!

We worked out our electrical the week before Christmas and got out lights to work!

I made the kids these ornaments for their yearly ornaments!

We put together our gingerbread house

We had fun handing out neighbor gifts, sending our some Christmas cards, going to see Christmas lights, and even making Christmas cards!

One Monday for FHE, the stake presidency and families, and the clerk and executive secretary and families, got together for soup. Then we all combined for plates of goodies and hit the driveways. We drove around the stake and found driveways that needed shoveling after being dumped on that day. It was SO much fun! Seeing their surprised faces was so fun for me and the kids. They would knock on the door with plates of cookies and the people would open the door to see 20 people on their driveway with a clear driveway and kids with cookies. It was a good experience and really brought about the spirit of Christmas. It was fun to do something for someone and and see my kids have fun doing it!