Christmas 2011

We LOVE Christmas at our house! I start the season by putting up a tree in every room in the house. On the night after Thanksgiving, we flip the switch on the lights to the trees and the outside lights. Yes...I do get alot of grumbling from my family about the insane amount of decorations I have, and about all the work it takes to to decorate the house. But I think deep down inside they love it as much as I do. Whenever they have friends over, they have to show off the trees and have them count how many trees we have. I do LOVE having a tree in every room because the lights warm my heart as it bring the "Light of Christ" to every room. For over one month of every year our home radiates the "LIGHT" and I look forward to when I can set everything up again.

Christmas Eve we have "Prime Rib" and I love it because the BOYS pretty much do all the cooking, and I am soo ok with that!
Cameron had to have a picture of his "Plated" master piece. We were surprised how good his potatoe creation was with his yummy gravy. He just made it up as he cooked, we missed his cooking the last two years.

Here is the hand carved Nativity that Cameron brought to me from the Philippines.
Another thing I collect is Nativities. So when ever I go to another country I bring one home. I love having all the nativities up too!

The kids love our family tradition of getting Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve. This year Steve and I even go some. Don't we look so Christmas Cheery!

So at our family Christmas party, Cameron got a "Room a Rang" it is a really light soft boomarang thing that he loves throwing around. I happened to have another one for Casey to toss around too. And crazy enough the things kept ending up on our high selves. Good thing Tineke is light enough for them to lift and she can grab the lost "Room a Rang". It was a fun way to spend Christmas Eve in our new Jammies.

Notice the first picture the "Room a Rang" is green and this one is orange. They were getting pretty good at lifting Tineke up to retrieve them.

This year Christmas started at 7 AM with our SKYPE from Russia! Courtney looked great and we loved being able to see her while we chatted. Although we only got to talk for an hour, it was absolutley the most wonderful hour of Christmas.

Cameron go a RED Ryder BB Gun from Kandace...he was so excited!

Cameron and Kandace opening their gifts. Thanks Dad!

Casey and Tineke Christmas morning. Love the bow!

Even Olly loved opening Christmas gifts.

Hum...just adjusting the beautiful bow!

And of course, the boys had to head outside in the freezing cold to practice their shooting skills.

Casey is a pretty good shot! Must be those cute PJ's!

Cameron modeling his new winter hat. So styling! And even more Styling in the Avator glasses!

And now Christmas is over. I finished taking down the last tree yesterday. We had a wonderful Christmas and feel so blessed that we had family so close to share it with. Next Christmas everyone will be home, and we are looking forward to that. We hope that your Christmas was as wonderful and special as ours. Merry Christmas!

Haupt Family Christmas 2011

The Haupt Family Christmas party is an event that we all look forward to each year. We usually have someone from out of town that happens to be in town show up. Last year we had Linda an Wylee, this year it was Levi and Torrie and their cute girls. We all have such a great time and look forward to doing it over again next year. This is Levi and Torrie, Torrie is expecting baby #3 in March, another girl. They make the cutest little girls. We were all so glad they could be there.
Tradition! Frosting cookies. Emma was a pro at her cookie frosting!

Steve oversaw the cookie frosting, and made sure they all met the cookie code! Good thing we have him around.

Cameron and Casey were over the broken cookies, making sure the were frosted too. Here is one of their masterpieces. Of course only a few made it this far, they thought their job was to frost and EAT the broken cookies, and they did do a fabulous job of that. At least the didn't spoil their appetites for dinner. We all enjoyed a great meal then moved on to the games.

One of our all time favorite games we play every year...."The Candy Bar" game. Roll a seven or a double and take a candy bar, of course once all the candy is taken from the middle, you have to keep up with who has your favorite candy bar.

Casey just lost the "Snowball Gobbstoppers", it was a hot item that everyone kept stealing.

Vick enjoying her brand new grandson, Jackson. He is only 1-week old, but made it to the family party.

And the highlight of the night is the "White Elephant" gift exchange. Things get more than crazy and every year we have such unique gifts show up. Tony was thrilled with his Monkey itch powder...thanks to Levi!

And then the Elves came out to let us know that we would soon be having a special guest arrive. These two didn't even plan their shirts, but hey, they worked perfect with their job that night.

When Santa arrived, Emma was soo excited she had to take Santa right in and show him her "Elf on a Shelf" Bernard, and he had been watching her all day. Santa was so happy to hear from Bernard that Emma and Charlotte were being soo good this year.

Emma was the first on Santa'a lap, can you just see the excitement in her eyes? She just loved her visit with Santa.

Big brother Tyson and baby Jackson with Santa and his elves.

The Levi Haupt family with Santa.

The Arnett Family, and their early Chrismas gift baby Jackson.

The Vaterlaus family and Santa. Grandma and Grandpa Haupt with Santa
OPPS...I am busted kissing Santa Claus! Hey he is a great kisser!(Except fot that nasty mustache)

And finally our Leavitt family, minus Courtney with Santa. We do LOVE our family Christmas parties, and look forward to see who can make it next year. Merry Christmas!

What the heck happened in November?

So I am not sure what happened to any blogging in November, the last time I blogged was for Cameron's homecoming. So here is a fast forward picture show of what we have been up to. Halloween Cameron carved this great pumpkin and Olly dressed up to greet the trick or treaters, so funny. She loved everythime the door rang.

Courtney celebrated her birthday in Russia with her festive glasses and headband we sent her, I am sure she wore them out tracking all day.....what you don't think so? Come on, it's Courtney! November 22nd my cute Nephew Jake got married in the Manti temple. My brother David and his wife came from Oregon to attend. David and Nancy celebrated their 32rd wedding anniversary in November, and they were also married in the Manti temple.
And below are the Newlyweds Jacob and Evelyn Haupt as they are coming out of the temple. They look soo happy!

The next day we were leaving for Las Vegas for Thanksgiving and my cute brothers asked if there was anything I needed done since they were sitting around waiting for the reception to start that night. I told them I needed to finish hanging my outside Christmas lights. So next thing I knew they were all outside helping to hang lights, it was so awesome to walk out and see them all working together and they had my lights hung in just 30 minutes. Hope they come back next year, they are a much nicer work crew than my normal work crew!

Yes, we went to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving, Austin had invited us months before we knew Jake was getting married. Austin and Cody have a beautiful new home that we got to stay in. Austin and I got up early and ran a Tri Stake 5k at 8 AM, then came back to start the cooking. Here are Steve and Austin enjoying time together.

All Thanksgiving day Leah asked if she could have some of the sparkling cider, we all kept telling her as soon as we had dinner she could have some. So the minute we blessed the food she was wanting her sparkling cider....she was so excited to finally get it! Loved her fancy glass too!

CHEERS! The kids table was way more fun than the adult table!

See....no CHEERING here, just boring talking.

Me, my cute niece Ashley and Austin.

Kandace chillin with Uncle Carlin.

After dinner everyone just relaxed and some even started the "Back Tickle Train"....which I missed out on! Then we played a fun game..."THINGS", let's just say with the Leavitt group there are some things that are TMI.....We had a great time in Las Vegas and even went Friday night and played BINGO as a family. We will have to do this again soon!

And in November we...well Cameron, Kandace and I went to the Premier of "Breaking Dawn", and this is the picture that Kandace took with Edward....Isn't she a beautiful Belle? We had a great November and will next post some of December, before we are another month behind. We are Thankful that we have wonderful family and friends!

Halloween + Homecoming = Family FUN!

How Cow what a busy couple of weeks we have had! When Cameron came home, we were told that his Homecoming would not be until October 30th, because we had regional conference on October 23rd. So we put the word out to the family that Ocotber 30th he would be reporting. We were suprised that all the Leavitt's came up from Las Vegas to support him. They all arrived on Friday, October 28th, which happened to be our Ward Trunk or Treat, and Steve's Birthday! Of course we had to celebrate both. So here we are at Trunk or Treat, Steve was really looking OLD for his age. Ashely and her two cute boys really loved the Haunted 4-wheel drive.

Quinn looking so grown up in his Star Wars costume.

Austin and her girls. It was COLD once the sun went done, so we didn't stay long at the Trunk or Treat, just long enough to grab a couple of treats.

Tineke, Cameron and Casey hanging out at Trunk or Treat.

When we got home we all changed out of our costumes and just enjoyed being together. Macee LOVED Olly, every time Olly got close to her she would just squeal and laugh. It was soo fun to watch her. Not sure if Olly enjoyed it, she looked a little bit worried.

Next it was time to sing "Happy Birthday" to Steve. We have a family tradition that we sing as LOUD and OFF KEY as we can. We kinda forgot to tell our visiting family. They were a little taken back with how BAD we sing. We had to explain our CRAZY tradition. Hey, they might even start doing the same thing.....crazy is related! (oh.... and I couldn't find a "2", so we just put two "1"s on the cake, and that is the 511 on this picture) Cameron of course had to carve a pumpkin. He did a 311 patttern on his pumpkin. I forgot to download a picture of the finished product, but it turned out awesome.
Saturday started bright and early. Cameron and I got up and went to a friends house to make "PICO and Tomatillo sauce" for his Taco Bar for Sunday. When we got home, everyone wanted to go shop. We ended up at IKEA for a couple of hours. Cheryl and Ashley couldn't get enough of it, and went back for more. After the shopping trip, we had arranged for Ashley to snap a couple of pictures for our Family Christmas card. We had her suggest what colors to wear, and then we just drove a couple of blocks down to the trail and snapped a few great pictures. This is a sneak peak of one of the pictures she took. Now we need to get Courtney to send a picture for the card.

We had a super busy Saturday. After the pictures, we had to run home and get changed to drive to American Fork for our "Halloween 5K" Cameron, Kandace, Austin and I ran the race. We had everyone else stay home and watch kids and enjoy dinner together.

So, here is Cameron, Olly, Kandace and Austin at the starting line waiting for the race to start. Olly completed her third 5K.....she loves going with us. This race was so FUN, it start at 7 PM, and it was dark. We ran through the cementary, then through a neighborhood, back through the cementary...and it was pitch dark and a full moon, then the finish line was at the AF recreation center. I can check this off my buck list....running a 5k through a cementary....so funny!

Us practicing winning the race....YES.. I just might win!

YEAH...Baby..... I won Cameron in another race, and will be 29 another year! Well, I guess he could have won me if he hadn't stop to let Olly down.

And Sunday Cameron gave his report, then we had everyone come back to the house for the "TACO BAR" Feast! We had a ton of people, and it was soo great to see everyone. Welcome Home Elder Leavitt! Thank you everyone that came to support us this weekend! Only 5-months until we have another PARTY!