Steen Family Christmas Party

Christmas Morning

What a fun Christmas morning! We were all very excited. Here is a picture of us at the top of the stairs waiting to come down. Steve was having fun teasing us! He was taking his sweet time before he said they could come down!


Zack was very surprised to see a train table!


Libby couldn't believe Santa brought a doll house bigger than her!


Here is our mini-Steve already working on his laptop!
Tyler was SO cute this morning!! He kept saying, "Oh!" while holding up his hand like what is all this?


Libby & Zack love Panda bears & they were very surprised to see these Gigantic ones under the tree!



I'm not sure who likes them more? Tyler was such a cutie this morning!


Libby was getting a piggy back ride from her Panda she has named Rose!

Zack loves Lightning MacQueen! He got some shoes & the Mack truck!




We call Libby our "Cheetah" Girl! Her Little Panda got a new cheetah outfit too!


Libby is a sweetheart! She made me a book of Shrek The Halls and on the card it said..."Mom I hope this makes your day." It certainly did make my day!

Our Family is so blessed! We are so thankful for the time we get to spend together. I'm so glad to have Steve & I love being a mom of such sweet & thoughtful kids. I am also so impressed how much they really do listen & learn. When we were reading in Luke on Christmas Eve I was so surprised when Zack finished telling us about how the Three Wise Men knew not to tell King Herod where baby Jesus was because that guy wanted to kill him. Then he said he was glad he didn't find baby Jesus. They really are like little sponges just sucking in all kinds of knowledge. We are grateful for Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas. Libby even drew the manger seen at the bottom of her Christmas list to Santa. It was very detailed....I almost wanted to save it for her book, but was told it had to go in the mailbox at the mall. We truly have a lot to be thankful for and love this time of year!!

Christmas Eve Night

Here are a few pictures of Libby & Zack getting ready for Santa to come. Libby said that Santa wanted hot chocolate & cookies because it was cold outside. She was right, in the morning there were only a few crumbs left on the plate and all of the hot cocoa was gone!

Christmas Eve Party

For Christmas Eve we celebrate with my dad's side of the family. This year was a small group, but we had a really nice time. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time! We ate dinner, talked, exchanged gifts and played games. It was also nice to see Roy & Anne (My dad's brother & his wife). Our kids also enjoyed seeing their granddaughter Lilly.

My dad's side of the family is from Norway, so for Christmas Eve we always celebrate keeping some of their traditions. We always eat Norwegian meatballs and for dessert we have the rice pudding with strawberry topping. My aunt Anne always makes this for the whole family. The tradition is that whoever gets the almond in their bowl of pudding wins a marsipan pig (which my aunt also makes). This year Jazzy won!

Each year we are visited by a Norwegian Santa Clause who has a white beard and he wears a Norwegian sweater and socks. He usually knocks at the door and passes out all the gifts. This year Tyler was petrified of Santa. It was quite sad. Every time he saw him he would scream out in fear. As you can see in the picture.

My cousin Lise knitted us these cute scarves! She lives in California and couldn't come this year so we thought we'd take a few fun photos to show off her talent!!







My sister Sherry, me & my sister Shelly.

Here our scarves doubled as hats!

Shelly had me rolling off my chair with this look!!!

Here are a few more pictures of our family.....


Our Little Christmas carolers!


Tyler with grandpa & grandma


Our cute boy with his favorite blanky & new football!

Tyler loves hanging out with pa-pa.
Although it looks like Tyler can't quite get enough to drink!

Libby & Jazzy
As Libby would say, "We aren't just cousins, we're best friends!!"

Christmas Memories

Here it is Christmas morning and my cute kids are still asleep ( except Tyler of course). Libby & Zack were up until almost midnight. They were talking on the computer to their Grandma & Grandpa Peterson (who are on a mission in Denmark) and when grandpa said, "you better get to bed before Santa comes." Zack was very worried and for the first time yelled, " Hurry! Let's go to bed!" Unfortunately, Steve & I were up until 3 am for the second night in a row, but Christmas is ready and I can't wait to see their faces when they wake up.

Well, as I was feeding Tyler this morning I couldn't help but feel so blessed for my family and all my fun memories growing up. I'm still on a high from our fun time last night....I love uncontrollable laughter through tears. Hey, John....what word do you think of when you are describing Mexico? I better not get myself started again.....

I was thinking how great my mom is and how I don't know how she does it all. She does dinner Christmas Eve, we go for Norwegian pancakes on Christmas morning & then we have another dinner that night. Of course, her house always looks cute and cozy with decorated tables, the food is all ready to eat when you get there & of course the kids can't wait for present time ( I go shopping with her....they have reason to be excited!) Anyways it got me thinking what a great heritage of people I do come from & how much I love and miss both sets of my grandparents.

This is a picture of my Mom & Dad on their wedding day. On the right side of my parents is my Grandma & Grandpa Steen and my Grandma & Grandpa Nelson are on the left side of my parents. I love this picture!

I will start with Grandma & Grandpa Mo ( my dad's parents).....Where do I begin? They still amaze me with their strength and courage. They lived in Norway during WWII when Hitler was taking over all of Europe. They experienced some scary times and sold everything they owned to immigrate to America from Norway when they were in their forties and my dad was 6 years old. They got here not knowing any English and made a great life for themselves here. They were very hard workers (which they sure passed on to my dad) & learned English, found jobs, bought a home & were always grateful for all they had. Well this brings me to my Christmas Eve Memories!! Which of course we celebrated with Norwegian customs & still do!

CHRISTMAS EVE

• Grandma Mo's cooking...Norwegian meatballs, mashed potatoes & cauliflower soup!
• Oranges (these were always special to my grandma because during the war their food was rationed and they never got fresh fruit.)
• root beer & 7-up
  
• bingo
• singing Christmas songs around the piano
• new pajamas from Grandma & Grandpa
• rice pudding with strawberry sauce
• playing with my cousins...I couldn't wait to see Mandie.
• Santa Clause with his long white beard wearing a Norwegian sweater and socks. Knocking at the door & passing out all the presents.
  

CHRISTMAS DAY AT GRANDMA & GRANDPA NELSONS

• My grandma's angel food cake & rice pudding
• lots and lots of presents ( I'm sure I get my shopping gene from my Grandma!)
• lots of cousins
  
• sleeping in the basement when we lived in Green River & Vernal. We were always excited because grandma would buy yummy cereal like fruit loops for us in the morning.)
• My cousin Ethan shoving all the candy in his pockets and my grandpa yelling instead of "Alvin!" it was "Ethan!" and him running with his stash of goods!
• Lots of love and laughter!!

Well Libby is now up! So it is time to go make some new memories!!!!

Elfed yet?

Steve found this link at work and made these Christmas greetings. We got quite the laugh, ENJOY!!

Sally and the kids
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1407980620

Steve and work friends
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1407317534

First Snow of 2007

Zack and Libby had been sick with fevers and croupy coughs since Wednesday, but when the snow came on Saturday they couldn't stay in any longer. Their cute dad helped them build a sledding hill down our flower garden. They stayed out so long that they ended up being sick for quite some time......I'm not sure the coughs will ever leave! We love the winter snow though. It looks like a winter wonderland!!

Our Cute Little Halloween Goblins!

What cute kids!! We love to see them have so much fun together!

Tyler Loves Candy!!!!

It looks like Tyler already has a sweet tooth and he's only 6 months old!!!

Zack and Tyler as Skeletons

Zack was looking good as a skeleton! He had a great mask and spiked up black hair. The best part was his shirt glows in the dark. Tyler had a matching skeleton outfit, what a fun 1st Halloween!!

Libby as Mulan

Libby looks so cute!!! We had a lot of fun spraying her hair black and pinning it up short. We are just glad it did wash out ok. Happy Halloween!!

Halloween costumes

This year for Halloween Libby was Mulan and Zack & Tyler were Skeletons!. They looked so cute. They had a great Halloween because their cousin Jasmine came trick or treating with them. She is the cute Witch! They got a lot of candy!!! They did the ward trunk or treat and Steve took them around the neighborhood while Me and Tyler passed out candy. It was a fun night!

Halloween 2007

This Halloween was fun because the kids and Steve made some pretty cool pumpkins. Libby made a cute face, Zack & Steve made the pirate ship and Steve carved the ghost. The kids were quite excited about displaying their pumpkins!!