Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

We had a very enjoyable and relaxing Christmas this year. It was fun to spend an unhurried Christmas Eve and Christmas day together as a family.

For Christmas Eve dinner we had our families tradition of fondue. It was yummy!

After dinner and our program we all opened up new pajamas. This is how Mackenzie and Steve decided to wear their new pj's! Not sure Steve will be too excited about me posting this picture of him but...

On Christmas Eve before we went to bed Steve and I went around the house and turned all the alarm clocks off that Mackenzie and Brooklyn set the night before! Unfortunately we missed two of them! So at 6:00 a.m. we heard the beep, beep, beep of the alarms and yet we decided to torture the kids and make them wait another hour before they could go down and see if Santa had brought them anything!

Steve with the gift that Brooklyn bought and wrapped for him.

Brooklyn and Mackenzie opening the gifts that they had bought for each other.

Even Kia got in on all the action of Christmas morning! Here she is with a bow around her neck that Brooklyn tied onto her.

Steve playing the Wii with Brooklyn. As you can see, Steve has to really focus to compete with Brooklyn....

We got a new Wii game called, "Just Dance 2". Mackenzie has had a lot of fun with it. Here she is in a dance competition with Steve. Yes, here's another picture that Steve might not be too excited about me posting - Mackenzie's dance score was only about 10 times higher than Steve's....

We had such a nice Christmas. It was fun to stay in our pj's all day and play with all our new toys. We enjoyed talking with our families on the phone as well. We feel so blessed as a family and we look forward to spending the week between Christmas and New Years together.

Merry Christmas!

Ho Ho Ho...Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the LeBaron Family!

Looks like stitches for Brooklyn!

This is a Blog entry we did not expect to be making, but it is definitely worth sharing.

It all started when Brooklyn accidentally cut the back of her thumb yesterday when she was cleaning her fish bowl and the bowl shattered. Although the cut was only about 1/2 inch long, it was pretty deep. We were busy getting ready for a party we were having so even though the cut looked deep, Steve thought it would be fine with a butterfly bandage. Steve is an Eagle Scout and knows how to make butterfly bandages! Steve super glued the cut and bandaged it up.

Today while are church Brooklyn was flexing her thumb and the cut broke open. Brooklyn ran into the Bishop while she was out of class getting a new bandage. Our Bishop, who is an Orthopedic Surgeon, looked at the cut and said it needed stitches. Our Bishop said he would be over later to stitch her up...

Fortunate for Brooklyn, Bishop had pain killer!

Cleaning up the cut before the stitches!

Brooklyn only needed one stitch to hold it closed while it heals.

The pain killer worked and Brooklyn got to enjoy the sensation of being sewed up without pain.
We had a fun time talking with the Bishop and laughing together while Brooklyn got stitched up.

This is definitely one for Brooklyn's journal. Thanks Bishop for the great memory.

Brooklyn's Christmas Party!

Last Friday Brooklyn had a Christmas party here at the house with a bunch of friends from church.

Around 8:00 p.m. we sent them off on an "Amazing Race" competition that we had set up. They were divided into three groups of six to seven kids each and the "Amazing Race" took them to various nearby homes where they had to complete certain tasks to get their next clue.

Here's Steve setting up the Amazing Race clues.

Here's Brooklyn's team...

The first task was for each of them to eat a powdered sugar donut suspended from a pole...

One of the tasks was to eat worms from a pan of dirt while blindfolded...fortunately the worms were gummy worms and the dirt was Oreo cookie crumbs.

Here's a group picture of the kids after they all got back from the Amazing Race. Fortunately, even though two groups were eliminated, they still got to stay for the rest of the party.

Here they are playing the name game, where people put names of real or fictional characters on slips of paper, which are then placed in bowl and then a member of your team pulls them out one at time and tries to describe the person to their team and get as many right answers in 40 seconds. We paired the girls up against the guys on this one. They had fun.

Later in the evening Steve and I made fresh home made scones! Yum!

It was a fun evening and it was great to have a group of good and energetic kids in our home. Can't wait for the next party.

Warm Beach - Lights & Wind Ensamble Performance

Last night we drove north about 45 minutes to a place called "Warm Beach" to see a Christmas light festival and to hear Mackenzie's High School Wind Ensemble band perform there. It was a lot of fun and added to the spirit of the season. Brooklyn and Steve were sooooo excited to meet Frosty - he doesn't come near our home often as he has melting issues here!

Steve and Brooklyn expected to get the "cold shoulder" from Frosty or at least we thought he'd be "flaky", but he was a ball of fun! :-) And just in case you go see him, take note that there is no messing with Frosty - Steve talked with Frosty's bouncer that walks around with him - had to get someone to keep an eye on him as one visitor picked him up, threw him over his shoulder and started to walk off with him. Sorry, you can't take Frosty home with you sir....

Mackenzie "tooting" her french horn! Seriously - her Wind Ensemble band is amazing - they performed some great music and sound like they could be a college level band. It was truly fun to listen to them.

Nice goofy face Mackenzie! So dignified! She made this face and other faces because we were eating her fresh, hot cinnamon donuts that they make and sell there. She had asked us to hold them for her during the performance and we were holding them...just not as she wanted us too...as they were being held in our stomach!

Check out these cute snow-women! It was really too bad that Cynthia and Brooklyn had to push the little kids out of the way so that they could take their pictures there. Ok, they did patiently wait for their turn...

Here we are with another Frosty - this guy was not quite as friendly as the first. We didn't take any pictures of the lights, but if you are curious visit: http://www.warmbeach.com/index.php/lights-of-christmas

Mackenzie Kay is...17 Years Old!

Yesterday was Mackenzie's 17th Birthday! Wow! Where has the time gone? It seems so hard to believe that she is that old. Here are some pictures of her Birthday celebrations.

Mackenzie wanted to go out for Thai food for her Birthday dinner. Here she is with her Pad Thai. Yummy!

Here she is opening gifts. She got a BYU license plate frame for her car!

Mackenzie had 6 gifts to unwrap and inside each of those 6 gifts were puzzle pieces. She quickly put the puzzle together that gave her a clue to go look in the closet for her gift. The gift was a...Letterman's Jacket.

She was so excited for her jacket. She has lettered 3 times in marching band and 1 time in golf. We are sure proud of Mackenzie. Lettering in any sport in High School takes a lot of hard work, dedication, time and practice.

Steve did a great job decorating Mackenzie's "Peace"cake. She had a fun birthday and enjoyed all the phone calls, facebook messages and gifts. Happy 17th Birthday Mackenzie kay! We sure Love You and are glad that you are a part of our family!

Mackenzie - Tolo Date

Tonight was Mackenzie's fun Tolo (girls choice) date.

Mackenzie had fun getting all ready for her date. Then she picked up Kc at 4:30 and headed back over to our house and met up with the three other couples for dinner.

Mackenzie pinning the boutonniere on Kc! You can see what a fine dignified young lady we are raising... ...nice silly face Kenz!

Ahhh...what a cute couple.

For a center piece on the table we had a fish bowl with red rocks on the bottom, 3 silver floating candles and 2 gold fish swimming around! One was orange and one was black. This idea came from Steve and Mackenzie. They had fun picking out the fish at the pet store this morning.

Steve and I had fun serving them dinner. We started off with Caesar salad and Parmesan bread sticks hot from the oven... ...yum...

For dinner we served them Parmesan garlic mashed potatoes, BBQ tri-tip steak and sesame green beans. For dessert they had a yummy 3 layer jello salad. Here is Steve the pro BBQ-er!

Here they are enjoying dinner together. It was fun to hear them laughing and having a great time.

Dignified group picture!

Fun group picture - with their Charlies Angels and 007 pose.

After dinner they headed over to Bellevue to go to the Bellevue Botanical gardens to see the Christmas lights. Then they were going out for dessert. It will be fun to hear all about their adventures when Mackenzie gets home in a few hours.

Thanksgiving 2010

We just got back from a fun week in Utah spending time with our families. Here are some pictures of all our adventures.

While we were in Utah Mackenzie wanted to go shopping for a dress for her upcoming Tolo (girl's choice dance) date. We went to a fun bridal/prom dress shop and she and Brooklyn had fun trying on all the dresses.

Is this the dress she picked out for her Tolo date?

Brooklyn isn't old enough yet to go on a date for prom but...she had fun trying all the dresses on!

Check out this beautiful dress on Brooklyn! Wow!

Cynthia and Brooklyn patiently waiting for Mackenzie to find that perfect dress!

We stayed at Steve's parent's home. His father - Grandpa LeBaron - has about 50 quail birds that come to his house every morning and evening to be fed. Grandpa whistles for them and they all come flying in to eat the bird seed he throws to them. They are such beautiful birds.

3 months ago Steve's mom had a stroke. At that time she lost use of her left leg and left arm. She has made amazing progress as she has regained partial use of her leg and is able to walk with the use of a support. And she has just recently started to regain some limited movement in her left arm. While we were there she was able to lift her forearm up past 90 degrees. It was exciting to see her progress and even more awesome to see her great attitude and faith. We are proud of you mom! While we were there Cynthia put curlers in mom's hair a few times, which mom appreciated greatly. Here's a picture from last Sunday evening after dinner when some of the granddaughters got into Grandma's dress up clothes and came upstairs to show off their new styles! This is a favorite tradition and Grandma loved it!

After dinner Sunday night Steve's brother Chad suggested that we make homemade taffy with the kids. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of when we used to make it when I was a little girl for Family Home Evening treats. Each one of us got a plate of taffy to stretch out and make ourselves.

The finished product! Thanks Chad for the fun activity!

One day while we were there we went down to BYU to go to the book store and to walk around campus. It's such a fun place to go see and we always enjoy being there. On our way back up to Steve's parents house we stopped by Helaman Halls and picked up Adrianne (Steve's sister's oldest daughter, who is at BYU as a freshman). We brought Adrianne back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving. Here we are in Adrianne's dorm room.

On Wednesday we drove up to Logan and spent the day and evening with Cynthia's family who were all there at Cynthia's sister Julie's house for Thanksgiving. In the afternoon we drove up one of the nearby canyons to go see the elk. It was a beautiful drive and it was fun to see the elk. But it was only about 8 degrees outside so we didn't stay long!

It was soooo cold our noses swelled up and eyebrows got bushy... Who is this crazy family?

We had fun sitting around my sisters house visiting. Here I am with my mom and dad. They just recently returned from serving a temple mission for 6 months in Palmyra, New York. It was great to see them again.

Here we are back at the LeBarons for the Thanksgiving feast! There were 13 adults and 31 grandkids there.

After dinner we went to a church near Grandma and Grandpa's house so we could play dodge ball, line dance, play soft blow-dart wars and break a pinata. The kids had a great time running around the gym playing with their cousins.

Steve and Brooklyn line dancing.

It's a tradition in the LeBaron family to break a pinata during family holiday get-togethers. Steve's brother Brad and his family made this huge snow miser pinata.

Brooklyn taking a swing at the pinata.

Mackenzie taking a swing at the pinata.

Here is the cousin group picture! Steve's sister's kids (besides Adrianne) and the 3 cousins currently serving missions were the only ones not present. It was sure a fun Thanksgiving and we had a great time being in Utah spending time with our families. Thanks for all the fun memories. We look forward to our next family reunion! We LOVE you all!