Christmas Time

The Doty house has been counting down the days until Christmas since Thanksgiving. I finished teaching school on Dec 22nd and Reagan's last day was the 23rd. On the 22nd I planned to decorate a ginger bread house. That was also the night BYU was playing Oregon in the Las Vegas bowl. We ate pizza, decorated the gingerbread house and watched football. Great night! Then on Wednesday, the 23rd, I made sugar cookies while Reagan was at school so we could decorate them that night. The kids had a great time. They all picked their favorite cookie to leave for Santa.






Camden loved the frosting!



Christmas Eve Alan had to work, so we stayed home and got ready for Christmas. I made a turkey for dinner and the kids cleaned up their rooms to make space for their new ones that were sure to come. Reagan wanted to open her new pajamas all day, so after dinner, the kids opened their pajamas and we watched some Christmas cartoons we had recorded.



We thought this would be the year that Reagan would wake us up early to open presents, but she didn't. The kids woke up around seven. They were all so excited as they came running into our room! I think Reagan got them hyped up! They could hardly wait for us to get up. I remember those feelings from when I was young... good memories. I wanted to get a picture of the kids coming down the stairs, but they started going before me so I couldn't capture their reaction, so I made them recreate it.



The kids started with their stockings, but Tahlia wasn't too sure at first. She just watched until she warmed up to the idea. It didn't take too long though. Then she wanted to open everything in sight. Alan and I had a great time watching the kids enjoy their presents. We tried to have each kid open a present at the same time... it worked pretty good.























After we had Alan Christmas cassorole for breakfast, which was very good, we all go ready to go see a movie. We went to see the Princess and the Frog. It is a very cute movie. The kids loved wearing their new Christmas clothes and getting popcorn. Everyone watched the movie and behaved really well. After the movie it was nap time. We had all had a big day so far and needed a rest. After everyone woke up we had leftover turkey and played with new toys, What a great day! The kids are already talking about next year!

Christmas Dance Recital

The girls has a dance recital on December 21st. It was at West Jordan Middle School again at 7 o'clock. It was a little crazy getting there by seven. After I picked the kids up from their babysitter, we quickly drove home so I could start working on the girls hair and make-up . They were so excited to get dressed up! I bought some new eye glitter that they couldn't wait to try. The hair dues this year are much easier than last... so we were done much faster than I thought. While I was doing hair and make-up Alan was making us dinner. We quickly ate dinner and then the girls got into their costumes and we were off by 6:30. The girls both did a tap and ballet routine. They both looked beautiful and danced awesome! Now they get to learn new dances for their spring competitions and recital.

Reagan's 1st Grade Christmas Program

Reagan had her Christmas program on December 3rd. I thought it was kind of early, but it ended up to be perfect because we got busier as Christmas got closer. We were told to have her there at 6:30 and then the program would start at 7:00. We got there at 6:30 on the dot and we had to sit almost at the back of the gym! Reagan's class started the program and parents in front of us were standing taking pictures of there kids so we could hardly see! I was frustrated and finally a lady behind us got up and said something to the parents. I was happy she did so we could all see our kids. Reagan had a great time learning Christmas songs and Christmas jokes. She did a great job! We loved seeing her perform.






Every 1st grader decorated a stocking to decorate the gym during their performance.

Family Pictures

We got our family pictures back! They turned out really good! I can't wait to get some of them printed and hanging on my wall.

Night Out

We have decided that once a month one of the kids get to pick an activity that they want to do and mom or dad to do it with. Reagan was the first one to choose and she chose to go take me and go see the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". We had a great time! The movie wasn't too bad either. Reagan really liked it and it was fun watching and listening to her enjoy it. I think this is going to be a great family tradition. We are so used to doing everything together that to be able to have some one-on-one time with each of our kids will be good for them and us.

Halloween 2009

The kids, mostly Reagan and Kairi, had been looking forward to Halloween several weeks before it came and even had a count down. It took the girls a long time to decide what they wanted to dress up as. Reagan decided to be Hannah Montana, Kairi was a Barbie Princess, Camden was a soccer player (that one was easy!), and Tahlia was a lady bug. Alan ended up having an RSL soccer game to go to with his family, so I got the job of taking the kids trick-or-treating. I decided to go around 5:30. This has proven to be a good time for us. It's not too cold, still have light, and we are done before the kids get too tired. We started getting dressed at about five and we were out the door a little after 5:30. I took the wagon and Camden and Tahlia rode it in until the realized what this trick-or-treating thing was. They just rode and ate candy! The girls had a great time going door to door. It was nice not having a baby to take this year! About half way through a man was trick-or-treating with his son and he had a pretty scary mask on and all but Reagan freaked out! I had kids in tears! I was wishing he would take off his mask to show the kids everything was Ok, but he didn't. I just moved on as quickly as I could. We saw some great costumes this year. Hopefully we can remember some of them to use for next year. Around 7 we had a few houses left. The kids were ready to be done... at that moment Alan got home from his soccer game. We finished going to the last few houses and then loaded in our van and went to Dustin's house to watch the Utah football game. All the kids were on a sugar high... they were going strong until about 10 and then they died. The sugar high was gone, so we packed up and headed home!

Dressing Herself

Tahlia has been trying on clothes lately... and most of the time they aren't hers! A few weeks ago I was doing laundry and had clothes on my bed that needed folding. I went down stairs for something and got distracted. Tahlia saw the clothes and found some of Reagan's underwear to try on and came down stairs to show us! She is our last one to do these cute things... we are sure glad we have her!

Sick Eyes

Monday after we got back from Idaho, I picked the kids up from their babysitters and Camden's eyes were swollen and had green stuff in the corners. I took him to KidCare to get some drops. He was pretty happy despite his eyes. He was great at the doctor's except he didn't want to be weighed... weird. After the doctor examined him, she looked at Tahlia and said she looked like she was getting it too. I hate this time of year. All of the runny noses, sore throats, etc. I'm just lucking my kids don't have worse.

Wyatt

What a cute little boy Wyatt is! I am so happy that we got to go to Idaho and spend some time with him. How can you not love this kid. Just look at his face... I want to squeeze it! Tyson gave him a great blessing Sunday. They look so much alike walking back to their seat! We all met a their house after for lunch. There was so much family there. I love getting to see everyone. Wyatt makes one more in our wonderful family. Thanks for the good weekend Luke's!






The kids found a pile of leaves to play in before we left...

Painting Pumpkins & Making Haunted House

Saturday afternoon, we painted pumpkins. Mom and dad grew all of the pumpkins in their garden and kids got to go pick which one they wanted. Things got a little messy, but they all had a great time! I wish would have had room to bring them home to decorate our porch! Megan brought a haunted house kit for the kids to put together. They had a great time!