My Family and Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Stoddard's!!

What an amazing year. Madeline started middle school and
is learning to play the violin. Both kids participated in
swim team and excelled.

Jacob is loving cub scouts and just earned his Wolf Award.
Stephen is busy and grateful for a wonderful job
and church service.

I am grateful for healthy family, a warm home,
kind friends, an amazing business, and
chances to serve others.

I am most of all thankful and humbled by
a baby who was born in a stable. Served others through
out His life and taught us how to truly love all mankind.

I am in awe of His Atonement which He gave to me so
that I can be forgiven and strive to live as He did.
May we always have our Savior, Jesus Christ in our
hearts and love as He does.

crazy Christmas photos!!! Which one is your favorite?

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Is it this one?

this one?

Are we a "normal" family? I hope not ;)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

More Memories

here was our morning. i just asked the kids to savor the moment and they truly did!

6:47 am eat Christmas crunch cereal

7:03 am mom and dad get dressed and ready, kids stayed in their new pj's

7:32 am start opening gifts and enjoy each one (the secret is have them open a toy first so they will enjoy putting it together and playing with it for a while)

10:15 am still opening and enjoying gifts

11:30 am pause for lunch

12:45 pm still opening and enjoying gifts

2 pm we go upstairs to see the santa gifts and open them to find...... a WII. oh, my heavens who bought us a Wii, because mom would never do that she thinks we spend to much time on TV and compute as it is. Santa, you are pretty sneaky ;)


yes, he is excited! every gift that is opened, he starts chanting.. lego, lego!
this was madeline's big gift, the american girl cookstove. thankfully, ag had a sale in december with this puppy 1/2 price, yes!
the cute fruit for canning on the cookstove. do you notice the cool ninja belt i have one. compliments of jacob's new dress up costume. it was 90% off from target's after halloween sale!
madeline has told me all year that she would love a robe for Christmas. so i found this at kohl's and it is cute and cozy. she kept saying, i love my robe.
and for the grand finale, the wii! the kids loved making up all the goofy characters. jacob's guy is named ????? and his eyes and at the bottom of his face and his mouth is on the top of his head. no wonder his name is ??? the guy is seriously confused!

Favorite Christmas Memories

We always make a Gingerbread house. We love this tradition. We go to Win-Co and look at all the eye candy and each person picks 3 candies for a total of 12 delicious dandies.

This year we used the chocolate-covered sunflower seeds as our Christmas "lights". So cute!

Jacob's add in was this gummy bear rappelling off our house.


We had some snow in the middle of December and it happened on a saturday so i ran to target and bought our very first sled. how could we live this long without one, kind neighbors who let us borrow one. no more, we are proud owners of the Avalanche Mover 2000.


on Chirstmas Eve, our children beg us to open the gift they bought for each other. we use this as a motivator tool to clean the house from top to bottom. numerous times during the day, you can hear "is it time yet?" to which we answer, nope, more cleaning ;) aren't we mean!

madeline gave jacob a webkinz toy, he was so excited. jacob gave madeline a littlest pet shop toy. for a fhe night, we go to target and the kids use their allowance to buy the toy. first, we walk around the store and pick out 5 things that we like. then we separate and make the agonizing decision of what to buy.

then, all the gifts go up here on our "gift shelf" so there is no lego shaking!!!! jacob is famous for this one! i sewed up these cute "gift bags" for Christmas. they are made out of fabric with a ribbon tie. super cute, easy, and reusable, yes!
this is what kept jacob occupied until 2 pm. when the kids woke up at 6:44 am i gave them a little pep talk about "savoring" Christmas and enjoying every moment. it only comes around once a year ya know.

Christmas Eve

my kids love to open up their pj's and wear them on Christmas eve. here is Hampsy with no pj's but very warm fur.
jacob had been asking about opening a gift since he saw them on the "Christmas" shelf 2 weeks ago. it was pure torture for him to see those gifts and not be able to open them... hum I wonder where he got that from. maybe his mother?

ya, i admit when i was growing up there were a "couple" times that some gifts under the christmas tree seemed to beckon and taunt me. come on, i know you want to open me... look at this pretty paper that i'm hiding underneath. i want to come and play with you, please open me. i would try to stiffle this sound, and yet i could hear it up in my bedroom. what is a kind hearted girl to do... ya i opened it!
madeline gave jacob what he wanted most for a gift, an mp3 player! he has loved this gift and could hardly wait to download a whole bunch of songs. but hey he was pretty quiet with those ear phones. ;)

Are you my Neighbor?

if you were my husband, you would get amazing kisses under the mistletoe!
I wish Breelle was our neighbor, but we're always glad when she comes to visit!
Crazy "statue of liberty" hair dudes, glad they are only at the airport and not my neighbor.
if you were my neighbor, you would get this homemade caramel apple, yum!

here they are all packaged up awaiting their new homes. we are going caroling tonight and dropping them off. doesn't it make your mouth water?

Random Happenings

We celebrated Christmas with my parents. It was such a great day. The grandparents helped Madeline and Jacob make wooden gingerbread houses (love Lowe's free projects). Then we opened gifts and the kids enjoyed quiet time playing and being with those they love.
Oh, ya we ate too! This is a picture of the Baked Alaskan pie. This is soooo easy and makes a great presentation! The first time I ate this was on our Baja Mexico cruise 12 years ago, wow time flies.

You put softened peppermint ice cream (Grandma Berrett's favorite) in a baked pie shell. Place in the freezer until ice cream is hard.

Next, make some meringue and smooth it on top of the ice cream and then place under oven broiler for 2 minutes or until golden brown on top, yum! Then drizzle with some hot fudge topping and you are in sugar heaven!
Stephen received the movie Kung Fu Panda from my parents. Love the headband honey!
Our master bathroom shower is under renovation, ya got to love it! We are having the tile replaced because you suppose to seal the grout every six months, I didn't know that! So, $2000 later we WILL seal the grout every six months. And now you KNOW!
In first grade, Jacob has been learning about Christmas around the world. Here we are outside (about 10 degrees) hitting his homemade pinata. Thanks Jacob for sharing your yummy candy with us.

A good deal!

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I use these all the time and it makes a meal 1/2 price, yes! Merry Christmas to you!

Christmas Lights by Stephen Stoddard

Here is the much anticipated picture of our beautiful Christmas lights. The Christmas balls change colors, cool! It was about 15 degrees last night when I took these picture, nippy!





Here is the street view, ohhhh ahhhh... Wow, it is cold outside. Back inside, the Stoddard family is decorating the gingerbread house. Let's go in and see....
Jacob loves this night.... candy!

Two fish kissing...

Drum roll please... the amazing sugar coated, heavily decorated, gingerbread house. I saw a picture of a candy house with smashed candy canes on the roof so we did that to have some sparkle!