Family Pictures 2014

Christmas 2014

We added one special surprise to our usual Christmas Eve traditions this year. After the kids opened their Christmas books and jammies, we passed them one more package. It contained a tiny pair of newborn baby jammies. It took them a minute, but after talking it through, they figured out that we were trying to tell them about the new baby coming. They gave us some pretty good reactions, especially Hanna who demanded to know if it was a girl...a few more months of waiting to figure that out, but everybody's so excited! On Christmas morning we were all blessed and spoiled once again. Santa brought an Xbox and a bunch of new video games. Nolan got his Harry Potter fix. For Colby - dinosaur transformers and a new guitar. Hanna got a doll and a slew of girly things. Liam and Reed reined supreme as the Wild Kratt brothers. Scotty and I took advantage of the opportunity to replace our blender and our kitchen pots and pans. We had cinnamon rolls and went to the movies to make it a perfect Gordon Christmas :)

Winter Time

Winter was just right in 2014. Plenty of snow, but not too much. Not too cold for too long either. We pulled off some of our favorite holiday traditions, like making Christmas Cookies for family home evening, and making crepes for the Pratt Branch Christmas Breakfast. Colby had some big accomplishments in wintertime, like winning a silver medal at the science fair. He also had a blast in cub scouts watching his dad take a few pies to the face.

Scotty and I drove two cars to haul our kids and our branch family over to Wichita to participate in the Stake Creche de Noel. I remember how stressed we were about how to pull that off, but it went smooth as butter and turned out to be a blessing and a happy memory for all of us. We felt the Spirit so strong as we sang together, and Pizza Hut and Braums definately sweetened the deal!

Reed was old enough to take notice of Santa this year, although he was very apprehensive and seemed to question the big man's motives. He made his wishes known, but kept his distance :)

Thanksgiving in Utah

We took the family to Utah for an epic Thanksgiving vacation, and I've been so blessed to spend some major holiday time with my sister Lisa this year. My kids love their Hardin cousins just as much, and I bet even Scott enjoyed his Mark Hardin time. It was a win, win, win! We went to an aquarium, an airplane museum, Temple Square to see the lights and Sister Maci Park... We also visited our beloved Greenlaws in Provo while we were there. Aside from that, we ate and ate and cooked and ate, and baked and ate, and ate some more. It was awesome.