Tis' The Season

It has been another amazing Christmas season in the Pate household. We have been going from party, to party, to party! I am always reminded at this time of year just how blessed I am to have the families and friends that I do. They always make this time of year so special for us, especially Gaver's and B's. So instead of me rambling on, I will let the pictures do the talking! But, thanks to all my families and friends for just being the people they are, I love you and am forever in debt for all you do for me!

Christmas Day (We are working backwards)

Nana and Papa's house!

Gavin with his StarWars legos

Breezy showing off her "bling" thanks to Nana!

Papa picked this present out for Gav, what a great Papa!

What is a princess without a tutu!

Christmas Morning at home!

Me and my kiddies!

Chad got to come home from work for 2 hours!

Bre was so excited to get a camera. She would take a picture and then tell me I am Tinkerbell.

Gav in front of his stash! He had a lego Christmas!

Bre in front of hers! She got lots of baby stuff and a Dora table. She was so upset that she couldn't take it in the bath tub with her!

This Christmas I decided to surprise Chad with a firefighter quilt. This was the first quilt I have done in a long time. My sweet aunt Brenda held my hand the whole way. Thanks Aunt Brenda! I think we surprised Chad.

Christmas Eve (Grandma Kari's & Bompa's)

Gavin with his presents, he got a light saver and Air hog helicopters and jets!

Bre got a Dora play house and a shopping cart. She went around the house "shopping" the rest of the night!

Our Norwegian Christmas Eve Party

Gavin on the Jullenissen's lap (aka Uncle Rick) he is the Norwegian santa claus.

Dancing around the tree to Norwegian polka music. Yes, that is my cute little grandma being escorted around by Cody. She was in heaven, but once around the tree was good enough for her.

Gavin and Noah chillin'

My cute little Norwegian Grandma Kari (who I am named after) and me!

The beautiful tables before we sat down for dinner. My mom did an excellent job! We have pork and Korv ( a type of sausage), sukral (cabbage), potatoes! Delicious. For dessert we have rice cream with a red sauce. Whoever finds the almond gets a marzipan pig.

Playing around getting ready for Christmas to come!

Gavin and his buddies, Dylan and Colton rocking out in his bedroom. I came in and found them on his desk, dancing and singing and I just had to take a picture!

Building snowmen!

Pajama night! We had a surprise santa come for the kids. Gav was acting too shy and Bre was scared out of her mind!

Gavin wouldn't take his hands away from his eyes, so Santa being the great person he is played along!

Our family in our new PJ's thanks to Grandma Kari and Bompa!

The girlies in our PJ's!

Annual Shrimp dinner at Grandma Tootsie's and Grandpa Tom's house! We do this the Sunday before Christmas every year. They have delicious shrimp and steak along with the other fixin's and boy is it something we all look forward to all year long! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

After dinner they surprised all their great-grandkid's with presents. They sure know how to spoil them!

Gavin with his popper gun, along with Batman legos, spiderman shooter, and a car night light!

Bre in my old German outfit! She loved it!

Bre with her baby from Grandma Tootsie, Grandpa Tome and Aunt Brenda. They gave her books, mini Dora cd and my Aunt Brenda's old June and Julie doll that was purchased in the 1960's. What a great keepsake for Bre! Thanks guys!

Bre in her Christmas dress. She loved twirling in it.

Chad snowplowing with the boys. Gavin is in the Nacho Libre mask and Dylan is in front.

Gavin had his preschool Christmas performance! He did a great job. He wasn't too big on the whole hand gestures, but he did sing. There were a couple of yawns inbetween words, however. Hey, what can I say, this may not be his cup of tea! There is a video of him singing Jingle Bells, that he did enjoy!

Gavin in his preschool performance attire. What a cute rudolph!

Ornament Night at Nana's and Papa's. Every year Nana and Papa give us an ornament for our tree. What I love most about it is that the ornament they give has a certain meaning to it. It can be about a certain milestone, event, or memory they have of you for the year. This means a lot to us and I appreciate the thoughtfulness they give to it each year.

After the ornaments they got to decorate gingerbread men!

Bre was into eating the frosting and candy more than decorating. She did get one made and it was cute.

We playing the skittle game where you had to move skittles from one bowl to your cup, using a straw. It was fun and I later realized that I am horrible at this game, little oxygen to the brain causes headaches!

Brad, Marlee, and Quinton relaxing!

Gavin holding up his ornament. He got a Horton Hears a Who one, because Nana and Papa treated us to that movie when it came out. We had a great time at the movie!

Bre got a little pink princess snowman ornament. Do I need to say more?

Chad got a fire truck because he is a fire fighter and I got a Minnie Mouse ornament because I love Disney!

Gavin with his Nana!

Our annual friend Christmas party! This year we had it at Alli and Grant's house. We had delicious hawaiian haystacks. Then we exchanged white elephants, some of the exciting ones were large panties (Tracy got those), thongs (Jeremy got those), stress balls (Alli got those), and I got a bug zapper. Chad kept trying to hit me with it and I kept telling him that it would hurt. He didn't believe me and tapped his hand on it, all of a sudden you saw this huge electric flash and Chad on the ground! Yes, he got shocked (zapped), it was a huge comic relief for everyone. Next time he'll believe me (not really)!

We missed Dave and Michelle!

We went to decorate my Grandma Kari's room for the holiday's so we decided to make an event out of it. We loaded all the kids and we headed up to her care center. We got up there around 8:00 PM and the party started. The cute aides there brought out apple juice and cookies for the kids. We sat in her room and sang christmas carols, the kids did performances for her, and we talked. What a great memory!

All of us with Grandma Kari!

Another great year has past. I am looking forward to what is to come and being able to experience it all with those who I love! Thanks again to everyone for making this year so special. I love you all!

And now Gavin's preschool performance!

Chad's Swearing In & Gingerbread Houses

This past Monday Chad was officially sworn in as a Midvale Firefighter. He has been working for Midvale Fire for almost 1 1/2 years, 8 of them as a full-time firefighter, so it was due:) He tried to down play the event, but it was definitely something really cool. After he was sworn in, I got to go up and pin his badge on. I struggled pinning it on, so I finally just put it down and said that will do. It was fun being there with all the people he works with and I would have to say that you could definitely feel the brotherhood and respect they have for each other. It was really neat to be a part of that and be able to see Chad in his element. I hope he knows just how proud I am of him, he is a hard worker and is 100% dedicated to what he does. Anyone who has him on a call is always is good hands. Congratulations sweetie!

On Friday my family got together for the annual Gingerbread decorating night. The girls were down decorating while the guys were upstairs shooting the bull. Gavin actually stayed for quite awhile and decorated with me. He had to make sure that I was making it a "boy" house. Bre on the other hand was only there for the candy! She was in heaven, I tell you that girl would eat candy non-stop if she could! We created a power ranger, princess home, with snowmen all over that Gavin painted faces on. It was a fun night of being with the family, laughing and enjoying this great time of year.

Being Thankful!

So nothing like saying how much I love this season and then post nothing! My BAD! This year has been going by too fast! Anyways, Thanksgiving was a blast and every year, I am reminded at how cool my family is and how lucky I am to have such great in-laws. I absolutely love getting together for Thanksgiving and being with the people who I will be with forever!
My kids remind me everyday how grateful I am for them. The last couple of nights I have been reading Gavin a flipbook about Jesus. We would read a page and you could just see the wheels turning in his head about some of the miraculous things He's done. One night he looked at me and said, "you know mom, I think Jesus is a pretty cool guy!" I would have to agree! I love the pureness that my kids bring and how they say the right things at the right times to make my day better. I am forever lucky to be their mom!
This year, my mom, sisters and I kept up the tradition of going shopping on Black Friday. We had great intentions of heading up to Park City, but driving through the canyon, on limited sleep didn't seem like the safest thing for us to do. We instead headed out to good old Wal-Mart at 4:00 am and were able to get some great deals. We then stopped by Old Navy, Children's Place, and then JoAnns. Every year I tell myself to stick to the list and not go over and every year I go over. I get too distracted with everything and just throw stuff in the cart, hey it's a good deal right!? At least no run-in with the West Jordan cops this year. I am improving!
As with ALL the traditions in my crazy family, the annual Norwegian Cookie Baking sleep-over was in full force a couple weeks ago. We headed up to the Garff Ranch, which is a paradise in and of itself. It was all play the first night we were there and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning playing card games, while the kids watched movies and slept. Due to the events from last year, most of the men were afraid to go to sleep this year. Of course, my husband thought that since he bought the cream and all the practical jokes this year, he wouldn't need to worry. Well, as you can see from the pictures he was the one who GOT IT this year! The next morning the girls were up early and getting the bake on. We made 6 different types of Norwegian cookies and as with every year, we had cookies coming out everywhere. I love my heritage, I love celebrating these times and I am so happy that my family keeps it alive! God Jul!