Christmas Morning

Here are some of the pictures we took on Christmas morning. The kids were so excited. Charles got a bottle of chocolate syrup in his stocking. He was thrilled!! Santa couldn't have gotten him a better present. I wish I had a picture that captured the look on his face when he pulled the bottle out of his stocking. It was priceless.





Handsome boys!!


Merry Christmas!

Our three little angels

Charles on Christmas



Eric with his marshmallow shooter


The boys posing

Katie with Ernie (she LOVES Sesame Street)

Eric and Charles decorated cookies for Santa and left him letters

Christmas

Christmas. One of my favorite holidays. I love everything associated with Christmas. The stories, the music, the decorations, the treats, shopping, making things to give, the kids and their excitement. Our Christmas was great this year. It was one of the best we've had so far. We were able to see all of our family at some point during the week. Our kids had such a good time with their cousins. I made the boys marshmallow shooters and decorated them with paint and stickers. They turned out pretty cool. Dean and I had fun testing them to make sure they worked properly. Thank you to all for your gifts and the time we were able to spend together.

1st Ward Christmas Party

Eric and Charles after the play


Eric kneeling by the baby Jesus

A surprise visit from Santa and his elves!!

Katie getting her candy cane from Santa's elf.

Silent Night

Tonight was our ward Christmas party. It was a fun night out with the family. Dessert and a show. How can you beat that? Eric was a Shepard in the play. He was quite excited to don the Shepard's cloak and carry a cane. Charles was supposed to be a Shepard too, but the minute they put the costume on him he refused. He's so picky about what he wears! It was a nice way to help us remember the birth of Christ and the sacrifices and hardships of Mary and Joseph. Merry Christmas.

Elf on the Shelf

Have you heard of the Elf on the Shelf? The author started this tradition with her family in the seventies and she has since written a book that comes with a stuffed elf. The story is about how Santa sends his elves to check on the boys and girls to see who is naughty and who is nice. Each night mom and dad hide the elf in a different place. Your kids are to believe that he leaves for the North Pole to report to Santa and when he returns he hides in a different place. I think this will be one of our new Christmas traditions. Check out http://www.elfontheshelf.com/ to see more. Visit the North Pole and Hall of Registry. You can find recipes and craft ideas.

Once I get started...

So, this last week I moved the boys downstairs. They got a bunk bed last weekend. Dean set it up downstairs in the guest room because there wasn't enough space in their room. Now this meant that I had to empty out the closets downstairs and move almost everything from their room upstairs down to the basement. It was a pain in the you know what. I couldn't stop at just moving the boys downstairs. Since the guest room has to be upstairs now I thought I would move Katie into the boys old room and make Katie's room the guestroom. I have boxes and boxes of baby clothes all over that need to be put away. I can't bring myself to get rid of all those cute baby clothes. For the most part everybody is settled in their new bedrooms. There are just odds and ends that need to be put away or better yet thrown away (or donated). Once I start moving things around I have a hard time stopping. Now that everything is moved around I feel like I need to paint, get new curtains, new bedding, some storage bins and the list continues.

And the winner is...

Eric came home from school yesterday happier and so much more excited than I've seen him all year, and with good reason. The PTA held a writing contest for the school. The kids were to write a make believe story. He wrote about the way his bedroom would be if he had it his way. Eric was awarded a gold medal for his story! The way he smiled and talked about winning this medal was as if he had won a real Olympic gold medal. I told him I would write a post and put his picture on my blog. Great job Eric!!!

Who made the mess?

Sunday evening I came home from our primary presidency meeting to the smell of blueberries in the boys bedroom. I looked down and there was an open bottle of shampoo spilled on the carpet. I immediately called for Charles (this has Charles written all over it). He said it wasn't him, it was Katie. I could believe that. Katie has become increasingly interested in the contents of closed bottles. I started scrubbing the carpet, making the mess worse because its now becoming a thick lather. Dean came to help and said "you have a soaking wet girl downstairs." Eric was in the shower and Katie decided to join him in her shirt, diaper and shoes. She had a fit when I took her out and removed her wet clothes and shoes. Dean cleaned the carpet and now the room has a lovely scent. Thanks for helping Dean.

Halloween

I have always loved Halloween. As a kid I couldn't wait until after dinner when mom would let us put our costumes on and go trick or treating. I remember my family and the Signs family loading into a car and mom and Sherry driving us all over town. We always came home with so much candy and had such a great time. I want my kids to have the same fond memories that I do. This year the boys were mummies. I bought some old sheets from the thrift store and tore them into strips. Dean wrapped Eric and I wrapped Charles. They were quite cute. We didn't take into consideration getting into a car and driving to the church and the costumes still being intact. After walking around for a bit Eric started loosing pieces of sheet all over the parking lot and Charles was tripping on his loose ends. Katherine was an adorable pumpkin who wandered around and did her own thing. There was a car with music playing and a cooler with dry ice and root beer to drink that held her attention for most of the evening. By the time we left the boys were all but unraveled so we called it a night.

Family Traditions Old and New

Last night we did one of my favorite family traditions. We carved our pumpkins and toasted the seeds. The night before I took the kids to pick out their pumpkins. I love watching them look over each pumpkin closely trying to decide which one will make the perfect jack o lantern. Eric and Charles each found "the one" then helped me find a few more great ones for myself, dad and Katie. We loaded up our pumpkins and away we went. When Eric came home from school we started cleaning out the pulp and the seeds. The boys each cleaned out their own while I worked on the rest. Katie sat up on the kitchen table watching and playing in the seeds. I was surprised that she sat on the table for nearly an hour and a half watching us and keeping track of the carving tools. Eric carved the classic jack o lantern with triangle eyes, square nose and a toothy grin. Charles chose the shapes he knows best: circles. Circle eyes, circle nose and an oval mouth. Both of them carved by themselves and then Eric helped Charles with the last few cuts to get the pieces out. Katie's pumpkin has a scared look and mine looks scary. When Dean came home from work he started on his Headless Horseman design. It took him a long time and it looks great. I then put the candles in so the kids could see the final product. I added something new to our Halloween traditions this year. I printed out menus for our dinner of worms in a slimy sauce, frog legs, severed fingers, blood red punch and worms still in the dirt dessert. I decorated the kitchen with a few streamers and balloons. When dinner was ready Dean and I blind folded the boys and brought them to the table where they put their hands in cooked spaghetti (the worms), green beans (frog legs), and felt the severed fingers (bread sticks with a sliced almond as the fingernail). Charles was a little freaked out by the whole thing while Eric loved the grossness of it all. After they felt the food we served up a delicious spaghetti dinner complete with dirt pudding dessert. It was such a fun family night. I can't wait until next year!

Funny Things

On the way to school this morning Eric and I were stopped at a red light. In the car next to us was a woman smoking like a chimney. Eric looked over at her and said she was a teacher at his school. I asked him where she worked. He told me in the library. He then said, "yeah, I remember her, she sits in the library with that smoker." I chuckled to myself and told him yeah right, they don't allow smoking in schools. He smiled sheepishly and said I know. I think he knew he was caught in a tale.

Season of Change

Fall is my favorite season. The chill in the air, changing colors, my birthday. What's not to love? We have had great weather lately. Today was the first time in a long time it was cold and rainy. Eric's school held their Fall Carnival this morning. There were lots of games and food. The kids had a great time. Later that afternoon we went to a swim birthday party for Eric's friend. Eric went down his first water slide. Unfortunately, Charles was not tall enough. This evening I worked on this slide show forever. I couldn't get it on my blog so Dean came to help. With much trial and even more error we did it. Now, if I could learn how to move things around on the page into the places I want them things would be even better. Live and learn.

Fall

Gibber Jabber

Katie is days away from being seventeen months old. She doesn't say many words. She will however walk up to you with a most serious look on her face and gibber jabber quite matter of factly. So it is exciting to me that in the last three days she's learned two new words. We go to the YMCA four days a week for me to workout and for her to play with other kids. Every day she walks down the steps and I say "down" when she steps down. Friday I was holding her hand so she could go down the steps. Out of her little mouth came the word "down" as she took each step. Now, thirty times a day she drags me to the stairs so she can go down and say her newly learned word. Then on Sunday we went out for a walk. The neighbors have crab apple trees and there are apples all over the ground. She went straight for the apples, picked up a few and asked "what's 'at?" I told her it was an apple. She repeated the question a few times and I repeated the answer. Soon she was saying "apple". She says it in a cute, drawn out, high pitched way. I love watching her learn new things so quickly.

My First Time

So, Natalie Tenney emailed me a while back to tell me she started a blog. I looked at it and thought it was adorable. She had cute pics of her kids and funny stories about her and her family. I didn't think I would ever have a blog. From what I had seen of them I thought they were, dare I say, lame. After seeing Natalie's my tune changed. Here I am creating my own blog for the first time. I wanted to do it mainly for my family. We don't get to see each other often enough and I am not great about getting on the phone to chat with them. Sorry! Anyway I hope this will keep us connected a little better. They will be able to see recent pics of the kids and read what we have been up to.