Happy Day

We have had some kind of stomach bug at our house this week and as a result I have been cranky and tired and feeling pretty yucky and pretty far from my usual self. It probably hasn't helped that I refinished our (only) bathtub and have had to take showers/baths at my mom's house (15 minutes away...not much, but kind of a big deal when shuffling the whole family there every day) for the last week and a half and smell epoxy paint curing throughout my house. I knew today was a better day, though, when I actually got myself out of bed before Seth left for school, had make-up on and hair done by the time the kids finished breakfast, and had all of the kids dressed with their hair done and shoes on before our target departure time.

The more significant indication, though, was that my optimism returned (you were missed optimistic self...please don't go away anymore). When I was getting dressed, I thought to myself, "Well, maybe there is a bright side to this feeling crummy stuff...I think I might just fit in my destination jeans" (meaning my jeans that I always wish and hope to fit into again after I have a baby - you moms out there know what I mean, right?) So I got them out...and you know what...sure enough, they fit. Ahhhh, destination jeans...how I have missed you... and a special thank you to the stomach bug for coming and especially for GOING and leaving happiness in your wake!

A Beautiful Holiday

We started our little family Christmas festivities at our house opening Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve and then opening our Christmas books (Fancy Nancy Christmas and I Believe in Santa Claus). We then read the nativity and the Christmas books, put out the magic reindeer food, cookies for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer. We like reindeer! Then it was off to bed.

Seth and I got to bed by 11:00 pm...which is a serious record for us!

(Thank you FlyLady for helping me get ready for Christmas early!)

Before the kids woke up and went in to see what Santa brought, we snapped some pictures. Yes, it is Waaaay more that it should be...we are setting more specific guidelines for Santa next year. He (or maybe it is his wife) tends to go a little crazy buying too many presents!

Since I made lots of play food, mail, aprons and such for the kids this year, we decided to set it up like the Santa stuff (mostly so we didn't have to wrap it).

At 7:30 Christmas morning, the kids looked like this...Where's the excitement? Oh, don't worry...as soon as we snapped this picture we headed to our Christmas Countdown to get out the star...

then they got really excited!

And why wouldn't you with a morning like this!

It was wonderful and magical and so much fun! My favorite part was watching the kids help each other (and us) open the gifts from them. So sweet!

Added bonus...I had muffins ready to go, so we put them in when we started opening gifts and they made our house smell wonderful and were hot and ready when we were done.

Celebrations

Holidays are insanely crazy for everyone, and when you add kids to the mix...oh boy! So, we are lucky to have the most accomodating family ever! Because they are always willing to be flexible, we get to celebrate Christmas with everyone on different days and it makes for some serious fun!

We went to the annual Gregory Christmas Party (which was expanded to a church gym this year for the first time) and the kids had a blast smacking the piniata...and hiding on the stage to eat all their loot.

The Sunday before Christmas we celebrated with Grandma Becky and Fam...

I think it is every kid's dream to be surrounded by presents waiting to be opened!

We had some fun times giving/opening presents and the kids were spoiled...of course!

The girls were color coordinated with their packages...unplanned, but totally cute!

Morgan got a Leapster and once it had batteries he was off in lala land playing his game!

Chloe got this darling chest filled with dress-ups and she didn't waste any time trying on the dresses and accessorizing!

She even disappeared into the land of pretend for a while while the big people opened gifts...and then came back up and said...

"Everyone. Now we are going to sing Cinderella songs."

And then she proceeded to lead us all in song...with her magic wand, of course!

It was a great time! Thanks to all!

We had planned to do our traditional Snowshoe trip on Christmas Eve morning, but Morgan woke up throwing up, so we decided to stay home and rest instead.

He was doing much better by later in the day, so we visited the Tate clan and then it was off to Grandpa Mark's. Since my dad is getting remarried next week, it was our first Christmas Eve together with his fiance and her family. We had a turkey dinner, the kids got out all the toys at her house and we opened gifts. Chloe got a barbie and Morgan got hot wheels...and they were so excited that they ripped the packages open and played with them right there on the spot!

We always go sledding with the Tates on Boxing Day, and with everyone's travel schedules, we ended up doing our Christmas celebration and gift exchange that day as well. It was so fun to combine them and extend the Christmas fun an extra day that I hope it becomes a new tradition. I didn't take the nice camera with me, so you'll have to forgive the lack of pictures and picture quality.

The kids definitely know who to go to when they want someone's undivided attention...

Grandma Denese pulled the 3 babies born this year in the sled and had the older girls holding each hand.

The present that Seth is so excited about is a Flight of the Conchords DVD from his youngest sister...he was REALLY excited!

Sick Day

All of us girls were feeling under the weather today, so we stayed home from church. (I wonder if we will ever get to go to church as a whole family again...this is week number 4 that 1 or more have been working or home sick/taking care of a sick child).

I decided to seize the moment while there were no napping kids to fold clothes and actually put them away in their drawers, so the girls were left to play together on their own.

My mommy heart melted when I saw this...

Sweet little sisters, side-by-side, sharing toys and laughs and fun times.

Just a sweet moment to make everything 100 percent worth it!

And in other news...Brynn has been standing without holding onto anything since early December, and yesterday she decided to stand up right in the middle of the floor with nothing to support her. And, lucky for me, she did it again today while I had the camera out snapping away!

And then she took a lunging step toward the bench (thus the lean in the above picture).

She also cut her 5th tooth this week and is jabbering away like crazy.

Her favorite words are Morgan, "no, no, no" (with head shake, of course), more, baba, bye bye (complete with wave), mama, and dada.

She also really really likes to sing...if there is singing happening...she is singing right along...not such a good thing when listening to musical numbers in church.

My baby is really not a baby anymore!

Just because they are stinkin' cute...

in their matchy-matchy hats! And because I have never seen a cuter snowman...even if he isn't really made out of snow!

Life's An Adventure

That is pretty much our motto lately!

A week before Christmas, we thought it would be fun to take some family pictures, so we got everyone all prettied up and headed up Millcreek Canyon to find the perfect winter scene. We found it, set up the tripod, got out the fabulous camera remote I got for my birthday, and snapped away.

When we were considerably colder and the kids were getting antsy, we loaded up the car and checked out the pictures as we drove away, only we couldn't drive away because we were completely high centered (which is pretty awesome feat in our Sequoia). The picture viewing stopped and the digging started. Five carfulls of good samaritans who stopped and helped later, we popped out of the snowbank and onto the road! As we continued down the canyon, I scanned through the pictures...no flash...eek! So, it really was just a picture taking adventure with nothing good to show because nothing was properly exposed, but in the spirit of realism, here are the pics that turned out semi-decent after some serious exposure fixing in photoshop and some added "mood" to distract from the resulting noise.

The Year of Christmas Traditions

I was a little bit obsessive about traditions this year...making sure we have them, making sure we did them, and trying my very hardest to actually enjoy them (thus my absence from blogging). There is something about traditions that is orderly and controlled and it just feels safe and comfortable.

So here we are enjoying some favorite traditions...

Temple Square Lights

We went to Temple Square to see the lights for Family Home Evening (though not on a Monday night) and it was truly one of the coldest nights I have ever experienced! We bundled the kids up as well as we could (since we hadn't purchased a parka for Chloe yet). Our car's thermometer said it was 15 degrees outside...but it was really closer to 8 and windy. Bitter cold! The plus side of that was no crowds. We literally walked up to the nativity scene outside the visitors center right as the nativity started and we were the only ones there! Amazing! The second row of pictures is the kids watching the nativity...it was so sweet to see the awe and wonder in their faces in the split seconds I caught these pictures before they started throwing snowballs in the general direction of the manger scene (fresh snow+cold kids+no crowds=antsy kids who want to move). Despite the cold, we had a great time just being together after a week of parties and finals and craziness! Have I ever mentioned that I adore my little family!?

Going to See Santa

This is a definite must for us each year. We normally go to the cute little Sugarhouse shack, but they changed their hours and started making you buy (rediculously expensive) pictures in order to take your own, so we just took the kids to see Santa at Seth's work. The Santa was so wonderful and the kids were all dressed up, but he wasn't a sit-on-my-lap Santa...more of a stand together for a picture Santa. We attempted some pictures while we waited for Seth to come over from his floor, but in all of them Brynn's face seems to be saying, "Why do I keep getting my face squished?" Morgan was so excited as he walked right up to santa, borrowed some reindeer antlers and told Santa that he wanted some cars, a Peter Pan costume and a Captain hook costume. Chloe was anxious as we waited in line, and burst into tears when we tried to get her to go and tell him what she wanted. Finally I convinced her to go up if She could stand on the other side of Brynn and me. She still wouldn't talk to him, but ofter some unsuccessful coercing, Santa gave her some magic reindeer food from his sack and she warmed up enough to tell him what she wanted for Christmas.

"I want a Cinderella," she said, and stuck out her hand to receive it.

I laughed and told her that Santa would bring it to our house on Christmas as long as she was good. Silly Girl! Brynn didn't really care one way or another, but she liked Santa's jingle bells!

Christmas Slumber Party

This is a new tradition for us this year, but it was so fun that I know we will be doing it for many years to come. The plan was to get in our jammies, pop some popcorn, watch a Christmas Movie (ELF, of course), and have a sleepover under the tree, but the kids were pretty tired and I was trying to finish up some sewing projects, so we nixed the sleepover under the tree part. Maybe in another year or 2.

Homemade Christmas

I had waaay too much fun making gifts this year for people and pictures have been requested, so I am going to indulge. I am not typically a homemade gift kind of person...unless there is some really good reason to do otherwise, I like to give gifts with gift receipts so people can get something they will use and enjoy if I pick something terrible, but most of these were things I would have bought for people if I weren't capable of making them just as cute!

So here are the homemade Christmas gifts we gave out...

there is more to come that the kids got, but that will be another post entirely!