Christmas morning

the boys sitting together on the steps, could hardly wait to see if Santa had come

disclaimer:
I wrote this post a few days ago but forgot to push the "publish post" button so here it is a few days later than I originally planned

My goal has been to finish up writing about our Christmas festivities by the end of this month, well It's the 30th, of course... I am such a procrastinator- but YEAH...I am accomplishing my first "new years goal"... and that is pretty BIG!! I know everyone is pretty much over Christmas and ready to begin a fresh NEW YEAR... Something about FRESH and NEW just sounds so great but I for one hate to see Christmas come to an end! Just last week I finally took down the last of my decorations... which always makes me a bit sad... I love Christmas lights all around my house, pine bows, pine cones, ornaments, nativities etc... Now my house is bare and cold just like it is outside... I miss my tree with sparkling lights!!
Maybe a little reminiscing about our Christmas day will make me feel better? so here goes... Some Christmas morning highlights....

Evan woke up around 8:30 AM... believe it or not, he is our early riser!! He came and crawled in bed with Glen and I who, I swear had just barely closed our eyes for dream land arggh!!
Evan was so excited but knew he had to wait for Elijah and Gabe to wake up. About 15 minutes later all three of them where crammed in bed with us, but not for long... we were too excited and here's what was waiting for us downstairs...
Evan had been hoping Santa could bring a four wheeler... we kept telling him that Santa might bring a toy four wheeler but probably would not be able to fit a real one in his sleigh... Evan realized that we were probably right... but all his wishing payed off and somehow Santa came through!! The boys were both so excited when they opened their eyes and there it was!!

The family favorite gift was from my mom and dad... A wii!! It has been SO much fun!!

One of Eli's favorite toys (and my favorite picture!) was a light saber... love this action shot!

Gabe loves trains and so this was perfect for him...

and this is pretty much where he perched ALL day... he was not interested in ANY other presents. his train sat by him for meals and even went for a nap with him... and still does most days :)

Oh, he did like his new fire truck too and took it for a spin ONCE... guess what he has in the trunk? yup, his train!!

Once we finished opening presents my brother and his family came over for Christmas breakfast

It was quite the spread and included, waffles with a variety of toppings, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, hash browns, orange juice, egg nog and my all time favorite specialty from Edie...
Blueberry cream cheese french toast casserole...

YUM!

We stuffed oursleves, the boys played with new toys for hours, we took the four wheeler for a spin and sipped hot cocoa as the snow fell outside... a perfect Christmas day!!

Smarty Pants...

na na na na na...

Yes this is one of those posts, but I can't help it because I'm so proud of my Elijah Paul...

and here's why...Reading did not come as naturally easy for him as it was for Evan... as parents we've had to really work with him and help him and try try try so so so hard to be patient when he'd sound out a three letter word for like five minutes, finally get it and then in the next sentence, there was that word again... so easy... but he'd have to figure it all out again, it was hard argh.... and not just for us... the poor kid wasn't enjoying reading very much. We learned to back off and be encouraging and we had to practice practice practice! In his Kindergarten class Eli was pretty much in the low end of the middle students... just a bit below average, still ok... but we really wanted reading to click for him... not that he had to love reading like we do, but that he was confident with it and could read on a average level and enjoy it!

When E started first grade this year he was once again placed in the just below average reading group. and then something happened... it just clicked I guess! He gets it!! and he is doing so well!! I credit a lot of it to his persistence and patience with himself and a huge portion of credit goes to his amazing teacher Ms. Jensen!! What a difference it makes to have a dedicated, seasoned teacher who really cares and watches for individual strengths and qualities in each of her students and knows ways to help them individually!! Eli's confidence with reading has grown so much in just the past few months... he is loving being able to read fluently and is now an above average reader!!

Then last week he came home with a sealed letter from the school... I teased him asking him what mischief he'd been into now to have to bring home a note from the principal? He got this worried, serious look and said "I didn't do anything mom!" I reassured him that I was just joking and we opened the letter together. It was great news!! The letter said that Eli had been selected as one of two students in each first grade class to be pulled out during math time for an accelerated math course! His teacher recommend him for this special privilege because he is at the top of his class in comprehending math skills!!! WOW!... he certainly didn't get that from me, his dad is the math whizz around here!! Eli was grinning ear to ear for the rest of the afternoon and I am so proud of what a smarty pants Eli is!!

Speaking of math whizzezz... Gabriel our third genius boy who is only 20 months and speaks and comprehends better than most 2 1/2 year olds.... can count to ten!! He's only done it a few times in the right order! He usually says all the numbers just before he's getting ready to jump into our arms off of... well pretty much any object that he's currently climbing on... Glen pointed out tonight that
"Gabe's good at his prime numbers..."

I sheepishly asked "so...what is a prime number... " "...seems to have slipped my mind..." (silently I'm hoping it's some big math secret that is only learned by those elect math students who make it past algebra.... which doesn't include me)

Glen explained it... something about dividing and they can't be by something???... then Evan chimes in telling me more.... ( shoot... I was suppose to know that...!)

"1, 3, 5, 7, 9," ... and then Gabe always ends with "10!" and off he jumps!!!

So.... there's my na na na na na for today....about my smart, practically genius children!!

oh, and did I mention... absolutely adorable!!... because they are that too!!

My Aching Heart...

I was reading in parenting magazine awhile back and came across an article that told of a study done by a group of researchers on the correlation between heart burn and hair... sounds interesting huh? Well they found that women who complained of frequent heart burn during pregnancy had babies who were born with more hair...

"hmmmm" I thought.

I have had three babies and heart burn like you wouldn't believe with each of their pregnancies and they were all born with full heads of dark, soft as feather hair... "hmmmm... maybe that's why?"

Judging by my pain levels thanks to heart burn with this baby (sun up til sun down all night and meds don't even really cover it)... he's sure to come out with hair Joe Jonas would covet? (pardon the comparison, it's just that Eli totally envies his hair and I couldn't think of anybody else)

Then I though "So... not every pregnant lady out there gets heart burn??? What?"

that is so not fair! It's already bad enough that we are all different shapes and sizes (maybe I wouldn't think that was so bad if I were at my good size!) but what I don't agree with is this ... why can't all of us pregnant girls at least have the same experience... the same damage to our bodies, the same amount of weight gain, the same abundance of stretch marks, the same insane amount of roller coaster hormones... shouldn't it just be fair for this one thing?? I think so.... cuz I sure don't like to hear phrases like "you have stretch marks where? I didn't get any ANYWHERE" or "I only gained 11 pounds with my last baby...(accompanies by a smile is even worse) and then there's those who are running marathons or teaching step aerobics till the day they deliver?? Come on?? I know it's good that we are all made different blah. blah. blah. But I sure don't like skinny, fast walking, feeling good pregnant girls today...

that being said...

FINE!! of course I will take the nearly unbearable heart burn pain because.... there is nothing better than a soft head of hair to nuzzle on top of their warm little body... and bring on the stretch marks (if you can find a place)

in the end it's all worth it...

right? :)

A few more things...

I was just about to add some of our Christmas Day photos and write a bit about the day but first I want to add few things that we did this year leading up to Christmas ...that I don't have pictures for!! (there was about 10 days where we had no camera... lost the battery charger...) Like I mentioned before, I knew my mom and dad would be out of town and this was our first Christmas with just our own little family, so being the mom.... I knew the traditions and fun were ALL on me this year, I didn't have my mom to fall back on:) I didn't want to feel a void :) and I just really wanted to have a memorable and special Christmas. I looked online for some ideas and found a great site with ideas for doing the twelve days of Christmas as a family... Each night doing something little to bring the focus on the Savior and the true meaning of Christmas. We read about the legend of the candy Cane and it's symbols while we used a candy cane to stir our steaming mugs of hot cocoa! We made rice crispie mangers and talked about how humble Christ's birth and life were and compared them to ours today and all the blessings that we have because of His life. We talked about the word Christmas and how without the first six letters... CHRIST... Christmas doesn't have any meaning. We unwrapped an old sock and apple peels and talked about the importance of giving the best gifts especially gifts of ourselves and of love! We read lots of Christmas books together and laid by the tree each night singing Christmas carols! There were a few kinks of course... we're talking about three little boys with the excitement of Christmas in the air... and some nights I felt like they probably didn't get one thing out of these mini FHE's!! But even still, I had so much fun planning these things for my family and I know that we talked more of Christ and we spent more time being together... It was definitely a special lead in to Christmas!!

I didn't get any pictures of the boys baking sugar cookies and decorating them, of our extended family nativity play... Evan and Eli made the cutest wisemen, Gabe refused to have any part of it! and I didn't get any pictures of our visit to see Santa at the mall. Santa asked them each what they had been doing all year to be good, he asked them about helping their mom and if they were doing well in school... he was so cute with them!! They each asked him for a few of the items that they really wanted for Christmas- Evan a four wheeler (not a toy one!) and Eli a play station... He said he'd see what he could do!! Gabe was very uncertain about Santa but really wanted the candy cane that Santa tempted him with. Finally, with Evan's help he got close enough to snatch it from Santa but turned on his heel and ran as soon as he had a grip on the prize! Evan and Eli were certain that this was the real Santa and not just his helper! Eli noticed he had real boots, not just black flaps??? and Evan saw a sign saying Santa would be gone around noon to feed his reindeer... so it had to be him!! I love the magic of Christmas and I love the ages my boys are right now... Christmas is so exciting!!

Ok, I know this is getting long... what else do you expect from me though, right? :) I just have to write about one last special... It's my favorite one!! I decided to do the 12 days of Christmas for Glen... I tend to focus on my kids so much every year because well, Christmas is for kids... but I wanted to make sure that my sweetheart got a little reminder of how magical and happy he makes my life everyday! Each day he recieved one of these notes...
and lots of little reminders that I am so lucky to share my life with him!!
Here's how the twelve days went...

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me
One special memory
There have been many firsts in our marriage, but none as monumental as that first kiss! So on this first day of Christmas I give you "kisses" and my memory of our first kiss
(I wrote a little letter to Glen about our first kiss... I gave him some hershey kisses and a few real ones too... :)

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Two toasting glasses
Tonight, lets toast to the memories, dream of the future and just cuddle up together!
(I lit some candles, we drank martinelli's and ate delicious eclairs!)

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Three favorite treats
Today is your day here are three of your favorite treats to enjoy!

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Four wheels a rolling
One of my favorite things to do with you and our boys is to drive around the valley looking at the bright Christmas lights as we listen to and sing along to our favorite holiday music. Let's spend the evening rolling along, just being together!

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Five Golden rings
inside these rings are written some simple reasosn whyI love you!
(I made a paper chain with gold paper and hung it on the door so he'd see it when he got home)

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Six drinks to sip on
Here are some of your favorite drinks, just ask and I'll be at your service
delivering one... on the rocks, with a straw- however you like it!!
(six pack of diet mtn. dew, his favorite!)

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Seven favorite places
I'm taking a look back through the years and remembering seven of my favorite places that we've been together! Let's face it though, anywhere you are is my favorite place to be!
(I printed some post cards from my favorite places and wrote little notes on the back. Memories of special sights, different food and just fun times we've shared together!)

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Eight songs-a-singing
I hope when you listen to these songs they makes you smile as you remember all of the good times we've shared!
(CD with some of our favorite songs burned onto it)

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Nine text messages
keep your phone close by. Your getting nine special messages today!!

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Ten fingers massaging
Let's put my ten fingers to good use! Here comes the best Christmas gift of the year, a massage from your truly!

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Eleven favorite cookies
These eleven cookies are just for you! No sharing today, you can enjoy every single one!

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve months of memories
On this Christmas day I give you twelve special memories to carry you through until next year!
You are my true love from our first kiss to forever and all the little moments in between!!
(I had a calender made for Glen to use at his office It was full of pictures from the last year and included all of our extended families birthdays and special little notes too!)

This was by far my favorite Christmas plan... It was so fun to have a secret project to be working on and was so exciting to surprise Glen and see the look on his face everyday! My sisters and mom did variations of this for their spouses too, so it was fun to collaborate and nice to share ideas too!! Doing this for Glen only made the holidays better for me and I felt like a teenager in love again, just thinking of all the memories we've shared!! Having something each day to look forward to was so romantic and oo- la la exciting... and I know he loved it too!!

Christmas Day is up next...

Sing-A-Story of Christmas

Christmas vacation was a little bit different for us this year due to the fact that my mom and dad were out of town (visiting my sister Sara in L.A.) for the holidays! We always look forward to spending lots of time with them and doing our Christmas traditions together... so we missed them, but we ended up having a really special Christmas with each other and were also able to do some fun things with my brother and his family. I knew early on that Sara was flying my parents out to California for Christmas and although disappointed, I figured I would just make the best of it and make myself feel better by planning more fun things to do and

adding to my shopping list too! :)

After sledding (see previous post) We invited my brother, his wife Edie and their three boys over for a festive dinner and our traditional Christmas Eve program!!

on the menu was... french dip sandwiches and au jus for dipping, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, fresh corn, winter fruits with fluffy dip and martinelli's to drink! It was delicious!

It has been a long time family tradition for us to "Sing-a-Story of Christmas" on Christmas Eve. There are sections of narration and scripture that tell the story of the first Christmas and they are accompanied with songs for everyone to sing that go along with each part of the story! It is the perfect way to tell of Christ's birth, to sing carols and to feel the true spirit and meaning of Christmas. My mom is an amazing seemstress! She sewed our clothes, our dolls clothes and most of our house decor from holiday items to curtains... a true homemaker!! She is a perfectionist when it comes to sewing, and has an eye for detail. She made the cutest nativity for our family when I was little. I'm hoping one day she'll make me my very own :)... I know it would be a huge project and quite an undertaking... I should probably just dust off my own sewing machine, problem is... mine would never be as cute as mom's!!

Anyway... Each year as we'd get out our Christmas decorations I loved it when I'd see the old orange box being pulled from storage! We all knew that's were mom kept our special nativity. It was the perfect nativity for kids... soft dolls!! We played with it almost everyday, usually telling the Christmas story with each piece, but sometimes we'd make up other stories. I even remember falling asleep holding the baby Jesus on a few nights... a very special privilege! This nativity is pretty special to all of us kids and has now become a favorite for the grand kids too! It is the nativity that we use for our sing-a story of Christmas every year! Placing each piece around baby Jesus just right, as the story is being told is something we all look forward too!! Just before Christmas Eve I realized that with my mom and dad out of town, we might have to do something different this year? I called my mom and because she is insanely organized she told me exactly where to go in her storage room... step by step to find the nativity... and there it was in the same old orange box!!

I love Baby Jesus' unruly hair and sock body...
I especially love the look on Mary's face... hers is different than all the rest! Notice how all of the people have their hands sewn together... When I pulled Mary out of the box there, in her arms was cradled baby Jesus. Usually he is in the manger or just somewhere else in the box. I thought it was so cute that whoever put them away last year (probably one of the kids) thought he should be in his mothers arms...

The shepherds with their lamb

The three wise men... Isn't the camel cute- Gabe loved him! I think the wise men are my favorite... the detail in their outfits is amazing and they each have a little gift in their hands for baby Jesus.

the angel... so peaceful!

As I looked around the room filled with six little BOYS ... their eyes filled with wonder. Each of them earnestly singing Christmas carols, my heart was so full!

I am so glad that these boys have each other... Cousins are the best! They are such good buddies and love being together!! I am so grateful that they are all so close in age and that we live so close to them! It will be fun to see them grow up together, be examples for each other and someday send them off as missionaries... they are all such special little boys!! We ended the night singing one of my favorite primary songs
"He sent His son"
"How could the Father tell the world of love and tenderness? He sent his Son a new born babe in peace and holiness. How could the Father show the world the pathway we should take? He sent his Son to walk with men on earth that we may know. How could the Father tell the world of sacrifice of sin? He sent his Son to die for us and rise with living breath. What does the Father ask of us, what do the scriptures say? Have faith, have hope, live like His Son, help others on their way. what does he ask? Live like His son!"

Our Christmas Eve dinner and program turned out perfectly. It was a great reminder of what Christmas is all about!

We finished up our time together with our tradition of opening one present... It's always Christmas pajamas and all of us look forward to new, special jammies each year!

We said farewell to Steve and his family with plans to see them for breakfast in the morning! We looked on the internet to track Santa and see just how much time we had before he would get to Utah... He was heading this way, so we quickly made our reindeer food....

here's the recipe

3 scoops of sequins

a pinch of sparkling snowflakes to glisten in the moonlight guiding Santa's way

3/4 cup of oats for the reindeer (to help them fly, of course)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Stir for one minute.

Last, but not least... sprinkle the reindeer food outside in the moonlight....
quick Santa's on his way!!

The boys put out peanut butter cookies, that we'd made that morning along with some milk for Santa to enjoy! They quickly wrote him a last minute note too....

Here's Eli's

And this one's from Evan....

Whew.....All ready for bed!! What a fun day!!
Here's the love of my life, with our boys... who could need anything more?!!
I am the luckiest girl in the world!


We reminded Evan and Eli that Santa doesn't come if your still awake.... We tucked them in bed and told them we would be awake for a few minutes longer... wrapping some last minute presents!! Evan only sneaked down the stairs once... for a drink of water :) luckily we heard his little footsteps on the stairs and quickly got him tucked away again! About 10 minutes later we heard Santa's sleigh bells, he was flying over Utah!! When I went up to see if the boys could hear them too...they were already fast asleep!!
(the sledding hills earlier that day had done the job!)

Merry Christmas in the morning!!!

Hot Cocoa and Sledding... a Christmas Eve tradition

When I was little, I really looked forward to our winter tradition of sledding with cousins! A few Saturdays' each winter we'd pack up hot cocoa in a thermos, oranges and a sack lunch and spend the entire day at the hill! We'd build giant jumps, go down as a long train and hope not to be the few who were bound to fly off! We'd eat handfuls of snow and have bright red toes and cheeks by the time we had to head for home. Our parents joined in on the fun here and there, they sat on the tailgate of uncle Kevin's truck or in the cars as they'd watch us, frequently having to adjust our gloves or change out the bread bags, used as linings for our boots! It is one of my favorite childhood memories and you all know that I have lots of those.... Anyway I love my memories of sledding and want my boys to love it too, how can you not?! We were invited several years ago to join some of our good friends for their tradition of Christmas Eve sledding! We loved it so much, we decided to borrow the tradition and make it our own! We didn't get quite the turn out from our extended family that we were hoping for... but it was still lots of fun and a great way to wear the kids out for the big night ahead!

Gabe all bundled up could hardly walk but he was determined to do it all by himself. He was so frustrated with the gloves because wearing them made it too hard to pull the sleigh... good thing he was distracted by all the fun!!

Jonah, Nathan and Sarah (my little cousins) joined us at Lyons Park just a few blocks from our house... the hills were great!!

Ah, lucky Gabe... livin the good life... ride down, ride up! While the rest of us huffed and puffed our way up the steep hills!! (well at least me and Glen did!) His snow apparel was so poofy, the poor kid couldn't even fold in half to sit so he'd just lay there while we lugged him around!

Don't let those red cheeks fool you... they are not from cold, they are from running, yes, that's right running through the snow, up and down the hills... he was so sweaty!

After about an hour, I took Gabe home for his nap while Glen stayed with the others. While Gabe slept I was able to finish up the final details for our Christmas Eve dinner plans that night! It ended up being a memorable, fun filled, relaxing Christmas Eve Day!!