Christmas 2011

 Christmas has come and gone another year. I don't think you can meet a family who love Christmas as much as we do. Especially Brock! I am pretty sure if I let my kids we would listen to Christmas music and watch Christmas movies all year long. Here we are at the top of the stairs waiting while daddy went to make sure that Santa had arrived. Our kids didn't wake up early.. it was really nice of them to let us sleep.

 We checked Santa's plate of food and realized that his reindeer loved the carrots and that a piece of Santa's beard was left behind. The kids loved that. Santa wrote responses to the kids letters, they always like that. The madness began. Stockings first, This year they were loaded with all kinds of goodies and new umbrellas. The boys both got new tool boxes with tape measures.

 Jaida was pretty overwhelmed. She was pretty content with just the things in her stocking.. especially the Andes mints, one of her favorite treats.

 The umbrellas was a BIG hit for her. She loved it. She also a got a glow seahorse and a vacuum. She pretty much got spoiled rotten.

 She loved ripping the paper.

 The boys were being do good about taking turns and working together.

 So this year the boys have been working extra hard. They had saved up their money to pay for half of and ipod touch. They sent it in a letter to Santa to see if he would make up the difference. They worked really hard for every dime. For days they had been wondering if Santa was really going to come through on his deal. So maybe Santa was a little bit mean when he hid the ipods so they didn't see them. They had opened up all their gifts and their faces started to look pretty worried, when Pierce asked where their money was if Santa didn't get them their ipods. Just before the crocodile tears started mommy and daddy pointed out some gifts that looked hidden. Phew.. To say they were excited it the understatement of the century!!

 Jaida coloring in her new Mickey Mouse coloring book, this girl is everything Mickey & Minnie.

 Here is the Daddy, figuring out the boys new gadgets.

 I do all the assembling, I actually like to do it.

And some cuddle time for daddy and Jaida. Santa was really good to us this year. It was really neat to have Christmas on a Sunday, it really added a different element. It felt good to be at church and feeling the spirit. Throughout the holiday season Brock and Jaida probably watched Mickey's Christmas over 1000 times. It is by far their favorite movie of all time. In that movie on of the lines that Brock always quotes is "Christmas isn't about candy canes or lights all aglow it is about the hearts that we touch and the care that we show!" Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

 So growing up my family tradition was always to open one gift the night of Christmas Eve. It was always a new pair of pajamas. My mom has kept this tradition up for my kids and I love it. I think you can tell by the looks on my kids faces that they like it too.

 Jaida wasn't very happy at all this night. She had a late nap and then we woke her from her slumber.. not a happy camper at all.

 Trent' family tradition on Christmas Eve is to take a turkey to a family in need and doorbell ditch, leaving it on the porch. This year it was great to find a family that was nearby and someone who would really appreciate it. I love to see how excited my kids get to actually ring and run! They get so excited about it.

 What is Christmas Eve without some wrestling? Brock's face is priceless as he is being smashed on the bottom. Jaida is starting to get in on the mix. She loves her brothers and thinks she is one of them.

 Pierce insisted on taking a picture of Trent and I on this night. Don't we look cute. I love this guy!

This year we were a little lazy about making cookies, we did graham crackers and egg nog and carrots for the reindeer. The boys write letters to Santa every year. The kids are in bed... Time for the Magic to begin.

Brock's Preschool Christmas program

 Yesterday was Brock's big Preschool program. he has been really excited about this all month. The morning of we were asking him what part he got to play in the nativity and he kept going on and on about how he was one of the kings. He was telling us all about the crown he got to wear. Well so when Trent I and I were aniously awaiting his debut as a king, he came out as none other than the "Innkeeper". We were laughing. He was just talking us up a good Brock story as usual I guess.

 Here he is all ready for his big line.. "there is no room in my Inn, but you can stay in my barn!?!" We had a good laugh. He was so excited for his part. He was so serious about his delivery.

 One of his many goofy faces he made throughout the show. He is really quite the character. If you were wondering how he sang... LOUD and PROUD~! He didn't disappoint with his squirrly voice, I could pick it out! He was really into it. My personal favorite was We wish you a Merry Christmas.

 Little cheese ball.

One of his favorites was of course.. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. We have really enjoyed this school. they do such a great job and Brock has been having the time of his life there. He has made so many new friends and girlfriends too, he has informed us of that. Man we are big trouble when he gets older. I love my Spunky little Lumps. I was so proud of him. Afterwards we were served a yummy lunch. It was such a fun afternoon.

Percy the Penguin

 This last weekend, Pierce was chosen at school to bring home the class pet. Their pet is Percy the penguin. He came complete with a cooler, ice pack and a small blanket. Pierce was all business about Percy and had to take him everywhere with us. We had to make sure he was "bathed", "fed" and kept cool. Here is a picture of Percy taking his bath for the day. They also had a journal that was sent home. We had to document the things we did with Percy and take pictures. For some reason all Pierce wanted to do with Percy was climb a tree. So we had to make sure we fit that in our schedule.

 Well since Pierce was all about the penguin, of course Brock was feeling a little left out. He was really sad that he didn't have a pet penguin. We found this other penguin at the thrift store for a couple bucks and it totally made his life! So then we of course had to bathe both Percy and Puffsicle together.

 Here is Pierce climbing the tree with Percy.

 Trent said one night, "Man he is all into that pet Percy thing. I guess you can tell he will be a good dad someday by the way is taking such good care of the stuffed animal."

Here is Brock with Puffsicle.
I thought that this was a really cute idea for his class. They have been learning a lot about penguins and polar bears. I was a little bit glad to see Percy go, he was really getting demanding and our morning schedule is already pretty hectic with getting 3 kids dressed and out the door by 8:30AM and oh yeah I already have to dress "Mr.Pete" Brock's beloved teddy bear. He has several outfits that we have to change him into. I will have to take some pictures of Mr. Pete and Brock.

Stud Muffins

Here are my two Studly men all ready for church. They make my heart happy. Jaida looked pretty dang cute too, but would not have anything to do with a picture! We will try again next Sunday!

Gingerbread House

 This year my Nana and Papa sent us a Gingerbread house to decorate. What a great idea. The kids could hardly wait to get it out of the box and decorated. I was super impressed this year as they actually helped me do the work rather than eat all the candy and watch me do it all. We had a fun time together and I think it is our best Gingerbread house yet.

 Jaida did do a lot of sampling.

The boys each got to decorate their own gingerbread men and do whatever they wanted to it... this is what they turned out looking like, gobbs of frosting! It was fun that is all that counts right.

Mt. Vernon

 Since we have moved here one of the things that has been on our list of things to do/see while we were here was Mt. Vernon. I will tell you the truth, I was totally expecting to be bored out of my mind. I was quite surprised when it actually was pretty interesting and engaging. What I really didn't expect was for my kids to like it, but they did.

 The boys LOVED that they had personal maps for each child, Brock was all over his "treasure map". We had to find the answers/ clues and then at the end if we got them right they got a prize. It gave them something to look forward to and kept them pretty busy as well.

 Here are the two little love birds on the back lawn of Washington's house, can you believe the view? I would love to live here and could see why Washinton loved it here too.

 Don't they look awesome. Diane's (Sister Belliston) favorite part of the whole trip was sitting on the back porch in a rocking chair.

 ...Our little family...

 That is about as good as a picture as we could get.. we are all smiles.

The Christmas Camel. I guess back in Washington's time he would pay to have a camel every year around Christmas, He loved exotic animals. So it was kind of a tradition to have a camel around Christmas. The boys thought it was neat too.

Happy Thanksgiving

 We had a fabulous dinner and Thanksgiving with Family and the Missionaries. We had so much food it was crazy. It was really such a great day.

Pierce and Elder McMaster and Elder Jones. These are the AP's they are just like family to us.

I have so much to be thankful for. I am thankful for:
family
health
Trent
my 3 kids
food/ chocolate
faith
church
Jesus Christ
freedom

And so much more.

NYC Fun

 Playing in Central Park

So we had to take full advantage of Cory and Dee, While they were here we decided to make another trip to NYC. We knew this was going to be a quick trip and wanted to make it lots of fun so for this trip we decided to Slpurge and get a hotel room right in the city. The kids were OVERLY thrilled and could hardly wait. Our hotel was pretty sweet, it was just a block from central park and pretty nice. We stayed a night at the Salisbury Hotel and it was worth every penny. We really didn't know what to expect, it looked nice online, but you never know. It actually was pretty swanky. I am sure when we rolled in they were thinking we were total hillbillies. Yes, we carted all our stuff in ourselves, didn't take advantage of the bellhop and it was all piled on top of a stroller. We were quite the sight I am sure. We dropped Dee and Cory off to see the Statue of liberty and we went and checked in our room and just relaxed. We had a nice dinner at.. You guessed it Wendys! We went all out! We did the usual and went to FAO Schwatrz, danced on the piano. The only bummer about this WHOLE trip was that it rained the entire time we were there and when I say rain.. I mean poured! We were drenched and loved every opportunity that we had to be indoors. Our kids were amazing inspite of the bad weather and just went with it.

 This was one of the times we took advantage of shelter from the storm. The kids loved riding the subway this trip too.

 The boys room. Trent, Cory,Pierce and Brock all shared a room. Dee, Jaida and I shared the grand suite. Oh it was nice and roomy. I know that I thoroughly enjoyed it!

 Snuggling with her dad ( and her duck too, her 2 favorite things)

 Rockefeller center they were putting up the tree, but it wasn't done when we were there. It is still such an amazing sight.

 Brock made himself right at home within minutes he was all cuddled up, remote in hand with the Disney channel on.

 One really neat thing we did this trip was go and see the new 9/11 Memorial. Wow is this neat. It was something I have been looking forward to do. There is quite a bit of security, so with kids I am sure it would be kind of tricky, we took turns with Cory and Dee so we didn't have to take our kids in the pouring rain.

They had a pretty good view of it from this indoor window. They really could care less and were just happy to be out and  about. We feel so lucky/ blessed to have so many opportunities to go and see NYC as much as we have since living here. I hope our kids always remember and cherish these memories.