The Magic of Christmas Morning

I love everything about Christmas. I love the anticipation, thinking of the perfect gift for my kids, the music, the lights, the way everything is sweeter, more peaceful, more happy. It is so fun with my kids to see the magic through their eyes.

I love how even a box of cereal or stocking stuffers are so exciting to them.

I love Kate's face in this one. She was so into opening her present that she didn't want to pause to look at the camera.

Eliza is always so cute on holidays. She always says, "this is the best day ever!" My kids are fun to give to at this age because they love EVERYTHING you give them.

Nathan with his cheesy smile and new pj pants.

Tanner loved his cuties (clementines) and wouldn't put them down.

Nathaniel tried to take away his cuties and have him open a present...

he was not happy. So we gave them back...

I'm glad we didn't spend lots of money on present for him.

Nathan is often found in the kitchen stealing my tongs, measuring cups or spoons, funnels, etc. So, I gave him some things for their play kitchen. That way I get to keep mine. Merry Christmas to him and me!

You can ride the truck either way...it just depends on your size. I love how Nathan has his treats on the back of the truck when he is riding it. Never far from the food... he must be mine.

The girls took all of the candy from their stocking and were mixing it with their new bowls and spoons. I didn't know what they were doing until they came over and showed me, it was a sugary mess. They said they were making their breakfast, yeah, you wish. Not even on Christmas do you get to eat that.

Again, Tanner with the cuties.

Tanner started crawling just a few days before Christmas (the 22nd). With all of the fun stuff around, it gave him good motivation. So he is finally mobile (and just a shade under a decade, all right!) He is very happy with his new found freedom. Instead of crying for me to pick him up, he pushes away from me for me to put him back down.

The jammies I made for them. They are huge on them. The good thing is kids grow fast.

Eliza was confused as to why we had Aunt Laurel's car mat. They were happy to know it really was for them. We had a great day and I think I got the best gift of all (besides a beautiful, healthy family) a big, fat NAP!

Christmas Eve

We had our friends, Curt and Dottie, over for Christmas Eve. They live 4 houses down from us and have been so very kind to us right from the start. Curt helped move us in and came over to check on us everyday the first week to be sure everything was going okay. He helped us get situated and has been such a good friend. They are around Nathaniel's parents age and so my kids treat them like adopted grandparents. Kate has Curt walk her to Sunbeams every Sunday. My kids hug them every time they see them and if they don't, Curt comes to give them one. I think it is so nice to have them around. Anyway, our Christmas Eve tradition is to go to a movie and get pizza for dinner. The kids love it and it makes our day really easy and fun. Going to the movies here didn't work out, so we rented a couple of redbox movies and still got pizza. Then the kids opened one present. It is usually pajamas, but since I hadn't finished Nathan's I had them open their capes. I'm glad I did, because I don't know that they would have enjoyed them as much on Christmas morning with all of the other things they got.

I love their faces! It makes the effort so worth it (not that they were hard, but it's nice to see that you got it right).

Tubing on Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we were invited to join some friends to go tubing. I haven't been tubing since my college days. I had an absolute blast! If it is going to be this cold, at least we have friends who hook us up with a REALLY good time! It was a beautiful sunny day, still very nippy, but I'll take the sun ANYTIME! Dave and Lori have a truck and they pull huge tractor tubes behind it. They put a smaller tube inside the large tube and then you climb on and off you go. They had invited us and 2 other families to come along, the Parks and the Walkers. I really like all of the families they invited. Don't know them very well, but really comfortable to be with.

Lori and Lindsey (the moms) each took a tube of kids first. I was holding Tanner and I wasn't sure if there was enough room for anyone else on the tubes. The dads stayed behind to wait for round 2.

The next time around those that didn't get on tubes rode in the back of the truck. It was hilarious to watch the kids faces. Nathan had the funniest expression on his face. It was this huge grin that spread across his face but looked like he was in a lot of pain. I couldn't stop laughing. I tried to get it on camera, but it just didn't do it justice. The snow was coming up over the front of the tube so all of the kids turned into Lori for cover and the poor lady was lost under all four of the kids. She's such a great lady!

Next, Nathaniel and I took our girls on one tube while the other tube held several of the guys. We were having such a fun time and I was laughing and telling the girls, "We didn't get to do things like this in Tucson." Then all of a sudden the big outer tube popped and we only had the little tube for the four of us. It was SO funny! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Bryan was in the tube behind us and he hollered at the truck to stop since no one in the back of the truck saw what was going on. So, no one got hurt and we all had a REALLY good laugh. I hope we get to do that again this winter, at least it adds a fun element to the snow. I loved it when Lori said, "We're so white trash to do this." We may be, but at least we have each other and have fun doing things like this together.

This is after the one tube popped and they were just towing it back to the vehicles. There were a couple of guys on it but they were afraid it would pop so 2 got off and walked. Nathaniel had to ride it back because he couldn't feel his toes anymore so he was not big on the idea of trekking back through the snow. He only wore ankle socks...silly boy, we're not in Arizona anymore!

Winter Odds 'n Ends

We go to the library regularly to get books and movies and stop by to see Daddy at work after. The courthouse and library are right next door to each other which is really handy. Daddy let the girls use his umbrella on Friday since it was snowing. My camera didn't work very well in the dark as you can see.
Nathan always sleeps naked lately. We always put him in warm clothes and then put him to bed. Well he always strips down to his diaper and throws his clothes on the floor by his bed. I decided to make him pajama pants thinking that if he really liked them he might wear clothes to bed. The first two night he kept on just the pants, then went back to sleeping naked. Little stinker, the house is only 65 degrees. You make me freeze just looking at you. He is also into this really cheesey grin which I find hilarious in pictures.

Kate had pretzels for a snack and came up with this...

funny how it is Eliza's name and not her own. I think she sees Eliza's name written so much now that Liza is in school. I usually let Kate choose what she wears and she made me laugh the other day when I walked into my room and she had put together this...

necklace and all! My girls love skirts so much but since it is too cold for them alone I always make them wear pants under. Kate has actually put together some cute outfits.

Snow Day!

Today is technically the first day of winter, but it sure doesn't feel like it is just beginning. It has been snowing here since Sunday night and didn't stop until today (Tuesday) around mid-morning. It was record snowfall for Ely and we got a foot or so of snow. I'd say more, but supposedly not. School was canceled today and I was very happy. Yesterday when I went to go pick up Eliza the car was not moving forward up the hill to school it was standing still at best, sometimes we were not even standing still but going backwards.

Nathaniel and I both shoveled yesterday and you can't even tell. I went out this morning and shoveled for at least 45 minutes to find the steps and my car (which I did drive yesterday like I said, you just can't tell from all of the snow coverage). The girls had fun playing in it for about 20 minutes. That's about as long as it took us to get ready to go out to play in the snow. Nathan stayed out with me the whole time and kept falling over like the kid in the Christmas Story and couldn't get himself back up. So funny! I know he is wearing a girl hat by the way. His Buzz Lightyear hat was in the van and the door was frozen shut.

See how high the snow comes on Eliza? Kate refused to wear her snowpants and then took one step in the snow and it took her breath away. She wanted me to carry her. I told her too bad, maybe next time she'll wear the pants.

Nathan gave up playing as he waited for me and just lay down in the snow. It was so cute. He got inside and started crying because his fingers were so frozen. Poor kid.

Tanner's Haircut

(I'm not sure what he is doing in this picture)
Tanner got to join the "I get a lollipop because I'm getting my hair cut" club. I hate the mess of lollipops and so I only give them to my kids when I need to bribe them or get them to hold still. He thought he was in heaven!

Whoops, wrong end. We may have gone a wee bit too short, but when it stands on end, the shorter the better, right Ben? This is the 4th time we have cut his hair and he is only 11 months old. I wish Kate's hair grew that fast.

"Aunt Laurel's" Car Mat

(Just for the record, the plaid is a different blanket under it.)

I got the idea to make a personalized car mat from my sister-in-law Tricia. At Thanksgiving she mentioned she had drawn one for her son and put things and places on there that he would know, like grandma's house and aunts and uncles houses. I loved the idea and got a little carried away. It isn't perfect, but I am happy with it and I hope my kids will be too. I have had to work on it when they are around sometimes and so I told them it was for Aunt Laurel's boys. I have put a lot of sweat and even a little blood into this, but the only tears I have shed were those of joy...I'm done!

I had to add McDonald's because my kids love it. I also put Grandma's house with her orchards and Nana's house with the pool. There is also a police station, zoo, school with playground, church (or temple as Liza calls it), library, campground, barn, hospital, and gas station.

Frozen Thanksgiving

We had planned to go to Washington to my grandma/mom's house for Thanksgiving. Our plan was to leave Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday early in the morning. Well, this storm came through on Tuesday and the forecast wasn't much better for Wed. so I went to the store and loaded up on all we would need to have a cozy Thanksgiving at home.

Daddy had to leave work a little early because the snow was coming down so hard I couldn't even see across the street. So, he made up some hot chocolate at home and shared the cool whip with the kids. Even the little guy got in on the action.

Tanner did this superman thing all of the time that I thought was so cute.

We all went to bed on Wed. night and woke up to this...

about 6 inches of ice on the inside of our windows. (Have I mentioned how much I do not enjoy the cold?) Our furnace had stopped working and it was so cold in our house we were literally freezing. It was a record cold for this time of year...-19 degrees...as in below zero. You could see your breath as you walked around the house. It was at most in the 40's in our house. The thermostat is a dial and it was as low as it goes. We tried turning on the one space heater we have in our room and warming up the rice socks I made and then the electricity went out in more than half of the house.
Daddy snuggled the girls in to read to them while we waited to hear from our Landlord.

It was taking a while so we ended up packing, throwing our half cooked turkey in our cooler and driving to Grandma's. I wasn't sticking around to literally freeze my behind off. By then the roads were fine. The kids did a pretty good job on the 13 + hour drive and they actually fell asleep (which they never do in the car). Tanner cried for a few hours on the way up, but on the way back he did great. The only things we missed out on were Thanksgiving dinner and seeing old friends. We had McDonald's for dinner which just doesn't come close. Oh well. We had such a great time at Grandma's and ate tons of pie to make up for what we missed.