Christmas Week Part 2

We left Ali's house around 8 pm and the kids opened their pjs from us.  We took a few pics and sent them to bed by 8:30...

We have some pretty great kids.  Jack-2, Candy-4, Brooke-6, Megan-8

I had all my wrapping done early this year, so I was excited to relax and enjoy It's a Wonderful Life.  But then we realized our Skype was not working and Dan spent an hour and a half troubleshooting.  He fixed all the problems so we would be ready to skype with my brother in the Czech Republic on Christmas morning.  We went to bed around 10:30.  Here's the room all ready to go for the morning.

We put up the baby gate to keep the kids upstairs.  We told them they weren't allowed to do anything before 6. At 6:01, Megan and Brooke went into Candy and Jack's room to tell us on the monitor that they were awake.  They were SO excited!

 Stockings...

All of us before we started opening.  The big box in front of the TV was a climbing toy for the backyard--that was their big gift from us.  Santa brought a fitness tracker for Megan (she's been getting over 25000 steps each day), a magnatile building set for Brooke, an American Girl type doll for Candy, and a tool bench for Jack.  All of those have been big hits.  Our kids are at such a fun age. They all fully believe in the magic and they are still easy to please--they each got just what they wanted. 

We opened presents for about 2 hours with a break halfway through to play with stuff that had already been opened.  We started making a big breakfast (complete with OJ, Egg Nog, and Chocolate Milk) when Tyler called in!  Hi!  Technology rocks.  Here we all are, in 5 different locations, all talking and listening and on video.

After talking to Tyler, I finished making walnut rolls and we headed to Shad's.  We got there around 12:30.  This is the only pic I took, but we played, saw their presents (Carrie came too), ate lots of good food, and watched a movie.  We left there around 3:30. 

We had Christmas dinner with the T fam, Ali's fam, and another fam.  We are good friends with all of them and it was so fun.  8 adults and 15 kids.  More yummy food and chatting and playing.  Dinner was at 5 pm and we left just before 8 to take our tired kids home. 

Saturday was rainy but still muggy and warm.  Dan got the climbing toy set up and the girls LOVE it.  Dad came for a quick visit and helped with the setup too. 

All in all, a fantastic Christmas.  We just felt so very thankful for the many blessings we enjoy.

Sunday was nice too, a pretty quiet day and my last day in nursery--I'm teaching the 8 year olds now (Megan's age but not her class).

Christmas Week part 1

Christmas week was great.  Fun and busy and a good time.

Monday Dec. 21, the kids played with cousins while I grocery shopped.  I got all the food bought for all the festivities.  And when Dan got home that night, I ran and bought his gift so then I was done!

Tues. Dec. 22 we played with my friend Kat and her kids in the morning. 

After lunch with her, we went to Dan's office to see the Christmas decor there.  Amazing and huge trees--two of them were Lego trees (the green one and the red/yellow one).  The red and yellow one was filled with 20000 mini-figures!

Wed. Dec. 23 we went to the zoo with cousins.  It was WARM!  Like 82 degrees and super muggy.  We had fun and headed home after lunch.

We did Christmas Eve-Eve with my Dad and Stepmom this year because that worked best for everyone.  We arrived at 5 and had a delicious dinner--shrimp and prime rib and salad and rolls, the usual deliciousness. We headed upstairs to the game room to chat and play and the kids acted out the nativity.  Jack was pretty funny, he was Joseph and Shad was the donkey and Jack kept pushing Shad's rear to keep that donkey moving.  It was a lot of fun.  Dad and Sally opened their gifts from Jamie and I which were some decorations for the media room. 

After Santa's visit, we put the kids to bed in the bunk room and chatted before heading home around 10 pm.  A fun-filled night.

On Christmas Eve morning, we went to our friend's annual breakfast potluck.  Very yummy and fun.  And then Dan took our kids to the store to get me a gift from them :).  We had a quiet afternoon and then went to his Ali's house with 2 other families for Christmas Eve dinner. 

Our kids and Ali's exchanged gifts before dinner..

We did the nativity again.  Brooke was an angel, Jack a shepherd.

Candy was the star and Megan was Mary...

Pretty cute crew.  The star was my favorite :)

Twas the week before Christmas...

We had a great week before Christmas. 

No more sickies at my house and we've had lots of friends over.

Monday night we got invited to a posada--a traditional Mexican tamale dinner, pinata, and nativity reenactment at a friend in the ward's house.  There were like 60 people there, a million kids, and it was a blast.  Delicious food and adorable nativity put on by the kids. 

Tuesday I got to sub for Ashley (we got her kids sick--woops!) as Candy's joy school class went to two nursing homes and acted out the nativity and sang a few songs.  Candy was the angel and she was adorable.  Jack got to be a shepherd and he was killing it in his glasses and turban.  The old people loved it and I loved being there with them for those minutes.  The kids handed out sparkly snowflake ornaments to the audience after they finished and they were so sweet making sure everyone got one and thanking people for coming.  I loved it.  I watched a friend's kid that afternoon while they packed up to move and got to go to a book exchange that night with my book club.

Wednesday was rainy and cool so we had playgroup at my house.  Lots of kids and lots of fun.  I watched kids for 2 of my friends that morning and got to know a few of the newer sisters in the ward and had a good time.  That night Megan got to go to a carnival at the church.  The cub scouts put it on as a service for the A-days girls. They played ring toss and washer toss and a few other games.  She loved it.  Dan's sister is one of the leaders so she had cousins there along with friends.

Thursday I watched another friend's kids while she was at the doctor and got some Christmas shopping done in the afternoon while Dan's sister watched Candy and Jack.  Then I watched ANOTHER friend's kids that night while they went to a work party.

Friday morning I dropped Candy and Jack off with a friend while I went to the school for the winter parties.  I ran the party in Megan's class and it went really well--I didn't have to plan it, I just had to show up and set things up. I think the kids had fun.  We played a dreidle game, they made cards for an assisted living center, and they had snacks and did a craft.  Ali helped out at the party too since Alonzo is also in Megan's class.  After the party I checked Megan and Brooke out (it was early release at noon and we got out a few minutes early) and we picked up the little kids and went to the T's house to make graham cracker houses.  I used all the tricks I learned from my Mom and hot-glued the houses together and made her frosting cement.  The kids had so much fun decorating and eating candy.  I had fun chatting with Ashley and our other friend who came.  It was a great afternoon.  Megan played "Deck the Halls" in her piano recital that night.  She has improved a lot this year and was much more relaxed this time playing her song--she had it memorized and didn't make a mistake!

Saturday while Dan went to a song practice, I took the kids Christmas shopping for each other--always a good time.  I would leave one on an aisle while the others picked gifts and then I kept the gifts covered with a robe from the clothes section while we switched.  I took the kids home and went visiting teaching (Dan took them to a birthday party).  We had friends over to watch the BYU v. Utah bowl game.  A dismal game really, but fun to be with our friends.  We only lost by 7, but they scored 35 points on us in the first quarter, all of those on turnovers or dumb mistakes--kinda put a damper on the game.  We had our ward Christmas party that night--a pancake dinner and the primary kids sang a few songs.

Today was our Christmas music program at sacrament meeting.  Dan and I both sang in small group numbers and the ward choir and primary did songs too.  It was really nice. After dinner we drove to the temple grounds to walk around with the kids.  Then we drove through a neighborhood right by the temple that does a TON of Christmas lights.  A bunch of cul-de-sacs with themes and even a house with the cool LED lights that played in time to music on a radio frequency they had posted on the lawn.  We took cookies around to friends after that and then put the kids to bed.  Christmas is such a fun time!

Candy houses on Friday...

At her recital...

Jack enjoyed the refreshments after the piano playing...

After church today...

At the temple...

Sickies

So the theme for our week was sick.

On Monday Dec. 7 Jack went for his ophthalmology checkup.  He is doing great. The whole goal of the surgery and his glasses is that when he is looking straight ahead, his eyes are aligned.  And they are.  He sometimes has alignment issues when he's looking up or down because the movement of that left eye is so limited.  But overall, he does well.  And they kept the same prescription on his glasses.  That was a good morning and then a we did grocery swap.  And then right after dinner Jack grabbed his blankie and came to snuggle on my lap.  **DANGER**!!! So he gagged and I turned him around just in time so his tossed cookies hit the floor and not me. phew!  The best part was Megan who is super anxious about throwing up was completely hysterical.  Like shaking and sobbing and telling us she just wanted Jack to leave.  We calmed her down and cleaned Jack up just in time for him to throw up once more, on the carpet, and right by Megan.  She did not love that ;).  So we cleaned up some more while Megan sat alone in the study to avoid Jack!   Pretty exciting.  He was done throwing up around 11 pm and then slept good.  And Megan was only up once.  

 

 

Tuesday morning Dec. 8, I woke up to Candy dry heaving just outside my door and Megan freaking out again.  I took the big girls to school and had a nice quiet day of movies and Sprite and saltines with my little sickies.  By dinner they were fine.

 

Wednesday the weather was awesome, sunny and 75 and we had playgroup at my favorite park, Mercer Arboretum.  Megan went to activity days and they took thank you notes to the primary leaders.

 

Then just after bedtime Wednesday night, Megan came down looking a little green.  Her turn.  She was surprisingly not flipping out at actually being sick. She was mad that her body would dare to be sick, but she wasn't scared.  And then I got sick in the middle of the night.  But by morning both of us were on the mend.  So we stayed home on Thursday while Candy went to joy school and Brooke went to school. 

 

Friday was Brooke's turn.  So Meg went to school and Brooke was home.  Dan worked from home that day which was great so I could get some Christmas shopping done.  I took Jack with me but left Candy and Brooke watching movies while Dan worked. That night Dan took Megan and Candy to the ward party for the ward he is on the high council for.  They had fun. 

 

Saturday Dec. 12 I had a baby shower to go to in the morning, Dan took his car in to fix the brakes, and in the afternoon  we went to Jenn and Chris Roundy's for a graduation party for Chris.  He is now a doctor of chiropractic medicine.  It was fun to catch up with all the Talbots.  I watched our kids and the Tracy's that night while Dan and the Tracy's went to the adult session of stake conference.
I took this pic on a walk with the kids Saturday morning just to document that fall does eventually get to Houston.  It's just in December!

Yesterday was a nice Sunday.  We sat by cousins for stake conference and it was really good.  Our stake president likes to issue a challenge at each conference and this time the challenge was to find someone we need to forgive in our lives and forgive them.  After church we decorated ginger bread cookies at Ali's house and then went to a dessert potluck to say hi to a friend who used to live in the ward that was visiting.  

 

My cute boy watching birds in the backyard and all dressed up for church on Dec. 13.  I love him.

 

Then just to top off our week, Brooke threw up one more time Sunday night.  She slept great and ate breakfast and is running around, so I'm going to take her to school a little late. Hopefully I don't regret that! (*I didn't.  She stayed the whole day at school and was fine)

Labor Day, Ali and Ben visit, etc.

We watched an awesome BYU game to kick off our Labor Day weekend on Sept. 5.  We had the T family and the H family over and had lots of yummy snacks, let our kids run wild, and cheered our cougars.  They pulled off a pretty thrilling last second win with the backup quarterback and we were overjoyed!
Then after a nice Sunday, we had a really fun Labor Day on Sept. 7.  We went to Shad's house and swam and ate and played games.  We had everyone together except Tyler, so we were  missing our missionary, but we got an email from him that day, so that helped.
After the holiday, I was busy getting caught up and prepping the house for visitors!  Ali and Ben came for a quick weekend visit to find a house--and they did!  Right in our neighborhood, just a a mile away.  We are so excited to have them live close by.  We've been so lucky to live near family here, but never this close.  Ali and I are only 4 days apart in age and we got married a week apart and our oldest kids are only  3 months apart--it will be so fun to have them here!
I was a bum and didn't take many pictures, but here are a few that I grabbed.

These pics of Jack are from September 10.  It was a Thursday, so while Candy was at Joy School, it was just my boy and me.  I told Dan later that I had quite the lunch date that day.  He kept feeding me bits of food from his plate and kissing me between bites--puckered up fishy face and all.  This boy melts my heart.

 
Jack and Candy like to snuggle and watch Daniel Tiger in the mornings after we drop off the big girls at school.  They sure have fun together during the days.  This was from Sept. 11.  Ali and Ben arrived that day and we got to go around and look at houses with them in the evening.  

Candy's taken a liking to the selfie as of late.  I had about 30 of these  on my phone from Sep. 11.  Silly girl.

After a late night on Friday playing with friends while we looked at houses, Jack passed out in the mid-morning on Saturday Sep. 12.  

Ali and Ben flew out Saturday afternoon--but not before they were under contract on a house!  Here it is!  

During grocery swap on Monday Sep. 14, I got distracted on the phone...and Jack and Mal headed outside.  I thought they were just playing with the closed box of cereal.  It was a few minutes later that I noticed they were chowing down on a pudding picnic.  They got about 8 of those puddings opened and were eating their way through them.  It was actually quite impressive since those puddings are hard for me to open sometimes.  Cute little stinkers.  

It was early release on Wednesday Sep. 16. I hosted playgroup in the morning in our backyard and I knew the big kids would have a blast splashing and playing.  I watched the T kids so Ashley could go to a cake decorating class.  So I kept it all set up and it kept the oldest kids busy for almost the whole time.  I love watching these friends play.  We love the T fam!

 September 18 was the Grandparents Day lunch at the school.  My Dad and Sally are the best.  They came for lunch with both Brooke and Megan and even got them their first school t-shirts.  The girls were in heaven.