Sunday, December 30, 2012

Christmas!

Christmas this year was unlike any we've had and it was wonderful because of the novelty. We chose to stay home with our little clan and enjoy our wonderful life in Monroe before it is time to move to Orderville. It was a great choice and just what I needed. I've been super homesick for my family since about October. That homesickness hit really hard mid-December. I packed up all of the presents, packages, and letters that needed to be mailed to my family and that night I just cried. I felt like going to the post office was the only Christmas I was getting with my family and when the mailing was over then so would Christmas with them. 

Staying at home with my little family helped me to not feel like I was missing mine, but being with "mine". Does that make sense? We weren't spending the holiday with my family or with Thomas', we were spending it would ours and that made things a little easier for some reason. Sure we went to Thomas' folks the day after and it was awesome, but it was nice to be in our own home this year and I treasured ever moment of it.

Christmas Eve started out with an appetizer and game party with our favorite Monrovians - the Carters (CJ from girls camp if you remember). CJ brought the most delectable bacon wrapped water chestnuts and were mind blowing. We ate ourselves silly and then played some Rummikub (one game of which I won!).

The babies played hats, which was hilariously cute. Kimball and CharlyAnne are betrothed  Won't this be a cute picture for their wedding reception?

That night we went to our wonderful friends the Jones family (our bishop) for dinner and acting out the nativity. They also sit around the piano and sing Christmas songs. It was wonderful and made me want to learn how to play so that that can be a tradition of our future. I better get practicing.

That night Santa came! He brought the baby a shopping cart, Henry a magna doodle, and Macey a kitty that is a purse and beads. They got a dreamlite to share and some movies too. Certainly they were good this year!

The kids buy each other presents at the dollar store (very secretively) and we opened those on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning they opened presents from us and from my mom who sends them in the mail. 

Grandma got everyone a pair of boots! The boys got fire chief boots and May got a gorgeous black pair that are nice enough to wear to church (I want one!). Along with a train, tractors, and a baking barbie. The kids loved all their loot. Thanks Mom!

This is Henry doing a crazy boot dance. He's in love.

Thomas spoiled me by educating me in my dream. I just want a little farm right now. Some bees, chickens, a pig and maybe a miniature cow. Is that too much to ask? I'm well equipped with knowledge to go with my dreams!

Christmas afternoon we got to Skype with Sarah who is on a mission in Argentina  This was first time she was allowed to use the computer and not just call and it was so much fun for the kids. When she called on Mother's Day in the spring it was right when Henry fell, hit his head, and needed stitches. I talked to her then in the car on the way to the ER! This was much much more pleasant. She is wonderful, looks beautiful, and is doing very well. She comes home in April which I can't not wait for!

We lounged, played, read our books, and resituated the chickens on Christmas day (after reading the books I figured out a little bit more of what they needed for winter-living and so made some changes right then!)

The next day we drove to St. George where we met Thomas' family and siblings at the Washington indoor pool and had a blast swimming in the middle of the winter. Macey and Henry were big enough and so we took them on the giant twirly tunnel slide with us. They had so much fun and we did it over and over again. The baby absolutely loved the pool and was a fish. He didn't mind the water in his face at all and actually sought out spraying things to play with. I was shocked at how brave he was. It was so fun to watch. We then went to dinner and checked out the Steven's beautiful new house.

The next day the kids opened presents, I got a new head shot taken by my talented friend, and then we went tubing for Sammi's birthday.

Here are the sledding pictures:










The Kennaley's made a ramp and it was so much fun taking flying pictures!





The rest of that day we cooked and cooked in preparation for Marla to bless baby Jack with a dinner to follow. Here are the cousin's playing at the church at the blessing. It was a lot of fun and the food was great. 


We came home and enjoyed the rest of the week with our new treasures.

The baby with stolen things from Henry and his train-

I have lots and lots of memories of post-Christmas crafting and my kids do the same, which I love. Macey got a loom set (I had the same one!) from Grandma Lucy and she did amazing with it. She has also made tons of bracelets and necklaces from her new beads.

Henry got a set of three cars to be painted and he worked hard on them all morning. Check out that tongue in cheek- he's working hard.



Wonderful huh!

Merry Christmas.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

Here are a few pictures leading up to Christmas -

The boys with cousin Will playing at Grandmas' (that I forgot from the Thanksgiving post):

This is a ninja picture that Tomas photoshopped for Lucy's Christmas card. The family wasn't there all at the same time so we took two different pictures and then put them together. There is one little flaw though - Kimball made it into both pictures and so he's in there twice!  Any extra grandkid it is...
Our next door neighbors are a funny old couple who did not like the people who lived in our house very much. Both couples lived in their houses next door to each other for at least 50 years, but they never got along. It took the neighbors a little while to warm up to us. I think they were just used to not liking who lived here so it transferred to us for a bit. Once they got to know us and the kids and we buttered them up with treats they now love us. They had a tree in their yard that needed cut down so they asked if we wanted it for Christmas tree. Being the cheapskates that we are, we said yes.

Here is the tree in our neighbors' yard:

 And here the top is in our house... whoa. It was so much more thin and scrubby than we thought.

No fear, Thomas the ninja is here. He took branches from the other parts of the tree and stuck them into wholes he drilled. He spent over an hour handcrafting a new tree for us...


Looks better doesn't it! Henry was pretty excited about the whole thing.

 She still had a few bare spots when we were done, but it was much better than when we started. We are pretty sure it is the most Charlie Brownesque tree we've ever had though.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

December happenings

December has been a strange and wonderful month. The weather has been tepid, the house remodeling actually moving forward, and the inconvenience of displacement felt. All of the babies and us have all been sleeping in one small room. It's fun to see them sleep when we come in, but the actually sleeping part isn't happening as well as I'd hoped. We'll kick them out as soon as a room downstairs becomes liveable again.

We've been busy getting ready for Christmas which is made more and more magical as my children get older, and Christmas means lots of baking in this house.

Here's Mrs. Claus's little helper giving her the stink eye.


And here is that same helper making sure the chocolate is fresh before using. Quality control is important, very, very important.

The babies are looking good in their new Sunday duds that Aunt Sally sent their way:

And hats are worn on occasion to keep the chill off of bald heads.

Monroe city has a wonderful tradition of turning on the Christmas lights of the town and having Santa and his wife come to pay a visit the same night. We waited in line for our turn to chat with Santa and it was well worth the time. Later in the week Macey and Henry showed up on the front page of the Richfield Reaper with twinkling eyes on Santa-dear's lap. They were local celebrities for weeks and loved all of the attention that it brought their way.


After you tell Santy what you want, you get to have a cup of hot chocolate and a donut. It's a pretty awesome tradition.

The kids are super funny. What I love is how much they love each other. They play well together the majority of the time and truly like being together. This is Henry giving Kimball a ride around the kitchen on his blanket after baths but pre-jammies. It was hilarious, but I'll spare you the video!

We lucked out at the beginning of the month when our friends from BYU came our way again. They were making their way from St. George to WY and stopped over for a night. It was awesome to chat all night long and then hit up the hot springs just outside of Monroe in the morning. Too bad they couldn't have stayed longer though!


Winter hot spring steam from a distance. 


My bestie here in town gave us the neatest Christmas countdown this year. It is a candle with the number 1-25 written down it. We light the candle and when the number disappears we blow it out. There is a scripture to go along with every night too. It's been so much fun to do and the kids love lighting and blowing out a candle every night.


Macey came home from preschool this month with her first every homework assignment. Her and Dad tromped all over the house counting all kinds of things and recording the information. Henry was SO enthralled by the idea of homework that he worked on his own for at least an hour before bed. He kept showing me this picture and saying "Mom, I'm doing my homework." When it was time for bed he was really sad that he had to be done doing homework until morning. I hope this is a pattern for the future! 

The monkeys and I have also been into some general crafting. Here they are painting recycled treasures to make snowmen. Oh how glad I am that the kids like to craft... start them young enough and they'll learn to love whatever I do! It's a secret plan really.

We've decided to stay at our home for Christmas Ever and Christmas morning and I couldn't be more excited. I'm just itching to start some of my own little family traditions since the traditions of my and of Thomas' childhood are just memories now. I'm looking forward to Christmas this year the most I have in many-a-year, but I do have to say I've been missing my mother and family terribly this year. I love Utah, but why isn't it NEXT to Kentucky again? Let's shift around the US shall we!