New Year's

I wish I had brought my camera with me to my parents' house for our New Year's Eve celebration!  We first enjoyed a dinner entirely of party foods and appetizers, and the adults played fun games while the kids played and hung out.  Then we tried something new and it was totally worth repeating!  I had read online about a New Year's Eve balloon tree using the undecorated Christmas tree, but adapted the idea to stringing lots of balloons from the ceiling. Before doing so, we turned on a movie for the kids and closed ourselves (the adults) in the living room to insert fun things in the balloons before blowing them up.  We put in coins, dollar bills, small candies, and rolled-up papers with fortunes, inspirational quotes, and jokes on them.  We attached long curly ribbon to each balloon and taped the ribbon to the ceiling so the balloon was hanging down.  Then we called the kids to gather for our countdown to "midnight" (I think it was 9:30 PM).  They had no idea what to expect when we let them in the living room.  We told them they could each pick a certain number of balloons, then could pop them however they wanted.  It took a couple minutes for them to realize that there was fun stuff inside!  It was hilarious to watch them try to pop balloons with their sock feet.  They each made out with a fun pile of money, treats, and little fortune papers.  My only regret was that none of their cousins were able to make it that night to share in the fun with us.  I definitely want to try this new tradition again!

 

For New Year's Day, we just spent the entire day together as a family.  We ended up going out to lunch at Olive Garden, then on a drive to Eagle Mountain since it was so nice out.  That afternoon, everyone worked together to put away Christmas.  We also watched the fun old Disney movie "North Avenue Irregulars", which I loved but the kids had never seen.  Since I forgot to bring our party hats and blowers with us on New Year's Eve, we enjoyed them that evening along with our own family dance party.  The kids had all sorts of requests for fun, silly and crazy songs to dance to.  We also played Twister.  It was a blast!

 

 

Brent defending his position while partying at the same time :0)

 

 

Joshua

 

Emma

 

Rachel

Christmas!

Christmas Eve

 

Lisa & Steve came over again this year for Christmas Eve.  They say it's fun to be around little kids; we say it's fun to have their company!  Alyssa just barely graduated from BYU-I and will be starting a new job in January, and Diana is home from BYU-I as well, so it was a treat to have their entire family!  We had a yummy dinner of Café Rio Salads, with lots of yummy desserts Lisa brought, and then had our traditional Christmas Eve program with the kids acting out the Nativity.  It was so nice to have the nativity costumes again this year.  Hopefully they will stand up to years of use, since they are supposed to be one size fits all!  There was a really good spirit in our home on Christmas Eve.

 

 

Matthew reading from the scriptures (and manning the piano, a job he relishes)

 

 

Ethan being a shepherd

 

 

Rachel the angel, with Clayton and Alyssa

 

Joshua played a great Joseph, and Elizabeth was Mary.

 

 

The wise men (Ethan was being versatile) presented their gifts

 

Joshua

 

 

Alyssa

 

 

Ready for Christmas

 

I always have to take some pictures of our living room all ready for the kids on Christmas morning.  Looks like Santa paid a visit!

 

Rachel: Girly Legos and her requested gumballs for her gumball machine.  She also asked for a real bunny, but we told her we already have enough pets, so she also received an adorable Calico Critters bunny family for her doll house, as well as a new coat and a Nerf gun.

 

 

Joshua: Thomas the Train set with extra train cars, books, clothes, and some Matchbox cars

 

Elizabeth: Our Generation Doll, money for clothes, knitting kit, calendar, slippers, blow dryer, and curling iron.

 

Emma: Violin!  She has been begging to start playing the violin for a few years now.  She had kind of given up asking that last while, so she was shocked to see it on Christmas morning!  My mom has been super generous to offer to come to our house every week to teach her lessons.  She'll continue with the piano for now, as well.  She also received doll clothes, a knitting kit like Elizabeth's with extra yarn, and doll clothes patterns.

 

 

Matthew: Mincecraft Legos were his big gift, plus music downloads, a book of Super Mario Bros. piano music, and a Minecraft t-shirt.

 

 

 

Christmas Morning!

On-the-stairs picture: Joshua and Rachel were still waking up.

Some pictures of the fun:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think Brent has been enjoying the Nerf gun even more than Rachel!

 

 

Emma trying out her new violin

 

We received some absolutely classic movies for Christmas.  I was thrilled with these!

 

 

Christmas Dinner

 

After a very enjoyable morning as a family and watching the Sound of Music in the afternoon, we had my parents and Brent & Mindy over for Christmas dinner.  It was fun to pull out all the fancy china, glasses, and silverware.  Elizabeth made cute place cards for everyone.  We had the traditional ham, funeral potatoes, green bean casserole, Christmas spinach salad, rolls, and my Great-Grandma Lena's Thanksgiving Fruit Salad.  We pulled out the set of Conversation Cards I'd made a while back and each person answered the question on their card.  The questions were things like, "What was your favorite Christmas growing up?"  "What is your favorite thing about your father?" etc.

It was a wonderful Christmas!  I hope you had a merry one, too!

Joshua Turns 4

I can't believe my baby is four!  I remember bringing him from the hospital on Christmas Eve evening straight to Lisa & Steve's house for Christmas Eve dinner and the traditional nativity.  He made the ultimate baby Jesus!  He has been such a joy to have in our family-- always keeping us on our toes, but definitely filling our house with lots of excitement, action, and love!

With Joshua's fourth birthday falling only 4 days before Christmas, it's always a challenge to make him feel extra special and not have the day just blend into the general before-Christmas craziness.  I think we were successful!  G&G Wilson came over for one of his favorite meals, German Pancake.  He was thrilled with his presents.  We kept it really simple with cupcakes, and that was great. 

 

I really made an effort to use NON Christmas wrapping paper.

 

Opening his birthday card from Elizabeth.  She makes really cute cards.

 

 

 

New cars and trucks-- with lights and sounds!  He was especially excited about the "apple juice truck" (tanker truck) and ambulance.

 

 

The three girls prepared their own happy birthday song to sing to Joshua.

 

His first very own Lego set (not Duplos).  It was right up his alley, with a fire truck, ambulance, and police motorcycle, plus related minifigures.  Matthew quickly helped him put it all together.  I can tell Joshua is going to be a natural Lego builder like his brother!  It's neat to see them share this common interest.

 

 

 

Actually, Joshua's biggest present was a new "big boy" room (which we actually finished a few days after Christmas).  He was sleeping in a toddler bed, but still had his crib, rocker, and changing table in his room, and we had never painted it or anything!  He had been ferociously attached to his baby blanket, which he would suck on for comfort and to go to sleep.  So I thought that making his room seem like a big boy room would help ease the transition away from the baby blanket.  On his birthday, he opened up a new comforter for his bed, and we told him we'd be making his room into a "big boy" room. He went and got his baby blanket and handed it to me, saying "I'm a boy now, mommy!  I don't need my baby blanket anymore."  Whew, that was easier than I expected!  He has asked for it several times since, but overall has done ok without it.  The hardest part has been that with the blanket gone, he no longer takes afternoon naps, so I am trying to train him to stay in his room for some quiet time each day for my sanity :0)

 

Here are a couple pictures of his newly painted room and comforter (he helped pick out the tractor and car & truck fabric):

 

 

We ordered these peel and stick vehicle decals for the walls, which are really fun.  Painting the road on the wall was a learning experience.  Having done it, now I realize how I would have done it differently.  Oh, well-- Joshua loves it, so that's what really matters. 

 

Previously, there was so much furniture in there that there wasn't much room to move around.  Now, it's big and empty, but we need to get him a dresser and a shelf for his books and toys.