Merry Christmas 2010!

Our favorite part about Christmas...
Owen: My lego set
Davis: ALL the presents
Kate: My sticker book
Gracie: Kate's new cash register...or her new barn...not sure which she would pick
Jed: Watching the kids open their gifts
Me/Erica: the food, the family (Nana and Papa were here too!), the day without rules...sure eat another treat...sure stay in your pajamas all day and Owen telling me at 2:00 a.m. when I went to check on the kids that he had been up to go to the bathroom a little while before and had heard Santa's boots in our house! He was so excited...pure joy!

Christmas Eve with Friends/Family

We were so excited to have my parents here for Christmas this year. It is always a treat to have BOTH Nana and Papa come! The first night they were here we drove around and looked at Christmas lights and walked around a tiny bit of the down town area. The next night was Christmas Eve and there was excitement in the air. Our dear friends, the Courtrights, joined us for dinner. You can bet that when Miss Loretta, Miss Carol and Mr Pete are around, these kids are going to be very spoiled...and spoiled they were.Kate and Pete

All the kids love Davis' fishing game. :)

Gracie loves her baby!
Yummy! Miss Carol's log cake.We ended the night with our traditional "I Believe in Santa Claus" book, review of the Christmas Story, family prayer and all of the final preparations for Santa's arrival...the only question was would any of us be able to sleep? We were all excited!

A Christmas Music Class Field Trip

For our final music class of 2010 we decided to have the kids help with a food/gift drive at a local high school where our friend "Mr Ben" is a music teacher/Band Director. He hooked us up with all sorts of fun instruments. The kids loved making lots of noise and running around....thanks for the fun Ben!

Oh Holy Mouth!

Owen finally lost that wiggly bottom tooth that lines up perfectly with the space from the upper tooth he lost when he was just one year old. What a space! A visit from the tooth fairy and Santa in the same week! You better believe we are excited!

Watch out Lance Armstrong!

Last night my washing machine broke (grrrr!). It was determined that it was officially dead and that we would need a new one (Merry Christmas to us!--kind of irritating since the thing is only 5 years old--they just don't make 'em like they used to), so while I was busy with the man delivering the new machine Owen and Davis were busy with a project of their own...taking the training wheels off of Davis' bike! I was amazed, Davis just hopped on. I helped to steady him and off he rode. You can tell this kid has an older brother because he knew exactly what to do. He told me that his dad told him to just ride over to the grass when he was done and then get off there, so that is what he did over and over again...no tears, no fuss, no hesitation...wow, who is this kid?

The Power of Santa

Oh, to have the power of Santa...We can threaten...We can put them in time-out...We can take away their "screen time"...We can ban them from treats...We can send them to bed early, but none of these techniques are as powerful as the words, "Santa is watching. Are you going to be on the naughty list?" Oh, to be Santa!



These photos were from the Christmas Party at our church.

This one's for my children....

With all of the posts about fun holiday this and that, I feel the need to post a picture of one of my dark secrets. Truth be told, I don't ever want my kids to grow up thinking, "How did Mom do all that she did?" I am hoping that they will remember that I was at their class parties, I hosted play-dates, we went to music class, we loved the library, we tried to be at lots of community events, etc. Along with all of that I want them to know that I had to cut corners from time to time in order to make all of that happen. :) I have mentioned before that laundry is my nemesis. Well, just before the babysitters got here to make the previous post possible, I had three loads of clean, unfolded laundry on my couch. Of course I couldn't have them seeing my family room this way, so I shoved it ALL back into my dryer. If you have never thought to do this, you can thank me later for the idea. The clothes may be a little wrinkled, but it got me where I needed to be on time and everyone who was in our home had a place to sit! Now you know...I cannot do it all. Whew.

oops...I missed a few days

Well, I missed a few days of posting...oh, well. I refuse to feel guilty. I had good reason. It has been PARTY time around here! Last Friday both boys had their school parties and then we had a party at our church.

First was Davis' Polar Express Pajama party. He was SO excited to wear his pajamas to school and all day for that matter.
Davis drinking hot cocoa before getting on board the Polar Express! I loved watching him--pure joy (for me and him).

On this party day some of my friends joined me in hiring a couple of babysitters at my house for all of our kids. We figured this was the only way for us to be at all of our kid's parties without anyone missing out on anything. So, after his party I ran Davis home to join the girls and their friends and I headed to Owen's class. Have I mentioned how much I adore Owen's teacher? Actually and Davis' teachers as well? Seriously, we are so blessed by them. Owen had a great time playing Santa Says and Pin the Nose on Rudolph. The "Pass the Present" game was kind of wild for poor Mrs. Smith, but it was sure a hoot for those of us on the sidelines. Owen loved the party as usual.
After Owen's party is was home again...time to nap Gracie, send the babysitters on their way and get ready for the party at the church. The kids did a little program and Owen took charge of finding costumes for himself and Davis. At the end of the day we were tired, but we sure had fun.

More Holiday Fun with Friends

Our friends, the Courtrights, were sweet enough to invite our kids over to help decorate their Christmas tree and eat Miss Carol's DELICIOUS cookies (Oh, my mouth is watering thinking about them). Jed and I had to attend a wedding reception, but the kids had a great time!

Did Gracie love the cookies or the new puppies more? Um, sorry cookies, I think the puppies won! Thank you for thinking to invite the kids over. They loved it!

Sidekick

Tonight Owen said something that I thought was hilarious (I am choosing not to share it here because it may reflect poorly on my humor to be honest), so I said, "Jed I have something funny to tell you," as I started to walk down the hall. Davis followed me asking, "Mom, what is it?" Then I lied and said, "Oh, I can't tell you, it's about Christmas" (I am not afraid to admit that I have used this excuse more than once when I haven't wanted to tell them something totally unrelated to the holiday). Then Davis says, "Why do moms and dads always tell each other secrets?" I said, "I don't know. Why do you think that is?" He says in his cute way with a heavy sigh, "I know, I know, he's your sidekick..."

Love it!

The Bear Hotel

Okay, you are about to see one of the reasons why I LOVE this small town...Christmas at the Bear Hotel. It isn't actually a hotel at all, but rather a really nice warehouse where they store the large bears that can be spotted all over town in the Spring and Summer months. It's kind of a long story really. In a nutshell, artists are commissioned to sculpt and paint these bears, which are then auctioned off and the proceeds go to fund various organizations. At Christmas time they turn the "Bear Hotel" into a winter wonderland. This year the theme was Christmas on Mars (or something along those lines). It was AWESOME! The kids entered the building and could look around at "Martian Art" (aka art pieces done by local artists depicting things from a Martian perspective). Then we learned all about how Santa visits the children on Mars as well as on earth. We blasted off in a spaceship, made Martian cookies with Mrs. Claus, played loads of games, won oodles of prizes, took family photos, and met the big man himself. It was incredible....Thank you Evergreen Bank and Brady Adams (the man behind much of the magic in our community)...you have made it to the top of our "Good List" this year for sure!

Lightbulb Moment

Today I was watching "The Nate Berkus Show" while I was exercising and his guest was talking about running a business out of your home. The gal that he was helping had two children and a TON of outside responsibilities...PTA, library board, volunteered at the schools, etc. Anyway, he said to her that she needs to drop most of the things that she is doing and remember that when she says "yes" to these outside responsibilities she is saying "no" to time with family, time for her business, etc. This may not seem profound to you, but it struck a chord with me...when you say "yes" to one thing you are saying "no" to another....love it...this is going to help me.

Heaven

Gracie has been in heaven with Penny the Guinea Pig here...she is definitely an animal lover and was dying the whole first day we had Penny at our house. She just REALLY wanted to hold her every second of the day. Gracie will be sad when she realizes that she is going back to the preschool tomorrow.

My Kate

Kate's favorite thing lately is to play "house". She wants me to play house with her all the time. I am always the "sister" and she is always the "Mama". Then she bosses me around saying, "Okay Sweetie, let's go to the store...." Or "Sweetie, it's time to go to bed..." Cracks me up that everything starts with "Sweetie". She is a fun girl with definite ideas. Someday she aspires to be a "Mommy Princess"....I think that she will be a really good "Mommy Princess". She asked me what I want to be when I grow up and I told her, "Of course I am going to be a Grandma Queen!"

How do you spell sucker....

E-R-I-C-A...that's how you spell sucker! Somehow I volunteered to bring the preschool's guinea pig home from school today...the kids are in heaven...can't wait to see Jed's face!

Man Vs. Wild

While Jed's Mom was here she watched "Man vs Wild" with the kids. The boys love this show, especially the parts where he eats crazy things like spiders, snakes, alligator, etc. As they were watching Owen said that if he had a chocolate covered bug, he would just peel off the chocolate and eat it. Of course none of us, including Grandma Nila, believed him. So, on Monday we received a package from Grandma Nila. In it were chocolate covered bugs (yes, real ones), lolly pops with critters (including one with a scorpion) in them and Salted Crickets. Wouldn't you know it...the boys actually ate the chocolate covered bugs and Owen joined the Young Men from our church (who happened to be having an activity at our house) in eating a cricket! I literally was shocked. You could not have paid me to do that!!!! Thanks for the gross fun Grandma...they sure proved us wrong!

Side Note: Owen threw up at school today. He said, "I never should have eaten that cricket" with a little smile. Somehow I think it is the virus going around, but it sure is fun for a seven year old to blame it on bug eating!

More December Fun

For the sake of documentation...Last Friday while we were at our office Christmas luncheon, the boys were at their friend Benson's birthday bash. They each came home with their very own Rootbeer...what a treat! I thought that was a brilliant party goody (it makes me crazy when the kids leave a party with a goody bag that is better than the gift they brought for their friend...who's birthday was it again?) and our boys could not have been happier to have a soda that they weren't required to share with anyone. That evening we went to the Nativity Festival at our Church. It was amazing to see the different Creche's from around the world. The kids really just wanted the cookies, but I have hope that one of these years they will be interested in more than the food.Since I had been babysitting that same morning, I had set up a pack n play in the boy's room. They thought it would be funny to sleep in it that night...I honestly can't believe they fit. Okay, so as I am writing this thinking about how glad I am that they are friends Kate is pounding on the bathroom door saying, "Owen and Davis, are you having a meeting in there?" Sounds funny, but it is true the two of them still like to sleep by each other and they have secret meetings in the bathroom.

more family time..

On Sunday we finally decorated our tree! I thought Davis would DIE if he had to wait any longer (okay, I didn't really think that, but I think that he did). I loved watching their excitement as they looked at all the ornaments and remembered when they were "little".



So, in the end we had parts of the tree that looked like this (mostly around the older three's eye level)...
and then there are parts that look like this...
I must be getting more relaxed as time goes by because I decided that the tree is perfect just as they decorated it and haven't changed a thing.

Also, Gracie's attention span wasn't quite as long as the others, so this is what she did while we were all distracted...ugh!

Yep, those are her tights, a hand towel, ornament padding and poor Santa...he was wet, so even he took a dip in the toilet....seriously?!? This girl is a tornado!