Christmas Festivities

Our Christmas was filled with a lot of fun, a lot of family, a lot of smiles, and a little bit of bad weather.

Christmas Eve we spent doing the annual nativity at Rick's parents house. We even got a pic with all of the grandchildren. I never said it was a good pic.
The nativity was just as rowdy and fun as ever...Hannah got her wish to be Mary...and enjoyed her disobedient, but entertaining donkey (aka Uncle Bam Bam).
We even had the cutest angel ever. She was too shy to declare her glad tidings...but we all felt it anyway!
Here's a shot of the tree before we let the kids downstairs.
The three little monkeys...waiting for the go-ahead. My mom made the girls pajamas as part of their Christmas presents. They look so adorable in them. They totally remind me of pajamas I had when I was a wee little Megan. I love it.Here's the look on Hannah's face as she's trying to determine where her stocking is...
I love the juxtaposition of Seth holding his half eaten Snowman Peeps in one hand, and a new set of toothbrushes in the other. That Santa sure has a sense of humor...
In stocking bliss...
MaKaty's big present was the Little People Castle. She absolutely adores it! She was so funny! I think she could have been happy all day without opening another thing!
Hannah is officially getting older. I know. It seems relatively obvious, but never so much as it did Christmas morning. She got clothes...shoes...jewelry...perfume...encyclopedias...and a microscope. And she was thrilled. I love that girl!
Here's Seth opening something. I think it was his batman motorcycle, but I could be wrong. His Christmas loot included legos, batman stuff, a baseball mitt, legos, legos, and legos. He's in heaven.
After the present opening, we had a quick breakfast, and headed to Rick's parents house...

This is what happens when you have eight kids, and they all show up for Christmas morning, half of them with families of their own. Craziness. So many presents. So much chaos. So much fun!We had Zach's name for Christmas. He's a teen age boy. This was the present that made the most sense to us. I hope he liked it. I sure had fun putting it together!
Seth's cousin Tirsa had his name for Christmas, and she made it more than fun. She made a pirate map for Seth to take a little expedition around the house until he found the treasure. He was so into the whole thing. Well done, Tirs!Hannah got this music box from her Grandma and Papa. She loves it. It already holds many treasures.
I know it's a dark picture, but I love the craziness of the wrapping paper in the background. Fun stuff.
During all the gift opening chaos, Rick got to hold our little baby nephew. Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?
After the million and one presents were opened, we loaded up and headed to Pine Valley for the cabin. The weather was bad, and the last 12 miles or so of road were snow packed. Thankfully, Rick was driving, and he is a good snow driver, so we made it there without so much as sliding once. Thanks babe!

Hannah didn't get her family of live owls, but she did get this cutest sleeping bag/backpack/flashlight/water bottle set from her cousins. She adores it!
Here's Seth opening his crazy remote control flip car from Grandpa and Grandma. It has been the source of entertainment for adult and child alike.
I know this picture is really lame, but it's the only picture I got of the blizzard we encountered as we headed to the cabin for the rest of Christmas day. I was too chicken to take my new camera out in the mess, so I settled for this one from inside the car. I am bummed that I didn't get more pictures of the white Christmas, though. Oh well. Thankfully the driving was not as bad as we had thought it might be. We took it slow, and had to wait for an accident to be cleared, but all in all we felt lucky. We got to spend time at the cabin, and the kids thought the snow was pretty cool. Although at one point Hannah was in the back seat saying prayer after prayer that we would be safe. It worked, Hannah, so thanks!
It was a great holiday! We were all spoiled. The kids couldn't tell me their favorite gift. They felt like everything was perfect. So that must be a good sign. I just wish Christmas cleaned up after itself...

Wordless {Christmas Eve} Wednesday

The Live Nativity, and Seeing Santa

We realized that we were quickly running out of time to go to the LiveNativity at Tuacahn, and the kids really wanted to see Santa, so even though it was snowing on Thursday night, we decided to go anyway. It turned out to be a beautiful night. Wet, but not nearly as cold as we had expected, and the kids were thrilled to be seeing the sights.

While we waited for time for the nativity to begin, we got in the extremely short line to see Santa. I love that there were only a couple of kids in front of us, because I always sort of picture seeing Santa in the mall to be the scene from A Christmas Story, where the Smoking Santa's "Ho ho ho!" is really much more the stuff of nightmares than dreams. Quite frankly, NOT WORTH IT!

But this Santa is not like that Santa. This is the same poor Santa who has listened as my children request various impossibilities, and has the best look of "good luck with that, Mom and Dad" that I have ever seen. He totally played along with Hannah's request for a live polar bear...and got the funniest surprised look when Seth asked for a "live pirate" last year. I was really quite afraid what poor Santa might hear from my kids this year. But he turned the tables on them...

First came MaKaty, whose interest in Santa only extended as far as the basket of mini candy canes at his elbow. She kept saying she wanted to see "Santa", but would get close, retreat, and then finally say, "wanna treat!" Rick got her this close:
without tears, but notice that her eyes are not on the big guy in the red suit...they were firmly on the candy canes.

Seth was next, and it was pretty cute to watch him try to show Santa how old he was when his fingers were lost in those huge gloves. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, Seth pulled Santa's head down to his lips and whispered in his ear. So. Stinking. Cute. And finally, Hannah. When Santa lifted her up onto his lap, he said, "Whoah! You are bigger than you were last year!" Hannah looked at him in complete shock! I know her belief in Santa has been wavering, and honestly, we haven't really tried to keep it up too hard, but he had her here. How would he know that she was bigger unless it was really him who had been here last year? And he really remembered! You could just see the wheels turning in her brain. I loved it. Then she told him that she was six, and he told her that he thought she was a little bit nicer when she was five. Again, she was shocked...but it quickly turned to this:
For rude, Santa!

But she had him when he asked her who had cleaned her room last. When she told him that she had cleaned it herself, he confirmed with me, and she was the victor! It was Santa's turn to be shocked. So funny. Apparently Seth asked for a transformer, and Hannah asked for a book. A book that shows 50 different ways to draw horses.

On to the nativity. I have no pictures of this part. They asked that you not take pictures during the performance, and so I complied. For those of you who have never been, this nativity is performed in a large outdoor amphitheater that is usually used for Broadway shows. They have a really nice stable set, and have coordinated narration and song into a 15-20 minute performance of the nativity. They use live animals. Mary comes in on a real donkey...the shepherds have real sheep, and the wise men have real camels or llamas. They allow local church groups to come in and be the actors for the night. The roles are simple, and the actors are amateurs, but somehow it always moves me. This time Karen and Tirsa got to be townspeople who were milling around the inn, and later came to worship the baby Jesus.

Seth has a great desire to be in the performance next year. He wants to be one of the shepherds who have a goat on a leash. And Hannah has high hopes to be Mary, or perhaps just the head angel. MaKaty just kept mooing at the donkey. It was awesome. After the performance, we huddled around a fire pit and listened to a local singing group doing a medley of Christmas songs. Hannah was absolutely mesmerized. She has hopes to be a singer someday. I keep telling her that she is a singer NOW. She is performing with the ward choir tomorrow. Sweet girl!

Thanks to my parents for coming with us. It made it all the more fun. And as a bonus, we got to see Rick's parents there, too. We were certainly glad that we had braved the weather.

Mama...what's all that white stuff?

Yeah, so we don't get a lot of snow here. It's pretty funny because we will get a little skiff, and the next thing you know, people are bringing their kids outside to get pictures of them in the snow, because you never know when it might happen again! It's also pretty funny how we get some to stick to the roads, and school is canceled. Granted, if my kids bus driver isn't comfortable driving in the snow, I'd rather not have him drive her...but still, it seems silly.

So we had a snow day today. And Hannah and Seth couldn't even wait until it was fully light outside to go out in the stuff. They donned their coats/hats/mittens and helped Rick clear off his car...at 7am! Even Katy seemed to like the snow. The child who can't even keep a diaper on tolerated getting completely suited up and even kept her hat and mittens on. They had snow ball fights, built (and immediately destroyed) snowmen, and ate hopefully only the freshest snow. They were entertained for a full morning. And then I was attacked by the whole arsenal of "warm" clothing, which was now sopping wet, and left in a trail from the front door to the laundry room. Gotta love it. So I guess now that it has snowed, we can officially have Christmas, right?

Speaking of Christmas... This morning I was doing the dishes, and Seth came running into the room, grabbed a plate of treats that a neighbor had brought over the night before, and ran into the living room screaming, "I'm stealing Christmas! I'm stealing Christmas!" I guess watching Dr. Seuss' "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" everyday for the past two weeks has taken it's toll. I was sort of hoping he would come away from that movie with the whole "maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store...maybe Christmas, perhaps, is a little bit more." But alas, he thrives on the klepto aspect of it. But I suppose as long as he's not stealing treats out of the neighbors kitchens, I won't sign him up for Kleptomaniacs Anonymous classes quite yet.

So here's a shot of the house all covered in white. Do you like our angel lawn decoration? Compliments of Hannah.
I call this one the "Let's do the crunching snow dance!"I love how when I told Hannah to run back inside and get some better snow gear on...this is what she pulls out of the winter box. A few notes...The hat is backward...the bibs are backward...the mitt thing on her hand is a "snowball blocker", the gloves came with a roller blading gear kit, and have no fingers, the knee pads are essentially useless (but don't tell her that), and she had no socks on under the galoshes, and had oodles of melted snow in them by the time she came inside. Brrrrrrr!This was one of my favorite moments during the day. Right after this picture was taken, Katy shook the tree so hard that it shook all the snow off of it, and it landed right on her head. I wish I had my camera ready. Oh well.This is what happens when it snows in the desert. We are ill equipped. She is using a dustpan as a snow shovel.
Maybe my favorite photo of the day...
Life is good.

8 Years, and a Pregnancy Update

Eight years ago today, Rick and I got married.

Eight years ago today, I woke up a little nervous, but very excited to be marrying my best friend. Eight years ago, if you had told me that eight years from then, I would be getting kicked in the ribs by our fourth child, I would have laughed at you. (we were on the 5 year plan...that lasted eight whole months) We were full of big ideas and best laid plans. In the eight years since, we have followed through on many of those plans...the important ones anyway, and realized that the others didn't matter so much. And we have endured a few things that were never part of the plan. And I would do it all over again. In a heartbeat.

This morning, I woke up after a very rough night (darn hip pain) to the smell of breakfast cooking. Rick delivered a delicious breakfast of skillet potatoes and eggs in bed, and we listened to the sounds of our kids laughing at an insanely stupid movie downstairs, and enjoyed a morning where Rick didn't rush straight off to work. Thanks, babe! It totally should have been me making breakfast for you, but I'm grateful nonetheless!

This afternoon, Rick got the results from his Engineering Licensing Exam. He had studied for that exam for months, six days a week, several hours a day. And after waiting for the results for two months...for a special Anniversary present, the results were positive! He totally passed! Yay for Rick! He's all grown up and becoming an official licensed engineer! Or, as he put it, "I get new letters after my name and I can get sued now!" Always looking on the bright side, that guy!

So we went out to eat to celebrate both our anniversary and his test success, and it nicely rounded off a quite pleasant day. Happy Anniversary, Ricky! I love you.

And...

onto the pregnancy update...complete with a hint about the name of this little dude.

Considering that the last belly shot I had taken was at 16 weeks, and I am now 27, I figured I was due. So here is a shot taken today (with my new camera)...but obviously not taken by me! It was taken by Amy Hummel, who had a little studio set up in her living room and kindly obliged my photo request!
So yeah, I'm now officially in my last trimester, and it couldn't come soon enough. I am not going to sugarcoat it. I am miserable. For the last 6 weeks or so, I have been having Braxton Hicks contractions at the rate of about 10-20 an hour. Which is way more than my doctor wanted to see, but since I haven't jumped into full blown labor, we figure I am doing OK. I have had several days where the contractions have been more labor-like...coming through my lower back and causing a lot of pain. But when I went in and was checked, the little guy was strong and healthy, and I was just told to take it easy. I'm not supposed to vacuum, pick up the kids, work out, etc. The contractions tend to taper off when I am resting, so I've been trying to do that...in between taxi-ing kids to school, Christmas shopping, and attempting far too many Christmas projects. (why do I do this to myself every year?) At any rate, the doctor said that as long as I can make it into February, we should be pretty good. Wish me luck!

Now that I have the complaining part aside, on to the fun part. On the positive side of things, the heart problems that have plagued my previous three pregnancies have largely stayed clear this time around. I've only had one little arrhythmia episode, and it was mild, so GO TEAM! And this little guy is such a mover. It's so fun to feel him rolling and kicking inside me. That part never loses it's magic...even three pregnancies later! He is quite the little kicker. Seth thought it was hilarious the other day when he gave an especially strong kick, and my belly button popped completely out. Good times. Seth refers to the baby as Master Po. (from Kung Fu Panda) and says that his brother is going to come out a super hero because of practicing all his Kung Fu! I'm fine with that, if he would just practice prior to 11:00pm...which seems to be PARTY TIME! We are getting really excited to meet the little guy. We have officially decided on the name, so I can start dropping some hints as to the big choice! First, in good faith, I will reveal the names we had been debating had this little one been a girl. They are, in no particular order, Morgan, Molly, and Harper.

So here's the first (and most confusing) hint as to this guys name! The number of letters in the name is the same as the first letter's numerical place in the alphabet. Is that confusing enough for you? Here's an example. We could be naming him Ethan, because it has 5 letters, and the letter E is the 5th letter in the alphabet. (and NO, we are not naming him Ethan) So logically, you can pretty much toss out all names starting with the second half of the alphabet. I do have a soul, and would never expect a little dude to remember so many letters in his name.

So guess away! I will post again in a couple of weeks with another hint.

The Last 12 for 12: Brought to you by Canon Rebel XSi

Last night, the 12th, Rick surprised me with an early Anniversary/Christmas present. For more than two years now, I have been drooling/hinting/shamelessly-begging for a camera. I really have loved my Kodak, but wanted something with a little more capability. I'll spare you the details of the dance back and forth, but somehow, he succeeded in leaving me with the distinct impression that it simply wasn't going to happen. Period.

So last night he asked me if I would run in the house and wrap a present that he wanted to take as his "white elephant gift" to his work Christmas party, and he took off with the kids to drop them off at his parents house. When I came inside, I saw the box on the counter, with a letter. Perhaps at some later point, I will copy the letter in it's entirety, because it is sweetness and complete sillyness all in one. But for now, I will leave you with 12 of the first 110 pictures taken with my new camera today.

Be gentle...especially Amy and Beka...it was my first time using truly manual settings, and I'm sure that photographically they are not ideal, but I sure had fun. These are straight out of the camera, except for cropping.

For Seth, the day started with Breakfast with Santa. He went with one of his friends, and had a smashing good time. Santa had given him a sucker. So thus begins the sucker sequence:

"Look mom...I have a sucker eyeball!"
Katy: "Hava bite?" (complete with puppy dog eyes)
He couldn't resist. (I mean, could you?)Ah, happiness is a couple of licks of your brother's sucker.What a sweet boy.
Poor Hannah. She had had a rough night last night. She woke up at 2:16 am hyperventilating. She has croup, and has always been prone to it. Every winter of her life we have spent at least one night up in steamy bathrooms or out in the cold air trying to get her swelling back down so that she could breathe easier again. She spent much of the morning reading:
Then we headed to Rick's parents house to let the kids play while I worked on a project. Zach and Rick called me into the front yard to see this:I bet you are glad that you got me a new camera now, aren't you babe? (thanks to Shauna for the new tin/hat)Hannah and I got to go on a date this afternoon. She wanted to get egg drop soup, so we got some, and then went to the grocery store together. She's my little sweetheart.
And Katy seemed to catch on to the excitement over the new camera. She has never been such a cheese. She would actually cooperate when I tried to take her picture. Amazing. I know.

Thus concludes the 12th month of the 12 pictures. I hope you enjoyed it. I was sort of a slacker the entire second half of the year. But oh well. It was a fun idea...however short lived it was!

These are a few of my favorite {Christmas} things...

I just wanted to document some of the most favorite things that we do/make/etc. over the holidays. I hope that our kids will enjoy the traditions and keep some of them for their own families. Some are the more "commercial" end of Christmas, but most are actually pretty focused on the real "reason for the season." I personally think that there is place for both in the holiday...though we try to stress the Christ-related things the most.

This was our first "holiday decoration." I bought it when we were engaged (we were married in December) and thought that someday our kids would love counting down the days until Santa was actually down the proverbial chimney. I was right. They negotiate who gets to pull out the brick everyday. Some days they pull out the brick, and then I put it back, and the other one gets to do it again. Nothing says "poor starving college students" like a 10$ Wahlgreens Christmas tree. It's pretty ghetto...or is it more festive to refer to it as "Charlie Brown"? but I can't bear the thought of getting rid of it. I grew up with live Christmas trees. And I still believe they have their place. But personally, with small children in the house, I would prefer the fake for a while...I have seen those real ones go up in flames at the annual "Blazing Yule" festivities. Let's just say that 4-5 full sized Christmas trees can be ash in about 6 minutes. I just don't care to have that happen in my living room...maybe someday we'll go back to the real thing...I do miss the smell.
This is actually a year round decoration in our house, but it somehow looks so much more festive and appropriate this time of year.
Christmas would not be complete without the "Nightmare Before Christmas Santa" that Seth made at preschool last year. His teacher made sure to point out that he spent three times as much time making his as the other children did. He wanted it "just right." Mission accomplished. It is perfect. I smile every time I look at it!
Here is the nativity Hannah made in art class a couple of years ago. She is still endlessly proud of the hard work it took, and I love it. It is placed next to our "fancy" nativity set, and I'm sure it gets more looks of admiration.
I have been looking for years for a stockings board that had more than 3-4 knobs. I saw this one at the Christmas gift show last week, and it had 6 knobs. Perfect! So we put up the little baby dude's stocking this year...even though he won't make his appearance until March.
Probably my favorite tradition is the annual Christmas book. We get a new book each year that is our Family Christmas Book for the year. It has to be about Christ...although we do have some more just for fun books in the basket that the kids like to look through. But our book for the year has to center on the birth of the Savior. Then we make ornaments that relate to the book. For example, we painted wooden tree ornaments the year that we did "The Tale of Three Trees." Our book for this year is called "Follow the Star" and it is about a camel who carries the gifts for the baby King. It is not super well-written, but it is on the kids' level, and teaches about the role of the wise men, so we settled on it. In the past we have had excellent books like "The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey" and "The Other Wise Man." Someday we will have so many homemade "book" ornaments that I intend to have a separate tree just for those...and place the books around it.
Here is Hannah's ornament from the year that we did "The Other Wise Man." If you are familiar with the book, you know the symbolism of using the jewels.
Here is our little "kids" nativity. It is still breakable (just ask the headless shepherd on top of the refrigerator...), but overall these figurines are pretty sturdy. The kids rearrange them several times a day, but I love how they are always centered around the baby Jesus.
This little manger Rick made for me to use as a Sharing Time Activity at church when I was in the Primary Presidency. Now we just use it for our family. We talked to the kids about how when we do kind things for another person, that we are, in essence, doing it for the Savior as well. So when they do something kind, or help without being asked, or say nice words, etc...we place a piece of straw in Baby Jesus' bed. By Christmas Eve, I'm sure that there will be a nice soft place for the Baby. Especially since Seth has really caught on. I have observed him quietly putting toys and shoes away without being asked, and then just as quietly, placing a piece of straw in the manger. It's as if the arrangement is just between he and the baby. Which is just fine by me. I love to see him doing nice things without the expectation of great reward. MaKaty doesn't get the whole concept of doing nice things to put the straw in, but she does understand that this baby is special. She carries him around the house, kissing him periodically and wrapping him up and putting him to bed. She calls him "Jay-zus" and loves to put him "night night." It really is very sweet.
Another tradition that we have over the holidays is to go see the lights and nativity at the Temple. We also tend to find a time to see Santa. Not at the mall. I simply refuse. But usually at Tuacahn, or at some holiday party. The annual seeing of Santa has always been entertaining. At least one kid is screaming...and the other asks for something totally bizarre. A polar bear. A llama. A live pirate. I have received several "good luck with that" looks from Santa. Let's just say that it's a good thing that we don't put a lot of focus on the gifts coming from Santa, or the kids would really wonder why they don't get what they ask for.

We also love the Live Nativity at Tuacahn. We have gone every year since we have been married. It used to be that you could sign up to play parts in the nativity. Now it's predetermined who will be in the scene...The first year we did it, though, I was a "townsperson" and Rick was a Wise Man. He was a very good wise man. He was so wise and dedicated, that when the live camel peed on the stage, and the stream ran right under the legs of the kneeling wise men, he stayed put, and pretended that he didn't notice. The kids love how Mary comes in on a real donkey, and the wise men lead real camels.

Now there are no live donkeys or camels at Rick's family's annual Christmas Eve "Acting of the Nativity," but there are always good times. Everyone has a part...as the donkey, the Mother Mary, each of my kids have had a turn being a reluctant baby Jesus, as well as angels, and shephards. But it seems that the roles of the wise men tend to be the most entertaining. One year, the gold, frankincense and myrrh had been replaced...the baby was the happy recipient of a Cell Phone, an Ipod, and a Game Boy. A wise men came onto the scene riding a skateboard once. And one year an angel (who was played by Hannah) fell off the piano bench during her performance. Another year, one of the wise men (AKA Rick's little brothers) pretended to be Osama. That one was squelched by Grandma pretty quickly. There are always a lot of laughs, but the words of the nativity come straight out of the scriptures, so the spirit always prevails.

This time last year, I was feeling extremely overwhelmed by the holiday season...and had an extremely difficult time getting into the spirit. For some reason, even though I should be MORE overwhelmed this year, things have remained more low key, and I'm really feeling it.

So Merry Christmas season, all!

Officially, A Two Wheeler

subtitled: I think he'll need a new helmet.

On Saturday evening, Seth decided that it was time to leave the training wheels behind, and ride a bike like big kid. He worked on it for a few minutes, and was making huge progress, but it got dark. Sunday he was convinced that we were the meanest parents on the planet because we wouldn't let him ride his bike, but he lived. So yesterday he spent some time in the evening again. He didn't want anyone to hold the bike seat for him. He just wanted to keep trying and just figure it out. Again, the dark (and his mother calling him to dinner) cramped his style. Today, he was not to be deterred. I was upstairs ironing, and would check on him every few minutes. Every time I did, he was able to go further without tipping. Finally, he just took off. Up and down the street. Over the speed bump. Up onto the driveway. He was a rock star. And he knew it! Even if he was riding a pink bike. (He does have a very cool black/red/silver bike, but it's a full sized bike, so his feet don't touch the ground, and he can barely reach the pedals in full revolution, so we decided to have him learn on Hannah's old pink bike)

(this pic was inspired by one that Amy took of Jocelyn. I just had to try it myself)
(and a little shift of focus)

Here he is just when he was starting to get it.

About fifteen minutes later. And now he's got the straight line thing down perfect.


I am so proud that he can ride a bike without training wheels. I am. But I am more proud that he stuck with it until he had it down. Good job, dude. Now if we could just get your sister to try...