Boise winters

We actually don't get a whole lot of snow up here in Boise. The rest of Idaho does, but we seem to mostly get rain during the winter. This December was an exceptionally odd year but I loved it. We had a ton of snow around Christmas and as you can see from previous posts, I LOVE snow at Christmas. So this is what it looked like outside the Saturday after Christmas day.



This is what it looks like today.

Sunday it started raining and within 2 days the snow is almost completely gone, just the snow drifts left. Sad, I miss the snow.

Christmas

As I mentioned in my previous post, Mark and I didn't get much sleep on Christmas eve because of the new puppy. So of course she was up and ready to play at 6:30 a.m. and of course our boys decided that Christmas morning would be the one morning they would sleep in! We finally woke them up at 8:20, after being bored for 2 hours! Mark passed the time by cuddling with Abby.

By the time we got the boys up, Abby was pooped out and was sound asleep on the floor. They were excited, but more in the awed silence kind of way. This is when they first say her.

Once the excitement wore off, Rex was ready for his stocking.

Sam opened his first present and was IN LOVE with the John Deere tractors he got from Grandpa Mike and refused to open anything else! So Rex opened both he and Sam's presents. Here he is with his tractor and with the Safari hat Grandma Carolyn got him.

That's where our quiet Christmas ended! We had the Amador's and the Dinger's over for Christmas dinner and I baked a Turkey and mashed potatoes and they brought over the rest of the sides and dessert. It was very fun, but crazy with 7 kids running around high after a fun Christmas day. We started a game of Settlers of Catan, but after numerous interruptions decided to resume after the kids were in bed. Here's a picture of the 3 couples.



We had a great time. Thanks for coming over everyone! And Merry Christmas to everyone else!

Christmas Eve

This is my first post chronicaling our Christmas holiday. Christmas eve was great. I was a little concerned this year because we weren't going anywhere and we didn't have any family coming, so I was afraid it was going to be boring and not feel as Christmasy. It was so nice though. Not that we don't like being with family, but it was nice to do our own traditions and be relaxed and quiet. It's much easier to feel the Spirit of Christ and focus on him. We had tamales on Christmas eve, a tradition I learned on my mission. The hispanics in my mission always had tamales on Christmas or Christmas eve, so I have decided to keep with it. The boys loved them and gobbled them down. One year I may actually try to make them, but that is an all day effort, so I just bought some and heated them here at home.

We then finished up our cookies for Santa. Santa was lucky this year, they were YUMMY!

Then we got the kids all bathed and in their Christmas PJ's and read the Twas the night before Christmas and watched a Christmas movie.

Right before they went to bed, we read the Bible story and dressed up. Rex was an angel, I was Mary, Sam was baby Jesus and Mark was a shepard. I know we didn't get too creative with the costumes, but the kids loved it and Rex seemed to really grasp what Christmas is about.

Then after the kids were snuggled all tight in their bed, Mark went and picked up our new addition! She is so cute!

We didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night with a whiny puppy but she is worth it.

Merry Christmas!

Look what Santa deposited at our house tonight!

Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Christmas!

Beach or snow?

So in keeping with the snow theme I have going on, I had to include this cute thing Rex said today. We left to go meet some friends for lunch and there is about 3 new inches of snow outside. It's gorgeous fresh snow that was glistening in the sunshine. Rex kept exclaiming how pretty it was and how much he loved it. I told him I did too especially for Christmas and that I was so excited we were going to have a White Christmas. I then told him that daddy grew up in California where it doesn't snow and so he never had snow for Christmas until he moved to Utah. His response was hilarious. He was truly mortified and said, "that is so sad, poor daddy"! I thought it was hilarious and agreed that it's a good thing daddy married me so that he could live in a place that has snow for Christmas. I had to call Mark and tell him so he told me to tell Rex that even though he didn't have snow, he got to go to the beach on Christmas. I told Rex and asked him which he would like better, snow or beach for Christmas. He said definitely snow. I couldn't help but feel proud, he is definitely MY child!
So what do you think?
Snow

or beach?

I'm dreaming of a white christmas

This is what it looks like outside my door right now!


And I love it!!
(and yes maybe I stood with the door open, in my garments to capture these pictures. No one was around, it's snowing, so sue me!)

Chocolate and Santa

Let's start this off by saying, Rex had a rough day at Preschool today. Maybe it's all the excitement he has had this week, maybe he is sad to not be going back for a few weeks. Who knows? What I do know is that I got a call from his teacher asking me to come pick him up because he spit water from the drinking fountain on two girls. Awesome. She was really sweet about it and felt bad, but wanted him to have a natural consequence for being mean to friends at school, being that he has to leave school. I totally agreed with her and it seems the point was driven home because he was quite upset about the whole thing. Let's hope he was upset enough not to do it again. After he got home he got into some chocolate and a few minutes later I looked up and saw this:

I guess he was trying to look into the chocolate? IDK, but his chocolate black eyes cracked me up and all his naughtiness was forgotten. For the moment...

We decided to attempt to see Santa again this evening, so after bundling the kids up and making sure we had the stroller this time, we headed out. We had to stand in line for awhile, but the kids seemed very excited. Even Sam couldn't wait to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. When we got to Santa, this is what happened:

We were cracking up. Here is the video of it, full of fun and laughter, and yes a few shots of my garments. Woops. And Sam insisted on keeping his hat on for the picture.

All I want for Christmas...

My Sammy is so easy to please.

My big 4 year old

Rex is 4 years old today. He is getting so big. Today in the car on the way to Preschool, he kept saying, "Michelle". I ignored him, as I do when he says my name because I only answer to Mommy with my kids. So finally he says, "Mom, I am all grown up now, so I can call you Michelle". I had to lovingly explain that ABSOLUTELY NOT, he will never be too old to call me mom. Rex is such a fun boy and makes me laugh. His imagination is hilarious and he is so smart. He is really into letters and wants to read so bad. His teacher told me the other day one of the kids made a mess and Rex goes, "Mess, M-E-S, MESS!" I have no idea how he figured that out, because I have never taught him that. He asks for a dog every day and loves playing with friends. He always wants to be where I am and although some days it drives me crazy, I love that he likes to be near me.
Happy Birthday Buddy! I LOVE YOU!

His Ironman cake

I like how he is smiling in the background of this one!


My cute boy

FHE in the ER

The Er seems to be our favorite place the last 2 years. Not sure exactly why. Maybe it just comes with having kids, or maybe we are just having a bit of bad luck in that department lately. Who knows. All I know is I wasn't planning on spending FHE there!
Mark got home early tonight and we took the kids to the mall to eat, do a little shopping and most importantly see Santa. Rex was so excited to see him so he can tell him he wants a dog and a Lego set for Christmas. Well we had only gotten about 15 feet into the mall when Rex walked right in front of me, stopped and bent over to get something off the ground. Well of course I didn't see him because I had been talking to Mark, plus I was carrying Sam. So before I know it I am falling over Rex, trying desperately to protect Sam, but to no avail. So Sam went head first onto the hard mall floor, while I smashed Rex's forehead into the floor when I fell on him. So there we are, 3 of us on the floor, 2 of us screaming and Mark and I wondering what the heck just happened. Some nice stylists from Trade Secret came out and gave us some cold towels to put on the boys heads, but they were pretty inconsolable and had some HUGE goose eggs on their foreheads. Sam's was particularly disturbing looking, scratched and covering half his forehead. We sat down on the bench for a minute, trying to calm them down, while the security guys asked us what happened and if we needed an ambulance. I thought they would be ok, after all I am used to goose eggs with 2 kids, but Sam would not stop crying and he kept giving his hand to me and saying, "Owie!" I finally noticed his pinky finger was red and starting to swell. We thought it might be broken so we headed to the ER. The boys of course screamed the whole way. Once we got to the hospital, they calmed down and even were laughing and having fun. Mostly because the nurses there were great. They had bubbles and stickers and books for them to look at and they got to wear these cool hospital gowns and get wrapped up in warm towels. The Dr. said that their heads were fine, no skull fractures or anything, and although Sam's finger wasn't too worrisome, they decided to get x-rays of it to make sure. Sure enough, it's just a sprain. So after about an hour we got to finally go get dinner at McDonald's and call it a night. So, how could I have made this experience in to a spiritual lesson? Any ideas? Maybe have a prayer before you go out for Family night!

Busy weekend

We had a busy but fun weekend. It started with me finishing the painting in my kitchen and it ended with me still finishing the painting in my kitchen!


In between that we got to go to the ward party, a gingerbread making party,




Rex and I went and saw Bolt and Mark brought home flowers for me.

He is so sweet. He said I have been working so hard lately and that was the reason why. THANKS HONEY!

Rex's Preschool program

Rex had a Preschool Christmas program today so Mark and I got to go over and watch. It was so cute and some parts were so hilarious! I added the video at the bottom. I love Rex's, "Hi mommy! Hi daddy!". He also tells me to clap in the middle of it and asks his teacher Miss Cindy what the noise was. The cutest was when he yells, "Yay!" after one of the songs. It was fun to watch and he did a good job, he likes to perform.
One of the little girls in another class had some bells and dropped them in her dress and had her dress up to her chest trying to find those bells. It was HILARIOUS! I love watching little kids perform.

Disco dancing

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Tis the season

for Christmas parties! We had our first Christmas party on Friday night after we picked out our puppy. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well so I didn't get to enjoy the food as much as I would have. The Featherstone's invited us over for a "couples" party. It was so much fun! One of the biggest blessings I had serving in the YW program was getting to know Anna and seeing what an amazing person she is. I haven't made a very good effort at having her and Matt over so I was so happy she made the effort and we got to spend some time together outside of church stuff. It was a really fun time! She made an excellent dinner, again so disappointed I didn't feel good because it looked amazing. We had fun conversation, a rocking white elephant gift exchange, in which sadly we lost Mark's beloved BYU shirts and a fun game. Anna was also kind enough to let me wrap up in one of her blankets when I discovered I had forgotten to put deodorant on (Seriously, who does that!!) so as not to offend the other guests. We had a great time, THANKS Anna!

Paige, always the life of the party!

Apparently whatever I was saying was interesting, that would be a first...

Could Mark have gotten a better picture of me?

Mark and Brock

Anna and her awesome cake!