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.