Christmas 2009

Although our whole family was sick the week before and the week of Christmas, it was still a great Holiday Season(at least being sick helped me stay away from all those Christmas treats).
Some pre-Christmas celebrations included Lily singing in her school program,
acting out the Nativity with LPS toys,

Jefferson's preschool party,
visiting Santa,
and Christmas Adam (the 23rd) and Eve (the 24th) with both extended families (and congratulating Eric and Carlee on their engagement). At these parties it gives us a chance to re-enact the Nativity story and be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas, our Savior, Jesus Christ.



Christmas day started out with the kids lining up youngest to oldest in their new pajamas.
Because Santa had called Lily and Jeff earlier that week, they knew they were getting a suprise from Santa. I don't think they were expecting a trip to Disneyland!
Santa did such a good job making certificates for the four of us, and an advent calendar to count down the days til we go.
At first they didn't quite get what it was Santa had left, but by that night all they could talk about is Disneyland.
Jeff was excited to get a Disney Wii game.
Cedric got a Mickey toy instead of a trip certificate. That's okay, he can go next time.

After seeing what Santa brought, we exchanged gifts with each other. Every year we send the kids with some money and a couple lucky relatives (thanks Maren & Tim) to the dollar store to buy gifts for each person in our family. Then they wrap them and it's so fun for Tom and I to see what they picked. I love my hair brush (Lily was so excited to give it to me that's all she talked about for weeks), and Tinkerbell coloring page Lily gave me, and the Dora bubbles Jeff gave me. Tom enjoyed using his can insulator from Lily and playing with his toy planes from Jeff.
Lily loved the unicorns from Mom and Dad.
Jefferson was so excited to get Hot Wheel cars.
Cedric was so busy playing with his boat, he wouldn't even stop for a picture.

After opening presents, we got ready for the day and went to my Aunt Karen's for the traditional Christmas breakfast. We then went to Tom's parent's house to exchange gifts and say Merry Christmas, then back home for naps and playing with toys. Later that day we went to my parent's house for another gift exchange. All the kids enjoyed their gifts from cousins and grandparents.
Jeff got two Transformer costumes that he wore the rest of the day (he called this one the yellow Darth Vader).
It's been fun having my brother, Nate visiting from Germany for the holidays.
He gave Tom some Mr. Tom candy from Germany.

That night we went to Grandma Greats for dinner and another party. It was a very fun, long day.
And now we have Disneyland to look forward to in a few months!

Ten things I love about my life

I thought I'd copy my sister and make a list of at least ten things I love about my life (in no particular order).
1. I love being married to Tom, whom I am still madly in love with after ten years, have total trust in, and who still treats me like a princess! I also love that he has a good job and supports our family.
2. I love Cedric's hugs and kisses. They always make me laugh. Even if his kisses are more like wide mouth slobber all over your face. I love having a baby to cuddle.
3. I love having Jefferson as my little buddy all the time. We get a lot of one-on-one time together, which I love. He is such a good boy right now too, I love that.
4. I love watching Lily perform songs and such for me. She also makes me love notes all the time, which I love too. It's fun to see her growing up and I love when we can sit and carry on "grown up" conversations.
5. I love watching my kids sleep. As much fun as they are, there's nothing that makes them sweeter than when they are asleep.
6. I love naps. I don't get them as often as I use to, but I always love a good nap. especially when Tom's home to take care of the kids, I can shut the doors, turn on the fan and drown out all my worries.
7. I love hanging out with family. Whether it be my siblings and parents, Tom's siblings and parents, or just the five of us I always Cherish those moments.
8. I love having the knowledge of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I love knowing who I am and what I can someday become. I love everything that comes with being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
9. I love playing games, watching "Survivor", and going out to dinner (I know that's three very different things, but I'm trying to keep my list to ten, so they are all listed together).
10. I love when my children obey and do what they should. I love when they play together like best friends, all three of them.
I'm sure the list could go on. It's so easy to get caught up in the negative, stress and worry of life, that it's nice to step back and think about how much you have to love, and what really makes you happy.

Christmas Picture Attempt

So yesterday we attempted to get pictures taken for our Christmas card. We decided to go the cheap route and do them at our home. Tom's sister, Maren was nice to loan us her fancy camera. And our neighbor, Collette was our wonderful photographer. Right before Collette showed up, Jefferson decided to be rebellious and refuse to get his vest or tie on, his hair combed, and forget smiling for the picture. When Collette showed up Jeff had at least complied with getting dressed, but still didn't want his picture taken, and Lily decided to be "shy" and not cooperate either. It reminded us of trying to take pictures on our South Dakota trip.

We tried getting pictures with just Cedric first hoping the other kids would become interested.

Cedric was all smiles while Tom and I were busy dealing with the other two.

Then we took a picture forcing them in whether they wanted to be in it or not (I feel bad I really hurt Lily in this picture trying to pull her head up).

Trying not to loose it more than we already had, we took the kids upstairs and had a talk with them. Lily finally decided to cooperate, but Jeff was still not ready. so we tried taking pictures with just the boys.

Then just the kids (Cedric was cooperating the best).

Then we tried it all together (Jeff looked the same in all the indoor pictures).

The best one of Cedric had to be the one where we were all pulling faces.

For fun we decided to go outside. The older kids thought that was so fun to get their nice clothes all snowy. Cedric was getting tired by this point and was only happy if there was a Smarty in his mouth.

So after a very long morning these three are our favorite. What do you think?


Thanks Collette for being so patient with us and for the great pictures!

Disgustingly Ironic

I know this is gross, but it was too ironic to not blog about...
Yesterday I had one child not make it to the bathroom on time and pooped in his pants. Now this was the yucky, messy kind which was all over underwear, etc. When discovered, I set down the baby to help clean up the mess. It wasn't until I walked into the other room to get some wipes when I realized the poop had gotten all over the floor, then somehow gotten all over the Wii remote and steering wheel and the baby (who had also not realized the mess and was playing with the yucky Wii when discovered). Realizing that I now had two children covered in poop, I stressfully ran them up and placed each screaming child in a tub or a shower. It took about a half an hour to clean up two kids, the carpet, the Wii controllers, and the clothes. It was gross.
Well, later that day a different child didn't make it to the bathroom on time and somehow got poop on the floor. Luckily after the first mess, this was a piece of cake to clean, and it was actually hard to keep from laughing.
Luckily the third child managed to only poop in his diaper. However, that night he woke up with a coughing fit and when I went in to check on him he'd coughed too hard and I found a puddle of throw up in his bed. Again, gross.
Yesterday was a disgustingly ironic day. I'm glad they don't come by too often (all though potty accidents are a frequency in our home, argh!).