December: Weekend getaway, Christmas & Fun!

So one night Thomas was up late. The next morning, he woke up and his hair did not look right. Apparently he thought it was getting too long, so he cut it. 

Christmas & New Years 2013!

Where to start...We had a wonderful Christmas this year. My brother Steven and his family came. My sister Kathryn came with my sister Lindsay and her family and they all stayed at our home. My mom was in heaven as she had 11 of her 17 grandchildren the entire week under one roof. (That makes for 20 people under one roof.) We were sad that my sister Jen was not able to make it. That would have been quite the drive for her family.

So...here is our last few weeks. (This is guaranteed to be a long post!)

It started off that Saturday John took the 11 year old scouts on a hike. He invited Taylor to come along. Taylor thought it was a great way to get out of doing housework! He enjoyed himself and looks forward to joining the troop in four months. (Is that possible?)

John, Taylor, Jake, Spencer, Denmark

I forgot...

So after I posted last night, John read it and said, "You forgot to include pictures of how the TV looks now!" I also realized I forgot to mention the special date Jonathan went on last Saturday night.

So...Saturday night, John took Jonathan to the PAC-12 championship game at ASU Sundevil Stadium. It was cold, and they lost their voices. It did not help that the Sundevils were playing their worst football all season long. They ended up coming home during the 3rd quarter. John was a little disappointed to say the least.

On Sunday, I was not feeling well, but I felt well enough to at least do this little girl's hair! She was very cute! The primary kids got suckers and her dad got an extra one so she could eat it.

Merry Christmas 2012

I cannot believe Christmas is over!  Because we just moved into our home, I did not really start shopping for Christmas until we moved.  For those that know me know that I am NOT a last minute person by any stretch of the imagination and my brain was on overload all week making sure I had everything.  We also told our boys they were only getting one gift from us this year since the house was their big gift.  That helped ease my stress a little knowing I had fewer gifts to get.

Christmas Eve, John went into work for a few hours and we cleaned the house.  When he came home he put the upper cabinet doors on.  They look really nice.  Now we just need the hardware on and the kitchen will be done.  (Still debating if we want to paint the countertops.  That is a discussion for another day though.)  John also put luminaria out.  Our neighborhood for the past 27 years does this tradition.  They give out very specific instructions on how far apart to put them too.

For Christmas Eve we had my parents and brother Steven with his family.  Here is the food set up. (With the cabinet doors on in the background!)

Busy Week Before Christmas!

We had something every night last week.  So between cleaning our old place, unpacking, getting ready for Thomas' birthday and Christmas we had other events on top of all that!

Tuesday night was the boys Winter Sing concert.  Thomas was very excited to finally have a concert!  He thought it was just for him, so he was confused his brothers were getting dressed up for it as well.  We got there late, so we had to start by sitting in the front row.  Pictures were not that great.  I got to briefly see Thomas' music teacher and my old friend Mr. Gavin Rittenhouse.  It has been 20 years since I have seen him.  Thomas did a wonderful job, knew all the words and actions and had the best facial expressions!  (He is on the second row up with the red tie on.  The lights were really bright!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

(I originally put it is BEGGING instead of Beginning, at this point they seem the same.)

With the move, unpacking, Thomas birthday we throw a major holiday in the mix and life is a roller coaster for sure!  I needed to get in the holiday mood and John helped by getting the decorations out for me Monday night.  He had a brilliant idea of putting our tree on top of a table out of a certain toddler's reach.  So far only 1 ornament has broken.  I think that is a record considering we let the boys put all the ornaments on the tree without supervision.  I think they liked having the ladder out too in order to decorate.  Here are some pictures:

Merry Christmas 2011!

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did as well.  Christmas Eve we were able to get some cleaning done (which was on Mom's to do list...) deliver a few last minute goodies and then we went to my parents for dinner.  It was really nice.  We did the story of the birth of Christ, had a testimony meeting and then we opened presents from Grandma & Grandpa.

 Taylor decided to copy everything that Rebecca was doing.

 It was quite funny...

 I went back and discovered that Thomas was crawling at the age Rebecca is now.  We think she will start in the next couple of weeks!

 The shepherd (Thomas) wanted a better look at Baby Jesus (Rebecca).  Joseph (John) had to hold him back.

 Cute Baby Jesus!

 She was more interested in the ribbon that the gift.

 Thomas woke up this morning and said half asleep "When do we open presents?"  He was very excited to open them finally!

 Jonathan & Taylor opening their gifts.

 We got new jammies for everyone!  Rebecca's said, "I Love Santa!"

Night before Christmas picture.

Sunday morning, John was up with Rebecca at 6.  Around 6:30 Jonathan got up and so John told him to go wake his brothers and they could open their stockings before church.

 Taylor & his castle set.

 Jonathan with Legos

 Rebecca loved her doll.

Thomas and his puppy.
We got ready for church and after a wonderful meeting came home and opened the rest of our gifts.  The boys were very excited for everything.

At the end we had a few family gifts.  We had them put together a puzzle with a secret message on the back.    Here is the message:

 John takes the bar on Feb 28 & Feb 29.  We decided that our family needed a celebration so we will leave on March 1st and spend two days at Disneyland as a HOORAY!  I have to give Jonathan kudos points though.  He wanted to know when Dad & Mom were going to celebrate their anniversary. (Since it is March 1st.)  Dad reassured him we would celebrate later that month.

We went to my parents for Christmas dinner.  I made Swedish Meatballs.  I hear they were really good.  Everyone loved them!

 One last picture of Rebecca.  I can't get over how much she is looking more and more like her brother Thomas.  Personality wise she is her own person though!

Our boys went to sleep after we did last night. Around 11pm, we heard them talking and Jonathan said, "Say goodbye to Christmas!" Thomas said, "Goodbye Christmas. Where is it going?" Jonathan said, "Christmas is over in a hour. It only comes once a year." They all hung their heads and said, "Oh Yea."

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Memories

Last week John had 4 finals.  He finished his last one on Saturday afternoon!  As John was leaving to go study on Saturday he offered Thomas the opportunity to go take the final for him.  Thomas said, "No thanks dad.  Don't worry - you will have friends at school to help you!"  Now we wait until this Friday when he will graduate!  (The boys are excited they get to get out of school early.)

Last weekend we had our ward Christmas Party.  They had finger foods and crafts for the kids to do.  Our boys had a really fun time.  They made marshmallow snowmen:

They also had frames you could paint as well ornaments.  Thomas did a great job on his.

See that green in the top corner?  Well...that caused a melt down for Thomas at the end of the night.  So mom went and tried to fix it.  I picked up a brush, put it in the yellow paint and brushed on BLACK!  Apparently there was black paint under the yellow paint and so I tried to wipe it all off and paint it again. It took a while, but Thomas was fine with the way I fixed it.  Jonathan helped the other kids there that needed help.

Saturday John left to go study before his final and Taylor had a birthday party in the afternoon.  After John's final, my parents volunteered to watch our children so we could go on a date.  The boys were quite excited.  They did not know they were going to decorate gingerbread houses.  We got there and the excitement began.  My mom was almost done putting them together and then she watched Rebecca and the boys decorated for the next two hours!  They turned out really well:

 Taylor' put a sting of lights across the front, had a fence post and fence around.  Even outdoor lights and smoke out of his chimney!

 I am so impressed with Thomas!  He had the gumdrop pattern on the side, the walkway and a lot more details than I think a normal 4 year old would put.

 Jonathan really thought his through as well.  He spent a lot of time on his roof and it turned out really well!

We took the houses to their teachers and they LOVED them!

 Taylor & Mrs. Smith

Mrs. Harding & Jonathan

We forgot to get one of Thomas with his teacher, but she was thrilled to get it and quite impressed with Thomas.

Sunday we put up our Christmas tree.  The boys were very excited and we had to explain why they had certain ornaments.  Thomas started to feel a little cheated that his older brothers had more ornaments than he did.  I told him it all will work out in the end.  Jonathan realized when he leaves he will have a lot of ornaments to take with him.  He was excited about that.  My favorite thing was our new Christmas Stockings.  Ours have not matched since we had children.  I told John after we were done with our children we would then get matching stockings.  Well...I found a great deal the day after Christmas - ordered them online and had them delivered.  They are perfect!  I love looking at them.

We start Thomas' birthday week tonight.  He is very excited about picking his favorite meals.  He has an Angry Birds party planned for this Saturday.  He can hardly wait!

Thomas and Santa

Thomas has NEVER wanted to talk or go near Santa.  He will always tell me, "Mom...it is not the REAL Santa."   He knows that Santa has lots of helpers that look like him, but wants to only give his information to the REAL one.

Last year, we got a Christmas card from John's Uncle Max & Aunt Karen.  (This is Uncle Max.)

When Thomas saw the card, he exclaimed, "MOM!  THAT IS THE REAL SANTA!"

Fast forward to last night.  Thomas took a nap starting at 6:30pm.  That meant he was wide awake around 9:00pm!  He asked me when he was going to be able to see Santa this year.  "The Real one Mom!"  I told him he should write Santa a letter and we would deliver it to him.

So Thomas got a bunch of post-its and a crayon and began.  "Dear Santa, This is Thomas.  I want a dog with a bone like the one that broke a few years ago."  He looked up.  I said, "Is there anything else you want?"  He said, "What does Rebecca want?"  I said, "Probably a doll."  So he grabbed a new post it and wrote, "Dear Santa, RE-Bec-Ca wants a doll."  I said, "Is there anything else YOU want Thomas?"  He said, "Hold on Mom!"  He ran into his room and said, "Jonathan & Taylor, I am writing to Santa.  What do you want for Christmas?"  Taylor came out wondering why Thomas was writing a letter to Santa for him.  I told Taylor that Thomas was doing this for the entire family apparently.  Thomas came out and said, "Taylor, what do you want?"  Taylor replied, "A Castle!"  So Thomas grabbed a new post it and wrote, "Dear Santa, Taylor would like a castle for Christmas."  Then he pulled a new post it and wrote, "Dear Santa, Jonathan wants Lego Harry Potter 7 for Christmas."  Thomas then ran into our room and said, "Dad!  What do you want for Christmas?!"  He came out excited and started to write, "Dear Santa, Dad wants a hug from Thomas and a kiss from Thomas too!"  He looked at me and said, "Mom, what do you want?"  I said, "I want to feel better Thomas."  He grabbed a post it and wrote, "Dear Santa, my Mom wants medicine for Christmas."  I laughed and said, "Thomas, I don't want medicine, I just want my body to feel better and to eat more foods."  So he grabbed another post it (It was in crayon after all) and wrote, "Dear Santa, my Mom wants to feel better."

Then he put them all on an envelope and colored it for Santa.  He is expecting us to deliver it today to Santa so his elves can start working on it.  Thomas has many sides.  He can be very sweet, and last night was a good reminder of that.

Temple Lights 2011!

We went to the Mesa Temple last night to see the Christmas lights.  The past couple years we have gone it has been really crowded, so we were in heaven when it was not that bad.  Especially since we had a stroller this year!

The lights were beautiful as always, and it was nice to see the boys telling each other about the lights, the story of baby Jesus and other interesting facts.

We ran into John's Uncle Don and Aunt Nansi there too!  That was a treat for us.

Here are pictures from the night:

 Walking from the parking lot.

 This is the same patch of ground that the boys weeded this past summer.  They were very proud to show it off.

 Thomas like the green lights the best because they looked like grass.

 Jonathan

 Rebecca got this cute hat from the lady that works at the law school copy center.

 We love being here!

 I have always loved the reflection pool.

 We had Jonathan take our picture.  Taylor is explaining to Thomas why the temple is important.

 Rebecca did really well.  We realized next year she will be 18 months and running around!

 Every year we have our picture taken in front of the Christus statue.

The boys still love to look at the replica of Jerusalem.

So today Thomas came up to me and said, "Mom, do you know who has never had a Christmas present?"  I said, "No, who?"  He said, "Jesus!"  I said, "What do you think Jesus would like for Christmas?"  I was thinking about service or helping others.  Thomas was quick though and replied, "A stuffed animal!  I think he would love my Mickey Mouse.  Can I give it to him?"  I should also mention that apparently on Sunday their lesson was on how there are children that don't get presents, so Thomas came home and put some toys into two bags and then asked if we could take them to the children that were not going to have Christmas.  It was very touching to see.     

Christmas Morning

I think these pictures say it all:

Notice the Basketball hoop in by the door behind Taylor.  The boys were thrilled to see that.  Thomas was not happy because of some obscure reason that no one could figure out.

 Santa brought the first three Star Wars DVDs.

 Both Jonathan & Taylor were VERY happy!

 Thomas discovered there was candy in his stocking...

 ...and dumped it all onto the floor!

 Opening presents.

 Taylor got the book "Star Wars Year by Year" from us.

 Thomas got his Thomas the Train Follow Me Light.

 Jonathan got a camcorder/camera.

 The boys got gifts from each other.

 We also got the boys Mario Kart.  Guess who is in heaven...:-)

Taylor and Thomas playing Hungry Hippos.  Thomas was funny.  He thought that the marbles that were in his tray were his so he would take them out and put them directly into his hippos mouth.  We have a small learning curve, but he will get it.

We had a great morning!