Tuesday, December 21, 2010


Merry Christmas (part one)

Whenever we go somewhere for Christmas we like to do our own thing sometime the week before we leave. We had 'our' Christmas this past weekend & had a great one.

We started the weekend off on Thurs night at our ward Christmas party. Hyrum rocked the Primary performance! Good job Bud :) AND they all sat on Santa's lap (or close enough) without screeching, except Miss Emma did screech a bit before Daddy rescued her.

The making of cookies for Santa, Mrs. Claus & their 4 kids on Christmas Eve

The traditional reading of Luke 2, singing Christmas hymns, placing the Nativity set up while the story is being read, & watching a Christmas movie on Christmas Eve. This is Hyrum & Hunter's fake smiles. I'm sure you've seen them before.

Jeremy & I stayed up until 1:45 in the AM wrapping presents, stuffing stockings & making the traditional overnight cinnamon rolls. Without consulting us, Justin still woke up at his regular 5am hour. Tiiiiiired. But excited for Christmas morning!!!

Opening the stockings!!!!


As mean as it sounds we didn't get the babies anything for Christmas. But Darlin', Pa & Zac & Joy made up for that! If you can't tell, Emma really likes her bear & Justin isn't sure of the spiky balls.


Aunt Joy MADE these super cute outfits for the babies!!! I am impressed with her sewing skills! Check her out sometime


Wall-E

His one request for Christmas was the Sheriff & Santa didn't let him down.

I highly recommend getting your 4 11/12ths year old boy (if you have one) a remote controlled car for Christmas. He will love it, I promise you! And the car garage wasn't a bad idea either.


My Dad & Mum skyped with us all through the morning & it was SO COOL! It really felt like they were with us. My Mom made me this cool ladybug apron. They gave me a new temple dress that was much needed. It was very sweet.


Fast boys! My parents gave Hunter a 'Rusteze' shirt & it quickly tied with his '7 shirt' for his 'fravwrit'. I'm glad because now while I wash one he can wear the other, it was getting tricky with just the 7 shirt.


I did it, I did it! I finally finished knitting all of our stockings. This was a big accomplishment for me & it felt like it took forever & my right hand fingers still hurt but they're done & even though they're not uniform in size, I like them.

I like this picture of Jeremy. I love this guy. That night we had our first annual Shakespear caroling party! I was so excited. Growing up my family went caroling each Christmas with 2 other families in our ward & it was one of my favorite traditions. I've missed it the last few years so we decided to do our own. We had 4 other families join us caroling on our street. We had 10 adults & 14 kids! There was one 8 yr old, one 6 yr old & the rest were under 5! We came back to our house afterwards for lots of treats, chatting & running around screaming until 10pm. (the last part was what the kids did). Wish I had taken a picture of everyone.

Hunter has a really big head, don't you think? It looks as big as mine! It is as big as Hyrum's & he has somewhere between 1/2 to 1 size smaller shoe than Hyrum. He is a big boy.

Sunday night we drove through a park that has tons of light displays up. This was my favorite one.

Sunday night we officially became a 4-kid-facing-forward-in-the-car-family. It's a grand improvement.

!Feliz Navidad!

Now we're off to Texas for some more Christmas cheer!
Posted by at 3 comments:

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Reading & walking

I am most definitely aware of my many weaknesses as a Mom. I must say I'm not very good at structured learning time, we do it sometimes but I'm just not very good at it or consistent with it. On a positive note I'm really good at reading to my kids, doing puzzles & just playing-- cars, blocks, pretend etc.

Hyrum knows all the sounds (mostly) of the letters, can recognize them & write them all. So a couple of days ago I realized he could probably be reading a little bit but he isn't because I just haven't taken the time to do that with him. So yesterday we sat down & he read like 40 words!!! A lot of the hat, bat, bag, fox, up, if words. I have to say it was one of the coolest things to watch him make the sounds & then when he realized what it actually said his face would light up & he would get so excited. I am a book worm myself (sadly, not enough of late) so it did my heart a lot of good to see how much he enjoyed it. I hope the excitement lasts!!!

Seems like everyday Justin is walking steadier & farther. He finally let me get a video of him walking. It must be hard to perform when you have all this paparazzi following you around!


And here is one of Emma doing her blabber blabber thing



And here is my Bug. He's been telling me I'm a silly mommy a lot lately & I like it.

Posted by at 2 comments:

Monday, December 13, 2010

Let it Shmow, shmow, shmow!

It shmowed here in Springfield! No way! We heard it doesn't do that often & if it does it's after Christmas. Well, it would have been fun with the kids all decked out in their leftover AA snow gear except that the wind was blowing a million miles per hour so the snow-romp lasted about 1 minute. Maybe next time!


11 months & growing like weeds!

Justin is very proudly wobbling around here & there. He still crawls the majority of the time but is getting more adventurous in his walking. This kid is following after his brothers footsteps & loves to read books & look at them on his own. He seems to have a bit of a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde complex. He can be the cutest kid, making funny noises, always coming to lay his head on my lap to cuddle, belly laughing & rolling around on the floor with his brothers & sister. But then oh boy the tantrums are already starting & he can sure whine & cry with the best of them. Oh & he struggles with the sleeping thing. We love our little mister!

Miss Emma is a speed crawler & is starting to be more comfortable standing up. She is the happiest baby we know & is constantly smiling & laughing. She has a bit of stranger anxiety, is a major Daddy's girl & comes crawling towards him like a freight train when he enters the room, loves to put everything & anything in her mouth at all times, is the cuddliest she's ever been, scrunches up her face for pictures, takes her food VERY seriously, & if you take something away from her you'll get an earful. We love our missus!


Stinkers! So we block off the kitchen/dining room with a couch, tub & gate but we leave the hallway free so the babies can crawl down to H & H's rooms with the toys. I just have to make sure I keep the closets, bathroom, laundry room, Justin's room & the master bedroom doors closed so they don't get into mischief. Well I guess I forgot today! They had even shut the door behind themselves.


Yup, mischief! Can you hear Emma's snorty laugh? Love it!



I usually don't put a plug in for Hollywood but this is a really good movie. I saw it with some friends at the dollar theater & then Jeremy & I actually rented it a few days later so he could see it too. It didn't completely make sense but it was a very good, adventurous story. I liked how it ended too.


Posted by at 2 comments:

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

O Tannenbaum, I think I finally like you

I think it was decorating it, but I finally 100% like our fake tree!

And I really like hanging Christmas lights in our living room & on top of our cabinets too.



And I love Frosty the Snowman that my Mum made for us, thank you, thank you! He's so cute.


This kid started taking steps on Thanksgiving day! No way. The most he's taken in a row is 5- I don't think I'm ready for a walking baby but because he's so proud of himself it makes me excited :)


Posted by at 5 comments:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)