Christmas 2009 Overview

Christmas 2009 was wonderful. It was full of family and fun. Christmas Eve was spent over at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We had a delicious dinner and then enjoyed the annual Rock Family Program. We listened to singing and piano and were blessed to hear Landon's version of "Jingle's Bell" about 5 times. He is so funny. As always we finished the evening with the lighting of one candle and passing it around the room letting everyone share what they were grateful for the past year. It is always an evening full of love and tears. After some delicious Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake we hurried home to get the milk and cookies out for Santa. :)

Nate and I stayed up late wrapping gifts and listening to Christmas music. I LOVE getting ready for Christmas morning. When we finished putting bikes and toys together I couldn't help but tear up a little at the sight of our Christmas tree lights shining on all of the gifts. It was such and beautiful sight and I felt so grateful for ALL I am blessed with. I also had butterflies in my stomach FOR my kids! SO FUN!

Christmas morning WE (as in Nate and I) had to WAKE our kids up! Crazy! The kids were thrilled with everything. Santa got pretty much everything they asked for: Bikes, Skateboard ramps, Air Hogs, Pixo's.........

After that we jumped in the car and headed back to Grandma's house for MORE gifts. My sister made the most incredible book for my parents. It is pictures and letters going all the way back to when they very first met. Such a special and sweet gift. She spent hundreds of hours on it but it was definitely worth it. Such a priceless gift.

Nate, Robby and Yamo were all LOVING their new SNUGGIES!

As for me....well, I guess I have come to the conclusion that Nate and his biking OBSESSION is NOT a phase and is NOT going away anytime soon. For Christmas he got me everything I need to join him on the road. Our bikes match each other....awwww. If you can't beat 'em join 'em right? I'm seeing a lot of dates that look like THIS in the future:

I'm ready to get my fitness on!

Dear Santa,

I found this on a blog today and had to put it on mine. The last line is my favorite.
Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my three children on demand, visited their doctor's office more than my doctor, sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground and figured out how to attach nine patches onto my son's boy scout uniform with staples and a glue gun.

I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze; but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month two pregnancies ago.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals; and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with three kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season.

Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely.

It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold. Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always,
Motherboard

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel ALL my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa.

Merry Merry!

Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread Houses

Monday night we had the whole fam over for FHE. We had a candy filled evening making gingerbread houses and playing "Don't Eat Frosty." Here are a few of the finished products. Mine was the "kit" (upper left hand corner) with all of the items ready to go and it STILL looks like it threw up on itself. Jason's (Upper right) ended up looking most like an outhouse.
Robby's won for best overall:
And Natalie's came in last place. It was tipped over and no one could figure out why the M&Ms were on the bottom. Good times with the family.

The Train Tradition

Every year we stay in Boise for the holidays we try to meet up with my family and head down town to Old Boise to the Model Train Exhibit. It's FREE, its FUN, and Santa is always there waiting to hear what everyone wants for Christmas! Parks and Dal were really loving the trains this year. They had fun playing the little "I spy" game where you have to try and find all of the little tiny items listed. (ex. a beekeeper, a baby cow, and John Deere tractor...) Dal was pretty sure that the Santa there was the REAL one. He had the real mustache!

Me and Mom


One of these boys is NOT like the others. Baby C was NOT wanting anything to do with Santa. Poor little guy.

After that we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's to celebrate Nat's Birthday! What a fun day!

One whole hand

Parker is 5 today! Wow! We had lots of fun at his army man birthday party today. Parker is obsessed with anything ARMY as of late. He loves anything camo, guns, bombs, tanks, GI Joe..... He goes crazy when someone in uniform walks by...he pretty much thinks it is the coolest thing in the world!

We had 5 friends come over (plus Grandma and Grandpa) and we played "Hot grenade" and "Find the army men" and we painted our faces green!

We had tank cake too!

Where have the last 5 years gone? I remember finding out I was pregnant with Parker and I was a little bit upset that my baby was going to have a December birthday. It meant we wouldn't be able to be near any of our extended family during the holidays.

Nate and I always look back on that Christmas in 2004 and reflect on how it really was one of our all time favorites. Parker was the best Christmas present we've ever received! We were all by ourselves up in Spokane. Dallin got a tricycle and I made a blanket for Nate that year. We had NO money at all yet our home was so full of love and peace with this precious new baby. We felt humbled and blessed beyond words.


Parker's Favorites at 5:

Favorite toys: nerf guns, GI Joes, Transformers, anything sports related, skateboards

Favorite movies: UP, Toy Story, Incredibles, Monsters Inc.

Favorite Games: Sorry, UNO, Bingo

Favorite foods: cereal, oatmeal, pizza, brownies, string cheese, broccoli

Joys: playing with his brothers and uncles, sleeping over at Grandmas and getting to go to the candy store, skateboarding, playing sports, having Family Home Evening, going to Chuck E Cheese.

Happy "whole hand" birthday big guy! I love you SO much!

Not all it's cracked up to be

I've decided to go ahead and keep my boys. Yeah, I like 'em again. They have been very good today which has made up for the disaster that was yesterday. Plus, they make me laugh WAY too much.

Case and point: This weekend we took the kids to POJO's Fun Center. Dallin and Parker cashed in their 40 Starnes bucks and wanted to ride the BUMPER CARS! The boys have been talking about it for weeks now...plotting how they were going to run into each other and how GRAND it was going to be.

Here is Parker......looking excited and a tad bit nervous right before the ride started:

Here he is 5 seconds later when they turned the ride on:

Wait for it...............

Wait for it......................................

TADA!

I must be an unfit mother. Instead of running in to rescue him immediately I took his picture and tried to conceal my unrestrained laughter.

The whole ride had to be turned off so he could exit. He opted to ride the carousel instead.

Boys for sale.

Don't these 3 little boys look like angels sent from on high? DON'T LET THEIR SWEET FACES FOOL YOU! Ok, DEEEEEP breath. You know it is a BAD day when you are actually looking forward to the day your kids become teenagers. What is wrong with my kids today? They have been absolutely HORRIBLE. They have been disobedient, talked back, given us major attitude, ignored us, hit each other...actually Landon hit me too and broke my necklace, destroyed the house, threw food all over the place, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

I've taken Starnes bucks away, threatened to call Santa, put a drop of soap in Landon's mouth for calling me "stupid mama" about 20 times, put them in time out and now I am seriously about to lose it.

Landon was so out of control in Sacrament Meeting today I had to take him home and put him to bed..and that was BEFORE church even started.

All I want for Christmas is

The UGLY side of Christmas!

First of all......we are SO incredibly lucky! We have such fantastic friends and are SO blessed to have each of them in our lives! Life would be pretty boring without them.

Holiday time is crazy busy but I thought it would be fun to host an UGLY Christmas sweater party to hang out and have some adult time away from the kids. (THANKS Grandma and Grandpa!)

It was such an adventure trying to find the perfect sweater. Nate and I went to DI, Savers and Goodwill. We felt like we were catching swine flu the entire time but we had a good laugh searching through all of the NASTY sweaters. Side note: Have you ever noticed the STINK level difference between DI and Savers? Savers absolutely REEKS compared to DI! Anyway......

Here was the beauty that I ended up with: (Don't I look like a kindergarten teacher?)

And here is Nate's little Christmas classic. (I'm pretty sure it was a women's sweater but hey.....it works!)

Chris was the WINNER of the ugliest sweater. He found this glorious tinsel covered piece of art off of Ebay! Aubrey came in a close 2nd with her hideous key sweater.

We enjoyed some yummy food (anything dipped in the chocolate fountain is ALWAYS good), played a funny game and swapped white elephant gifts. I haven't laughed so hard in quite awhile! What a great night....thanks to all who came!

Classic Parker....

Today for preschool we took our kiddos to a retirement home. Our little 5 year olds were going to bring some Christmas spirit to the elderly folks there by singing a few Christmas songs. Parker wasn't digging any of it. .

First off, he freezes in front of a crowd. He didn't want to wear the reindeer antlers either because he was just WAY too cool for them but when he saw his younger brother wearing them he had a meltdown. Not surprising at all.

Good thing half of the audience was asleep or couldn't see what was going on. :)

Hanging out at the fire station....

This week we went to the fire station two different times.

The first time was for preschool. We talked about fire safety on Monday and then went to see the trucks and take a tour of the station on Wednesday. The kids LOVED seeing all of the trucks so close up. We had 4 firemen give us the tour. (We were feeling pretty special about that!) The nice firemen gave the kids fire hats, bracelets and stickers! The kids were loving life..well, MINE were anyway!

On Saturday we went to "Kids Giving to Kids" again. It too was at the fire station! The boys picked out some toys that we donated to Toys for Tots. After giving their toys and books they each painted an ornament and then went over to the firetruck where Santa was waiting to hear what the kids wanted for Christmas.

I can't believe how BIG my Dallin looks on Santa's knee. I will say this though....it was the very first year we didn't have ANY tears! Parker seemed a little nervous when Santa asked if he had been good this year. His response was....."Well....I've been pretty good. I'm just trying to be better." :)

My kids only asked for 1 toy each. I was pretty excited about that except for the fact that they asked for something completely different from what they put on their lists AND their letters to Santa a few weeks back. I told them Santa was getting old and so he would probably just go with what we wrote on our letters because its easier for him to remember when things are written down. hehe.

Ain't gettin nuttin for Christmas.....

Conversation with Parker yesterday while running into Walmart for a minute:

Parks: "Mom....can I get a toy at Walmart? I need one."

Me: "Not today buddy....Christmas AND your birthday are coming up."

Parks: "Yeah but I'm not gunna get anything this year."

Me: "Why would you say that?"

Parks: "Cause I know I have been too naughty this year. Santa isn't going to bring me any toys. I am too mean to my brothers, I don't like to share, and I never make my bed because its too hard."

Me: "Don't worry P-man. Santa is a pretty forgiving guy. Just keep trying to be better and I think he will still come and bring you some nice things."

Parks: "OK....I will try."

Talk about HEART BREAK...looking into those cute eyes. Hey....at least he recognizes areas of improvement...right?