Christmas '09

Christmas 2009 will go down in the books as being one of the best, I think! Everything was perfect! I couldn't have asked for anything more! I just loved every minute of it!

On Christmas Eve, we all got together at my parents' house for the annual Christmas Eve dinner & party. This is my favorite night of the year...lots of food, fun & family! Here's me, Kristin & my mom in front of only part of "the feast!"


After dinner, we always play bingo for little presents. My grandma started this tradition back when I was probably about 10 & we have done it ever since. My parents buy lots of little gifts...some of them funny, some of them totally awesome...and wrap them up. Then, when you get bingo, you get to open a present or steal someone else's. It is so much fun! Here's Cohen with some gloves he won. They're a little too big for him, but perfect for me!


So much fun...

Here's all our loot we ended up with...we got everything from toys to food to games. I was pretty jealous though because Kristin ended up with some ShamWow's that I had my eye on. Haha! The only thing better would have been if there was a Snuggie in there too!

After bingo, we opened all our gifts from Nana & Poppy. The kiddos were spoiled rotten & so were Mike & I. We got a food processor that we have been wanting, a really nice iron (for you girls that were in quilt group, it's one like my mom's that we all loved so much), and lots of other stuff. Thank you Mom & Dad! You guys are too good to us! Here's the boys and Uncle Dan looking through a book that Cohen got from Nana and Poppy...

Once the gifts were open, we calmed things down a little bit & read the Christmas Story out of Luke, then had a family prayer & headed home. It was a great evening!

Once we got home, we quickly put some cookies & milk for Santa (and some carrots for Rudolph) and then we wrote a letter to Santa. The boys felt the need to apologize for several recent transgressions & made promises to do better next year if Santa would just PLEASE bring them presents & not put a lump of coal in their stockings. Haha! Too cute!

Then, it was off to bed!

The next morning, the boys actually slept in! Connor finally woke up at about 8:15 am. I told him he had to wait upstairs until his brothers woke up, so what does he do?!? He goes & wakes them up! Well, what did I expect!?! Cohen woke up pretty easy, but Aiden was dead to the world! Connor was jumping on his bed saying, "Aiden! Wake up! It's Christmas! Let's go see what Santa brought us!!!" Aiden just rolled over & mumbled, "I'll see it later! Right now, I just want to sleep!" What in the world?!? I have never heard of a four-year-old that has done this before! Finally, after another couple of minutes, he changed his mind & decided that it was worth it to get up. Here's everyone waiting at the top of the stairs...

We were all slightly excited...

Cohen got a little fire truck bike & a ball from Santa...

Connor got a Lego X-Wing (which he put together by himself in less than an hour...this kid is a lego wiz)...

And Aiden got some mini skateboards & a ramp...

I told my boys they could only ask Santa for one present this year because, frankly, I'm sick of this guy getting all the credit, and I'm also sick of my kids having this attitude that they can ask Santa for a million things. It's not cool when it takes you five minutes to rattle off your list to some old guy in the mall. So, I told them it had been a tough year for a lot of people...including Santa...and that they could ask him for one thing. Then, they could make a list of other things that they wanted from mom & dad. I think it was an awesome idea & I think it will become our norm from now on.

Next, it was on to the stockings...

Cohen wasn't too interested in looking through his stocking. Instead, he decided to eat some of Santa's cookie crumbs...

Finally, after he had cleaned the plate, he decided to join in on the stocking fun...

Then, it was time to open some presents. Cohen really liked ripping the wrapping paper...

But, he was more interested with the boxes than with what was in them...

Next year, he's getting a bunch of boxes & packing foam for Christmas...that's all I have to say!

A little later in the morning, Mike's Dad & brother, Brian, came down to visit. (Mike's mom was in Nashville with Mike's other siblings, Kimber & David.) They brought even more presents & lots of yummy food too...

Finally, at about lunchtime, we all got dressed & headed down to Nana & Poppy's house. Mike's dad & brother came with us too. We ate leftovers from the night before & just hung out all day...just playing and chatting. Here's Aiden playing a new game on the Wii...

And, Connor & Gavin playing Twister...

And, the adults playing a game called "Fact or Crap." It was actually pretty fun!

Then we ended the night by watching the movie "Four Christmases" while the kiddos played Wii downstairs. It was just a perfect Christmas! I enjoyed every single minute of it! I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas too!!! --Lindsay

Life Lately

Life has been busy this past week. Here's what we've been up to:

Christmas Programs

Both Connor & Aiden had their Christmas programs in the past week. Connor's was last Wednesday. Here he is...he's the furthest left on the third row...


This program was so stinkin' cute! The kids even got to wear their pajamas for it. One of my favorite parts was when they sung "I'm gettin' nuttin' for Christmas." They wore beanies and sunglasses and had the cutest actions...


It was a lot of fun! My parents were able to come out for the program. Thanks for coming Nana and Poppy...

Last Friday, Aiden had his program. Here he is with his cute new teacher Mrs. Clark (Mrs. Rodabaugh retired about a month ago to be a stay-at-home mom & Mrs. Clark took her place.) She is such a cute, fun teacher & Aiden just loves her to pieces...

I love the Learning Dynamics Christmas Program. This is the third time I've been to it (since Connor attended there too) & it's always so cute! They always have fun props & costumes for the kids...

Here's Aiden saying his part, "The holidays are here!" He did a great job! He said it loud & clear...

Nana was able to come to this program too! Thanks Nana! It was fun!

Two Naps a Day Required

Cohen consistently takes two naps each day. But, lately, both of them have been really short naps (45 minutes to an hour TOPS). So, the other day, I decided I was going to keep him up all morning & have him only take an afternoon nap. I thought that if he only had one nap in the afternoon, he'd take a long nap...so that I could actually get something done. Well, this was the scene by lunchtime...

Apparently, he still needs that morning nap...even if it is short.

Ladies' Man

So, Connor has always been our little ladies' man. Little girls seem to just swoon over him...they always have. Well, this week, he started coming home with girls' phone numbers...

I've blurred out the end of the phone numbers, for obvious reasons. The green & pink papers are actually from the same little girl. I guess she gave him the green one first, but then realized that she hadn't included the area code, so she wrote it again. This little girl told him that he should call her so they could "hang out." Then, yesterday, he came home & told me that another girl had given him her number. This one said, "You should call me sometime over Christmas Break." Haha! I didn't think I'd have to deal with this until at least Jr. High. Sigh...

We're No Longer Homeowners

Our old house is now officially owned by someone else! We signed all the paperwork & turned over all our keys last night. I thought I would be really sad to see that house go, but to tell you the truth, I'm not. I feel so detached from that house already, which really surprises me since I loved it so much when we lived there. I'm just ready to move on! This move just feels so right & I'm so excited to get into our new house!

Speaking of the new house, the builder still hasn't even started on it yet! Big surprise, eh? It looks like they will start digging next week. The city took their sweet time to issue permits & the builder just barely got them last week. Also, the HOA of the place we are moving to has to approve EVERYTHING about new homes. They look at the floor plan, the way it will look outside, the colors of the rock & stucco, etc. They have to approve EVERYTHING! It turns out that they also have a rule there that if your home can be seen from any "common area" (a.k.a. a church, a school, a park, etc.) then that side of your home has to be all rock. Well, since the back of our house can be seen from a common area, the back of our house has to be all rock. And, the best part is, the builder is doing it FOR FREE! The back of my house is going to be prettier than the front! Haha! So, that's where we are in the build process...at the beginning still! :) The builder is still saying that they should be able to have the house done by the middle of March. We shall see, I guess!

So, that's a rundown of our life lately! I'm almost ready for Christmas. I still have a ton of presents that still need to be wrapped though. I just HATE wrapping presents! There is nothing fun about wrapping! But, so that my children don't have to just take their presents out of Toys R Us sacks, I'll do it! But, I don't have to like it! Have a Merry Christmas y'all! Hope it' a good one! --Lindsay

Our Travels to Logan, SLC, & The North Pole

We've been doing quite a bit of traveling over the last few days. Here's our travelogue:

LOGAN

On Saturday, we drove up Sardine Canyon (in a snowstorm) for Dan's graduation from Utah State University. He graduated with a degree in business, with an emphasis on entrepreneurship & marketing. Basically, he's going to be very rich someday...and he's going to buy lots of nice stuff for his sister-in-law! :) Congratulations Dan!

After the graduation, we headed over to Dan & Kristin's church for some lunch. Dan's family had flown in from New Jersey, plus we had our whole family there...so there was no way all of us were going to be able to eat in their townhouse, so off to the church we went.

After lunch, we went back to their house for dessert & so Dan could open his gifts from everyone. Here's a picture of our whole family at their house...

Then we drove back down the canyon through the raging snow. It was a fun day! Thanks to Kristin & Dan for inviting us up! We are so happy for you guys & we can't wait for you to move down here so we can start our "life plan!" Haha!

SALT LAKE CITY

On Monday, we made our annual Christmas trip to downtown Salt Lake. We met my parents at Build-a-Bear first. They wanted to take the kids there as part of their Christmas present. The boys had a blast. I forgot my camera, so I had to take pictures with my phone. As you can tell, Blackberries aren't known for their cameras. Oh well. Both Connor & Aiden picked out dogs & Cohen picked out a bear. Here's Connor helping to stuff his bear...

And, here's Aiden making sure his dog has enough stuffing...

And, here's Cohen putting his bear's heart inside...

After the stuffing, the boys took their bears & gave them a "bath"...

And then it was time to pick out clothes. Both Connor & Aiden picked out a Darth Vader costume for their dogs. Cohen picked out a soccer outfit...mainly because it had a ball that came with it. When he saw it, he just kept pointing and saying, "Ball...ball!" I didn't get a picture of the boys dressing their animals because I was too busy helping. But, I did get a picture of Cohen wearing some random Christmas tree hat that he found...

After the bears were all dressed, we took them over to the computers and named them. Connor named his "Bark Vader," Aiden named his "Dog Vader," and Cohen named his "Beckham." I wish I had pictures of the finished products, but I don't. You can see my mom holding Cohen's bear in this picture & you can see a little bit of Connor's. I'll take pictures of them on Christmas Eve when they open them. They turned out so cute...

After Build-a-Bear, it was on to Trolley Square for some shopping & food. We ate at Old Spaghetti Factory like we do every year. Then, it was on to Temple Square to see the lights. We decided to park by Gallivan Plaza and then ride Trax up to Temple Square. The lights were pretty & the temperatures were actually pretty pleasant at first...

I love Temple Square...especially this time of year. Here's a picture of the whole family. It looks like Aiden is pitching a fit, but I don't think he was. Maybe he was just being extra energetic about saying "cheese" or something...

After we were all starting to get cold, we started heading back to the Trax station. But, then we realized that the Jazz game had just gotten out, so all the trains were PACKED! We decided it would probably be faster for us to walk the 3 1/2 blocks back to our cars. Now, I know that 3 1/2 blocks is not very far...but it felt like an eternity! We started getting so cold that it was MISERABLE.

Cohen seemed pretty content the whole time though. If only all of us had had a stroller to ride in...

It was such a fun evening! I look forward to this evening every Christmas season! So fun!

THE NORTH POLE

Last night, we took a trip on the Polar Express! The Heber Valley Railroad does a special train ride during Christmas time that is just like the book & movie. The kids even get to wear their pajamas just like the book! We had tickets for the 5:00 train, but thanks to a bad accident in the canyon, we didn't get there until 5:02 pm. Luckily, when we got there, the train hadn't left the station yet. We ran up to the car that we had tickets for & we started to get on. I was going to be the first one to get on, and then Mike was going to hand the kids up to me. I had just put my foot on the first step when the train STARTED PULLING AWAY! Do you remember this scene from the movie...


The little boy doesn't get on the train fast enough & it starts to pull away. He runs after the train, and is eventually able to jump on. Well, we basically reenacted this scene! We all started running to jump on the train!

Unfortunately, our ending wasn't like the movie. We didn't get on the train. It started going too fast. We finally gave up. Aiden was crying & Connor's eyes were starting to tear up. I'm sure we were quite the sight...a family of five running after a train! We decided to head back to the train station to see what we should do. The employees back at the station took pity on us & gave us new tickets for the 7:30 train later that night! We were so grateful to them! Then, right after this, hoards of other people started coming into the train station with the same problem. Stupid traffic jam! I think they ended up giving 25+ people tickets for the 7:30 train because they felt so bad for everyone.

We had over two hours to kill, so we headed over to the Dairy Keen for some dinner. I love Dairy Keen! Are there any better burgers & shakes on the planet? I started talking to one of the owners & she ended up giving me one of their cookbooks that they sell! Now I have all the Dairy Keen secrets!!! Well, I'm sure not ALL of them, but quite a few! I can't wait for my next barbecue so we can make Dairy Keen burgers! Here we are eating our food...

And, here are the boys with some crazy glasses they got in their kids meals...

At 6:30, we decided to head back over to the train station. We were NOT going to miss the next train, so we made sure we were extra early! We spent the next hour amusing ourselves by looking in the gift shop and taking pictures of ourselves...

Cohen amused himself by falling backwards repeatedly! I think I may have another dare devil on my hands...

Finally, it was time to board the train. Here we are waiting to get in our train car...

Here are the boys in their seat, waiting for the train to go. They were sooooo excited!

And, here's the whole fam...

The train was decorated so cute & Christmasy! There were "elves" on the train who came around & got all the kids names and asked them what they wanted for Christmas. That way, Santa already knew what the kids names' were & it made the kids feel like it was the "Real Santa." Brilliant!!!

Once we were on our way, the chefs brought around cookies and hot chocolate, just like in the movie. These cookies were DELICIOUS...

...and the hot chocolate was the PERFECT temperature...

The boys loved looking out the window...

Then, the elves passed out copies of the book "The Polar Express." The head elf read the story over the intercom while the kids followed along in their copies...

And then, we finally made it to the North Pole! Once we got there, Santa boarded the train & talked to every boy & girl. Then, he gave them their own bell from his sleigh...just like in the book...

Here are the boys ringing their jingle bells. Cohen doesn't have his in this picture though...because he THREW it right before I pushed the button. Good grief...that kid LOVES to throw things...

Then, we started our trip back to civilization. On the way back, we had a visitor...

Mrs. Claus came around to take pictures and to pass out her recipe for the delicious cookies we had eaten on our way up to the North Pole. The recipe was pretty cute. It had real ingredients, but intermixed were fun little things like "One giggle from an elf" and "One eyelash from a reindeer." So fun!

The conductor eventually came around and punched our tickets...

Then we sang Christmas carols & did "The Penguin Dance" in the isles. The Penguin Dance was basically the Chicken Dance, but with penguin actions...

As we pulled back into the station, we sang a few more Christmas carols...this time ones about Christ's birth. We were singing "Silent Night" as we pulled back into the station. I thought it was a great ending to the whole activity. It was nice to bring it back to the real reason for Christmas. Not many companies do things like this anymore because they don't want to "offend" anyone, so I think it is great that Heber Valley Railroad still does it!

It was such a fun evening! I loved how my kids' eyes were lit up the whole time! It was one of those perfect nights! They don't come around very often, but last night was one of them! It's a night I know I will always remember...and hopefully, the boys (at least the big boys) will too! How can you forget running after a train?!? Haha!

So, that's our travelogue for the past few days! It has been crazy, but it has been soooooooo fun! Hope everyone is having a great holiday season! --Lindsay