our christmas
jake was given mario bros for the wii by his mom for christmas. i am addicted. i never play video games but this one is f.u.n. ...
yesterday, after like three hours and a very sore left thumb, i finally mustered up the willpower to turn it off and get some stuff done. our house has been hit with a toy tornado. cleaning up christmas is way more work than preparing for it.
christmas was wonderful this year. i loved it. i love it always. i was so sad for the weekend to end and for jake to go back to work. this year was especially fun simply because of the kids ages. the entire month was full of magic and excitement, it's contagious. gavin yelled "santa!" every time we drove past a snowman and is still calling random people/things "santa!"
brooklyn danced lovely in her pajama recital and sang beautifully in her pre-school christmas program. grandma linda took the kids to her church party where they were able to discuss their wants and needs with santa. grandma julie braved gingerbread and frosting so they could make their own gingerbread house and she was successful at talking my dad into taking all three kids with them to the UofU basketball game.
we've enjoyed quaint dinners with friends and family. lindsay and i spent an entire day attempting to make caramel popcorn. three burnt batches later we ended up with four delicious pans full to then be reminded by cayden that we could have bought it pre-made.every christmas eve we take the kids to a movie to kill some time and take their minds off of santa for just a minute. this year it was the princess and the frog. gavin had his own seat with a booster which he thought was very cool. i almost fell asleep two or three times (it was that good).
my sweet grandma hosted a nice dinner for the family at her house and then later in the evening we headed over to jake's parents to have christmas with them. linda's decided to exchange gifts on christmas eve which ended up being a great idea. the kids were focused and excited unlike past years when they were drained and ornery by the time craig and linda had a chance to give them their gifts.
christmas p.j.'s
grandpa craig bought cayden every single g.i. joe available for purchase. cayden loves this about grandpa craig. i heard him tell someone the next day "my grandpa is so cool. he gets me a lot of guys."
grandma keeps brooklyn's bitty baby clothes and supplies fully stocked. this year she gave brooklyn a new high chair and crib mobile for bitty. this is the one toy that brooklyn takes very special care of.
gavin received his first set of lego's. the full thomas the train set.
brooklyn's enthusiasm was so special this year. she had only a limited number of breakdowns and was incredibly helpful all of the time knowing santa was watching. at one point, i heard her trying to explain to cayden that he wasn't making very good choices and he was going to be sorry. that's my girl!
here you see jon and natalie right before they open their baby stroller and car seat. i bet they wouldn't have imagined last year they would be so excited for such things!
we were all spoiled rotten by craig and linda. i received every single book on my list this year and on top of that, they gave me a top of the line heart rate monitor that i am loving already although i'm convinced that i almost die every time i stop moving. my resting heart rate is so low!
jake was there. he was thrilled to get a new drill set that he needs so badly. now he can continue to efficiently provide for our family. merry christmas hon!
they sent us off late and tired. perfect, because the kids crashed the second we pulled out of their driveway. brooklyn was sweet enough to wake up for a minute when we got home ... just long enough to leave santa some cookies and the reindeer some carrots. cayden said he was too tired to help, he hadn't realized it would be so late when duty called. stink.
i never sleep well on christmas eve. this surprises me every year because i'm always so tired by the time we finally go to bed. we actually had to wake the kids up in the morning. weird.
this year cayden asked for a nintendo d.s. (again) and a remote control truck. brooklyn was "dying" for a real guitar and gavin was just easy to please ....
here you see jake in pain. they love to wrestle with him. i don't know why he even tries laying on the floor.
i couldn't get enough pictures of gavin. he was so flippin' cute examining everything with such care.
catch
shoot
zhu-zhu
we had christmas dinner at my parents. i ate so much on christmas that i was sick! it was so yummy though. what do you do?
i love being at my parents on christmas. this year was especially nostalgic because my parents gave us all new down pillows, pj's and heating pads (thanks chris!). i thought it would be funny to have some pictures in front of the tree with our pj's. i was surprised that everyone obliged and bust up when josh walked into the kitchen in his plaid and went straight to the pantry for a snack. just like old times.
the kids were spoiled (again).
cayden got a ripstik. i don't even know what a ripstik is but he's excited. hopefully it doesn't rip anything.
brooklyn got an easy bake oven. i loved my easy bake oven so i was really excited to help her whip a few things up the next day and honestly, it wasn't that "easy." but it was funny. and she felt very accomplished sharing a 1/4 of her two inch cookie with everyone.
gavin got this very cool dump truck that he can haul stuff with or ride on which he is excited about.
like i said, the weekend was amazing, even when they were so tired and grumpy, it was fun.
now i'm going to start working on putting this blog on paper. volume I of my blog in a book. i'm very excited about this. my plan is to print a book at the end of each year for as long as i keep my blog up. i hope this will be for a long time.
i've also been thinking a lot about my goals for 2010. i will gladly wave goodbye to 2009 once i put my list of best albums of the year together. this needs to happen soon. anticipate.
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