Christmas!

These pictures are semi-all-over-the-place, but they're all from Christmas day. The kids were kind enough to not wake us up until 8! We started off with Santa presents (Alli and Holly: Madame Alexander dolls, Brynne: a Flynn and Rapunzel set, Tyson: a Cars set) and stockings upstairs, then moved downstairs for other presents. When presents were finished, we had scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls, and egg nog for breakfast, then spent time playing and got ready for church. After church we sent the kids downstairs to play with their new things while we got dinner ready. Mark, Liz, Neil, Dani, and Becca and her family came for dinner. We also got to Skype with Steven, which was so exciting!

It was really nice to have a more quiet Christmas morning this year. It is so fun to watch the kids open presents. They gave hugs to us everytime they opened a present. I love how having little kids
makes Christmas more magical. I tell them every day to stop growing up, but I really mean it when it comes to the holidays. I would love to always have small children at Christmas. I love them.

Aaaaand pictures!

Answers!

DOWN:
1. Across the street
2. Dance
3. Secretary
4. Thanksgiving
6. Nursery
8. Text
9. Rhabdomyolisis
11. Family
12. Seven
16. Bengals
20. Merry
21. Sand
24. Faces

ACROSS:
5. Chin
7. Marathon
10. Cars
13. Dada (although Mama fits, too...but it's not true)
14. Shells
15. Subway
17. Kindergarten
18. Zero
19. Piano
22. Ariel
23. Fling
25. Tears
26. Disneyland
27. Swim Lessons

How'd you do?!

Merry Christmas!

Here is the crossword puzzle we put together this year -- we'll put the answers up after Christmas for those who are stumped!

Merry Christmas!

10 Reasons Why I'm the Worst at Sunday 10

1. I'm lazy.
2. I like to do posts with pictures, but that requires transferring pictures from my camera to my computer. (Maybe that just goes along with #1).
3. Sometimes we are doing stuff until later-ish on a Sunday and by the time we get the kids settled all I want to do is crash on the couch and not touch my computer.
4. I don't know how many times I can mention my inability to think of a gift for Alex in one post...I could easily fill up all 10 slots, but that seems weird so I just don't post.
5. I get distracted by other things when I open my computer, like facebook, or other blogs, or the Caring Bridge website of the son of my sister-in-law's friend who just got a heart transplant!
6. I feel like we do the same exact things week after week (not all weeks...) and that's too boring to write all the time.
7. This last week isn't one of those weeks, but again, I haven't uploaded pictures yet...
8. Sometimes 10 things take a lot of work to think up...especially right now.
9. Have I mentioned how I want to write a whole blog about how Alex is so hard to shop for, yet he insists all I need to get him are the same things I always get him?
10. I'm lazy...again.

The Big 2-8

Alex tells me I'm officially in my late 20's now. I was so hoping to avoid that, but it appears it will happen anyway. My birthday was on Saturday. I went to a kickboxing class that morning, then came home so Alex could go to the gym. Lindsay came that afternoon and took me to a surprise lunch which had been arranged by her and Alex. We went to Olive Garden and Chelsea, Ashlee, Liz, Betsy, and Becca were all there waiting. Alex had requested it be a kid-free lunch and it was really nice to just relax. After lunch I got dropped of at the high school to help Holly get ready for her dance recital.



The recital went really well, and Holly had such a fun time! After the recital we ran a couple errands, then went home. I decided to go to the mall by myself to exchange some jeans Alex got me (p.s. it's really nice when your husband spends way more on jeans for you than you ever would...guilt free for me!) When I got home we went to our ward Christmas party, then picked up our babysitter and went to see "New Years Eve". The movie was great, except for the part when our babysitter called to say that Brynne had thrown up. She's on this little kick of throwing up at night, then acting fine the whole next day. Luckily the babysitter also said she was acting fine afterwards and was watching a movie. She let us stay at the movie and said she'd call if anything else went wrong. Nothing did! So we got to stay at the theater and by the time we got home everyone was asleep. Happy birthday to me!

Here Comes Santa Claus

We did our annual Red Robin/Santa visit earlier this week, and this year we invited the Gardners to join us. Brynne loved Santa this year. Tyson did not. At all. He sat/screamed long enough for me to take a picture and then we rescued him.
Alli and Holly both asked for American Girl dolls, Alli also asked for the Mr. Poppers Penquins movie. Brynne asked for a barbie princess and a Tinkerbell barbie. I'm pretty sure she didn't know what she was going to ask for until she sat on Santa's lap.

The Tale of How I'm Done Trying to Start Outdoor Christmas Traditions

Story 1: On Monday night we bundled up and headed to Alpine to go to a live nativity. Tyson pretty much cried from the time we got in the loooong line for the horse trailers that took us from the church parking lot to the land that the nativity was taking place. I felt bad for the little buddy, but he was cold and had no other way to express it but cry. We finally made it there and Brynne was definitely on edge. Luckily she made it through most of the walk without breaking down, but as soon as we got in the line for hot chocolate and I left to walk Tyson around, Brynne started crying. Uncontrollable sobs. Alex got the hot chocolate, handed it to me, chucked Brynne's, took a little crying kid on each shoulder and stormed down the hill to get back on the trailer to the car. I held back to let Alli and Holly drink their hot chocolate, but when I could still hear both kids crying I decided to tag-team. We started walking down the hill, but Holly started crying when I walked too fast and her hot chocolate spilled a little on her hand. I finally stopped and said (or snapped...but said sounds nicer) "can I please have all my kids crying!?!?!" A lady stopped me and told me she had all her kids crying and that made me feel a little less awful. Fast forward: we got to the car, Brynne and Tyson cried almost the whole way home, we vowed to never go back to the nativity until our youngest is 5.

Story 2: I tried to be a fun mom today (usually when my stories start out that way I'm in for it...) and printed off the list for the Elf Hunt at Gardner Village. We are big fans of the witches at Gardner Village in the Fall, but we'd never gone to see the elves. Alli and Holly have been looking forward to this since last week when I first told them about it. Everyone was excited to go. Gardner Village is a win-win because the kids love it and I love it, too. Some kids love it, anyway. Brynne cried 95% of the time. Even though she was bundled up, she was crying that she was cold. I went back to the car and got her a blanket that she wrapped around herself, yet she still wouldn't stop crying. Tyson was significantly better than Brynne, but even he had his moments. I forgot to grab his hat (though he probably would have taken it off) and he wouldn't keep his gloves on. I tried wrapping a blanket around him, but he threw it off so many times that I gave up. We ended up finding 11 of the 12 elves easily, gave up on the 12th and the candy shop gave us the prize anyway, and informed us that the one elf we couldn't find was right where we had started. Good times.

I got exactly one picture while we were there, and it seems to sum up our experience perfectly.
The moral of the story is that the best part of Christmas is spending time with your family. We've done a lot of that, and I have loved (most of) it. But I think I'm done trying to spend time with them outdoors!

Sunday 10

1. This week was spent decorating for Christmas and pulling out our favorite book of Christmas stories. We've read this book for several years now and I love seeing the kids getting excited about the same stories I got excited about growing up. Definitely one of my favorite traditions.

2. Holly is gearing up for her first dance recital. She's had some dress rehearsals and practices over the last two weeks and aside from a little freak-out earlier this week she loves her dance class and is so excited for her recital next week.

3. I met up with some friends from my old ward for a birthday lunch for Beth Crowley. Zupas+friends+pumpkin cheesecake=great afternoon!

4. On Tuesday Holly Robinson braved babysitting all 7 of the Stoddard/Gardner kids while Lindsay and I headed up to West High for Brighton's first basketball game. They won. :)

5. I snapped this picture the other day because I'm pretty sure it was the first time all of my kids have sat on the couch together. I think it lasted about 2 minutes...

6. I've been going to kickboxing classes at the rec center for the last few weeks. I dread when my alarm goes off so early every kickboxing morning, but I've managed to get out of bed every time and I'm always so glad that I did. Fun exercise is so much better...

7. Friday afternoon Alli and the rest of the second graders at her school sang 5 Christmas song at the Festival of Trees. I took Tyson and Brynne to watch, and Alex, Liz, Becca and her kids joined us. There are soooo many kids, and Alli isn't short, so she was way in the back and we only caught glimpses of her during the songs. Here she is waving!

The second graders all made ornaments and donated a tree. Here is Alli standing in front of the tree!

Alli and Lauren, our neighbor and her good friend.

8. Friday night I took the crew (a.k.a. my children) to Brighton for the first home game which was against Lehi High. Alex's JV team won...easily. The Varsity game was a little more of a battle, but Brighton pulled it out in the end.

9. Saturday was a super busy day including driving Brynne to Miley's birthday party in Provo, Holly's dress rehearsal, hitting up Kohl's with Lindsay, a jewelry party, Alex going to the BYU basketball game, meeting up with Carolyn, Russell, Ty, Miji, Neil and Dani at Rib City for dinner, and hanging out at our house after and staying up waaaay too late talking to my cousins!

10. Tonight we had an impromptu dessert/Pictionary party with a few friends. There is something really fun about being inside with friends and family on a cold night. Perfect.

Mi Familia!

Sunday 10

I haven't done one of these for a couple weeks, but we've been busy, busy, busy!

1. Michelle, Abby, and Sam flew in on Wednesday afternoon. Abby and Brynne were buddies from the get-go. I'm afraid they both might be a little bored without each other now. Brynne's preschool teacher was nice enough to let Abby go with Brynne twice, and she loved it! Here are the girls on the first day.


2. All the kids were excited for the first snow day. It didn't stick too long, but they ran through it while they could. Don't let this picture deceive you. Tyson loved the snow, and I snapped this one right after I told him we were all done.

3. My parents and flew in on Saturday afternoon. Alex, my mom, and Alli went to the BYU game that night and managed to come home and not be icicles.

4. We had all of my siblings over for dinner Sunday. It was a crowded but fun house.

5. On Tuesday night my sisters, mom, and I did a baby shower for Dani. It turned out so well and I think everyone had fun! Cindy put together a game that Dani had to pull baby items out of bag and guess what they were. Here she is trying to figure out a shirt.
6. These pictures are a little out of order, but here are the cousins having fun together.

7. Thanksgiving!!! Such a fun day. I had a headache and my house was crazy loud for probably 6 hours straight, but that's just how Thanksgiving should be. (I forgot to mention that Roy came in on Tuesday night...I don't know where else to add that. :) ) It was fun getting the meal ready with Michelle and my mom, and I thought everything turned out pretty tasty! We had the girls make little turkeys that morning and they turned out so cute.

8. We didn't do any crazy Black Friday shopping, but Michelle, my mom and I made it to Rod Works around 6 a.m. and went to Target and Hobby Lobby after that. I got a big clock for my basement and a few Christmas presents.

9. Friday evening we all went to Temple Square to see the lights. I love this tradition, and it was especially fun going with my family! My parents and Cami took off from there to go to the airport, and they weren't gone 30 seconds before Alli was telling me how much she missed them. We all do!

10. My house is quieter now, and my dishwasher won't be running twice a day, but I'm grateful for the fun week-and-a-half we had family here! That's what makes the holidays fun and meaningful!

The Girl With a Million Questions

Holly likes to ask the weirdest questions, like:

*How long would it take for a cheetah to run up a mountain?
*What it the mountain was 550 feet?
*What if every day was 100 hours?
*If we started walking right now, would we get to MorMor and FarFar's in 85 days?

My favorite recent one was when she helping me paint the basement family room. It went something like this:
*If we started painting 30 days ago and we were only using our fingers, would we be finished tomorrow?

I never know how to answer these...

When The Cats Are Away...

Setting: It's a cold Saturday morning. We have no obligations. We sleep in a bit, wake up, and watch a little t.v. Alex leaves early for basketball and the kids and I lounge around in pajamas for a bit. The kids request pancakes for breakfast. I oblige. As I'm making breakfast, Alli says she wishes it was closer to Christmas so we could listen to Christmas music. We decide since it's Alex's "thing" that we don't listen until after Thanksgiving, but he's gone, that we're okay to turn it on. "Baby, It's Cold Outside" comes on and Alli and Holly dance around the family room laughing. Perfect morning? I say yes!

Around the House

Holly had pictures for dance last week, and they asked us to curl their hair and put makeup on them. I don't normally like makeup on little girls, but I thought she looked pretty cute!

Here's my happy little buddy! The girls and I have started reading chapter books over the last few months. It's so fun finding books that they all enjoy. (Notice Alli and Holly's arms in the second picture...I love their relationship!)

Logan and Tyson trying to share our baby swing...it didn't last long!

A couple Saturdays ago we spent the morning in the yard cleaning up and getting ready for winter. The girls were in charge of watching Tyson, and Holly worked out a way to entertain him while still getting to play. She tied her scooter handles to the wagon handles and rode around our circle. Genius!