Too much family time??

Last night we just sat in the family room and played (with Kate's toys, of course); there was no whining, no fighting, no beatings between the boys. I wish all our family time could be like that, but then I wouldn't appreciate it when it did happen. My kids have a great relationship with each other and I pray and hope that it continues however, most of their interactions with each other are not as harmonious as I would like.
When Greg went into to work on Wednesday (after being off for a week) he said, "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm relieved to be going back to work." I understand; sometimes it is just too much family time, especially when everyone is tired and hyped-up on sugar. We have had fun this holiday break -

KANGAROO ZOO (DEC 30)

NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY (DEC 31)

watching new Christmas movies and of course, lots and lots and lots of 4-wheeling in the neighborhood. It will be so nice to get back to a routine in a few days!

Snow & Sleds

On Christmas day our family drove (very slowly due to snow and icy roads) to Fairview to visit with the Randall family. It was great to have the entire family there on Christmas day. We ate lunch right after we got there and then got down to the business of opening the pile of presents. Grandma Randall always spoils us and this year was no different. Greg got some camping cots, I got an Ipod and crock pot, Gavin got an Alex Rider book, castle building cards and Pinky and the Brain Season 1, Enoch got castle legos, a sit-n-spin (remember those? great fun) and Kate got a train ball popper and pink hippo Zoombie, that we named Fairy. We gave Grandma a blog; we set up their mission blog. Grandpa got an extra special present. I spent months transcribing his father's (my grandfather) missionary journals. The finished product was over 150 pages. It was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed reading the journals and getting to know my grandfather a little better. Dad loved it.
We spent the rest of Christmas day visiting, playing games, eating and watching Kung Fu Panda. Our family, the Kellys and Jarom all stayed over night. It was a bit squishy, but we all fit. Gavin and Enoch used our new cots and we all found a bed somewhere.
The next day, Grandma fixed us a big breakfast of crepes and we spent some more time visiting. When Kate woke up from her nap, we decked ourselves out in our winter gear and headed outside. There was over 2 feet of snow to play in. We had the best time sledding! I haven't been sledding in years and it was so much fun. Grandpa let us use the snowmobiles to ride up the hill and then we would sled down. Cushy sledding - it was great. The boys had so much fun and Kate really enjoyed it too. She got cold after not too long and Grandma took her in, but the boys lasted for quite awhile. After we were done sledding, the boys rode the snowmobiles around a bit. We all came in and warmed up.



We spent the rest of the day playing games, packing and visiting. It was a great weekend. We watched Pinky & The Brain on the way home and

Christmas Morning

The designated time for opening presents at our home is 6:30 am. This being Kate's first Christmas, she didn't get that memo and she was up at 5 am. We fed her and tried to keep her quiet, but we finally gave up and got the boys up at 6 am. They were so excited! We paraded downstairs and the first thing we saw was our new tent, not a big tent, but an inside tent for the kids. Enoch loved it and Kate thought it was pretty fun too.

We then opened our stocking. The boys (including my big boy) all got Nerf bow and arrows, toothbrushes, candy and some small toys. The bow and arrows were a big hit and the boys had lots of fun. Kate got some toddler cookies, a toothbrush and a Hello Kitty ice pack for her incoming teeth. I had a toothbrush, floss, and headbands in my stocking. I left the boys and Kate downstairs to play bow and arrow and went upstairs to start our traditional breakfast of chocolate french toast, bacon, sausage and orange juice. I wasn't upstairs long before I noticed Kate sitting at my feet. She had crawled down the hall, up the stairs and over to me. Yikes, she is quick and fearless. We ate our yummy breakfast then went back downstairs to open presents.
Everyone had such a great time and had just as much fun giving as receiving. It is always so special to watch the kids when they open their gifts from each other, the child giving is almost more excited than the child receiving. Greg got a new razor, some cast iron skillets for camping, and Star Wars Legos. I got a calendar and a rice cooker.

Gavin got a zero gravity car, carpet skates, candy and GameCube games.

Enoch got some castle Legos, carpet skates, bath toys and Motor Works (plastic car, plane, motorcycle that you put together with screws).

Kate got a Taggies puzzle, a castle play set, stacking cups and a Word World 'bug'. Everyone had a great time with their new toys. Grandma & Grandpa Fowler came over for a bit to visit and watch up open presents. When the presents were all opened, we surprised the kids with our family gift, which was parked on the driveway.

"The #1 Christmas Ever!"

Greg and I had decided in the summer that we would like to get 4-wheelers for Christmas. We searched high and low and found an incredible deal on two new ones. We bought then and hid one in Grandpa Dee's shed and the other one at Greg's work in the storage shed. We would talk about them using the code name, "bastings". We were pretty lucky the boys didn't figure it out before Christmas.
I think the kids were convinced that Christmas was over when I mentioned that we had one more present waiting. I led them upstairs and out onto the front porch. As you can see, Gavin was speechless. I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head. He couldn't believe it. Enoch just wanted to ride our new 4-wheeler. Greg took the boys out for a ride (perfect weather, inches of fresh powdery snow). After a bit of riding, we parked the 4-wheeler in the driveway and asked Gavin to open the garage door. Inside the garage was another 4-wheeler! Gavin again was speechless and Enoch just wanted to ride it. After 20 minutes of riding, the boys came in quite cold. Gavin told me it was the #1 Christmas ever! Everyone was so excited.

Christmas Eve

One of our family traditions that my kids would be thrilled if we skipped is cleaning the house and washing the sheets on Christmas Eve morning. I like help cleaning and I also want the house cleaned for the Christmas break. (Okay, what am I thinking? Does my house stay clean for more than 15 minutes let alone for 2 weeks? I think I need to reevaluate my expectations.) Really, it is me and Greg cleaning, Kate screaming, Enoch making more messes and Gavin doing whatever he can to get out of it. He was saved this year when his Grandpa Dee invited him and the older boy cousins up to the cabin to sled. We got most of it done and the house really did look great.
We promised the kids we would go to a movie after the cleaning was done (another tradition, one that the boys love). We saw Bolt, a movie about a cute dog who believes he's a super hero. It was a fun movie and Enoch loved it. After an exciting scene, Enoch turned to Greg and said, "That is one good dog!". Even Kate liked it and slept through about half of it. I couldn't believe how she could sleep through such noise until I ended up sleeping for about 20 minutes as well.
After the movie we came home and ate dinner, chicken strips and french fries (Gavin's favorite). Our family then read the Nativity story in Luke and talked about the meaning of Christmas. We let the kids open one present and they all got books (Gavin - The Ranger's Apprentice 1-3, Enoch - Big Bad Bullybug, and Kate - The Hungry Caterpillar board book). We read our books, went to bed and Dad went to pick up our big present.

More Christmas Fun

I debated if I should do a separate post for each activity we have done this week; I'm lazy and tired so I'm doing a marathon post and hope it makes sense.
December 14 - How can the Christmas season pass without visiting Temple Square? This is one of our family's favorite traditions. We were so lucky that Grandma & Grandpa Randall could came with us. We decided to visit the Children's Exhibit at the Church History Museum before looking at the lights. It was a fun exhibit and the kids liked the hands on activities; Enoch especially liked taking care of the babies in the pretend hospital nursery.

We quickly walked through Temple Square (Enoch and Kate were very cold), but it was still great. I love the orange and pink lights and the pine trees with green and blue lights were so pretty. Afterward, we walked to the time-share condo Grandma & Grandpa were staying at in downtown Salt Lake and had hot chocolate, ice cream and cookies. It was a great night.
December 15 - The last week in November I bought one of those great Gingerbread House kits at Costco. Ever since he saw it, Enoch has begged and begged to put it together. Greg finally hid it in our closet. Finally the night arrived and the kids were thrilled (it was one of the only mornings that Gavin actually acted excited). I think the boys ate more frosting than they put on the house (same with candy) and I was just relieved that we didn't have any tummy aches that night. The finished house turned out beautiful and the boys had so much fun decorating it.
December 16 - I don't know how we lucked out but on this day our activity was to have a snowball fight. The ground was covered with inches of powdery snow. We waited until Greg came home from work and of course, it was dark and very cold. Kate and I stayed inside and wrapped presents and the boys threw snowballs and sledded on our hill in the front yard. Enoch came in completely frozen and crying. He gets so cold but waits and waits to come inside because he loves playing in the snow. They had such a great time.

December 17 - Tonight was a bit of a bust. Our activity was to clean out our toys to make room for our new Christmas presents. The boys were not thrilled. I needed to finish some shopping. Therefore, I left to shop, Greg put the kids to bed, the toys were not cleaned out. Oh well.
December 18 - I love gingerbread cookies but I feel like the only time I can make them is at Christmas. I don't know why I feel like this, but I do. I was excited to make our gingerbread men and it was a good activity to get me out of Christmas stress. We decorated them with green frosting and cinnamon hearts and they tasted so good. All the boys had fun decorated them. Mine were very cute, Greg made cyclops gingerbread men, Gavin made alien men with six eyes that were upside down and Enoch just tried to get as much frosting and cinnamon hearts on one cookie as he could. It's all good.
December 19 - We had great plans to go to the cabin this weekend but canceled our plans because of the snowstorm (that really never came to our house, but I'm sure the cabin was snowed in). Our activity tonight was a family game night. Our family loves to play games together although it's hard having such an age difference in the kids. In order to appease Enoch we played a fun game of Twister and Chutes & Ladders. It is always great to play games with Enoch and try to understand his logic. After putting Enoch and Kate to bed the grown-ups (Greg, Tresa & Grandma Randall) and the sorta grown-up (Gavin) played our new game.
One of our family's favorite games is Settlers of Catan. It is so much fun! Gavin and Greg especially love it because they usually win. For our family game night we got the Traders & Barbarians add-on to Settlers. We were only able to play one game before we wrapped up at 10:30 pm, but we had so much fun. Greg, of course, won. I have to admit, playing Settlers is the one of the only times Greg becomes highly competitive and I hardly recognize him. If your family loves Settlers as much as we do, we are up for a FRIENDLY game any time!

December 20 - Since we were planning on being up at the cabin, our activity for today was to go sledding. It's probably a good thing that we didn't end up going because we had so much to do. In the morning Greg, Enoch, Kate and I ran errands. We were actually brave enough to go to the mall. I don't know what we were thinking. We got everything done we needed to and headed home to see Gavin and have lunch. After lunch Kate slept, the boys went sledding at the Rec property and I worked on my Sharing Time for the next day. The boys had so much fun and the snow was great for sledding. It was a nice break from all the hustle and bustle of Christmas.
December 21 - Tonight we took a break from our Christmas activities and visited Grandma & Grandpa Fowler for our weekly Sunday night visit. It was also Greg's last day for Tithing Settlement. Yahoo!
December 22 - Tonight for Family Home Evening we read The First Vision in the Children's Scripture Reader. The kids, especially Enoch, love to read in the Scripture Reader and I love how they explain everything in simple terms. I love the story of The First Vision and am glad that we can also remember Joseph Smith and his birthday (Dec 23) this time of year.
December 23 - We delivered friend presents this morning on our way to Costco (I know, I know it was a mess; I could barely push my cart around). The boys gave their friends giant candy bars this year. We figured everyone loves chocolate, right? Tonight, we hosted Jarom's birthday party and had a great time visiting with family and taking a break from the holidays.
Only one more day to go - I think I'm going to make it!

Mom & Enoch

Enoch has the most amazing nursery leaders this year. I'm excited for him to become a Sunbeam and attend Primary, but I'm really going to miss (and he is too) his wonderful teachers. I'm so thankful to them for making nursery such a terrific experience for him. For Christmas, his teachers took this picture and made it into a card. I absolutely love this picture. I usually don't get many pictures with Enoch because 1. Enoch hates having his picture taken and 2. I'm the one behind the camera. I just had to post this because I love it and I love my Enoch!

Jarom's Amazing Christmas Present to Us

Last year on Christmas my sister, Michelle, suggested that we give homemade gifts the following Christmas. We agreed and decided to just rotate through the siblings, giving to the sibling just younger than you. That meant that Jarom got the lucky job of giving our family a homemade gift.
On Saturday he came to our home with a box of model rockets (a rocket each for Greg, Gavin, Enoch and Jarom) and the boys built rockets all afternoon. They are planning on launching their creations on Christmas day. Everyone had so much fun; it was a great afternoon. We made cookies, ate pizza for dinner and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was a great gift; it doesn't get any better than spending time with family doing something you love.

Under the Tree

One of the boy's favorite traditions is sleeping under the Christmas tree. Really, it is in the same room as the tree; we needed to clarify that for Enoch who was determined to sleep right under the tree. Greg and I can't get as excited as the boys, but it is still a good time. Actually, it is usually just Greg sleeping there with the boys until about midnight when we wakes up sore and stiff and comes to bed. I don't even attempt it, but I do stay for Christmas stories and until the boys fall asleep. This year we read a new book (thanks, Sister Laurence) called A Snowman Named Just Bob. It was a very cute book and we all enjoyed it. Every night in December we read a Christmas book as a bedtime story. The boys love this tradition and we are getting quite a collection of great holiday books. The books always seem extra special when we read them under the tree with the glow of Christmas lights.

Christmas Hot Chocolate

Since Gavin's last trip to Maggie Moo's with his cousin, Jon, he has been begging for Hot Chocolate Cream, which is basically ice cream floating in hot chocolate. Since our Christmas activity for the 11th was drinking hot chocolate we decided to make it fun. I didn't have ice cream (and I am truly avoiding the stores when at all possible), so I whipped up some cream left over from Thanksgiving and froze it. Later than night I made homemade hot chocolate and put our frozen whipped cream dollops in it. Wow! It was great.

We drank hot chocolate and played the game Sausages. It is a crazy, zany game where one person asks a silly question to another and the answer has to be 'sausages' regardless of the question. The tricky part is keeping a straight face while saying it. My favorite question, "What does your mom look like?" Gavin burst out laughing and yelled, "sausages!!". Thanks, I appreciate that.
I know Kate's a girl, but come on, she is one moody, emotional little person. These expressions were all within one minutes of each other. This was her first taste of hot chocolate and she loved it. As you can see it took her a few sips to figure it out but after that she was quite angry if Greg tried to drink any of his hot chocolate. She wanted it all!

Chrismtas Fun

Some mornings are more exciting than others when we open our Christmas activity for the day. Gavin is usually pretty vocal about how he feels about the activity and Enoch is just excited to do something. On December 3, we sang Christmas carols as a family. This was not such a great time at our house. It was Greg and Tresa singing the carols, Enoch singing his turkey song at the top of his lungs, Gavin sulking on the couch and Kate banging on the piano keys. It was actually a relief when it was over. We also decorated our Christmas tree after finally finding some tree lights. We had a great time and Kate loved the lights.


On December 4, we drank Christmas wassail. It was very fancy with us stirring our apple cider packets into mugs of hot water. I know, not every night can be super great. It was still fun to be with our family.
On December 5, we remembered our favorite Christmas memories. While driving Gavin and his friend, Cayden, to the Space Center in Pleasant Grove, we talked about Christmas past. Greg's memory was getting his favorite Lego set. He was about nine when he got the space exploration set. It came with a cool rocket and he spent all morning putting it together. I remember the Christmas I had chicken pox. My family visited an outdoor Nativity scene and I had to stay in the car all by myself! I also remember the year my sister and I got matching canopy beds with Strawberry Shortcake bedspreads. Santa set up the beds in the family room and it was way fun. Gavin's memory was getting his Love Sac when he was about four. That's it - his favorite memory. I guess we need to do more. Enoch's memory was when we put blue lights on our banana roof and then we went outside and said, "Wow, that's really cool!". Okay. I don't remember that, but Enoch usually lives in a universe parallel to ours. Hopefully, our family has many great memories to come.
On December 6, we had a great time at the ward Christmas party. It's always a good time and I didn't have to cook. The primary did their traditional Nativity with songs and costumes and it went better this year since we banned shepherd staffs (aka deadly weapons for 10-year-old boys).
On December 7, our family watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional together. It was a great program. I especially enjoyed hearing of Christmas memories from Presidents Monson, Eyring and Uchdorf. It was wonderful.
December 8, is Grandpa Dee's (Fowler) birthday. He invited the entire family to tour the Thanksgiving Point lights on the trolley. It was a blast. Enoch loved riding on the 'bus' and Gavin had a great time with his cousins. The lights were great and the trolley was a unique way to see the lights. Afterwards, we saw the reindeer (they are smaller than I thought) and then went to Grandma and Grandpa's for brownies and ice cream. Very fun night.
On December 9, our family braved Target to shop for sibling gifts. This is a crazy night but one of my favorite traditions. Each of the kids has a budget of $7-10 per sibling and parent. They can pick out whatever they would like and it is great fun to see what the kids bring home. I'm always impressed with the gifts Gavin picks out, he really does a great job. Enoch loves shopping with Dad and Kate did her shopping ahead of time with Mom. The next night on the 10, the kids wrapped their gifts. It is so easy with our fabric bags and the kids really can do it themselves. Yahoo! I think I'm tired just remembering all of this.

(Blog by Greg)
My last post was about the Popular Science Prediction Exchange. Well, I have finally made it into the top 50. I was stuck in the 50's for quite a while and it's good to finally make it. I don't know how much higher I can go, this might be as good as it gets. There are a lot of predictions that are going to pay out at the end of the year. If all goes well I will be moving up and I'll tell you about it. If things go bad for me, things will be very quite.

Christmas Decoratings

Our family was supposed to put up all of our Christmas decorations and trim the tree tonight, but our plans went awry. When Greg tested our tree lights and discovered about 2/3 of them burned out, we decided to decorate the rest of the house and buy new lights to decorate the tree tomorrow. The boys were disappointed, but we had fun making our home feel a bit more Christmasy.
The boys love having their own trees in their rooms and putting their school and church ornaments on them. Since Enoch doesn't have too many yet, his tree is covered with snowflakes. Gavin's tree is covered with homemade ornaments and looks great.

All of the kids have their own nativity scenes in their rooms as well. Enoch's nativity is a bit whimsical looking with all the figures looking like balls with heads (the animals also have small feet stuck to the bottoms of the ball bodies). Enoch was telling me all the characters as he was setting it up on his nightstand: Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus in his manger, a shepherd, a wise man, a cow and a hippo. That's it, I'm sure all of you did not know about the hippo that was in the stable with the other animals, but Enoch, as always, knows what we do not.
I'm not much for completely transforming our house for Christmas, but we do enjoy putting a few memorable decorations.