I love him because ....

Mike gave me this great Coach purse and wallet for Christmas. (This picture makes them look hot pink but they're actually closer to red.) When I opened it and my mouth dropped open, he said questioningly, "Because a girl can never have too many purses, right?" That, my friends, is just one of many reasons that I love my hubby. He hasn't questioned my addiction to purses and shoes, even when they have spilled over into the baby's closet. As we were talking about the house we want to build someday, he said, "I think we should build a section in our closet just for your shoes and purses, with little shelves and cubbies." The man gets me.

Sledding with cousins

We went sledding with Mayfield cousins yesterday at Sugarhouse Park. Some of our California cousins hadn't been sledding (ever?) so we took them for a good time. :)

Cup Half-Empty or Half-Full?

Cup Half-Empty: My car nearly ran out of gas yesterday.
Cup Half-Full: I paid $1.16 for gas! I looked it up .... the last time gas was that price was in 1993. Score.

Cup Half-Empty: I have another cold, and I swear I just barely got over my last one!
Cup Half-Full: I got to stay home from church today and sleep and play the DS.

Cup Half-Empty: The house is a wreck!
Cup Half-Full: It's Christmas break, which means the kids are all home playing with their new toys and finding old toys we can give to the D.I. Having no schedule for awhile is definitely a blessing.

Cup Half-Empty: We've been paying a fair amount of money for sitters the past few nights.
Cup Half-Full: I got to have 2 date nights with my hubby two nights in a row. We were able to enjoy good food, a great movie and hula-hooping on Wii Fit.

Cup Half-Empty: I had to make twice the dinner tonight to give some to my sister's family.
Cup Half-Full: My sister is pregnant!! No problem seeing the cup as half-full here. She's still in the pukey stage and I should be making them dinner a lot more often than I have been.

Cup Half-Empty: My cell phone got wet somehow and won't work now!
Cup Half-Full: I'm still looking for the half-full on this one .... Things are a little more quiet now since I don't get extra calls?? Maybe. I'd still rather have a working phone, though.

Christmas

We always spend Christmas Eve with my younger sister and her family at my mom's house. It's always just been the 2 of our families since the others go with their in-laws but we don't mind. We start at 4pm with a casual dinner, read the Christmas story and rip into the gifts.Then we head home to open Christmas jammies and put cookies out for Santa.Like my Christmas jammies??The kids all sleep downstairs on Christmas Eve since Santa delivers everything upstairs. We give them a cell phone to call us when they are all awake, but it can't be a minute before 7am. Sure enough, at 7am on the dot, we got a call from 3 giddy children asking if it was time yet. After we got the camera ready, this is what they looked like ....Nothing beats that excitement and giddiness of turning the corner to see what Santa brought. Apparently, he did good this year because Paige fainted at the sight. She's drama, that child. :)We had Blake cousins over for breakfast and then we just hung out all day and played with toys. We didn't have to leave the house until that evening which was so great. Then we headed over to Grandma & Grandpa's for a live nativity with grandpa as the narrator and grandkids playing all other parts,and then the real Mayfield mayhem ensued with a massive gift exchange. Total chaos, in a good way of course.The girls told me later that this was our "best Christmas ever!" so I guess we did o.k. I'm married to a talented gift giver who surprises and spoils me every year, and this year was no exception. I shouldn't care about that kind of stuff but I'm just shallow enough to enjoy it. Thanks, babe, for a great Christmas.

I'm not complaining, but ....

What alternate universe are we living in where gas prices are only $1.15??? Seriously!

Festive festivities

We took our kids to the symphony yesterday. That thought would normally scare me but it was the Lollipops series the symphony has for kids. They played Christmas songs, had a sing-a-long and Santa showed up at the end. The whole thing only lasted an hour so that was a bonus, too. Elle didn't quite make it through the whole thing but the other kids did great. When they started playing songs from the Nutcracker, Paige's eyes got huge and she said, "This is from Barbie and the Nutcracker!" See, Amy ... those movies aren't so bad afterall. :) Haley was amazed at the size of the chandeliers, which we decided were probably bigger than some of the bedrooms in our house. I figure it's a good thing to instill a little culture into my kids in as kid-friendly a way as possible. Maybe they'll grow up liking it afterall.

We started out the morning with a cousins' breakfast on the Mayfield/White side. Thanks for hosting, Tres & Marley!Do you recognize Rich from the D.I. billboards? Apparently he "got his start" there.Annie, Marley & Emily making us ebelskievers, bacon, eggs & french toast.How cute is this Christmas outfit from Mikel? She's a talented girl.The triplets.New baby Lucy.That afternoon I went to lunch with Crissy, a high school friend who I lost contact with. We recently "found" each other again through blogs and facebook and have had so much fun reconnecting and catching up. She's as funny and gracious as I remember and I'm grateful to have spent time with her recently. And you can't tell just by looking at her but the woman has recently lost 140 pounds. Seriously! She's an inspiration.

My baby turns 2

Elle's birthday was chock-full of fun and celebration. We started the morning (as we do with all of our family birthdays) with the kids all piling onto our bed while Elle opened her presents. We have several birthdays this time of year at our house so Elle was quite familiar with the concept. She sang Happy Birthday to herself and ripped right through her gifts.Her cute nursery teacher, Julie, came over to give her some birthday balloons, which she then carted all over the house with her for the next couple of hours.Then we met a few friends for lunch at McDonald's. The Preslars trekked up to meet us and Luke & Becca came, too. What more could you want when you are 2 than friends at a playland?That night, we had a small party. The best part? Check out these cakes! I slaved all day .... Jack brought Elle more balloons (she's in heaven) and Luke brought her jewels. Train 'em while they're young, right?Elle lights up a room and makes me smile many times a day. Happy Birthday, baby girl.