Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We enjoyed a nice, (relatively) relaxing Christmas with just the five of us. On Christmas Eve we decided to relax and just spend it at home. We ordered Thai takeout and did a mini-devotional in our living room. We sang a couple songs, read the Christmas story in the Bible and Book of Mormon, and read our new copy of The Shiniest Star, which is the book Marinda's family read every Christmas Eve growing up. And of course, the kids were wearing their new Christmas PJs from Grandma the entire night!

Kids tracking Santa's progress online

Christmas morning started with Luke being a bit too eager to go out and see what Santa had brought before we were ready, but eventually he settled down after having a good cry in his room and was happy to see his presents from Santa! Luke got the Fire Response lego set he asked Santa for and a Chopper (Star Wars droid) pillow, and Jacy got the hot air balloon lego set she asked Santa for and a Wonder Woman doll. Both got an orange, a bell, some jam and nutella and baby reindeer stuffed animals. Asher got an elephant chew toy and some baby food crackers to chew on, as well as a stuffed reindeer and a bell. Amit got a gift card to nearby escape room and some chocolate, and Marinda got a child development book that Amit has been bugging her to read for months (how did Santa know???) and some sour punch straws. After opening presents, we ate some pancakes and the kids enjoyed playing with their presents!

Jacy finishing up her hot air balloon.

After enjoying a break with Santa's presents we opened presents within our immediate family. We gave Luke a coast guard lego set, Jacy a play tea set, and Asher stuffed beaver with a chewable tail (notice a theme with Asher's presents and chewing?). Asher gave Luke and Jacy Christmas train lego set each. Luke and Jacy got each other paw patrol toys, which prompted a giant tackle-hug from Jacy to Luke. Marinda got some new jewelry - a pair a of ear cuffs from the kids and a necklace from Amit.

Then we opened presents from Jejema and Jejebapa and Dadai (presents from Grandma and Grandpa would have to wait a couple days until they came in person). Jejema and Jejebapa sent dinotrux toys for Luke and Jacy and a penguin toy for Asher. Dadai's present was the one we were all anxious about though. All Thanksgiving he was teasing Luke that he was going to get him vegetables for Christmas. But Luke really wanted a clone turbo tank lego set, which is one that they stopped making so is really hard to find except on ebay. Thankfully, Dadai came through with something besides cauliflower and got Luke his lego set! He also got Jacy an airplane lego set and Asher a water play mat. After opening these presents the kids definitely had enough to play with, and they basically just played with toys for the next two days.

Well, the kids played except for one important thing - gingerbread houses. Luke had been looking forward to eating his Gingerbread House for days. But when it came down to actually eating the whole thing...well, let's just say expectation did not match reality. He ate some of the candy but then realized he didn't actually like most of the gingerbread house and left the rest.

Asher is enjoying being adorable in various Christmas outfits. Just look at him in his Santa outfit!

Asher is soooo ready to crawl! All week he's been getting his knees under his hips and once he even got on his elbows and knees and started rocking back and forth. We are excited to see our little guy get more mobile but also terrified of how to manage a mobile baby in a very-not-baby-proof house.

On Thursday Grandma and Grandpa came! Luke and Grandpa continued their tradition of playing Portal together, and the next day we opened more presents! Luke got a Portal shirt from them, which he wants to wear all the time now. He also got a sail boat lego set. Jacy got a doll train play set which she loves to death. The kids also got a set of toy cars that all of them can play with from the Slacks!

That night we went to Mod Pizza for dinner. Last time we went to Mod Pizza Luke ate his entire mini pizza and most of Jacy's pizza since she wasn't hungry. So we decided to just get him a regular (Mod-size) pizza and he was REALLY excited. And I guess the excitement was contagious because Jacy got caught up in it too!

Last but not least, the kids expressed their gratitude by writing thank you letters to Santa. Luke wrote out his own letter (with help) and Jacy traced hers. They both did a great job! Merry Christmas everyone!

ASHER IS FOUR MONTHS OLD!!!!!!

You saw it!  And he still has hair and melting hearts wherever he goes!  Man he is such a flirt!  He has also acquired a new taste for a very rare food - HIS TOES!

Asher's Doctor's Appointment:
Asher had his four month doctor's appointment this week and he is weighing in at 14 pounds 5 ounces and 25.7 inches long!  If you care about these things that is 24% for weight and 74% for length, so he is nice and long and declared perfect once again by his doctor!  He also got his four month shots, which is more traumatizing for Marinda than for him.  "I can handle watching needles go into me, and it actually helps me deal with it - but MAN, those needles are long and thick and his thigh is so small... I just have to look away."  He cried for a total or two minutes - then was fine.  Oh the magic of babies!

Flu Shots:
Have you gotten your Influenza Epidemic Prevention Vaccine?  Because that's really what it is!  Everyone takes the flu for granted - it is something that people get every year and it is an inconvenience for a couple of days.  But when you call it INFLUENZA you freak out because that's the thing that killed, like, a bazillion people that you learn about in history class!!!  Plus if you call it a VACCINE then people understand that it only works if EVERYONE gets theirs because it might not keep you from getting influenza individually, but taken in mass numbers it keeps it from spreading, so it will protect you from getting sick too!
Ok, off my soap box.  Amit got his a million years ago, Marinda got hers this week, and at Asher's doctors appointment Jacy and Luke got theirs.  Just to tell you, having five people (Amit came too) crammed into a small examination room with both kids hyper and brain fried from having colds is - fun.  -_-

Luke Doesn't Like Being Told What To Do:
Yeah, like THAT'S a big surprise.  All this six year old sass is getting kind of old, but also makes for some great laughs too!  This week Luke yelled at Amit after he told him to do something, "You just tell me to do things for two to three months, while Mommy only tells me to do stuff for one week!"  No idea what data set he got these numbers from, but Marinda and Amit are still laughing over this.

Luke and Jacy Stuff:
So some random stories, here is Luke reading Jacy's Kid's Book of Mormon Stories book, and then having a picnic on the kitchen floor.  Just the right amount of cute and silly!

Have a great week!

Our ACTUAL Halloween!

We know, very exciting title - but it was an exciting week!

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit:
Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for 30 hours!  They were on their way up to Victoria for Grandma's birthday and spent the day with the Family.  It was a fun whirlwind of Portal playing (a MUST for Luke whenever Grandpa comes to visit), watching Luke do his karate, and carving pumpkins!  Marinda was glad for the extra help.  Then Jacy went crazy and insisted on cleaning them all.  :P  Check out their awesome designs that they came up with all by themselves!

Halloween:
The day began with the amazing and awesome pumpkin ghost pancakes that Marinda makes every year, only this year Luke wanted to help!  Next the kids got ready for school, with Jacy in her costume and Luke in normal clothes because his school doesn't allow direct Halloween celebration (the party last week was called "The Harvest Festival" :P ).  When the kids got home they alternated for the next million hours between Scooby Doo (going back to Marinda's childhood where Cartoon Network would do a Scooby Doo marathon every Halloween) and the PJ Mask Halloween special.  Then it was time for TRICK OR TREATING!!!!  Luke's friend Lucian came over (seriously, in his class there is Luke, Liam, Luca, Leila, and now Lucian) and after a healthy dinner of pizza and a veggie tray - or really just a dinner of pizza for the kids - we headed out on our adventure.  Jacy was AMAZING at keeping up this year, and the boys were... hyper.  That's the best way to put it.  The crazy part was half way through Luke declared he was tired and wanted to go home.  We tried to rally him, but he was insistent, so Amit took him and Ash-Bash home while Marinda and Lucian's mom took Lucian and Jacy the rest of the way around their neighborhood.  As we said, Jacy did great keeping up with the bigger boy, and even towards the end having to hand Marinda her candy pail because it was too heavy to run with (man that thing was heavy!).  We ended the night greeted by our glowing setinals and some reading of Harry Potter.

Marinda's Birthday:
Jana sent Marinda this meme the night before her birthday, and it was a FANTASTIC way to start her epic 32nd Level.  It began the night before with her and Amit going to Mox Boarding house to have a delicious dinner and board game fun!  Then the next morning she had breakfast in bed with the customary procession of her family singing Happy Birthday to wake her up!  (Marinda's two most favoriate parts of her birthday are her birthday call from Caitlin and this breakfast in bed tradtion).  Then that night they had cake!  It was funny because when Marinda asked what they were doing in the kitchen when Luke yelled at her not to come in there, he said "We're.... making eggs!"  And he stuck to his guns and kept saying it the rest of the day, even when Jacy yelled "We made you a cake!" Luke turned to Marinda and said all serous like "She said eggs." Yay for being 32, bring it on!

Luke's School Picture:
Luke got his school pictures back!  Look at our handsome man!

Jacy being obsessed with "guck" between toes:
For the last few weeks Jacy has discovered that left to themselves "guck" appears between toes.  We're not talking about green slim, we just mean the normal dead skin and lint that accumilates naturally - and Jacy is disgusted by it.  She is so disgusted that everything else has to be put on hold while she cleans it out - including eating, saying family prayer, or leaving for school so they won't be late.  EVERYTHING must stop!  And it isn't just her toes that she is worried about, she has taken it on herself like any good chimpanzie to clean Asher's toes as well, in a completly concerned voice about her brother's affliction.
Jacy is also amazing at entertaining herself.  Over the summer, (is it crazy that every time Marinda starts a sentence with a preposition she still is reminded to put a comma because of the chant she learned in 6th grade?  Thank you Mrs. Rugg!) Marinda's friends would complain about having the kids home and how much work it was entertaining them, and Marinda just kept quite because that has NEVER been a problem with her kids.  Case in point, Marinda took Jacy to a craigslist meet up after her swim lesson yesterday, and they ended up sitting there for a full hour.  At first Jacy was like "I want to go hooooooome!" but then Marinda gave her her bead toy and she enterained herself with is for 45 MINUTES!  It was pretty epic hearing the crazy story she was making up that the beads were going on.  Also that trip Marinda had brought some candy with her, and when she offered some to Jacy she was at first like "WHY ARE YOU INTRUPTING ME!?!" then she saw what it was and literally went "Blaa blaa blaa Ooooo!" complete with face change.
She is also "hiding" now whenever she doesn't want to do anything - like go to bed.  Let us know if you can spot her!

Asher Rolling All Over the Place:
As we said last week - ASHER IS ROLLING NOW!  This is cool in and of itself, but this week he kicked it up a level.  Amit came into the living room and BAM!  Asher had somehow appeared in the center of the room!  Way to go little guy!  Also, you'll see a picture of Luke being a good big brother and giving Asher a few toys... you know, just a couple.

Marinda DMs:
Remember how Marinda and Amit have a life occasionally?  Well, Marinda and her friend Jen got together some other girls (women? ladies? She's never going to be comfortable calling herself and her friends that, no matter how old they get) to do a Dungons and Dragons Girl's Night, with Marinda as the Dungeon Master (DM)!  That means that she is in charge of making up the story that the other charaters would follow (LOTS of making things up on the spot) along with playing all the other characters the other plays will run into, including the bad guys they have to fight!  It was totally chill, mostly because they wanted this to be a fun girl's night first and formost, but also because 4 of the five other girls has never played before as well as Marinda never DMing before and everyone spending a good chunk of the time trying to figure out what in the world they were doing!  There was a massive amount of junk food (a must for any girl's night in general) and it was so much stink'n fun that Marinda can't wait for the next time!

Marinda got sick:
Marinda's PPD health stuff hit a hiccup this week.  Everyone is fine, but we're mentioning it because sometimes when you look at what other people write and think "wow! Their life is so much more awesome than mine, what is wrong with me?"  Well, we have our own share of unperfect moments too.  :)

On that happy note, here are five million pictures of Asher!!!