Monday, December 31, 2012

Christmas--Part 1

We headed to my parents' house after church on Sunday, December 23.  The kids were so good on the trip up.  Darrell rented a car because he was going to return home sooner than we were and he didn't want to put miles on his truck.  He followed right behind us.

Making bead designs.

 

Emily and Megan had to get in on the bead action too.



Having fun with Uncle Derek.

 

 Tyler was in heaven with the train that went around the tree.



 On Christmas Eve Day we made 2 batches of sugar cookies and decorated them.




Tyler and Daniel making a marble machine.



The kids laughing and laughing at silly videos on the computer.



We had the kids (and Derek) act out the nativity.

Emily was excited to be a shepherd.

 

Megan...not so much.  We ended up taking her costume off and letting Samuel (Baby Jesus) wear it.

 

Megan decided she DID want to ride on Kyle, the donkey.

 

Emily as a shepherd with Laura (far right).  Megan decided she was done and left the scene.

 

Then Tyler decided that he'd be a donkey too.



One tired shepherd who fell asleep on Tansy.

 

Jonathan being a shoulder angel on Derek.  (See BYUtv's Studio C's shoulder angel here. Go to the 20 minute mark to start watching.)

 

After that Greg's and Kimberly's families went home to get ready for Santa Claus.  That left us and Derek, Tansy and Samuel to prepare for Santa to come to Grandpa and Grandma's house.

New jammies.  And obviously Tyler did NOT want to be in the picture.

 

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Pre-Christmas Activities

Here are some of the things that happened up until we headed to my parents' house for Christmas.

Making and decorating sugar cookies.  Darrell and I frosted and then "helped" the kids put the sprinkles on.  Tyler even tried his hand at frosting a few cookies and didn't do too bad.






Our stockings



The kids enjoyed helping me wrap presents.  They took the tubes and extra paper and made a "boat" on the couch.




Megan and Tyler lined up the animals from the Fisher Price Little People Nativity and Noah's Ark.



We opened the presents from Darrell's mom and sister on the Friday night before Christmas.  (December 21.)  The kids were soooo excited!



Tyler and Emily wanted a picture by the tree.



We took turns opening gifts.  Tyler wanted to go fast and the girls wanted to take their time and play with each gift before moving on to the next one.



(A little side note:  Megan was SO thankful for her presents and kept saying, "Thank you, Mommy!  Thank you!"  At first she wanted to carry all of her gifts around.  You can see her holding her new clothes while Emily opens her present.)







Darrell could NOT have been more thrilled about getting a little Ford truck just like Tyler's.  It was his favorite present.

 

Tyler coloring with watercolors in his new Thomas watercolor book from Aunt Brenda.

 

 We took our Christmas tree and decorations down on Saturday, December 22.

The kids in their Christmas clothes on Sunday, December 23.  Tyler got a matching tie with Darrell.


 

Sunday, December 16, 2012

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Years ago I saw an episode of Oprah where she talked about keeping a gratitude journal.  I think she used to write down 10 things a day that she was grateful for.  I decided to write down one thing each day that I was grateful for in my journal.  I've kept that up for many years, but the last few weeks I've been changing things up a bit every now and then by writing favorite memories I have of the kids that day. Here are a few of them:

*Holding Emily and Megan's hands as we walked home from taking Tyler to preschool.

*Teaching Tyler how to play the game Memory.

*Tyler and Megan hugging each other at the bar/counter and Emily saying to them, "Guys, I love you!"

*Having Megan lay her head on my lap during church and say "Tickle my hair" so I'd run my hand through her hair.

*Emily walking around in striped leggings and her snowboots.

*Every night after prayers we put the girls in their beds and give them kisses.  As I tuck them in I say, "Good night!  I love you!  See you in the morning!"  Sometimes Tyler gives each girl a kiss and then says, "Good night!  See you in the morning!"

*Having Megan lay her head on my lap during prayer time and wanting Darrell to put his head on her lap so she could rub his head and feel his short, short hair.

*Watching Tyler go right into Primary and sitting down with his class without any problems (we've come a long way from a few months ago when he'd throw himself down on the floor because he didn't want to sit on the chair with his class.)

*Watching Megan put her arm around Emily so they could go into nursery together.

*Tyler asking the girls at dinner how their day at Primary (nursery) was.

*Megan talking to her mini Disney Princess doll and calling her "Sweet girl" which is what I call the girls some times.

*Emily telling Darrell and me as she gets out of the tub, "I peed in the bathtub...on my bum."

*Playing soccer and hide and seek with Tyler in the backyard of Darrell's mom's house.

*Emily saying, "Arriba" (up) or "Abajo" (down--thanks to Dora, the Explorer) when we lift her up or down.

*Having Tyler give me tons and tons of kisses.

*The girls in bed singing a song that I made up when Tyler was born (but that we now substitute everyone's name in).  They were singing, "Daddy is a cute boy, a cute boy, a cute boy."

I'm so grateful for these little snippets of our lives and for these happy memories that I get from being a mom.

A Few Random Pictures

Tyler got to spend some of his money that he's been saving at the Dollar Store.  Here is his "interesting" selection:  a horse, a "Barbie" head and some Ninjas that he thinks are Spider Man and Iron Man.  Silly kid!

 

We inherited these letter blocks from my childhood.



Tyler with his "castle"



Dressing up

 

For a few days Tyler was into painting with watercolors.  His paintings were really pretty.




The kids like coloring.  Tyler is getting so good at coloring within the lines.



Tyler enjoys using the Magna Doodle to write the letters of the alphabet.



How I found Megan one day during nap time.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

On a Roll

Emily has been a little mischievous 3 straight days in a row.

On Thursday I found her with a nice little stash of balls from the Christmas tree on the couch.



Here is a close up where you can see that she pulled the little hangy things out of some of them.



On Friday the girls were playing under the sink while I cleaned the bathroom.



I went downstairs to clean the last bathroom, assuming the girls were still playing under the sink.  When I went upstairs I found that Emily had found the Ajax-type stuff and decided to sprinkle it around.



And yesterday morning I came home from working out to find that she had pulled the ribbon off of the Christmas tree.



Little stinker!