Merry Christmas

Well, I hope you all had a great Christmas, filled with happiness, love, and great memories! Ours was wonderful. Christmas Eve morning brought a call from Santa (thanks Michelle and Brian for giving him our phone number) and after we made cookies and a ginger bread house, we had a visitor... Santa actually came to do a pre-check (Thanks to Brother Allen for giving him our address) James stood across the room to talk to him.

Can you see the cute PJ's? They all match. They are blue and have sock monkeys and bananas on them the boys all looked so cute wearing them.

After getting them into bed, which took longer than expected. We were finally able to set things up for Santa to come. And Steve and I open our presents to each other Christmas Eve. After that Steve and I played "Settlers of Catan" for 2 players. If you like the regular game, you'll like this one. It takes some time to understand the directions but once you do it's so fun and it really is like the real game.

Welcome to Christmas morning..... I guess Santa must have had an "in" with Disney's Cars, because that is what the stockings were full of. Tommy loved the flashlight he got (and as you can see... so did Tim) and the slippers. And since we lose Lighting McQueen at least weekly it's always good to have extras.

Tim really just enjoyed watching all of the chaos and getting to open the presents. Not his, he like opening everyone elses.

The favorite gift of the day would have to be the trumpet that James got from Santa. If you asked him what he wanted for Christmas he would say a "trumpet" so Santa heard and found one for him. It's just plastic but it plays fairly well (coming from someone who can't tell one note from another). Steve figured out how to play "Taps" on it. So maybe we have the next great Trumpet player in our house.....All in all the boys totally made out with the gifts....

Another of the favorite gift that we got was some nerf guns... They come with about 2 dozen green balls EACH (just the size for one and a half of them to fit in Tim's mouth) I had an extra gun the closet from a gift that was never wrap, that Steve had and we had one huge ball fight!!!

Thanks mom for the great gift, it really brings HOURS of fun. Because after we are done playing with them we then have to find all the balls.

Well Christmas is the a day that I too take the day off so I made muffins and left out the ginger bread house, and it's the one day that the boys can eat what ever they want, from the goodies in their stocking to the candy canes that Santa left on the tree. So they did.... (and are still doing ok, the next day) James and Tommy 'picked' all the candy canes off the tree and I only found a few left over, so most of those got consumed. I had no idea that they were going to be such a big hit.

The morning completely wasted Tim so he fell asleep were it was the sleep where it was easiest... some where were he is confined.

The boys played and played, we watched the Disney parade, and "The Christmas Story". The boys ate so many goodies and then played some more. It was a lot of fun to watch them have such a great time.

Steve and I were sitting on the couch and noticed something in our front yard. We went out to see what it was, and to our surprise, it was a HUGE tumble weed!

So what do you do with a tumble weed this big? You drag it down the street and let it go down Lezner and watch it blow down the street. So that's what we did.... ok not me I had Steve drag it down the street. I just watched and cheered him on.

We were fortunate to have the missionaries for dinner. We started this year what we hope is a fun family tradition, of making homemade pizza for dinner. Steve really enjoyed making the dough and putting it all together.

So after a hard day of playing and eating and presents and all day in new jammies and family it was time to put the boys to bed. (it took Tommy a little while to settle down after all the sugar he had that day, but we made it)

On one last note...
Unfortunately Steve started having a fever..... Fortunately we had a cure for him before it go too much worse...

Happy Holidays to you all. We wish you all the best this coming year with JOY, HAPPINESS, LOVE, AND PROSPERITY in all that you do.

What the......?

Ok, so I had some last minute shopping to do.... just some stocking stuffers and I wanted to get a gingerbread house for the boys (yes I do the easy thing and buy the kit) So anyway I go to walmart. I know, know......yes it's walmart. Anyway.... They were undoing all there Christmas stuff and setting up for Valentine's Day. Seriously!!! Ok, so I thought it was a little crazy. I mean how many husbands, boyfriends, significant others, and men in general buy ANYTHING before the week of Valentine's. So why Valentine's Day needs almost two months is just ridicules!!! At least the other holidays have a meaning behind them (a good one anyway) What is Valentine's Day?

This is the way holidays get ruined! They don't even wait until the holiday is over before setting u for the next one. And then they skip ones all together, like Thanksgiving. That poor holiday only gets one day. And then it's passed over like nothing ever happened.

Where's the love people????

So that's me and my soapbox, I'll get off it and take the box with me.

4 Years Old!!!!

Can you believe it! James is 4! It really doesn't seem that long ago that we were in Monterey and I was holding my first baby. His big eyes looking up at me and taking in everything that he saw. My Sweet Baby James. Now he's no longer a baby or even a toddler. He's a kid. He is getting so tall and growing out of everything. He is in size 5 in the regular boy section. His body is doing what he is wanting it to do and is able to climb and jump like he wants too. He figures things out by watching others, and by just being fearless enough to try it. (as long as everyone else is doing it first) And my heavens this boy is DRAMA. But it keeps everything very interesting. He loves school and loves to play with his friends. His imagination is blooming and so is his artistic side. He is getting really good at coloring and drawing shapes, and even a few letters. He is so smart, and memorizes easily (so much for skipping pages in our books) He counts and know his letters and the sounds they make. He loves to talk.... more so to hear himself I think.... I wonder where he got that from :) He likes to argue and debate and surprisingly he really good at debating his point. He loves music and singing and dancing. He loves to help with anything. And he loves to help Steve with what ever he is doing.

It's been amazing watching him grow and he has taught me so much. His love is so unconditional and true. His love to learn has given me the opportunity to teach him. His questions are never ending but I don't ever want to see that sparkle for knowledge to go away. He loves to laugh and smile. He wants everyone to be his friend and doesn't ever turn anyone away who wants to play with him. I was blessed with an amazing first child who will go on to do great things.

Happy Birthday James.... I love you!!!

I did a questionnaire with James after his birthday and this is it.

-What do you want to be when you grow up? a Soldier and rich (didn't have the heart to tell him you usually can't have both) He also wants lots of trucks

-Favorite Book of Mormon story? Lehi's Dream (it's got to be because of the trophies)

-Favorite color? Orange, black, green and yellow

-Best friend? Steven Badger and Davy Hunsaker

-Favorite sport? Likes to run jump and play

-favorite toy? Cars and trucks

-Favorite outside toy? Sand Box

-What do you like best at school? Playing with the playdoh

-What do you want to do before you turn 5? get the Priesthood. (had a talk about his and that he had to wait so..) be a Soldier.

What you didn't know about Lehi's dream

Ok, so in 1 Nephi of the Book of Mormon there is a story in which Lehi has a dream (1 Nephi 6) We were reading this last night for family scripture reading (this is a favorite in our house hold - "please mom can we read about the fruit!") So we start reading it and James proceeds to tell us that he wants to go to the building. For those who don't know the building represents those who turn away from the Church and the love of Christ. Well here is our conversation....

James: I want to go to the building.
Dad: Why James? Mom and Dad are going to the Tree
Tommy: I'm eat fruit
James: But the building is fun.
Dad: You'll be all alone because mommy and daddy, Tommy and Tim are going to the tree.
Tommy: I don't love the building
James: Look, the building is big and tall.
Dad: Ok, James, we'll miss you.
James: But dad, the building has trophies

Ok, so what do you say to that. How can you beat trophies? So there you go, the building has trophies, and apparently that's what draws the 4 year olds in.

Bonding and Cleaning

So I took James and Tommy with me to get Christmas presents for Steve, and because it was rainy and windy I left Tim at home with Steve. Well when I came home Steve had shaved his head! I knew he was going to I just wasn't ready for how funny Tim would look. His baby hair was getting all matted in the back so it needed to come off, well here you go.

Here's the before..

and here is the after... It grows on you after awhile.

Here's another good one, it's kinda blurry, but I love Tim's expression in it. He's got the prettiest blue eyesI guess this is Steve's way of bonding with the boys. Good thing his head is round and not cone shaped.

Here's a question for you.... what do you get when you "Rub-a-dub-dub, three boys in the tub?"
You get a wet floor, and somewhere in there you end up with three clean boys. But I guess that what I was going for. I figured if I filled up the bathtub eventually they would be clean. I don't know about anyone else, but I usually end up with 'little boy soup.' It's kinda gross, the water turns a yellow-gray color. So I just wash them up and empty the water and fill it back up. Because heaven forbid they don't get to play in bathtub.

Clean kids are great, and better than that, clean sleeping kids are the only thing better.