We had a great Christmas. This year the adults on my side of the family exchanged names and made donations in that person’s name to a charity of their choice. It made shopping very easy; we only needed to really get the kids gifts. For us we focused on sports. Since it is pretty cold outside and there is a ton of snow on the ground we have made our front room an extension of the playroom. It is full of active toys for the kids to enjoy and exert some of their energy. They just love it. But, I can hardly wait until the spring when they can go outside again.
Adam was able to come and visit us for Christmas which was great since he had never been here before. Plus the kids just love him, go figure I know, but he enjoys them as well. He got them two of their favorite movies for Christmas, Cars and A Bugs Life. I don’t think they have watched anything else since.
Overall we had a great Christmas; we were all very laid back and had a bunch of fun. Isabelle helped put out cookies and milk for Santa, I forgot about the reindeer but we’ll get them next year. Everyone played outside in the snow. It was a white Christmas, we got more fresh snow, and had a blast sledding. I’m sure the videos of that area great. I hope that your holiday was a good one as well.
. . . are here at last. The kids have been very excited about the upcoming visit with G & G Libby. And since they came the day the snow came it worked out perfect. We were all able to get all bundled up and go sleding in the back yard. Both kids loved it and Ben even started to make a snow "house." Just as we were going in though Isabelle decided that it did not need to be up and pushed it all down. Grandpa worked most of the morning and missed the snowy fun, but I'm sure he will havea another chance soon.
Here is a song from Isabelle's Sing program at school this winter. It was really cute and we had a great time. I hope you enjoy it also. Hopefully it will not be grainy, because it is nice and clear on the computer.
Merry Christmas!
Ben and I got the chance to meet the Governor, his wife and the Lieutenant Governor and his wife. It was really just a photo opportunity but hey you take what you can get. No deep questions about policy or where he thinks Utah is going in the future. The receiving line was not that functional. I guess we'll just have to try for a dinner invitation next time. After going through about, almost every picture taken I finally found ours, needless to say the numbering system had something to be desired.
I finally gave in and had Barrett’s hair cut. I can hardly believe it. I just love the little curls he gets at the back of his neck and around his ears but I think it was just about long enough to bother even me. So I took the plunge and had it cut. He did a great job and did not even cry. She did cut it a little shorter than what I wanted but I know it will grow back. I can only hope that his little curls stay with him. But he does look extra handsome now. Plus I think for those days when I do style his hair, it will be much easier. He was pretty excited though; he got to play on a slide and even got a balloon for all his hard work.
Our trip to Santa this year was very easy, we saw Santa at the Church Christmas party. Boy was he long winded. The wait nearly killed me who knows what it did to the kids.
Our first snowman of the year was so much fun to make. He started out much smaller than what he ended up being. Ben thought we needed to make him extra big. One of my friends moved to Arizona and she gave me a snowman kit. All you have to do is add the snow. Isabelle had a lot of fun putting on the accessories after Ben was satisfied that he was big enough. Now our snowman has a V-8 problem, but hey they can’t last forever.
At school Isabelle had a chance to be in the Spotlight because her Birthday is in December. Bear and I were able to come down for her class to be with her as she told her friends about herself, during her spotlight. She was pretty excited. I was excited for her too, as well as for being able to faces with the names of the kids she likes to talk about.
Each year an event is held to raise money for the local children's hospital, made possible by people creating very intricate Christmas trees, that are themed. Some trees are large while others are small. There are also wreaths, gingerbread houses, play houses, and so much more. Roadway has the pleasure of delivering all of the trees to the buyers, and they hope that none of the decorations shift or break. The large trees can be so much more, they could also come with a false hearth, flat screen tv, games or whatever might go well with the theme of the tree. All of the trees were just beautiful, even the little ones. I would love a chance to decorate one all in one theme and then see it placed in a loving home or business. Since these are no ordinary trees the prices range from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars. Who would not want to support the Children’s Hospital? Ben thinks it would be a great fundraiser for any city.
Play house or Grandmother house?
I am really hoping for a white Christmas this year. And seeing how it snowed the day we got back from Texas as well as on December 1st I think the odds are in my favor. Although I do think that it has to actually snow on the 25th but I could not be sure. Here are some pictures from the morning of our snow storm, it looks like about 4” of snow and then it proceeded to snow all day and I think the valley got at least 7” so you can imagine how many inches the mountains received. I know all the ski resorts were praying hard to the snow gods to bring it on, considering they have been blowing snow, yikes!
Isabelle loved the snow; Bear was not quite sure what to do. Never mind the fact that his shoes would not stay on and I think he really could not move well; but hey all in the name of warmth. He did have fun on the sled until Isabelle dumped him.
A birthday in December is hard all in it self, but having your birthday on the 24th can be considered even more difficult. With that in mind, while we are all together with Ben’s family we celebrate winter birthday’s now. Three in December, and one for February, which is kind of nice for the kids, but some what unnecessary in my opinion, but hey I did not make this rule to begin with. And usually on birthday party day, we all take in a little bowling, to show off our mad skills at being able to throw a ball down a hard wood floor. People are so easily entertained. Although this year we added another outside “family” member to the birthday party crowd a friend from Church who Bernie and Susie are godparents for. It was really nice to help her celebrate her birthday as well. I’m sure that they will become part of the birthday tradition.
Very few books have every really made want to read them again and again, well I have recently read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, and have just fallen in love with the characters and the book. Twilight is the first book in the series and for whatever reason I am completely drawn to the characters and plot. I would recommend this series to all who enjoy reading. The nice thing about these books is that they are a fast read, and can keep your attention from the beginning. The fact that I like these books is kind of funny, because I have waited to read them, since I did not know what to expect. Were they going to follow the same lines as Anne Rice, or were they “cleaner,” since I have heard about them for a long time, I finally broke down and read them. The author is LDS, and so her work has been very big here, and she does not disappoint. I’m glad that I finally started the series and can hardly wait until the next book comes to print.
After Thanksgiving on Friday we have our Texas Christmas with Ben’s family. It is a wild day filled with last minute shopping, wrapping gifts and kids filled with high anticipation of tearing into those carefully wrapped gifts the moment it touches their hands. Before we can get to all the excitement of gifts we have to find the perfect tree. Each year it becomes a major production with fifteen people voicing their opinion on the tree they think would be just right. Sadly you can’t make everyone happy. At last we find the “perfect” tree and take the family picture. Now with seven of the kids under four years old it becomes a challenge to make all the little faces look forward at the same time. Which in it self can be very comical, I don’t think it will happen anytime soon that all the kids will face the camera and hold still. Once we get the perfect tree we have to cut it down and bring it home, and decorate it before we open presents. But wait there’s more; we even have to eat dinner before all the mayhem can begin. So after much waiting and anticipation from the kids (read Morgan) we are finally read to get down to business, and this of course leads to a wild frenzy to see what everyone got for Christmas.
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that everyone had a great day and did not eat too much. As usual we had tons of food, which amazingly enough we only had for leftovers one day. This year we did our standard deep fried turkey as well as a turducken. I know what is a turducken, well it’s a turkey, stuffed with a duck, and a chicken along with tantalizing stuffing of rice and other Creole mixtures. And we even tried to be a little healthier with our sides but it’s hard to do when everything will end up dripping in gravy. While all of our family members were not able to attend we were grateful for those that could make it for the visit and it was a great day. Everyone pitched in to help bring dinner to the table, even the kids had fun helping out, with getting the potatoes ready to cook. Morgan had the best pleasure to figuring out where everyone is going to sit, because when you have that many people there are bound to be logistical issues.
While I was in high school the entire town of Sulphur Springs got together to build a new playgroup for the kids. They called it Kids Kingdom. One of the citizens donated a very large majority of the money for the playground to be built, and it became a reality one weekend with the help of hundreds of people, who volunteered their time. I am happy to say that it is still a lot of fun for kids to play on. Our kids even enjoy it a lot. We try to take them every year we are back in Sulphur Springs and this year was no exception. They all had so much fun playing, climbing, and exploring the “kingdom.” I personally like the rubber bridge that you can bounce across, it is too much fun. 
Fish, fish, fish and more fish, you can never come home to Sulphur Springs without fishing. I was really happy that this year though we had really great weather for fishing. Bear and Isa had so much fun and they each caught their own fish for the first time. It was pretty exciting. I even caught a fish, which really means that I finally had some fun. I usually don’t have the patience for fishing. It was great that the fish were really biting, and let me tell you there were so big fish out there. I think Jodi caught the biggest fish that came out of the water, so bigger ones got away. It was almost hard to leave but we had to get home and feed the kids before long, and even though there were lights, it was getting dark and harder to see where your minnow was going.
Thanks to my husband being a huge dork who watches the History Channel almost as much as ESPN we have now been introduced to a new earth friendly product that I think everyone should have. I absolutely hate to put things in the trash that I know can be recycled or composted, but we for one do not have a compost option. But wait we could have an in home compost machine that will take the majority of food waste items and turn them into great “food” for your garden. Much to my father’s dismay I’m sure I keep becoming more and more green. This in home kitchen compost product is provided by Nature Mill, their web site is naturemill.com, and comes with an air cleaner so there is none of that nasty compost smell in your home. Not only are you helping to reduce the amount of waste in the landfills you are providing your backyard with much needed nutrients that are natural and organic. I will encourage all of you to check this compost machine out and if you get a chance to see it in action on the History Channel you should watch it, Environmental Tech II is the series name, and the next time this series airs is Saturday, November 17th at 5pm. We could all be a little greener.
We have just seen some gingerbread houses that will put the ones we make this season to shame. But at least we tried, and anyway who has that much time to make such an amzing structure? Yes that is a Dragon.
We went to our first official corn maze here in Utah. Now while we did not do the big corn maze because the kids are a little young, we did have fun participating in many of the other activities. Since we went after Halloween we had so much fun and practically had the place all to ourselves. But first our exciting tale of what happened once we arrived.
Upon arrival at Cornbelly’s Maze I began the delicate process of getting the kids out of the car and ready for fun. Barrett was still sleeping when we arrived so I left him in the car while I got the stroller out and Isabelle out. Now this is a little different since I usually get him out then Isabelle but change never hurts. Before I started removing objects I placed my cell phone and keys in the side pocket of the diaper bag so that I could put the bag in the stroller. I had the stroller all set up and Isabelle was getting out of the car and I made my way to the front to grab the bag and instead I decided to just take out a diaper and wipes because that would be so much easier. Since I had gotten a bigger diaper bag when Bear was first born and it took up a lot of room. I told Bear I would get him out in just a minute and closed the front door. I walked around the other side to Bear and opened his door. Low and behold it would not open, so I was like ok let me go get my keys from the stroller. No keys!! Where could they be, oh yea still in the diaper bag on the front seat of the car that is now locked with my child still in the car. That’s right I locked Barrett unintentionally in the car. I could not believe I had done this. 
Fortunately I was down at the maze with Mom’s Club so I had some people to help me call the police to get Barrett out of the car. After what seemed like forever but was really only about twenty minutes he was out and no worse for the wear. I should have taken pictures of the police officer unlocking the door but then I thought he would think I was crazy, so I didn’t. After he was out Bear was just fine, a little shocked that I left him in the car but he recovered well and had a great time at the Maze. He followed the older kids around great, and they each had so much fun. I think the coolest part was the giant “balloon” they had on the floor, one for smaller kids and one for big kids or adults. Even I got out on this one, I think it was even better than a trampoline; everyone should try it out sometime in their life.
