Christmas Season 2015

 I feel like this was the year of Santa's. Last Christmas, when we lived in Cedar City, we couldn't find any Santa's to go to and get pictures with the boys. This year we saw so many Santa's I finally started to avoid them, and the lines that usually accompany them.

The First Santa we saw was at Robin's work party. They had a mini family party during their lunch break, where families could come and see Mr and Mrs Claus and eat some pizza. That night was also Steve's party, and since I knew there was going to be a Santa there too and that Spencer would realize they were two different men, I told him only one was the real Santa and the other was just a helper so he would need to decide which one was which because only kids can tell. (He decided the one at Steve's party was the real one). When Santa asked Rod what he wanted for Christmas he said, "A present!"

 They had an ugly Sweater contest at Steve's work party. He wore a kittens in stockings sweatshirt with a turtle neck, khakis and had a mustache to complete the creepy look. You can see the sweater better in the picture below. He won by the way.

 When Santa and Mrs Santa (as Rod called her) arrived Rod ran right up and gave both of them a hug. As a side note-this is actually the mom and dad of the CEO of Steve's company. He also works as the Santa at the Orem mall. So we had met him before.

 Before the kids sat on Santa's lap to talk and get pictures they sat in the semi-circle and sang Christmas songs together. At one point there was a baby, who was being held by an older sibling, who started crying. All the other kids just ignored her, but this was Spencer and Rod's reaction (above). Our new baby is going to be a shock to them I think.

 Santa and Grandpa the next day at BYU.

Making snow angels while sledding with Dad.

 This was the other picture Steve sent me from sledding. Apparently Rod went off a jump and landed on his face. That made me feel better about Steve taking the boys by himself. :)

 Ward Christmas party.

 My friend Jessica had 2 extra tickets to the Zoo Lights at Hogle Zoo. She was kind enough to give them to us so the boys and I made an evening of it. We drove up early to avoid the traffic and went to McDonalds for an early dinner (If I ever give the boys a choice, they choose McDonalds ). Then we arrived at the zoo a little after it opened so we got a great parking spot and avoided the crowd that was pouring in right as we were leaving. The wind also started blowing right as we were leaving which turned the air bitter cold, so glad we missed that. We had perfect traffic on the way home. It was a great, spur of the moment, evening. Only downside-I forgot to charge my phone so I only had enough battery for one picture. Unfortunately we chose to take a picture in front of a flashing light display and of course the picture took when the lights were off. :)

Spencer's "Christmas Sing" at school. This is the Assistant Principal and Principal who acted as the MC's.

Spencer in the middle in the green, striped sweater. He sang and danced his little heart out. But he was so concentrated and determined he didn't smile once the entire time on stage. Still super cute.

Boys playing with Grandma's wooden puzzle nativity set that she finished making. In this picture the boys were yelling at each other and fighting over a certain piece. Grandma has the same reaction I have everyday when they fight... non-stop!

Christmas Sunday.

Christmas Cards!

Spencer discovered he LOVES cutting out paper snowflakes. I think he probably made at least 20 or 30 of them. They started out a bit rough but he got the hang of them and they got better and better. After this one he said, "Look at my totally grown up snowflake!"

Roddy helping Grandma make her chocolate mints. He doesn't love the taste of mint, but he had to "test" a lot of the chocolate. 

Christmas Eve Day:

I'm not going to lie, this day was pretty awful for me. It was fun, but I had a lot of late-third trimester of pregnancy aches and pains, plus a few other TMI things I won't even get into. But bottom line, I got about 4 hours of sleep the night before and it hurt to stand, walk or move positions. It was slightly less painful to sit or lay down. So pretty much I was miserable all day. I had planned so many things I wanted to accomplish and fun things I wanted to do but I spent most of the day resting, which was hard for me. I realized I am a very go go go person and I don't like to ask for help or let my boys down. (I don't know how women can put up with being on bed rest for long periods of time). Luckily Steve and Robin stepped up and were a huge help. Steve even took the boys sledding again so I could bathe and rest in peace.  I also learned the importance of taking people's advice even though it's not what you usually do or were planning. Robin and Steve had a lot of practical suggestions of things to do (or I should say-NOT do) to make my day easier. My initial instinct was to say no and do it the way I had planned, but I swallowed by pride and went with the flow. And you know what? The world did not end and everything turned out fine. The control freak part of me was very proud of myself. And by Evening I had started to feel a lot better.
The boys were also driving us crazy (which was not helping) so I had to take drastic action. Spencer Started crying when I read his. I only felt a little guilty. 

 Christmas Eve:

We made gingerbread cookies but had to let them cool before we could decorate them. So we let the boys open their Christmas Eve present (Spencer- a Ninja Turtle Poncho Blanket and a Christmas book. Rod- a Christmas book). We read their books and they went to get their jammies on. Then we each decorated two cookies. One for Santa and One for us to eat right then. After we did our Christmas Eve program (which because I was not feeling well was short and sweet). We each chose one fun song to sing. Then we each chose one spiritual song to sing. Then we dressed up and acted out the Story of the Nativity while Steve read from Luke 2. (I realized if we never have a girl I'll have to be Mary forever!)

Joseph leading the Donkey to Bethlehem.

Jesus is Born.

Angel appears to the Shepherds.

All Worship Jesus. 

Then the boys were off to bed!

Christmas Day:

We woke up to a VERY white Christmas. (8 inches of snow)

The boys shocked us by not waking up until about 8:10am (They are usually up by 6:30am). Steve and I woke up before them! So I went downstairs, had breakfast and started making the pumpkin pie. It was good they slept in though because David and Brian didn't come until about 9:30am. So the boys had time to go through their stocking, eat breakfast and play with their gifts from Santa (Spencer-Lego Batman game for the XBox. Rod- a Pirate Potato Head)

I wanted us to be in at least one picture (even though we both look extremely tired and not at our best). In memory of my mom I wore the Tweety Bird Pajama pants she gave me for Christmas when I was 17, and one of her old sweaters.

This was the first Christmas the boys both understood what was going on. They were so fun to watch I was too distracted to take pictures. But believe me, between their grandparents, great-grandparents, Aunts and Uncles- they got totally spoiled. My favorite gift was the Coon-skin hats my dad gave them. So cute!!

Brian unwrapping his present from David (awesome wrapping job right?)

Steve got me a sewing machine!!! And it's purple (he knows me so well. I was telling Amber the other day- one of Steve's strengths is he an excellent gift giver. He always gives me things I love). Although I'm going to be so busy with a new born I won't be able to use it for a while, I am still really excited. Utah Valley University offers community classes every few months. One of them is a beginner sewer class that you bring your own machine so they can teach you how to use your machine and basic things to get you going. So I think this summer I'll take the class.

Right as we were finishing up presents Robin got her Skype call from Jessica in the Mission field. It was really fun to talk to her. At one point we did a 4 way call with Phil and Jennifer and their families. We had a lot of good laughs.

After Jessica we played and rested until it was time for dinner. Luckily I had planned a very low maintenance dinner (I felt SO much better than the day before but was not at 100%). Ham, Cheesy potatoes, Cranberry jello salad and the normal sides. I thought it was good, if I do say so myself.

We ended the night with the Pie in the Face game we got from Uncle Jace. The boys LOVED it. Spencer got hit first and Rod was very upset it wasn't him. He eventually got hit too (we all did-even daddy).  I don't know if I've ever heard Rod laugh this hard. The picture is blurry because I couldn't stop laughing myself.

It was a very blessed and special Christmas day. As always, it was over too soon.

Spencer turned 6!

Spencer was very excited about his birthday this year. He started counting down about a month before and on the actual day he kept singing all these made up songs about how great it is to be 6. He is still super tall for his age. 4'3"! He started off with breakfast in bed and I brought donuts to his class later.  (Funny side story with that. Spencer really really wanted donuts for his class treat. At the store though they only had 7 glazed donuts left and I wanted to try and get something that wasn't too messy or huge. I saw these little star shaped donuts with light frosting and sprinkles and knew they'd be perfect. I counted 22 donuts. He has 18 kids in his class so with his teacher, plus some extra to take home for me and Steve and Rod, it was perfect. I put 11 in the box and then couldn't find the other ones anywhere. Realized it was a mirrored wall in the donut case! I felt so dumb. Luckily they had some other small donuts with the same frosting and sprinkles but in a circle shape. So it worked out still.)

 He had a birthday party with friends this year. He wanted a movie birthday (He originally was going to invite 2 friends to go see a movie at the theater but we were having trouble picking a movie the other parent approved of) so we ended up inviting a lot of neighbor kids over and watching the Curious George Christmas movie. (Can't go wrong with Curious George).

 After the movie we sang happy birthday, had some cake and sent the kids on their way. It was a very low stress party :)

Clockwise around the table starting with Spencer. Spencer, Claire & Max (my friend Brenna's kids I was babysitting-can't really see Max), Zeabyn, Afton, Charlotte, Zeram, Rod.

 After we sent friends home we did a family pizza party. We got Spencer some batman and friends action figures and we surprised him with a batman play-set. He had been begging for one forever but I kept telling him no because they are so expensive. Luckily for him I found a mildly used one for $8 (This one is usually about $45) Can you tell he was excited?

 David helping him put together a Star Wars fighter jet he got from one of his friends.

We love Spencer so much!!! Happy birthday kid.

End of year catch up

Our adorable, nerdy Rod

During the summer some High School friends and I all met up for dinner. It's been 10 years since we graduated, but it still feels like yesterday when I get together with these lovely ladies.

(Brenna Lyman Olsen, Me, Melissa Bown Petty, Michelle Ferry Williams, Jennifer Mildenhall Skipper)

Spencer had "Gator Games" (aka track and field day) at his school. I volunteered to help and took Rod with me. The Chick-fil-a cow came for the fun and Rod could not get enough of him.

Found Rod asleep on the stair landing like this. Funny thing was he was listening to the Christmas song "Mary's Lullaby".

Spencer won the school wide "Gator of the Week"
Award his second week for school. His teacher nominated him and said, "Spencer is kind, caring, and friendly. He always completes daily tasks in a timely manner. I'm so glad he's in my class this year."

We were able to drive down to go to Grace's baptism. I can't believe how grown she is!

I love that children have an inherent instinct to line things up.

We had a couple coupons for free ice cream at Culver's so we went for adventure day. I took Rod to the bathroom while we were there and Spencer had some fun with my camera. (Ice cream cup and silly face selfie's below)

 For another adventure day we went on a nature photo scavenger hunt. We had a list of things to find and Spencer would take pictures when we found them. There were a bunch of High School Cross Country team runners on the same trail and when they would come by Rod would stand in the middle of the trial like a deer in the head lights. Spencer got a good shot of me pulling him to the side. Also a nice grass hopper below.

Rod is different than Spencer in many different ways, including the fact that he will eat almost anything. He especially loves fruits and vegetables. I have to hide them in the fridge and put them on high shelves in the pantry or he will eat them all. This is a time he put down his cookie and started eating a cucumber instead. A very common occurrence.

To remember my mom's birthday this year I bought an Almond Joy (one of her favorite treats) and the boys and I ate it in her honor.

I've been giving Spencer piano lessons. I told him when he finished his book he could choose something fun for us to do as a family. He chose Chuck-e-cheese!

With all the talk of what we're going to name the new baby, Spencer wanted to make a list of name ideas for his future kids. He said he's going to keep this list until he has a wife and then he'll get it out of his special box and show her "after I go to work until dinner and make money so we can buy furniture."

This year we made homemade birthday cards for all the aunt/uncles, cousins, grandparents etc. Spencer got really into it. He would ask me, and sometimes have me text to find out, what people's favorite color's were or what they liked etc. This card was my favorite though. The card was for Uncle Scott so he drew a picture of Woodstock blowing out a chocolate cake, with Snoopy watching-Since Scott has a dog named Snoopy. (And he drew the balloons blue because that's what I told him Scott's favorite color was-even though it's not. It's Scott's fault! He didn't text me back fast enough). 

Steve and I went to a play for a date night. It was directed by our College friend (and one of Steve's groomsmen at our wedding) Jarom Brown.

Red Ribbon weeks at school. This was crazy dress up day. Backwards inside-out shirt. Two different shoes and one of my socks and one of Steve's socks. You can't see it in the picture but there is also Red chalk in his hair. Spencer thought he looked amazing :)

First snow of the season wasn't a lot but the boys didn't waste any time

Tea Party with our neighbor (and Spencer's crush) Charlotte.

Steve's little sister had been asking for a belly shot. I hate doing belly shots because I don't like the way I look when I'm pregnant and I feel silly taking selfies (I look like a phone model).  33 weeks in this picture.

Rod on the other hand loves taking selfies- and writing on himself. 

At school Spencer has been starting to sound out words and writes sentences. I was very proud of myself that I knew what he wrote the first time he brought one of these home. Took me a good 30 seconds but I got it.

"I like to play with Mr. Cuddles" (Mr Cuddles is his favorite Teddy bear)

This is how the boys dry off after showers.

 

Robot Dad

 

Everyday Tuesday we do play dates with other moms/kids in the neighborhood. Here are the boys with a couple friends- Jack (buzz light-year) and Camden. Rod is the Storm Trooper/Iron Man.

 It's nice to have some one on one time with Rod while Spencer is at school. This morning we had a nice little moment together. We sat and watched the tree trimming guys cut branches off the trees in the complex (Rod trying to wave to one) while we had hummus and crackers (and Rod wore a bag as a necklace). It's the little things.

 One day I let Rod go downstairs and watch a show before dinner. I asked Spencer to get  him when dinner was ready and Spencer came back up laughing so hard he couldn't talk. Apparently Rod sneaked down our Raisin container and somehow fell asleep on top of it while eating. The right picture is his face after I took him off.

 Spencer was very proud of his play-dough creation.

 Steve did "No Shave November". The first week of December he shaved it off a little bit at a time. I got a picture of day one and day 4. You can see Day 5 in the Christmas post (mustache at work party).