Holiday Happenings

Life is back to normal today. Unfortunately. We had an amazing Christmas vacation, complete with staying up until 1 or 2 in the morning (even Logan) and sleeping in until 10 or 11. Ryan and I climbed out of bed every morning (which was actually closer to lunchtime than morning) and realized we hadn't slept that late since before we had children.

12.24 - Our dreams of a White Christmas (kind of) came true! It's the only time it's snowed this year, and it was nice enough to fall on the day before Christmas. Granted, it was only about an inch, but we'll take what we can get!

The kids were so excited to put on a nativity show on Christmas Eve. We wrote out parts for every family member. Brevan was a shepherd, Brynlie was the Angel Gabriel and a Wise Man, Lindsey was Mary, Logan was the cutest Wise Man of all time, and Ryan was Joseph. I was the narrator, who read the Book of Mormon and Bible versions of the birth of Jesus.

Logan was SUPER excited to play his part. Can you tell? Like son, like . . .

. . .Father.

On Christmas Eve, I gave my boys matching feetie-jammies. I never thought a day would come when I'd be buying feetie-jammies for Brevan again. He has pretty much lived in them ever since.

I made photo books for each of the kids. They each have their own book that shows all the fun things they did this year. They actually have enjoyed them more than I thought they would.

After the whole Christmas Eve program, I gave each of the kids their yearly ornament.

The kids must have been good this year, because Santa visited (i.e. spoiled) each of them. Brevan got a lot of camping and fishing gear, since he will be attending many scout campouts now.

Logan got an ATV that goes 5 mph. The kids have had a lot of fun riding it all over our yard!

Brynlie got an American Girl doll, which she named Amelia. She also got a wardrobe and many clothing items for Amelia. I bet Santa had a lot of fun designing outfits and coordinating shoes for the doll.

Lindsey got a really cute doll bed, a Baby Alive that pees (which is very exciting to a 6-year-old), and many diapers and accessories for the baby.

Brynlie wrote the letter to Santa this year. Logan was adamant that he still wanted a real baby, not a toy. Too bad, kid.

The kids were sound asleep by 11 o'clock. We couldn't believe it! Little did we know, they would wake up at 12 and stay up until around 4. Then they slept for an hour and were wide awake by 5. How cute are the girls in their Santa hats? We told them they couldn't come downstairs until 7, but the night seemed to last forever, because I was so excited I was awake most of the night, too! I finally got up at 5, showered and read a book to pass the time.

I think Santa's gifts were a hit.

Ryan even took a couple pictures of me while we watched all the excitement unfold.

Don't let this smile fool you. Logan was NOT impressed with the ATV. It was not a real baby, real kitty or real gun, so it was no good. We couldn't even get him to sit on the thing, so we finally picked him up and forced him to look happy!

So glad he appreciates the not-cheap ride that Santa spent much of the night assembling. Much swearing commenced during the making of this shiny red machine.

Ryan won the prize for awesomest wrapping job this year. I'm so glad he loves me enough to put the time and effort into making my gifts look beautiful! :)

Some of the other loot the kids received . . .

Lindsey was so sad when she outgrew her "cheetah girl" outfit last year, so I found a similar one that she can wear this winter.

For those of you who know me well, I am about as anti-gun as they come. It took some serious compromise for me to agree to buy this airsoft beebee gun for Brevan (which didn't arrive in the mail until a few days later, so he only had a picture on Christmas). All the scouts in our ward are VERY into having airsoft wars, and spend much of their time at Young Mens and scout campouts playing "war" in the trees. Whatever.

Goofball!

Now THERE'S some excitement from the boy!

The "after" picture. I think the kids were sufficiently spoiled.

We had the missionaries over for Christmas dinner, so we spent much of the day preparing the yummy meal. I took a picture of some of the deliciousness.

Top 3 gifts I gave this year:

1. Me and my siblings had my parent's old 8 mm filmstrips fixed and put on DVD's. It's so cute to watch the videos from when we were all little tykes.
2. I had all of our camcorder videotapes fixed and put on DVD's for Ryan. He's been wanting this for a long time, and we enjoyed seeing all the memories from when our kids were littler. Ryan cried while watching some of the DVD's and claimed that he wanted a 5th child now. I gave him the same answer I gave Logan about a new baby; "Too bad, Buddy."
3. Probably the remote control Lightning McQueen for Logan. The look on his face when he opened it was priceless.

Top 3 gifts I got:

1. The fuzziest, softest, warmest blanket of all time.
2. The cool kitchen accesories that my kids picked out all by themselves!
3. Tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert with my Sweetie.

Ryan's favorite 3:

1. The poem Brynlie wrote me.
2. The DVD's you gave me.
3. The George Forman grill.

Brevan's favorite 3:

1. Age of Empires games.
2. The airsoft gun.
3. Super-Mario galaxy.

Brynlie's favorite 3:

1. The American Girl doll with her ears pierced and all her clothes.
2. The Disney All-star Party Wii game.
3. My brown boots.

Lindsey's favorite 3:

1. My Baby Alive doll.
2. The Toy Story 3 movie.
3. That make-up kit that Brynlie got me.

Logan's favorite 3:

1. My 4-wheeler (Brynlie told him to say that).
2. The cool Iron-man guy that shoots things.
3. The Lightning McQueen slippers.

We did many fun activities during the following week. I took pictures of some of those fun events. On Monday, we decorated sugar cookies with the Simmons and a new (super fun!) family that just moved into our ward, the Steele's.

On Wednesday, Ryan took me to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. It took us both by surprise by being one of the best concerts of all time! In Ryan's words, "This is like a really cool rock concert for old people like us!" Brevan took this picture of us before we left. We got lunch at a restaurant before the concert started, then picked up the kids afterward and took them to Ihop for a very late dinner/middle of the night meal.

Other events included:

• A fun evening of food and games at our house with the Myers family. We have loved having a larger home that can accomodate big groups of our friends. It's always been our dream to have large get-togethers at our house, where adults laugh together until the wee hours of the morning while the kids run around screaming and trashing the house. It may be a weird dream, but I love every second of it.

• Movies, movies, and more movies.

• Junk food, candy and chocolate galore.

• Lots and lots of Primary. The hours I put into fulfilling my church calling lately are rather ridiculous, but we hopefully have everything ready for this new year. Sunday went fairly well, with the exeption of two teachers already "quitting." Back to the drawing board on those ones. The theme for Primary this year is "I Know the Scriptures are True." I adore every one of those little Primary kids and I can't wait to spend the year delving into the scripture stories with them.

• Playing board games with the kids (Clue being the game of choice), letting the kids spend hours in front of the Wii and computer, and hanging out in our jammies for days on end.

• Reading. I read THREE books last week! That's incredible for me, since all three books had 500 pages and I'm a slow reader. I blame the awesome new blanket Ryan gave me. And the fact that I'm loving the series I'm reading, "Children of the Promise."

• On New Years Eve, the girls had friends sleep over, and we watched movies and ate popcorn and pineapple (quite the combination, I know). We happened to walk upstairs right at midnight, so the kids ran outside screaming for a while. Luckily, the neighbors didn't care and even screamed "Happy New Years to YOU!" back to them!

So much more happened during the Christmas break, but my fingers are tired from typing, so I will end here. I can't tell you how unexcited I am to be back in the normal swing of things. Living in my van. Having to get up when it's still dark outside. Not having one minute to read a book all day long. This is just no fun.

By the way, Ryan and I are reading the New Testament with the kids still, but we just started reading the Book of Mormon seperately on our own. My goal is to read it before May, and Ryan's goal is to read it before March. I can't wait to sink into the words of my favorite book again. I wonder what I will learn from the Book of Mormon this time?