Christmas

After we got back from UT, it was time to kick it into high gear to get ready for Christmas.  I still have not figured out how to manage our December birthdays and Christmas at the same time, so Christmas shopping usually gets pushed until after Eli's birthday.  Working this year pushed that back even later.  Anyway, it wasn't our most prepared year (we were those people shopping on Christmas Eve) but we got it done and had some fun moments in between, too.

Our Christmas Eve involved lots of snow and the kids were thrilled when they found out our awesome neighbor was pulling kids on his 4-wheeler.  How fun is that?  These are the types of things I never experienced growing up in CA.  

Super-psyched for the ride:

They had so much fun and got going pretty fast.  It was really fun to watch.

We watched It's a Wonderful Life that day, as per tradition, and then delivered some cookie plates, watched a light show, and came back for our little Christmas program.  We're still figuring out how to use the Christmas bells I bought without it descending into chaos.  Someday... :)

Santa came!

I had to take a picture of the cute little cookie holder Grandma Marsha made last year:

The cookie, milk, and carrot were gone.

Nate was thrilled with his accordion:

He even made up a little ditty that he kept playing throughout the day. 

Eli loved his little toy work bench and loves pounding with his hammer to make things.

The girls loved their Barnes and Noble gift cards and got some great books with them.

Then it was time to open presents.

Natalie got a robe she loved:

Some other highlights were: the karaoke machine I got for Joe and the dust-buster the kids gave him (The kids actually want to clean!  It's a miracle); some cool coloring books and scented markers; my homemade mug from the kids;  and Eli's popper gun. 

I managed to get all the kids in their matching pajamas and smiling (Nate was being super stubborn but I tricked him into smiling):

It was awesome having another white Christmas.  We're 2 for 2 here in Idaho so far.  I had fun playing in the snow with Natalie, Nate and Eli.  The snow was super powdery and impossible to pack so this was our sad little snowman:

Nate's snow angel:

And, we sang a lot of karaoke that day. I loved this one:

Joe and Natalie singing "I See the Light" from Tangled.  It was so cute.

We also joined Tom and Shari and their kids at the theater to watch the new Star Wars movie that day. Then, we all came back to our house for a yummy prime rib dinner.  We finished off the day with some more karaoke.

It was a great day. :)

Trip to UT

We drove down to Utah right when school got out to spend some time with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Lorna.  First we had a surprise birthday party planned for Lorna.  I think it worked--we surprised her pretty well!  Emma planned it and did a great job.  The BYU/UT bowl game ended up being that day, which threw a kink in things, but it was a fun day.  Emma had gotten some babysitters to watch the kids in the church gym while we watched the game.  That was a genius idea, especially with how terrible the game ended up being.  Man it was rough.  They did make a run but it was too little too late.  Anyway, the kids had a blast and we joined them afterward for some cake and ice cream.  It was a fun day spent with family.  We missed the ones who couldn't make it.

Cute tired Erin:

Aunt Gina and James playing tickle monster with Eli and Maddie:

We also got to meet Frank, Katy's bulldog that Tom and Lorna were caring for in his old age.  He was a crack-up and we all fell in love with him...even Joe!  I thought that was weird but maybe there's a dog-lover in there somewhere.  I couldn't resist taking some picture of Frank in his hilarious positions: 

Sleeping with his tongue out and legs in the air:

While we didn't always love his slobber and the loud noises he constantly made (just breathing!), we sure loved him.  Sadly, Frank passed away just a couple of days ago.  We were all so sad to hear that, especially the kids.  He will be missed.

We changed our plans a bit and decided to stick around a few more days to play.  Regina stayed with her kids and the kids had a blast with their cousins.  One day we had so much fun sledding with them.

Grandma and Grandpa came and brought Frank with them.  Grandpa got some awesome pictures.  Hence this huge picture dump:

We really wanted to get Frank down the hill and so we tried putting him on Lorna's lap.  He clawed at the ground on the way down and managed to climb off.  It was a hilarious image.  You can see all of us on the top laughing so hard in these pictures.

But then, we got him on Joe's lap and he was much calmer and made it all the way down:

More sledding pictures:

Eli went down all by himself!

Sadly, Maddie came down and ran right into him.  They were fine and I love this picture of James and Lily comforting them:

There's nothing like the pure joy of sledding!

It was such a fun trip.

Christmastime is Here

Aside from all the birthday fun, we had some fun Christmas-y things going on in December, too.  

First off...SNOW!  It snowed over Thanksgiving and I don't think it has melted since.  We've had a ton of snow, compared to last year.  Eli has actually enjoyed playing in it a lot more.  

Eli and Nate playing one night:

We had our ward's Christmas breakfast at the beginning of the month.  Our primary chorister had these awesome costumes and asked some of the older kids in Primary to dress up like elves and help with Santa.  Elizabeth agreed to do it.  When it came time to actually do it she was embarrassed and was so funny in the beginning trying to hide behind the curtains.   Then she loosened up, though, and did a great job talking to the little kids and helping them not be nervous to sit on Santa's lap.  It helped to have these fun friends to do it with:

Here she is talking to Eli, who was very nervous:

He wouldn't sit on Santa's lap this time, but he did talk to him.

The only one I got pictures of was Natalie:

Probably asking for a puppy again. :)

Gingerbread houses!

I caved and bought a kit this year, which was easier on me but not necessarily easier to assemble.

Th girls did pretty well with it.

There were some cute moments with the boys that I wanted to remember.

Eli cut out a piece of paper and then held it up and said, "Idaho!"

Nate had to have a picture of him, too.  He wanted me take one of his balloon.

I love these cute boys:

Nate brings home all these adorable pictures from kindergarten.  I love his drawings:

I loved this one, too:

Natalie drew some awesome pictures in church one day:

We started a Christmas countdown thing in an effort to read our scriptures more.  Sadly, we only did about 4 days worth of it.  One day we were supposed to write a list of our blessings.  I loved the kids' lists:

(I love that Nate's says "moreeo" or "Mario")

Sadly, I completely botched the Christmas cards this year.  I got both of the girls' ages wrong!  Then, when Elizabeth pointed it out, I was still insisting that she was only 9.  Whoops.  

We used this picture that my dad took while we were in CA:

Right before school got out Nate had his kindergarten Christmas concert.  I took the day off, and Joe was able to get away too, and we went to watch.  Kindergarten concerts are the best!  You couldn't help but smile through the whole thing.  The kids had individual lines to say and they sang a bunch of songs.  Nate did his perfectly and was singing so well.  I especially loved the little things they had them wear:

So cute.  We got a lot of great video of that.

Then, it was finally time for school to get out, not only for the kids but for me too!

We got this picture of the math department (minus one teacher) on the last day:

That's actually in my room.  You can see my students' geometry art projects behind us.

They are great people.  I really like our department.  The four of us in front are all new.

We left only a few hours after that for UT.

More on that next time...