Our Christmas Weekend

 Christmas Eve morning moments. Someone is excited to read!

 On our way to Christmas Eve festivities in Nashville with Michael's family, this is what I found. Evan sucking his finger (meaning he's exhausted) while letting Cora hold his other finger. I don't know if you can see her face reflected in the baby mirror but she has the biggest love face and smile for Evan. Very cute!

 After a delicious meal, it was gift time at Mike's brother's house.

 These are Evan's antlers from Grandma Jennie but he wouldn't wear them. He was too interested in something up his nose I guess. lol.

 Evan getting "Rocket" pajamas. Grandma didn't even know it's his new obsession word. When we sing him his good night song and include people he knows or things around his room (ie: "Good night window/light switch/ blanket/ toys" etc) he wants us to sing "Good night ROCKET" over and over and over. We don't know what it's about but it cracks us up. The picture of Grandma is of her finally receiving much hinted about photos of her grandchildren! Now if we could only get the parents of those children to cooperate and all take a photo together... we'll see.

 Poor cousin Lauren was sick and laying down a lot so not too many pictures of her but Brooke had a great time with Evan and he really appreciated the attention and energy Brooke had to chase him around and humor him. :) We appreciate that too! ha ha ha.

 I had no idea that he knew how to hold a guitar but he was obsessed with the Wii guitar.

 Twin pajamas! Sweet brother to his "baby sister" (which he calls her on occasion).

 I wanted a picture of their size difference. It really cracks me up.

 Back to our house and getting ready for Santa to come.

 Even the pets were 'nice' this year and got some treats. :)

 Christmas morning faces.

 

 This is why Christmas morning is going to start getting fun. Look at that face over a bunch of plastic zoo animals. Priceless!

 Thank you Grandma Karla/Putsie and Grandpa Allen for recording your voices in our book from cousin Luke. Both kids L-O-V-E it!

 Daddy and Cora Grace were total buddy's while we opened gifts. I was able to capture this cute one.

 Mike got some special wax lips from Santa in his stocking. We all wanted to try them out. ha ha ha ha.

 Evan got 3 remote vehicles for Christmas! This truck was from Santa and he got 2 trains from Michael's family. He could use a few more in his mind. We have played with them all day. Each works differently and he is getting to know them quickly. Here he is trying to run over his sister with his truck. lol.

 These pictures are pretty lame of the snow a few hours later (because of my rebellion against flash) but I hope you get the idea that Evan was having fun and that we had a decent snow storm here. Oh, and he's letting me put his old caps on again. Whoo hoo!

 House cleaned up and relaxing in his new chair from Santa, Evan played with Cora's new chew toy and just looked too cute not to take a picture. :) P.S. Thank you Meghan for your sweet idea on how to hang Greeting cards from a ribbon with clothes pins. It looked awesome and gave me sanity. :)

 I have wanted a little 'boom box' to play music for the kids since Cora was born and my awesome sister in law Kelli had one and would play music for the kids. I think music (the right kind) is very beneficial to small children. I love the Mozart and Beethoven Cd's for them but also the nursery rhymes etc that get them to interact. Well, recently Michael got this one but I really didn't have Cd's until Christmas. Here you see Evan obviously riveted to the "Silly Songs"CD Mike put in my stocking but do you see that sweet baby in the background also paying attention to it? :) First thing Sunday morning, Evan went right to the CD player, carried to a comfortable spot, sat down and tried to turn it on. Dang he's getting so big and smart!

 Being silly this morning while he ate his pancakes and sausage (well, our dog Smokey actually got fed his sausage. Evan is so 'sharing' sometimes. lol).

 Swoon!

 Playing in the snow on Sunday. He fell down and didn't want to get up. He said, very pitifully, "Help... me". It was so sad, he was just tired and worn out poor little guy. I'm glad he let me help him. Being a 2 year old, that's not always the case. :)

I just want to close this post with how grateful we are to have our children. They are the greatest gift anyone could give and we really do believe that God sent them to our home. We will always strive to do our best for them including resolving to always be good to each other as husband and wife. It has been hard since Cora came, for us to connect as we used to but we are working hard to be more patient with each other with our added responsibilities and make time for just us. We know that will make us better parents to these beautiful children. I am grateful for this season that we have to remember the sacrifices our Savior was born to make for us and for us to think of what good we are doing in the world in return. I hope to work harder on how I am not only to my family but to who ever I meet. It's always feels great to plan this in my mind, now I need to make time to do it. I hope you all will have confidence in the goals you will be making for the new year, that you can accomplish them and that they will bring you joy and fulfillment. God Bless.

Friday Fives - belated.

5 favorite gifts that you have ever gotten or given

1. BICYCLE. Every year, every birthday, every falling star, every wishing well or fountain since I was about 5, I wished a SECRET wish that I could have my own bike. When I was 5 I vividly remember teaching myself to ride a bike with my sisters banana seated, light purple, chopper handle barred bike in the driveway of our Mulholland Drive home. Since that moment of pride, I wanted my own bike. In the mean time my brothers got many bikes each and still, I had to use my sisters purple one. Finally, I didn't need one, I turned 16 in February (7th for those of you wanting to celebrate it) but you better believe I was wishing up until then folks. I didn't go for my drivers licence till October or so. I finally gave up on the bike (mildly bitter about it) dream so I revealed my secret wish all these years to my Mom I think, secure now that I would have a car to drive and no longer needed a bike. I GOT A BIKE FOR CHRISTMAS!! It was hilarious but so fun and for at least one day, I enjoyed my new mountain bike riding it around, bunny hopping, basking in the glow of my very first bike ... AND THEN ... my brothers Bennett and Jesse (who let me remind you, owned many bikes each through the years) took it for a 'test ride' and BROKE THE GEARS! So there you go, I'm pretty sure it lasted less than 24 hours. Awesome. :)

 

2. SURPRISED MY MOM FOR HER 60th BIRTHDAY. I don't know why I decided to do it but I told my sister Katrina and or my dad first of my desire that we should throw a surprise party for my mom. I asked my dad for a $200.00 party fund and my sister Katrina worked on the guest list which included finding some addresses of my moms friends from childhood that she found. My mom never needs anything so I mentioned on the invite 'no gifts' but still people brought some (which was nice). In lieu of a gift, I included an index card and asked them, whether they came or not to write a note, favorite memory with my mom or a favorite scripture/poem for my mom and bring it or send it back to my brother Carl's address. I found some old slides of my Grandfathers (mom's dad) of which he always developed his pictures to be a slide and planned sort of a movie theme. We ordered a cake with my mom and her twin brothers childhood nick names on it. The menu would be (i think?) Nachos and popcorn for when the 'movie/slide show' began and lastly we organized for a big Mylar 6 and 0 balloon set to be there (3 feet high each?). Ok, so how we 'fooled' her at her own house... My birthday is Feb 7th, Mom's is the 8th, we lived at the same house and I was planning to move back to Tennessee soon with Michael. I asked her if I could have a game night with some friends at her house on her birthday before I moved and even asked her to help me clean. lol. ;) She said yes and asked how many I was having over. I told her no more than 10. he he he. We sent over 100 invites! I arranged with my dad to make sure they went to dinner while we set up and people arrived so as time came closer we pushed her out the door. I was a little bummed cause she was so busy helping me clean, she was still wearing her clothes from cleaning instead of getting make up on and dressed for a date on her birthday. opps! Luckily she always looks adorable :). As soon as they were down the driveway, we got to work setting up decor and food! Guests started arriving... and arriving... and arriving and arriving! There ended up (including our humongous family, childhood friends, new friends and old friends) being about 80 people there! (and their cars parked all around our house and driveway! ha ha ha - so much for 'no more than 10 friends') My dad wisely 'stalled' my mom after eating by insisting that they go pick up something from Kmart or something then I think called us to 'see if we needed anything'= code for we're on our way is it all clear to return. ;) It was and we all anxiously waited for them to come home. My sister Jenalyn and then boyfriend waited outside with a walkie talkie to tell us when they were to the door cause the crowd couldn't be quieted to hear their approach. The lights were off and they opened the door. SURPRISE! we yelled as the lights came on and started singing Happy Birthday dear Karla... mean while, my moms face was priceless. We were singing and she still had NO IDEA the party was for her!!! ha ha ha. She's still thinking this is my/Lila's friends and party and later said she asked my dad while walking from the garage to the door, "I thought she was only having a few friends?" Isn't that a riot!? ha ha ha. Anyway as she is smiling ignorant to the fact that SHE is the guest of honor that we are singing to, she is gazing happily around the room at the crowd... suddenly you see on her face that she is recognizing people that shouldn't be there for me and starts naming them out loud, like "there's Diana, hey, that's Anne! THAT'S MY BROTHER!" Finally it clicks as we yell to her again that "the party is for YOU mom! SURPRISE!" ha ha ha She FINALLY got it and was stunned (this is an example of her humble heart, not ever expecting such a thing). She was so happy to see her Twin brother Butch who always calls and meets her for their birthday but hadn't and as she mingled around the room, she got happier and excited to see all her variety of friends. I was also great to watch my dad who seemed to glow that we were celebrating his cute wife who has done so much for so many outside our home. He also loved visiting with everyone and it might be the most animated I've ever seen my dad, kinda like we took him back to 1959 for a night. As it quieted down for a bit, we passed out popcorn and  showed the slides of my mom's and our families lives from the 1940's-80's when my Grandfather took the pictures, while the carpenters played in the back ground (my choice cause my mom always listened to them in the car when we were driving all over town). She did a great job telling us about the pictures we were seeing even though she hadn't seen them for over 30 years! Everyone loved it. One friend that came I don't think my mom had seen since they were in a social club at Hamilton H.S. in Los Angeles in the late 50's but she said she was at my mom's 5th birthday party and that they lived on the same block. CUTE! In the end we brought her cake out and asked my Uncle Butch to come over as it was his birthday too. He seemed shocked to find out that the cake was 'addressed' to "PUTSIE and BUTCH", (their childhood nick names) and I think it really touched him as we sang to both of them at the end of the night. It was complete. I loved doing the party for my mom and loved her innocence that such a thing was done for her. She has and does touch many and I thought it would be great to do a "This Is Your Life" (look it up) moment for her. People complimented us for weeks on what a great time they had going down memory lane etc and that was the real success. That was almost 9 years ago and I still glow about my mommy and the thought of that party for her.

 

3. THE MUG. On Mike and my first Christmas married I got a design your own mug for Michael that I wrote and drew on all our 'pet' names and sayings for each other. "You are my world", "Cat's Pajama's" "pookie face" (a joke one) and etc were included. When he opened it and saw it, he actually cried! He was so touched by a homemade gift and the sentiment that he didn't know why but it made him cry. I will never forget it and now either will any of his buddies who I'm sure after reading this will all buy him 'personalized mugs' for Christmas. lol. Sorry honey, for all of it. I love you!

 

4. CHILDHOOD GIFTS. Favorites: Easy Bake oven hands down! hours and hours of baking enjoyment. I literally used mine for YEARS. Crystal Barbie, the only one I owned after the one I did have before it, my brother Vincent shaved a Mohawk on her head and threw her off the balcony :(. Meany.

 

5. SERVICE. I have found as an adult that I really don't need anything for Christmas as far as a gift goes cause I can get it throughout the year. I like it best for my kids in the future (once they understand what all the fuss is about). I do love to get angel tree child at Christmas time and/or feed a family through a local grocery store sponsorship. In the future Michael has wanted our family to get more involved with the needy for Christmas instead of the gift exchange we do now with our CA family and many have expressed an interest in that as well starting next year even so I'm hoping we can plan a great project that makes someone else's Holiday wonderful, that would make mine even better!

FRIDAY FIVES

5 Random things

(Ideas, Thoughts, Questions, anything)

1. I day dream all the time about (having enough money to...) building a dream home with an in-law suite/guest house for my parents. I'd want them to even have a sauna for their oldness. :) lol. Of course there will be a HUGE screen T.V. for my dad to watch Fox News all day long. lol.

2. I really have a lot to say about those who would disagree that I am a Christian or that because I am "Mormon" my Christianity is somehow inferior to theirs. I hope I can protect my children from their prejudices and teach them to love as Jesus taught and forgive those that are uninformed. I work on forgiving also. :)

3. I want a trampoline. Evan and I would be in HEAVEN and I would have my favorite place to sky watch and day dream. I need more sky watch/day dream time... don't you? wink. ( i had a rectangular one growing up. Now my family has 2 round ones next to each other and bounce from trampoline to trampoline. Yeah, it's how we roll.)

4. Why do others insist on telling me that I'm outspoken as if I didn't know that or like it's going to influence me to change that personality trait? Why would I want to do that? I am not interested at all in keeping my thoughts and opinions to myself when there is injustice so buckle up. :) he he he

5. Do you think it's possible to permanently glue my lips to my kids? I kiss them all day long enough to seem like it's already happening but they are so adorable, I can't leave them alone! (ha ha ha, poor kids)