Christmas 2010

Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year!
As a child I remember loving Christmas. All the anticipation and excitement. But as I got older, Christmas lost some of its magic. Now, having my own children, I think this is one of my favorite holidays. I can feel that magic again. I love Santa, putting up the tree and the decorations, and the lights.
We do try to keep Christ in Christmas. I love the nativity, but having one displayed in our home is difficult because my children break EVERYTHING!! My dad painted a beautiful ceramic nativity for us but I am afraid to display it now for fear of it being destroyed. So we purchased
a Fisher-Price one, just to have something to put out. The kids loved it, and it worked great
because they could play with it and not break anything. Love it! Even Wolverine went to visit baby Jesus. Jake also had interesting ways to play with the set. He liked to line up everything and put it in a circle. I am still impressed by his circle making ability with toys.
The nativity was our only decoration, besides the tree. This does make me sad, but hopefully one day we will be able to get out the other decorations again.
I honestly think I get more excited than the kids. I wake up at 4
am and lay in bed, trying to go back to sleep until the kids wake up. I can't help it! I love seeing their little faces light up. By 7, Matt usually says we can wake them up. It takes a minute for them to realize that it is Christmas and they have presents under the tree. But then they run out, dressed in their new pajamas from the night before, and I can feel the excitement bursting from them.
I do also love making gingerbread houses. Matt bought me a kit
that was a lot of fun to make. Once made though, it is hard to
keep little hands off it. I was keeping the house on the fridge to display for a little while but needed to do some cleaning in the kitchen. I thought by putting the house on the piano it would be safe. I was wrong. Sometimes I forget that my kids can climb. Well, Spencer found the house and started biting the candy off. I had to laugh.
As you will notice, there are no decorations on our tree, but lights. They broke the glass balls, so I got plastic, and somehow they managed to break those too. So the tree is bare. They can't
leave the stockings alone either. Jake is displaying one way they play with them. Sometimes they put the stockings on their feet as well. Christmas eve we are looking for the stockings to put back by the fireplace for Santa to fill.
I love the holidays and I love my family, and despite my kids craziness, I love that I get to have them in my life.
Merry Christmas!!

The boys in thier new pajamas

Opening gifts on Christmas

A Little Soap Please

Spencer may have adorable round cheeks and an innocent look about him, but he can be just as good at getting into trouble as his brothers. After all, he does have Jake for a teacher. Here he decided to get a bath without water. He put soap in his hair and was trying to rub it all over his body...at least on the parts that were not clothed. Don't let that cute smile fool you!!

Jello

This is actually one of the better messes the boys made. Someone had brought us dinner and they brought some red jello. It tasted great but for some reason the next day, Jake and Spencer decided to take the jello into Spencer's room and decorate the carpet with it. Red jello does not come out of carpet very well.

First Day of Preschool for Jake 2010

We found out that Jake has some learning and speech delays and it was recommended for him to go to Jordan Valley where they deal with kids with disabilities. I like to take a picture of the kids on their first day of school, but this was the best I got of Jake. He would rather play the piano than get his picture taken. He did not take the hat to school though. He gets to ride a bus and getting him on there is fun too. He fights me and I have to carry him onto the bus and buckle him in. He can escape out of the seatbelts on the bus. One time he was sweeping the back of the bus and another time the seatbelt got stuck around his neck and was choking him. He had to wear a harness for the rest of the year.

Snow Day

Jake and Alex had a good time with their dad gathering all the snow from our front yard and transforming it into a cave for them to play in. It is a good thing that Dad likes to play in the snow because Mom sure does not like the cold.

Sucker Please

Spencer is always a ham for the camera. I just thought these were cute pictures. And he does like his suckers!

What a messy face!!

That is the wrong end to be sucking on!Just happy to have a sucker!

Just Curious...

If anyone wonders how Jake gets things he shouldn't, here is a picture of him scaling the inside of the fridge, and this is how he is with everything. If Jake wants something, he finds a way to get it. I can say he is a very determined boy.