Christmas Clothes

I always love the new dresses at Christmastime. And I have to admit, Bubba looks STINKIN' cute in his little suit!!

New Lovey

Most kids have to go to sleep with a snuggly cuddly toy or lovey. Bubba has such a love of BALLS that he has resorted to snuggling them even when he sleeps. He just CAN'T get enough!!

Shayne's Christmas Tradition: Temple Lights

Shayne really wanted to take the kids to see the Temple Lights this year. The Arizona Temple is always so beautifully decorated, and they have a room in the Visitor's Center that is dedicated to Nativity scenes from around the world. We all had a blast, it was even a bit chilly which made us feel like there really is a winter down here in AZ.

Best Christmas Gift EVER!!

We had Shayne's brother Thomas for Christmas this year, and he would go back and forth and back and forth on what he really wanted. We told him that if he didn't make a decision, we would just get him something out of burlap... well, he told us too little, too late, and what came in the package was... BURLAP UNDERWEAR!! It might be a little itchy, a little scratchy, but really quite a practical gift. Merry Christmas Thomas!!

A Star Wars Christmas

We had a Star Wars Christmas, and Daddy and Bubba got matching AT-ATs. They've really enjoyed sitting and playing with their toys together...

Even Skeeter enjoyed all the Star Wars action!

Shayne's Stocking

We all have hand-made stockings. Grandma made Shayne's when he was little, Nana made mine, and the kids have some gorgeous stockings that Nana made (Quinten's is still in the making process). However, Shayne's stocking is BY FAR the smallest of all the stockings, and we hear about it A LOT!! Every year in fact, he WHINES about how everyone else's stocking is GIGANTIC and his is tiny!! This year, I decided to rectify the "smallest stocking" situation. So when Shayne woke up Christmas morning, he had the BIGGEST stocking possible! It was a huge success, he felt loved...

Santa-Mazing

Christmas morning brought all the excitement it should, Mom and Dad were just as excited to see what Santa brought the kids!!
Quinten got a Galactic Heroes AT-AT and a much desired Pillow Pet.

Olivia has been BEGGING Mom for a sewing machine, but Mom says she's too little, so Olivia resorted to the Big Man, who totally came through for her. She also got a puppy in a purse, who doesn't need a puppy in a purse?

Izzy got a magnetic doll dress-up and a drum set, and her most wanted gift...REAL CHOCOLATE!!

WOW! Thanks Santa!!

Burning off those Holiday Pounds

We all put on a few pounds over the holidays. Even the kids realized they needed a good workout.

My Christmas Tradition: Something New

I wanted to do something we've never done before. So we decided to go see Tangled and Tron at the Drive-Ins. It was so much fun! The kids LOVED Tangled, and all fell asleep during Tron, which was fine by us!!

Bubba's Christmas Tradition: Christmas Lights

We all LOVE Christmas lights. We put ours up the day after Thanksgiving (probably because Daddy won't let us do it any sooner) and we LOVE to go for drives around the neighborhood looking at all the lights. Bubba got really into it this year, and wanted to go out EVERY night, so we thought it only fitting that his Christmas tradition would be to go find some REALLY COOL Christmas lights to look at.

Bird as a Pet: Take 2

So we are trying this whole bird thing... yet again. If you remember my earlier postings about getting a cockatiel, we named him George, but usually we just called him doofus... "Doofus, don't jump off the top of the cage, you can't fly!" "Doofus, you can't jump from people to people, you can't fly!!" "Doofus, ears are NOT for eating!" "Doofus, I'm going to put you back in your cage if you don't stop being a DOOFUS!!" He just thought he could fly, but always fell badly. He got night terrors in his cage and had to sleep with a night light. I can't tell you how many broken blood feathers Shayne had to pull out of Doofus' wings. He learned that he could bully the kids by flapping his wings, so the girls were afraid of him... the list goes on and on. So we decided to take him back to the "bird lady" and try and trade him in. We had to wait a while for some new babies to hatch, and when we went to get one, we actually decided to try a love bird this time. They are a bit smaller and they really like to snuggle. We named him Skeeter, and the girls could just sit and hold him all day! The best part...we haven't had to call him Doofus yet!!

Another Season of Soccer Come and Gone

Olivia finished her 2nd season of soccer, this year they were the Dragons. She loved the team, and sometimes loved the game... She got hit in the face a few times this season which really spooked her, but she worked hard at going after the ball and getting in as many kicks as possible. We're so proud of you Olivia!

This Year's Christmas Card

Izzy's Christmas Tradition

Izzy wanted to make sure that we made gingerbread houses this year. Everyone got really into it, and Bubba got REALLY into eating them! It was a great tradition, good choice Izzy!!

Jingle Bells

Bubba's favorite song right now is Jingle Bells. He has us sing it at least 20 times each day...

Letters To Santa

I remember every year thumbing through the JC Penney holiday catalog, circling ALL the many gifts that I wanted Santa to bring me that year. My children are no different. They make sure to write that letter to the big guy as soon as Thanksgiving is finished.

Olivia's List:

What I want for Christmas is:

• a sewing machine
• Draw-n-Glow
• a real phone
• a needle and thread
• a pair of glasses
• money
• gum
• mints, the peppermints
• a flute
• a watch
• make up
• a how to make lip gloss kit

Izzy's List:

• a book
• real chocolate
• a polly locket (not to be confused with polly pocket, this is a doll that you can open her face and store stuff in like chewed bubble gum. It doesn't really exist, it was on her show Arthur)
• drums
• glasses
• a new sleigh for Santa
• eye drops
• a real guitar
• lip gloss
• lemonade that I can pour
• princess stuff
• glow-n-draw
  

Seems pretty self explanatory, I hope the big man can deliver...

Christmas Traditions

There are so many Christmas traditions to pick from, you could NEVER do all the cool things that there are to do in any given Christmas Season. So we decided to let everyone pick one super important thing that they wanted to do this season, that way we'll at least hit the most important ones. Olivia REALLY wanted to do the chocolate advent calendars, so this post is HER Christmas tradition. We bought the cheezy chocolate advent calendars (that Shayne and I won't eat because the chocolate is really that bad), and the kids LOVE them! We even took it one step further and made our OWN treaty advent calendars. I think they turned out pretty cute!!

Go Fish...

We're driving home from soccer practice, and Olivia asks Izzy if she wants to play 'Go Fish', to which Izzy agrees and they begin their game.

Olivia: Izzy, do you have a 5?
Izzy: Yep, here you go.
Olivia: Izzy, do you have a 3?
Izzy: Yep, here you go.
Olivia: Don't give me ALL your cards Izzy. Do you have a 10?
Izzy: Yep, here you go.
Olivia: IZZY! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! YOU WON'T HAVE ANY CARDS LEFT!! YOU HAVE TO TELL ME TO GO FISH SOMETIMES!! Izzy, do you have a 7?
Izzy: Yep, here you go.
Olivia: IZZY QUIT IT! I'M NOT GOING TO PLAY WITH YOU!
Izzy: WELL, YOU KEEP ASKING FOR CARDS THAT I HAVE! I HAVE TO GIVE THEM TO YOU!!!

They bickered and fought over this 'Go Fish' game for quite a while, screaming at each other, both ended up crying because the other one is being mean and won't play right. I was so frustrated at their fighting that I was so tempted to pull the car over and boot them both out...Did I mention that there were NO cards? The entire game was pretend? And yet they still figured out how to fight over the PRETEND cards???