Christmas

Merry Christmas! We had a really nice Christmas this year. Charlie didn't wake up until 7:00, which was a big improvement from last year. The night before he said "Mom, what time can we open presents?" I said "What time do you think?" He said "8:00?" "Sounds good to me!" I said. I was quite surprised by the response but all over it. By 7:30 all the kids were up so we got started a little early. :)

About to open their stockings.

Opening stockings.

No pictures during the chaos but here's all the loot after.

Leila got a bear from Oma.

Kenya and all her princess dolls from Santa. She wanted an Ariel doll so she was excited to see all the other dolls too.

Santa brought Leila a chair.

Santa played a little trick on Charlie. On one of his last presents he opened up a razor scooter from Santa (he wanted an electric scooter), Mark and I said "Oh Santa must have been confused and got you a regular scooter." He was trying to have a good attitude about it. He said "Well, it's really shiny and I've always wanted a razor scooter too." We said "Maybe Santa thought you weren't big enough yet for an electric scooter." Charlie said "Maybe next year." Mark and I were quite proud of him for putting on a good face, it was the last present he opened so we were winding down and he got pretty quiet, you could tell he was just trying to act glad for all the other stuff he got but he was a little disappointed. Then Mark said "Charlie, I think I see something in the office, what is that?" He ran over there and said "It's my motor scooter!" He was so excited.

Kenya was pretty excited about this little dress.

And this doll house.

So cute!

When I was uploading my pictures I found these that Kenya took. They gave us a good laugh.

I love how she set these guys up.

We had a relaxing day and didn't have anywhere to go until 2:00 when we headed over to my dad's for dinner.

It was nice to not be running around from place to place. We came home from my dad's and watched a movie with the kids. A great Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We decided to shoot for bowling again this year. Kenya kept saying to me "I can go mamma, I'm a big girl." I'm not sure why she was concerned that I wasn't going to let her go but bowl she did. Colby and Cami and their families came too. Fun times.




That night we went to Maurena's house for our traditional Christmas Eve with the Holbrook side.




The kids went straight to bed when we got home, after leaving hot chocolate for Santa and the reindeer food that Kenya made at preschool of course.

Candy Houses

We decided to join the ranks this year and start doing gingerbread house decorating as a tradition in our family. I honestly have rarely done this in my life but we had a lot of fun. Technically there is nothing ginger breadish about them, they are graham crackers glued together so I think we'll call them candy houses. That was Charlie's idea. It was also Charlie's idea to make this a tradition in our family. I think he was feeling like we were the only ones who don't do this. :) Cami and her kids came over and we decorated the night away, next time I'm getting in on the action too!

Charlie spent almost the whole night on the yard and barely had time to decorate the house, such a boy thing to do! :)

A Sweater and a Dress

Mark got called to be the Elders Quorum president in our ward. I think he is going to do an amazing job, and because I think that I am trying to be a supportive, have a good attitude about it wife. I'll let you know how that attitude is holding up in a few months but in the mean time I get to get my kids ready for church solo now so on Sunday I started the process 2 hours before we needed to be at church. Kenya in the bath, happy and minding. Charlie in the downstairs bath, happy and minding. So far so good. Kenya out of the bath, sees the cute Christmas dress I want her to wear, is thrilled and so excited to wear it. Charlie out of the bath, sees the sweater I want him to wear, starts to whine about it but I get him to put it on, starts to whine about it more. I tell him he looks good and stop whining. Continues to whine, escalates to a full on fit. Doesn't like how the sleeves are too long and asks why he can't wear a suit. That's right, my six year old doesn't want to wear the comfy sweaters and polo's to church. He wants to wear a suit like his dad or in the very least a button up shirt and tie. I tell him he's too young for a suit, maybe when he's eight. He says "well Knox has a suit and he's only three!" Can I really argue with him about wanting to wear a suit? I don't have time to iron any of his button up shirts so I tell him he can wear the blue linen one with the matching tie, now he doesn't look very Christmasy though but oh well, my kids will not coordinate, the world will go on. He puts it on and continues to whine and stomp his feet in his room, he thinks he looks stupid with it tucked in. I think it looks stupid with it tucked out. I say "Charlie, if you want to wear a tie you have to tuck in your shirt." This throws him into a bigger fit, full on crying tantrum again. I choose to ignore because I am trying to stay calm. I get Leila ready while he continues to throw a fit. I dry and do Kenya's hair. Still crying in his room. I take the girls downstairs and take a couple pictures of them, oh well, Charlie didn't match anyway and he is still throwing a fit. He finally stops crying and I'm ashamed to say he won the battle, he got away with his shirt being untucked only because he really does need a belt if he's going to tuck it in. BUT after all that we made it to church, on time too! Seriously, who's six year old boy is pickier about what he wears and how he looks than his three year old sister? Reminds me of this post almost 3 years ago about how he wanted to wear his underwear backwards and I wouldn't let him. At least all three kids weren't throwing fits. I can handle one. So here are the pictures of the girls...

wLove this giggly picture of them.

We bought a dresser for Kenya's room the other night and as we were loading it up in the car I told Kenya "We bought you a dresser Kenya for your room." She said enthusiastically "A dresser? Where? I want to see!" She was already strapped in and the dresser was wrapped up so she couldn't see it, I had to explain that to her a couple times because she kept asking to see it. After about 10 minutes of silence as we were driving home she says "Mom, is it a Tinkerbell?" I said, "Is it a Tinkerbell what?" Is it a Tinkerbell dress? I looked at Mark and we both grinned and I said "No sweetie, it's not a dress, it's a dress-er. It's furniture that you put your clothes in." Again it took a little more explaining but I felt bad that she thought she was getting a dress and I just knew she had been thinking about it in silence for a while and came to the conclusion that it was a Tinkerbell dress. You could hear the disappointment in her voice. The other day out of nowhere she said "mom, I willy, willy, willy want a Cinderella dress." Good thing because I just finished one for her for Christmas. This was my first time using a pattern. Luckily my mom was here to help me figure it out and sew but I finished it the other night.

If you were able to look close you could see lot's and lot's of imperfections but I don't think Kenya will mind. Can't wait to give it to her!

Mini Trees

One of my kids favorite things to do is check the advent calendar each morning. It usually just has a piece of candy in it and they are happy about that, one day I had to put a marshmallow in it because I was out of candy and they were even thrilled about that but a couple times I've done a toy or something. This one morning I put little star tree toppers in the house and told them there was a surprise in my closet for them. They found these little trees for their rooms and they were so excited. Charlie's is a Utes tree and Kenya's just matches her room. They loved decorating them and I love just seeing their excitement and hearing a "thank you mom, I love it!"

This is just cute Leila sitting in her bumbo, she always leans to the side like this, she's watching a Baby Einstein. It holds her attention pretty well now.

North Pole Express

We got invited by our good friends the Davis Family to ride the North Pole Express last weekend. We surprised the kids that morning with a little treasure hunt in the advent calendar. Each clue had a little part of a train ornament ending with a clue that led them to the Polar Express movie. They were pretty excited. The train ride was fun. Leila fell asleep pretty much the whole time and the kids enjoyed the hot chocolate, cookies, seeing Mrs. Clause, and of course seeing Santa at the North Pole. Then Santa got on the train and saw each child individually. This Santa was a little... different, but the kids enjoyed it all the same.

Love this picture, such a proud big brother.

My brown eyed beauties.

I think I need to teach Mark how to focus.

I took a picture of the picture they took that was $12.

Here comes Santa....creepy Santa...

It had started snowing when we got off the train, so pretty.

We stayed up at the Homestead that night and went swimming, well the kids went swimming, we sat in the hot tub. The next morning they had a breakfast with Santa which was delicious and fun for the kids. This Santa was much better and the kids got a lot of time with him since they were the only kids there at the time. Charlie talked his ear off for a good ten minutes while we were finishing up breakfast. He told him he was going to see him tonight too at the Dickens Festival. This was Santa number 3 in 3 days so he was kind of figuring out that they couldn't all be real and didn't look the same. He decided that night that the one at the Dickens Festival was the real Santa.

Kenya did not want to change out of her jammies for breakfast, neither did Leila.

We did some more swimming that morning before checking out.

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This is what I get to deal with all day, Kenya all over Leila.

But this is also what I get to enjoy all day, my smiley chubby cheeked babe, and her siblings too of course. Leila loved the water, happy as could be.