Christmas Morning

Surprisingly, though Rachel and Annie were super excited about Christmas, they were both able to sleep pretty well. They fell asleep right away, apparently knowing how important it is to be asleep when Santa comes. Rachel woke up once at 3am and was too excited to go back to sleep, so I had to go lay next to her in her bed and help her go back to sleep. But then, surprisingly, they both slept until 6:30, which is their normal you-can’t-get-out-of-bed-until-the-alarm-clock-light-turns-green time. Ryan was up before 6:00, so he and I were chilling downstairs waiting for the slow pokes to join us. 

When they finally did come down they went straight for the stockings. Ryan commandeered two light spinners from his sisters’ stockings (didn’t even notice that his own stocking had one for him, too), and wasn’t too concerned with anything else for a while. Not even the candy.

 

When Ryan finally did notice something it was his new basketball and hoop. He got right to work.

 

We had a hard time getting Ryan to stop playing with the previous toy to open a new toy every time. I guess that means each present was a success. He loves tractors, and was happy to get some of his very own.

 

Rachel asked Santa for art supplies, and he sure delivered. She got an art box to store everything in, and tons of paper, paints, crayons, markers, etc. She’s been taking pretty good care of all her stuff, so she must really like it.

Jacob gave me the world. Just what I’ve been wanting. Though I think I’ve seen him staring at the globe more than anyone in the family. 

 

I made Ryan a little Car Cozy that holds 6 matchbox cars and has a street to drive them on, and folds up nice and compact to take to church or to wherever. He was a big fan of the little cars. The girls had to open his big dump truck because he wouldn’t stop playing with the little cars, and hardly even noticed the dump truck when it was open. The boy is into cars. 

  

Annie asked Santa for My Little Ponies. She was overjoyed with the ponies she got.

A glimpse of the partially cleaned up Christmas morning chaos:

We somehow managed to lure the kids in with bacon to get something in their stomachs besides candy.

After breakfast Rachel opened the curtains to let in some light and saw something Santa had left outside for the whole family:

Annie saw it and surprised me with her first reaction being "Can I get dressed?" Apparently I've drilled it into her enough that she can't go outside to play until she's dressed. :)

 So they ran to get dressed. Notice Ryan laying happily on the floor enjoying his milk, so carefree.

 And then the fun really began.

Monkey bars were a MUST for this monkey. She immediately mastered these and began coming up with tricks to show off.

 We're loving this swing that Rachel or Annie can push while Ryan just is along for the ride. Less work on our part. :)

 The slide is super fast. We've ended up putting a bean bag chair at the bottom to catch the kids as they shoot off the end at high velocity.

 "Higher! Higher!"

Christmas morning was a definite success. Happy kids and happy parents all around.

Christmas preparations

Rachel’s school had a Pancakes with Santa dinner, so we took advantage of it for our one and only visit to Santa this year. Rachel made a Thank You/Merry Christmas card for Santa and asked him for art supplies and a new play set. Annie had grand plans to ask for a My Little Pony movie, and toys and Rainbow Dash (a pony), and more Little Pony stuff, but chickened out in the face of the big guy and just whispered “ponies” when he asked what she wanted. She wouldn’t sit on his lap, but was okay with Mrs. Claus holding her for a picture. 

Ryan and Jake stayed home to eat some GF waffles, so we missed out on getting a screaming picture with Santa. Though he probably would have been fine, anyway, as easygoing as he usually is.

Knowing we’d be having lots of visitors over the holidays we got a couple more fuzzy blankets for people to use. We made sure to test them out.

 

Last week Todd and Savannah came to stay at our house for a few days before moving over to my parents’ house for the rest of their Tucson visit. They brought their kids and their new dog, Shadow. The kids loved having a dog around for a few days. Ryan was especially interested in the crate. 

Ryan enjoyed telling Shadow to go to bed or go into her crate. She didn’t listen. He also enjoyed letting her into the house whenever we were cooking and wanted her to stay outside. 

We had fun having cousins staying with us for a few days, too. Eloise and Ryan (and all the kids, really) love this over-sized ornament that plays Christmas Carols and has a train go around a little house when you push the button. 

We went to the park for a picnic and some outside play time. At the dog park for large dogs the kids almost got mauled by some over-excited dogs. We moved over to the area for small dogs that was vacant and enjoyed a nice picnic while Shadow ran around by herself. She got to go play with the other dogs when we went to play on the playground equipment. The weather was perfect, or maybe a little hot for our Seattle cousins. It’s been a nice Tucson December.

After nap time we headed in to Grandma and Grandpa Knight’s house to play and eat dinner before we went to Winterhaven to see Christmas lights.

We all (minus Grandpa Knight) headed to Winterhaven to look at the Christmas lights that night. 

 Jacob's brother, Mark, was staying at our house that night before he flew out of Phoenix for a week with his family in Seattle, after which they'd all fly back to Phoenix and drive down for a week with us. So he got to enjoy the lights and the tired kid meltdowns with us.

All the houses go all out and are really impressive. One house had a bubble maker going that wasn't actually blowing bubbles for the most part, which made it look like snow was falling. The kids got a kick out of that one. 

Rachel got SO tired of walking. Luckily her Aunt Savannah was more accommodating than me saying suck it up, we're almost done. She threw Rachel on her back in her baby carrier for a while. The fact that I sent us down the wrong *short* road added to the exhaustion, but we dragged the kids through it and have some good memories from the night.

My kids don't handle going past their bedtimes too well. Annie conked out on the ride home. Rachel just had a melt down. For the whole half hour ride home.

 Monday and Tuesday Grandma and Grandpa Knight and Savannah took on the task of entertaining the kids while Justin, Todd, and I did some Christmas preparations at my house. They did Christmas cookies, decorations, and visits to the park in an effort to keep the kids happy. I'm sure it wore the adults out, but we sure were grateful for their help. There's no way we could have gotten everything ready without them.

 Peyton and Ryan are best buddies. They (almost) always get along so well. This is a very typical sight when they're together:

Grandpa made all the kids their own Christmas stars. Ryan broke his within 2 minutes. The others safeguarded theirs pretty well.

Christmas Eve dinner (our traditional 7 layer dip):

 We managed to pull off a pretty decent Nativity play on Christmas Eve. Ryan was a sheep (with a panda hat on, but hey, who noticed?) and Annie was Mary and VERY happy with her role. She sat there by baby Jesus reverently the whole time, plus 15 minutes or so before everyone else was even ready.

 Here's all the kids: Black Sheep Benjamin, Wise Man Peyton, Shepherd Eloise, Wise Man McKenzie, Mary (Annie), Angel Rachel, Sheep Ryan, and Joseph (Jared).

It was awesome having everyone together for Christmas Eve. Family is what it's all about. We all went our separate ways and had Christmas morning fun at our separate houses, before coming together for the rest of Christmas Day.

December so far

December is always a busy month. Luckily we got our Christmas decorations up and almost all our Christmas shopping done before December even started, so it’s been a little less crazy than it could have been. 

We started off the month with a photo shoot to get a family picture for our Christmas cards. For having the camera on a timer in our living room it turned out pretty decent. 

 

A recently renewed activity that the kids are loving (at least until the last thread on the stroller seat breaks) is pushing each other around in the doll stroller. Ryan especially loves to push Annie and Rachel, but he enjoys being pushed, too. 

 

 

 

 

Our desert rats froze for the week of cold weather where it was getting down near freezing every night. It was cold enough that we had to cover our tomatoes, and even went out and got new Christmas lights to drape over the tomatoes to add a little warmth. It worked and they’re still alive and producing tons of tomatoes. And this week the highs are back up in the mid-seventies, so we’ve got a little while longer to enjoy the fresh garden tomatoes before the cold kills them off. 

But as I was saying, our desert rat kids were very cold. We bundled up and Ryan rather enjoyed having his hood on often. Even when I thought he should be roasting when it was nice and warm mid-day, inside our toasty house. But fashion trumps practicality sometimes, and both Ryan and Annie enjoyed many days of hats.

 

 

At the beginning of last week I set off to make treats for friends, visiting and home teaching families, and neighbors. I made fudge, candied pecans, divinity, and caramel. Unfortunately taking care of kids does not mix well with candy making which requires constant vigilance to get it to cook just the right amount, no more, no less. I had two pretty big caramel fails. One was hard as a rock, but came out of the pan in one big square pretty easily (on the left below). The other had to be pried out of the pan under hot water and turned into a work of art. Or something. 

 

All that time in the kitchen turned it into quite the disaster area. Then when I was making bread before attempting Operation Cleanup, the flour exploded when I was trying to mix a new batch of flour. All over me, my shoes, the floor, the sink and counter. At least it was before I started the big cleanup. 

That picture doesn’t catch half of the mess. But by the end of the day the kitchen was much recovered and was well on its way to being clean again. 

We’ve also been planning and cleaning and preparing for the big Christmas hullabaloo here in Tucson. All of my family and Jacob’s family will be here in Tucson over Christmas break. It’ll be tons of fun to have all the kids' cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents here for a while. It’ll be the first time since 2009, I think, that all of Jacob's family will be together, since his parents, and his sister Sharon have been on missions. Sharon gets home this week. Christmas is a time for family and we'll have lots of that going on. :)

Christmas decorating

Jacob’s sister, Cari, told us a couple weeks ago when we were Skyping about a kid who told her, upon seeing a Christmas tree in some lobby in early/mid November, “Every time someone puts up a Christmas tree before Thanksgiving, one of Santa’s elves DIES.” The poor kid must have parents who have very strong feelings about pre-Thanksgiving decorating. Rachel walked around the next day after we talked to Cari repeating it several times throughout the day. It makes me laugh every time. 

So last Sunday, since we didn’t have a fancy dinner to celebrate our actual anniversary, and since Ryan and Annie and I had stayed home from church sick, we needed a little excitement in the day, so we decided to put up our Christmas tree. Santa has plenty of elves to spare, I’m sure. ;)

The girls were all over the ornaments and were very happy to decorate the tree. Ryan was content to play with this singing huge ornament (that we don’t actually hang up) that has a train that goes around and around. 

Annie had the honor of putting the star on the top of the tree.

Ryan and I supervised (like I said before, he likes hats, even if they don’t actually fit).

Then it was time for a happy picture to show how great it is to decorate for Christmas.

The girls were happy about it at least. Ryan was still feeling pretty crappy from his sickness (which he is still recovering from a week later, poor kid), so the tears are understandable.

We had a mess in the house for the next several days as we unpacked our other decorations slowly. We actually ended up putting up 3 Christmas trees (still going on the theory that Santa has a surplus of elves) around the house (a 7.5 ft, 6.5 ft. and a 4.5 ft tree). Decorating for Christmas just makes the house feel so happy. We got all the inside decorating done, and the whole house cleaned up the day before Thanksgiving so we could enjoy a clean and festive house for the majority of our break (it’s mild chaos now, but still not as bad as some weekend messes get). Friday and Saturday we got the outside decorations put up, and now our house is all ready for Christmas. I even have almost all the kids’ presents bought, so most of the stress of the holidays is taken care of. All that’s left is some wrapping, lots of candy and treat making throughout the month, and some Christmas cards to put together and mail off (if I don’t have your address, get it to me!). And we get to sit back and enjoy some hot chocolate, Christmas carols, and Christmas movies.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. :)

Celebrations

November was a month with a few celebrations: Rachel's birthday, our anniversary, Thanksgiving. And Ryan was ready to celebrate.

The boy loves hats. And it just so happens that this pink hat is usually sitting around waiting for him to find it and put on.

For Rachel's birthday we went in to her school and read one of her favorite books (26 Princesses) and brought Gogurts and popcorn to share with her friends (no cupcakes per the school's wellness policy). Annie and Ryan were super happy to be able to be at school. Ryan even sat in a couple kids' laps while we were there. All the kindergartners love Ryan and Annie. Especially Ryan. He's like a pet to them. :) When school got out we out to lunch at McDonald's for a special birthday treat. For dinner Rachel chose spaghetti (just like Annie did), and afterwards she got to open her presents. Our little toothless girl was a little excited about the presents.

 

I love the look on both the girls' faces here:

They are in shock at the total awesomeness of that present. It was 2 dolls, Anna and Elsa, from Frozen. It also had a free admission to see the movie. Rachel was very gracious and didn't even think twice about Annie claiming one of the dolls as her own. Rachel got first choice, but I guess it was natural that Rachel got one and Annie got one. They have had a ball playing Frozen with the dolls.

Rachel was also every excited for a new dress.

Unfortunately I am a sucker and didn't notice the tag until it was too late. Hand wash only. That makes two dresses in a row that I have bought (one for Annie, and one for Rachel) that are hand wash only. Who does that? Give me a couple weeks and these dresses will be ruined, once I forget about or ignore the laundry care instructions. That'll teach me to check the label before I buy!

Rachel had a birthday party the Saturday after her actual birthday. I feel a little bad that all my creative birthday-throwing energies were used up when Rachel was 2 and 3 and didn't even notice how cool her parties were. This one was not pintrest-worthy by any count, and then Ryan got croup and was up ALL NIGHT the night before this, so it was really a fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants kind of party. But who cares. The kids had cake and got some candy, so they were happy.

Rachel wanted a Strawberry Shortcake party, so to start things off, they watched a Strawberry Shortcake movie about the Strawberry Games.

From left to right: Rachel, Isabel, Alora, Ally, Eliza, Grace, Maryanne, Lydia, Evelyn and Annie on the ottoman.

Then we had our own version of the Strawberry Games. We did races, shooting nerf balls into a bucket, pin the strawberry on the vine, balloon volleyball, etc.  The kids had fun, though it was mild chaos and I remembered again why I don't do co-op preschools or anything that requires me to do organized activities with young children. :)

After the Strawberry Games it was cake time. We sang to Rachel, then everyone got to decorate their own cupcake.

 

Decorated cupcakes (ie, lots of sprinkles piled on top of a mound of icing):

Rachel had a fun time with her friends. And I am glad I decided that we only do friend birthday parties every other year. Maybe by the time the next one comes around my creative birthday juices will be flowing again.

We had planned on Grandma and Grandpa Knight and Aunt Marie and Uncle Justin and their kids coming over that afternoon for cake and dinner (especially since Marie and Rachel share a birthday), but I figured it would be a bad idea with Ryan and sick as he was. The party was during his nap time, so he was in his crib the whole time the kids were here, but that would not happen later in the afternoon when Peyton and McKenzie were running around having fun. Ryan would want in on the fun. So I sent Jacob, Annie, and Rachel in to Grandma and Grandpa's house and they had cake there. 

While they were gone I decided to put my plan for our anniversary into play. I had planned on having a fancy dinner on Sunday since that was our actual anniversary, but with everyone gone I thought it would be more fun to surprise them when they got home. So I got out the nice dishes, including goblets, some Martinelli's, and the only candles I could find in the house. 

Everyone was very happy to celebrate the beginning of our family 7 years ago. It made for a fun dinner. And no glass was broken in the process. :) Happy anniversary to my favorite hubby ever. I love you! 

We also got to have a real date the day after Thanksgiving and went to the Gaslight Theater's Christmas show. It was fun to do something besides just going to a movie or out to eat. 

Thanksgiving was the last celebration of the month. My mom did most of the food prep and it was delicious. I did make some gluten-free, dairy-free pies for everyone to enjoy and they were gooood. Apple, chocolate pudding, and pumpkin pies. I think we'll have an apple pie for my birthday. WAY better than cake. I came home noticeably fatter than when we had left that morning. That's how you know Thanksgiving was a success. Oh, and the company was great, too. Too bad we were all too wiped out by tryptophan to play any of the games we had brought. But we had fun before dinner playing some ladderball and bean bag toss (or corn hole, as the professionals apparently call it). Thanks, Mom, for a fabulous Thanksgiving!