Santa Came to Our House

Finally, a cute family picture of the six of us.  It was the Sunday before Christmas and we were all dressed in our finest attire, looking cute and Christmas-y.  Even with the picture taking, we still make it to church before the opening hymn was over.  Quite a feat for us, I must say.

Because we travel so much over Christmas, we ask Santa to come to our house a couple of days early.  This year he came on the Monday morning before Christmas.  The kids left cookies, candy and milk for Santa and sugar cubes and water for Rudolph.  Fortunately we know just what Santa likes.  The kids even left double for Mrs. Claus.  Wasn't that thoughtful?  Of course they left a note, and Santa was nice enough to write them back.  

Elise discovered a Hannah Montana beanbag chair amongst her stuff, which she loved.   She likes to sit in it when she watches a show or movie.  

Elise was more than a little excited by these "rock star boots", as she called them.  She's wanted boots like this for a long time and Santa delivered.

Ian loved everything he opened and he got lots of cool boy stuff to counteract all the girly things around this house.  Here he is with something Elise picked out for him.  Is that face priceless or what?

Ian also found a beanbag chair on Christmas morning.  He likes it and looks too cute sitting in it!

Merry Grace was a little shocked by the early-ness of the hour, so it took her a little while to get into the groove of Christmas.  She got lots of fun things, including these fancy shoes.  She told me she got "Five Shoes" which wasn't quite true.  I'm pretty sure we bought them in pairs, so I think that made six shoes or three pairs. :)  Either way, she has LOVED them.

This is what she really wanted for Christmas--a baby doll.  She loves it and is such a good mommy to her baby.  She tells me all that time that she's going to be the mommy to her babies, not me.  And she's right. :)

Baby Paige was just a little too small to open many presents this year, so she had to have lots of help.  I don't think it mattered much to her what she got, but Santa knows that even a little baby needs a few presents.

Christmas is Coming

Each year, the closer it gets to Christmas, the more excited Cory is to open presents.  He can hardly wait for the actual day to get here.  He's suggested more times than the kids that we should open a present early.  So last night his excitement got the better of him and we called the kids into the living room to let them open a present.  I'm pretty sure Cory was just as excited as the kids were.  The fun thing about it, is that his enthusiasm is contagious.  It makes everything so much fun!!!  So here are the kids opening brand new hooded towels.  They are such a cute bunch. :)

I am a Child of God

Yesterday morning, Paige was getting a little tired of the whole "getting ready for church" routine.  Being the fouth child sometimes means you are the last one to get dressed and sometimes that can make you a little cranky.  So after working with the other kids, it was finally sweet baby Paige's turn to get ready.  I had started changing her diaper while talking to her and cooing at her and she began grinning her ear-to-ear grins.  And since it was Sunday, I began singing the words to "I am a Child of God."  For some reason, she didn't seem to mind the singing:

 "I am a child of God, 

And He has sent me here.

Has given me an earthly home 

With parents kind and dear."

And since she was kicking her little legs and still smiling her cute little smile and there was still dressing to be done, I went on to the second verse.

"I am a child of God,

And so my needs are great

Help me to understand His words

Before it grows too late."

And somehow, as I was singing those words to her, I realized that it wasn't my song to her, but her song to me.  She was more than just this cute, tiny baby who needed to be dressed for church.  She was a sweet little spirit, entrusted to my care who needed to be loved, cared for and taught.  Sometimes, in the midst of busy life and dealing with kids who like to pour out bottles of shampoo, play in super glue and flush unflushable things down the toilet, I forget who they really are.  And I'm thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who will reach out to me in the midst of a hectic Sunday morning, and remind me.

The Days of our Lives

We've not had anything terrible earth-shattering or exciting going on, just regular life.  And as I was downloading pictures off my new camera (have I mentioned that I LOVE having one again?) I thought maybe it would be more fun to post about our everyday life with the pictures to go along with it.

My brother, Adam, has been staying with us for the last few weeks, helping do some work for Cory and provide his amazing computer skills.  The kids are loving having him around.  He plays this game with Merry Grace called the roller coaster, where he slings her up and down and all around like she's really on a roller coaster.  And yes, she really is going as fast as her hair indicates.  What a good uncle!!!

Ian is not left out of the fun.  Uncle Adam will also toss him (and Elise)  into the air until I feel sure his arms must be ready to fall off.  And yes, Ian is really as high as he looks. :)  He has provided great entertainment for the kids in the evening when Dad and (especially) Mom are a little frazzled by days end.

Baby Paige continues to get lots and lots and lots of love, all the way around.  She might just be the smiliest baby I've every seen.  Pretty much all you have to do is make eye contact with her to get a huge grin.  Then coo at her and tell her how sweet she is and she can hardly contain herself.  It is so precious.  I thought some of the newness was going to wear off, but so far no one is losing interest in holding her.  I can't blame them, though.  She is the most cuddly thing I've ever seen.

Here is a prime example of some of the attention she gets.  The other day she was just relaxing in the boppy while I made the bed, when Merry Grace crawled right up there and started "reading" her the Ensign.  Merry Grace said she read "all the words" to her and I did hear her say "Jesus" quite a few times so I think she's got the idea.  Paige was fascinated. :)

I had to post these pictures, too.  Not only does Baby Paige get read to, she also gets groomed by her big sis.  I walked in and found Merry Grace wiping her down to her hearts content.  She wiped down her hands, arms, head, face and any other surface she could find.  Lucky for Paige, she will be one clean little baby.  You know, she was probably dirty from all that laying around, smiling, cooing and stuff...

Elise performed at her school last night in a holiday concert with all the other second graders.  Of course, she was the cutest one there.

She knew every word to every song.  I think the hardest part for her may have been not breaking it down during the "What's Cookin'" song.  She looked so grown up and like she was having so much fun.  How is it that seeing your baby sing a song about a 50-foot buffet can move you to tears?  I was so proud of her I thought I would burst.

She had a big cheering section, too.  Besides her immediate family, Uncle Adam (crazy kid) came, as did her Grandma and Grandpa (Cory's folks).  We had such a great time supporting her and singing some Christmas songs at the end.

I am convinced that boys do not need toys.  Ian's imagination is quite enough.  Here he is playing in the armoire where Cory keeps his t-shirts and shorts.  I'm just glad he was in Cory's stuff.  :)

Usually this kid is just happy-go-lucky.  But even he has his moments.  Can you believe we make him wipe his own heinie?  Yep, that's the reason for this priceless expression.  I'm sure one day he'll thank us. 

I don't think I even posted about all our water drama a while back.  Ever since we moved into this house, we've known we would one day need to dig a new well.  It just couldn't provide the amount of water needed for a family of our size, not to mention the amount of company we have.  Well, that time came less than two weeks after sweet little Paige joined our family.  Oh yes, we had to dig a well when she was a little over a week old.  Which meant we went for a week with no running water.  Thankfully we have wonderful family in town who graciously let us use their showers and fill up water jugs each day.  Now we have more than enough water for what we need and I'm so grateful.  This morning, however, we were apparently due a filter change.  Elise came out of the shower telling us it was "raining sand".  Cory got it all straightened out, though, and we're in good shape again.  And Elise is no worse for wear.

I love this picture because it reminds me of Elise when she was just a little girl.  Something about her expression takes me right back to her toddler days.  Just the other day Cory told Merry Grace to "ask nicely" for something.  As soon as he said that I asked him if he remembered when we used to tell Elise that same thing and she would respond with "Nicely" instead of the "Please" we had expected.  It was so cute.  Cory said, "No, I don't remember that.  And that makes me so sad.  I wonder how many other things I've forgotten."  I'm sure we have forgotten a lot.  But hopefully we're remembering a lot too.

My kids love tattoos.  Merry Grace wants a new one every day.  In fact, she works really hard to scrub hers off each day so she can get a new one.  Monkey tattoos are her favorite.  Ian and Elise like them quite a bit too.  I got this booklet that has hundreds of tattoos.  I don't think we're going to run out any time soon.  Someone once said to me that she never understood why parents let their kids have fake tattoos and then wondered why they got real ones when they grew up.  I think about that every time I put one on my kids and hope to goodness it isn't true.  If it is, we're in big trouble.

Ian loves his baby sister.  I think he would attach her to himself if he could.  I'm surprised with how much we wants to love on her and play with her and hold her.  It is very sweet.

Seriously, how cute is this girl.   I think that says it all.

Overheard

Yesterday, riding in the car, Elise was asking Ian to guess the answers to questions about herself--her eye color, her favorite color, her favorite flavor ice cream--and eventually ran out of stuff to ask.  So she started asking him questions about himself.

Elise:  "When is your birthday?"

Ian:  "I have no idea!"

Elise: " It's September 23rd, silly!!!"

Ian:  "Again?!"

Who knew he needed that explained to him?  :)

Question of the Day

Courtesy of Ian as we ate our lunch of spaghetti...

Ian: "Mommy, what animal does spaghetti come from?"

It took everything I had not to burst out laughing, because he was totally sincere in his question.  I explained, briefly, where spaghetti comes from.  Then he replied, "Oh good.  I thought it came from an animal.  I'm glad it doesn't come from an animal because then Elise wouldn't like to eat it any more."  Ah yes, my sometime vegetarian... But still a sweet thought on Ian's part.  :)

And the line is...

Why is it that kids pick up on the very thing they shouldn't?  I remember as a kid my youngest brother caught on to a line from a movie.  He was on a walk with my parents when he kicked at a stick on the ground and said, "What the he_ _ is this thing?"  My stunned parents quickly uncovered it was a direct quote from a "kids" movie.  This week we watched the movie Cars, which I thought was totally adorable.  It's been a really long time since I watched it.  Well, Ian has been going around saying, "You need some new tires, idiot!"  Yep, straight out of the movie.  And it doesn't seem to be just movies.  As I think I've posted about before, Merry Grace is a big fan of the word, "boobies".  You never know when that one's going to come out, but every now and then she gets silly (like last night at dinner) and just randomly throws out a loud, "Boobies!!!"  There's a saying that goes, "Children seldom misquote.  In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said."  It may not necessarily be something you said, but you get the picture.  I think there could be a whole commentary on what kids are allowed to hear/see and so on.  But sooner or later they will pick up on these things at school or somewhere else.  So with Ian, we tried to turn his catchphrase into a teaching moment.  So now he walks around saying, "You need new tires, Idiot.  Did you hear that?  Idiot.  That's not a nice word to say."  Yep.  A total success.  I think he's got the idea.  Score one for perfect parenting. :)

Pictures

My digital camera crashed few months back, so Cory and I have been sharing which is tough because he needs his for work a lot, so a bunch of times I wouldn't have it around to capture all the cute things the kids were up to. And it doesn't take good pictures anyway. :) Believe it or not, I didn't take one picture of the kids in their Halloween costumes and not one picture of Paige in her blessing dress. Ugh. It makes me sick to think of. But...Santa Claus dropped off a new camera a little early this year beacuse I've been an extra good girl this year (or at the very least I haven't been any worse :). So I've been making up for lost time the last few days. Here were some of my favorite pictures from last night. Ian was in full Spiderman mode and the other kids were just being cute. I think my favorite may be the one of Cory kissing Merry Grace. Too adorable. But I like them all. What a great family!!!

Love

I think they like her. :)

Chain of Service

I've loved reading on some of my friends blogs about the activities their families are doing. There have been some really great ideas. So I thought I'd post something we started this month. We made a service paper chain to countdown the days until Christmas. Each person thought of a few services they could provide for another member of the family...cooking a favorite meal, playing a favorite game, going on a date, cleaning a room, making a bed and jumping on the trampoline together were a few that different ones thought of. We wrote (or helped write) each service on a piece of paper and then made the strips into a paper chain. One person tears a strip off each day and they get to be the recipient of the service offered. Yesterday Ian had his closet cleaned by Elise and today Elise will get to have lunch with her Daddy. What impressed me most was how thoughtful and generous the services were. I think it will be a fun way for our family to be closer over the holidays.

Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving come and gone and Christmas celebrations in full swing, one can't help but reflect on the many blessing we have and the many things we have to be thankful for.  So here are mine:

I'm thankful for a daughter who is everything you could ask for in a child--kind, sweet, thoughtful, helpful, smart, easy to please, responsible and loving.  And she has just enough sassiness in her to keep her feisty and from being completely perfect.   And I'm thankful that she still thinks hanging out with her mama is cool.

I'm thankful for a little boy who keeps me on my toes and insures that I never have a dull moment.  I'm also thankful for the sweet hugs and kisses that he bestows so freely and for his kind heart and innocence that is so endearing.  And I'm thankful that he still calls me Mommy.

I'm thankful for this little gal who is so full of personality, who keeps us laughing, smiling, and wanting to pull our hair out.  I'm thankful that she's so motherly and protective and independent all at the same time.  And I'm thankful that she still wants to hold my hand.

I'm thankful for a healthy, beautiful, contented, smiling baby who is deliciously sweet smelling and cuddly beyond words.  I'm thankful that she sleeps well, that she smiles at everyone, but at her mama the most, that she likes to be held and snuggled and kissed to pieces.  

And I'm thankful for a husband who is handsome and wonderful.  I'm thankful that he almost always knows whether I need to be hugged 'til I'm happy, to let off some steam, to eat a bite of chocolate, to turn up my music and dance around the living room, or lock the bedroom door and take a time out.  I'm thankful that he wants to share his life with my craziness and even more thankful that he seems to enjoy it.