Merry Christmas!

What a fun Christmas this has been.  On Friday, I made Christmas Tree French Toast.  Andrew didn't get to partake because he was at work. 

Andrew got home that afternoon while the boys were taking their naps.  We started a new tradition this year to get the boys an ornament that is special to them for the year.  Keagan's ornament is a Curious George sitting on and reading books because is is always asking questions and he loves to read books.  Deker got a Mickey Mouse riding in a train.  Bauer got a first Christmas ornament.  They opened these after they got up from their naps. 

 After  that, we had dinner then drove around looking at Christmas lights.  When we got home, they one more present which was their Christmas Jammies.  Don't they look like they love each other?

This morning, the boys loved their things from Santa.  Keagan got Cranky the Crane, Deker got Knapford Station, both of which are from Thomas and Friends and Bauer got cloth books.  They also looked in their stockings.  Keagan and Deker both got Semi's which they have been playing with all day long along with a few other little things. 

After looking at the goodies from Santa, we had our annual Santa Pancakes which were as yummy as ever. 

One of the last presents to open was a box of pillows from my Mom.  Deker immediately took a pillow, took it the couch and this is what he looked like.  I love the "Boy that was fun, but now I am spent" look on his face. 

Here are each of the boys with the presents they received. 

 

We finished our day having our own little Christmas Dinner this evening. 

Out of the Mouth of....

Keagan is a TALKER.  Given the chance, this kid could talk for hours about his thing or that. 

Well, one morning a few days ago, My boys and I were eating breakfast and Keagan said some pretty entertaining things that I want to document.

Keagan was eating Captain Crunch Berries for breakfast when he paused for a moment then pointed to one of the berries and this is the conversation that followed:

K- Mom, this is like a ball.

Me - Yes, it is.

K - Can you juggle it.

Me - No, you don't juggle your cereal, but some people can juggle other things. 

K - Does Bella's (his cousin) Daddy, Alma (my brother), juggle things.

Me - Yes, I think he can.

K - Yea, I know that he is GREAT at juggling things.

A few minutes later, while still eating the same thing this is what ensued:

K - Mom, can we eat fish.

Me - Well, yes, you can eat fish that you buy at the store.

K - pauses for a moment then said "No, Mom, you don't get fish at the store, you go to a campsite that has water and you put your fishing pole in the water and when it does this (jerks with his arm) you reel it in like this (pretending he is reeling it in)."

At that point, I just had to nod my head, look away laugh to myself and then go call Andrew as soon as I could escape to tell him what Keagan had just said.

By the way...Here is a picture of Keagan on his last day of preschool last week.  He was in a hurry to go in so I had a hard time getting a picture of him.  The Child Development classes at the High School in our area does a 4 week preschool in the fall and spring.  This is the first year that I had heard about it, so we enrolled Keagan.  He really loved it and had a great time. 

How does he do it?

A few weeks ago, Keagan started asking us how Santa was going to get into our house on Christmas Eve to deliver the presents and fill the stockings since we don't have a fireplace.  We tried explaining to him many times that he has special magic powers and he can make a fireplace to appear, but he was never quite content with that answer. 

On Monday, Keagan asked the question yet again (probably at least the 10th time) so I tried a different approach and he seems to be very content with this solution and he has not asked me about it again.  Sometime, somewhere I remember hearing something about a magic key.  So I explained this to Keagan and he really liked the idea of having a special magic key just for Santa.  I was visiting with a neighbor of mine on Tuesday and she had the perfect key that she had laying around that we could have, so this is what I came up with.  

Here is a close-up of the sign itself.  I hung it on the door with the wreath we currently have on the front door. 

Andrew cut a piece of pine board that he had out in the garage and burnt the edges a little to give it kind of a rustic feel.  We then screwed in some hooks that we had and placed the key on it.  I then asked a friend of mine to make me some vinyl lettering to put on it.  I added some red and green ribbon to hang it from.  I am very pleased with how it turned out. 

Now onto our next problem from my 4 year old.  "How is Santa going to get the key since he lands on the roof".  I suggested we send a letter to Santa, but Keagan didn't really care for that, he wants to leave a note on the roof.  So, we have come to an understanding that after the boys are in bed, Andrew will go up to the room and leave a note telling Santa where the key it.  I have been emphasizing the AFTER they are in bed part. 

Merry Christmas Adam

What is Christmas Adam?  Well, Adam came before Eve.  This is something that I got from my Mom, but it is a lot of fun to say and to see peoples reactions. 

I have been wanting to do some posts about our Christmas happenings, but never got around to it.  Since Christmas kind of snuck up on me this year, I have been busy making presents and trying to fit in some fun Christmas activities.  Here is a run down of a few of our activities:

It took 3 days over the course of a week or more to get our tree up and decorated, but we got it done. 

We made some of the ornaments for the tree. For the Candy Canes, I cut out two pieces of white material and put a piece of batting in between the sewed lines in it.  For the Stars and Bells we cut the shapes our of white card stock, brushed them with corn syrup, put a few drops of food coloring on them and then swirled the colors around.  A very fun activity for the kids and adults.  We also made the Cinnamon angels and gingerbread men. 

This was our first year going to the Winter Garden Aglow at the Idaho Botanical Gardens. It was amazing and I think this is something we will be doing every year.

We took the boys down to the mall to see Santa Claus.  Keagan was really excited, Deker was a little nervous, but put on a pretty good front and Bauer didn't really care.  Yea for a Santa picture where nobody was crying. 

On Sunday, I came across this really yummy sounding recipe for Holiday Chex Mix.  It sounded so good and I had everything on hand, so I made some.  I may or may not have made at least one more batch since then.  After dinner, we drove around to look at Christmas Lights and of course, we snacked on this yummy snack.  I put the recipe on Smithalicious.

Tonight we made sugar cookies while watching BSU play and win the Maaco Bowl in Las Vegas.  We got as far as baking them, tomorrow the boys and I will made frosting and decorate. 

Merry Christmas Adam from my family to yours!

Why???

Since Andrew drives truck, he has a crazy schedule.  When he leaves (which is two times a week).  He is gone for two days straight, home for a day or two and then gone again.  For some reason, three times in the past month, my kids have gotten sick on the day that Andrew leaves, then by the time that he gets home, everyone is all better and he doesn't get to deal with any of it. 

On two separate occasions (within two weeks of each other), Keagan began throwing up in the evening (the first day that Andrew is gone), some through the night and then is better the next day.  Then last week, Deker began throwing up Friday evening and it continued into Saturday.  I put him down for his nap in the afternoon and he woke up around the same time Andrew got home and was just fine. 

Now here is the latest...

On Thursday I noticed that Deker's cheeks were looking a little red, I put on some lotion and didn't think anything of it.  Last night, I noticed that his hands had a little rash looking thin on them, I thought it was dry skin, put on some lotion and didn't think anything of it.  But then this morning, he woke up looking like this.

 

He still hand the rash on both hands and it is also on he back of his neck.  His ears are bright red and he has big red patches all over his face, cheeks and chin.  I started to get worried and so I called Andrew (who is at work of course), tried to explain and he suggested I call the doctor.  Thank goodness our doctors office is open on Saturday.  I made an appointment, loaded up all three boys in the van and got him to the doctor

Diagnosis: Fifths Disease. 

What do you do? Because it is viral, nothing you just wait for it to go away.  Thank goodness, is doesn't seem to bothering Deker at all, I just hope that it goes away quickly, because I looks horrible.  But it is contagious so we need to hope and pray that none of the rest of us get it. 

Why does this all happen when Andrew is gone?  I do not think it is fair.

Haircuting Time

When you comb your 4 year old "white" boys hair without putting water on it and it looks like an afro......

I think that means it is time for a hair cut.  Awww...Much better!

The aftermath of cutting my 4 year old and a 2 year olds hair.  They sure do have lots of hair. 

On Saturday night we had a hair cutting party.  I gave Keagan and Deker hair cuts while Andrew used the clippers on his own hair.  After sweeping up the hair from Keagan and Deker, I looked at the pile and wondered how can so much hair come off of two boys.  It is amazing. 

Snow

So, back on Nov. 20, we had our first snow fall.  My boys were so excited.  Deker kept running to the window and say "nos" (for some reason on the words that start with "s", he always says the s at the end).  I took pictures of the snow falling so that I could put it on this blog, but I never got around to it, now it just seems silly. 

The next big snowfall was the week of thanksgiving.  Tuesday morning, there was a fair amount of snow, so I put Bauer down for his morning nap and then Keagan, Deker and I went outside to shovel our driveway.  But since it was just me I forgot to take any pictures of that as well.

Now, last week was the most exciting snowfall yet.  On Tuesday morning it started snowing, after a while, Keagan asked if we could go shovel the snow but I told him we needed to wait until it stopped.  He asked that a few times that day, but it snowed all day and all night and some the next morning.  By the time it stopped there was about 8 inches of snow.  We waited until Daddy got home that afternoon, then we headed out to play in the snow. 

When Keagan came out, the neighbors showed us their really cool snow fort and so Keagan convinced Andrew to make one as well.  He are a the boys building the snow fort. 

 

Bauer woke up after a while and so I wrapped him in a couple of blankets and took him out.  While we were out there, our neighbors said they had a snowsuit from when their first boy was a baby and they are letting us borrow it for Bauer.  Doesn't he look cute in it?  Thanks Jen!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day. We had a great day even though it went nothing like we had planned. Andrew was supposed to get home from work Wednesday morning and we were going to drive down to Caliente to spend a couple of days with my family.  On Monday night, we packed up our clothes, food that didn't need to be in the fridge and other misc. stuff. 

On Tuesday morning, it snowed here some and it snowed a lot where Andrew was headed.  He got delayed and the roads weren't good, so Tuesday night we decided we better not go.  I woke up on morning and thought, well if Andrew gets home early afternoon, maybe we can drive half-way and then the rest of the way on Thursday morning.  I called Andrew around 10:00 and he told me that the breaks on his trailer froze overnight and he couldn't move his truck.  So, with that and the bad roads, he didn't get home until around 6:30 that night. 

When we realized we were going to be able to go, we decided that we would go out to eat for lunch and then have the dips that I was planning on making for dinner.  Here are the highlights.  A few weeks ago, we made these turkey shirts for the boys.  Those on their handprints on their shirts.

 

We we are snuggling (or nugs and Deker says it) watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Here we are snuggling again after the boys got up from their nap.

The boys munching on Spinach Dip and Cheese ball while watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

We had a fun day, but missed my family terrible.  Now I need to face the task of unpacking all our stuff.

A few months ago, my sister, Vera, called around to her siblings and asked if she could make rubber band guns for the kids.  The general consensus was, what about us?  So, being the great sister that she is, she made rubber band guns for all of us (including the little babies).  She also printed out some targets to use as well.  When we were all together a couple of weekends ago celebrating my Mom's birthday, she passed out the rubber band guns, targets and a bag of rubber bands. 

My boys (me too) have been having fun playing with them.  Keagan and Deker probably ask at least once a day if they can play with them.  I actually remembered to take a picture yesterday. 

Vera, Thanks for being such a great sister and Aunt!  We love you!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

My Mom turned 60 last week.  We decided to help her celebrate by having a Surprise birthday party in Salt Lake.  My dad rented a nice big 8 bedroom vacation house for us to all stay in.  Most of us arrived in Salt Lake on Thursday evening.  On Friday morning, my boys were very excited to learn that in the backyard, after the big lawn was none other than dirt hills.  Keagan very excited came inside telling me all about them. 

On Friday morning, the majority of us went to see the Hogle Zoo.  There was a bucket truck in the zoo putting up Christmas light.  This is what I saw when I looked at my boys.  All the rest of us was going in the opposite direction of the truck.

 I guess Bauer thought he needed a drink.

My sister Vera was being the great aunt that she is and bought tickets for all the kids to ride the Carousel.  I went with Deker and Aunt Vera took Bauer.

 

Keagan with his other 4 year old cousins.  Walking into the zoo.

Keagan in the lions mouth.

Aunt Vera with a lot of her nieces and nephews.

My Mom and Dad got to Salt Lake on Friday afternoon.  My Mom thought she was just going to see two of her kids and their families that live there.  It was decided ahead of time, that my Dad would call my brother Alma who lives in Salt Lake when they were getting close to Salt Lake. Alma then told him that they were headed to Artic Circle and to meet them there.  We hid behind the play equipment.  Then came out when she walked in.

There was lots of running around and playing games.  Getting VERY dirty playing on the dirt hills, etc.  We were very blessed to having amazingly good weather while we were there.  Friday and Saturday were beautiful days then Sunday was cold and windy. 

 

 

 

We had a great time surprising and celebrating my Moms birthday.  On Sunday morning, we took a big group picture before attending sacrament meeting with my brother, Alma and his wife.  Here is the big group picture.  The only person missing was my brother Neal who is serving a mission in Brazil.