I decided I'd better get Em into his snowsuit at least once and venture out into the cold with his big brothers.  I waited too long, though, and I could barely zip the suit over him.  In keeping with tradition, I propped Emmett in the corner of the sofa and snapped his darling little picture.

Owen:

Samuel:

December 2011

The two days before Christmas Eve, Erik had spent them working in St. George.  He come Friday night, then had to leave Christmas Eve morning at 5:30 am to work in Salt Lake.  The poor guy finally made it back that evening at about 6.  The boys and I all missed him, and were ready for Daddy to be home!! 

We had a big yummy Christmas Eve dinner, with our "guests" (that's what Sam kept calling them, all day, "When will our guests be here?!") Auntie C and Alex, and John and Guin.  Caroline helped me a ton with the dinner.  Samuel was ridiculously excited for the big turkey.  Ever since the day I brought it home, he asked over and over when we would eat it.  Owen enjoyed the bread.  We were distracted during dinner, and didn't notice it until he had a pile of about 7 slices of bread, all with the middle eaten out, and flour all over his face.  We all laughed because we thought it was so funny and cute, and that made O very embarrassed. 

John and Guin were so sweet to bring some presents for the boys.  Samuel got his very first Nerf gun.  Oh boy.  And Owen got his own Mater that he doesn't have to fight Sam for!  Then there were the obligatory Christmas Eve jammies.  And right before bed, we opened one last present, a star for the top of our tree. 

Samuel and Owen went to bed late, and then the little elves had to get busy preparing for Santa's arrival.  It ended up being a rough night, one of Emmett's worst, but we got through it, and after about 4 hours of sleep for us, it was Christmas morning!  We sent Daddy ahead to make sure Santa had come.  Oh had he!!  He left an almost empty bottle of cream soda and a bag of clementines that Rudolph had eaten one of, with a note telling the boys that it had been a tough call, but he decided to put everyone on the nice list this year.  Phew!  So we opened stockings and presents, had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, ate way too much junk, and played in our jammies the rest of the day.

December was a hard month.  Not bad.  But hard.  I was having a rough time, Emmett was really having a rough time, Erik had a ton of work and several big projects, and whiney whine whine, poor me, this that and the other.  The month blasted by.  I just couldn't commit to one of the darling activity a day advents floating around Pinterest that everyone and their mom was doing.  I'm just not that cool, I guess.  But we were still able to do a few Christmas-y things to make the season memorable and special.  So here is that stuff, interspersed with everything else that did (or didn't) happen in December. 

Sometimes this one is cute . . . sometimes . . . so it does us well to remember when.

These two are cute, too.  Especially when one of them isn't screaming in pain, not eating, or not sleeping.  I don't mean Erik.

We had spent way too many days in the house doing nothing.  So one morning when I heard The Sweet Tooth Fairy would give a free cookie to the first 5 people into their shop who sang, "If all the raindrops were cupcakes and cakebites, oh what a rain that would be, I'd go outside with my mouth open wide, singing AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AAAAH" I packed the boys into the car and off we went.  Sam willingly and eagerly did the singing.  We got a cookie and the cute gal who was smitten by my boys gave them each a sucker, too.  Soooo that's why O is eating a sucker in this picture.  I don't usually just let them have candy.  I also don't usually comb their hair.  Obviously.  And that was a lot of explanation for 2 pictures of my boys doting on their baby brother.

That same day, at lunch time, these two were holding hands.  I have no idea why.  Owen rarely let's Sam hold his hand, and it makes Sam kind of sad.  So I thought this was really cute.  Especially since O ate a lot of his lunch that way, reaching over himself with his right hand.

Also at lunch time, Owen was riding the elevator up and down.  "Going up, beep, zoooom, going down, beep, zoooom," while he stood up and sat down.  Weirdo.  Sam had a box elder bug that he wanted to adopt as a pet.  Double weirdo.  He put it in the bin, gave it some grass and a twig, and named it Samuel, to which I interjected that that wasn't very original, so he said, "Ok, I'll name him Monster Truck."  Sam didn't let that thing out of his sight all day.  I had to do some serious convincing so Sam wouldn't take it to school with him.  Later that night, Monster Truck met his demise.  I'm thinking it had to do with the apple juice the boys tried to give him.  I noticed before Sam, and was so close to finding another box elder and switching them out.  We are just not pet people.

One night Erik was either working late or at a church meeting, I can't remember now.  I wanted to sit my fat butt on the sofa, which I did, but the boys weren't super excited about that, so I got out the Christmas tree ornaments and let them have at it.  They both got really into it.  Owen was frustrated at first because he couldn't figure out how to hang any of them.  But he realized he could put the hooks through a bell ornament.  So that's what he did.  I counted and he had hung 18 ornaments from that bell.

For FHE one night, we talked about building a strong foundation on the rock of our Redeemer.  We sang the wise man and the foolish man, read Helaman 5:12, and then built a gingerbread house.  It did not have a strong foundation.  It lasted about 30 minutes before it collapsed.  But the boys loved every second of it.  Especially our sugar fiend, Owen J, who was more interested in putting the candy in his mouth than on the house.

On Samuel's last school day before winter break, he got to bring gifts for a present exchange.  He picked out little yo-yos, and wrapped each one himself.  He was very proud of his work, and so eager to give them to his friends.  When he came home with lots of fun little gifts, I was very impressed with how willing he was to show and share with Owen.

We visited the Festival of Lights again in Spanish Fork.  The boys loved it.  Em slept through it.  No pictures, but I think two years in a row officially makes it a tradition. 

We did do one advent, these chocolate calendars.  I just happened to come across them at the party store back in November and knew I HAD to get them.  I remember doing these so many times as a kid.  The first day it was this intense wave of nostalgia when I got a whiff of those waxy chocolates.  So fun for me.  And the boys had a lot of fun with it, too.

Sam also had a countdown paper chain he made at school, and he loved taking a new one off each day of December.  And we had a really low-key mini advent paper chain with "activities" like find a picture of Jesus in your house, read a story from the Friend, be extra nice to someone in your family, tell someone a story about Jesus, stuff like that.  Samuel told Emmett the story of Jesus being born . . . "It was in a stable in Bethlehem, the shepherds came and there was a new star, and theeeeeen THE KING GOT REALLY MAD AND THE SOLDIERS KILLED ALL THE BABIES AND PEOPLE SCREAMED AH AH AH, AND EVERYONE DIED!!!!!!  And that's the end."  Yeah, I do not recommend the Living Scriptures Nativity video.  Horrible, awful, terrible, and a million other complaints.  If you want to hear a good rant, ask me about it sometime.  Anyway, I digress . . . There is our December, crazy, long, a bit tough, and yet pretty uneventful. 

Coming up next on my poor neglected blog: Our quiet, simple, wonderful Christmas at home. 

The parade this year was a first for us.  We've never been before.  And with the early morning wake up call, plus knowing he had to go back into work later that afternoon, we couldn't talk Erik into coming to this little celebration.  Thankfully, our awesome neighbors, who are pros at Art City Days, hooked us up.  The staked out our spots the night before, then gave us the run down about the cool parts and the best ways to get candy.  It was so much fun.  The very beginning started with the police force on their motorcycles doing cool little tricks and formations, and all the firetrucks, ambulance, squad cars, etc, following behind.  Sirens and horns fuuuuuull force.  Even after being warned, Samuel still ended up busting into tears and burying his sensitive little ears in Mark's lap.  Owen sat there wide-eyed and holding pretty tight to my legs while I covered his ears for him, but he kept it together just fine.  After that, everyone was ready to go candy chasing.  It took Sam a few tires to get the hang of it (ie, not break down into a fit every time a bigger kid got to the tootsie roll before him) but once Owen showed him a thing or two, everyone was having a blast.  The rest of the parade was really neat; very small-town, homey, and quaint.  Owen's favorite thing was the horses.  Samuel said his favorite thing was the monster trucks.  Have I told you how much I love where we live?!

My favorite thing about the Balloon festival is that they do it two days in a row.  So once again, I woke up Friday morning to hear the boys hollering from Lambert's room, "Balloooooooons!!"  The both climbed into the empyt crib and watched out the window for several minutes until the balloons disappeared back behind the trees across the street.  I think it's fun because it's make them more excited, and for O this was his first "official" time so I think it was cool for him to see them up close the next day.

So Saturday morning, I actually had to wake the boys up.  Go figure.  First day in weeks they decided to sleep past 6:30.  We even talked Erik into coming with us this time.  He's never been before.  So we threw on our sweats, packed up some juice boxes and granola bars, and headed to the junior high where the balloons launch.  There is just something so so cool about watching the huge colorful puddles on the ground slowly inflate and then take off into the sky.  Love it.  The boys were pretty captivated, too.  (Sam did get a bit distracted for a few minutes by the baseball field we were sitting near.)  Once the balloons were all up in the air, we went for a few truck rides and grabbed ourselves a helium balloon before going home.  I really enjoyed it even more with Erik there.  I hope we can talk him into coming again next year.

June 10, 2011

The Children's Parade was another activity we had a blast at last year, and wanted to make sure we did again this year.  The day before, we met up at a friend's house with several other neighbors and kids and had a big bike/stroller decorating free-for-all.  The next morning, some of us took off from our house and walked, and we met everyone else over there. 

"Who's ready for the parade?!"

Samuel was sooooo ornery, and he was borrowing a bike since his was busted and we hadn't had a chance to fix it yet.  I don't know what the big deal was, but he whined about it the whole time.  At the beginning, he popped one of his balloons (because HE BIT IT!) and threw a fit.  Also, his two best buddies, Gabe and Jacob, both have Strider bikes.  The three of them were so great about stopping when we moms and little ones needed to catch up, but each and every time they started back up again, Gabe and Jacob could peel off in their peddle-less bikes, and it took Sam a whole 3.5 seconds to catch up.  Which meant aother fit every single time.  Ugh. 

The Three Amigos?  I vote the Three Stooges.

Owen on the other hand, was darling.  He loved riding in the wagon, and was only a tiny bit put off for just a short moment when he had to share with Emily.   O sat there watching, pointing, talking, and taking it all in.

Sam finally cheered up when he got his "prize" and snow cone.  We hung out enjoying the sunshine and sugary ice with our friends.  Then we walked back home.  I was poooooooooooped!!!  But in the end, it was a really fun and exciting morning, and we sure did enjoy ourselves.     

What, you didn't know Bubba J was this cool?

June 6, 2011

I love living in Springville.  I love that we've been here long enough to feel really comfortable and at home.  Every year, Art City Days is a favorite thing about our little city.  We started the events off on Monday with the Teddy Bear Tea at the library.  Samuel brought one of his monkeys, and Owen brought his doggie.  There was a program in the basement to start it off, with a skit/story time/whatever-you-want-to-call it that might have lasted a tad too long, but the boys still mostly enjoyed.  Samuel eagerly sat on the rug with his buddy Jacob and 100 other kids while Owen was more content to hang back with Mom and eat his Cheerios. 

After the program, we were shipped outside for the rest of the activities.  There was an obstacle course set up to be like you were traveling the world, complete with a swamp (kiddie pools), a forest (giant playground balls, not sure how that works, but oh well), caves (a couple large pipes), a mountain (slide), and a desert (hula hoops, again, not quite sure…) and a reward of watered down Kool-Aid punch once you made it around the world. 

There was also a place to make your own magic carpet (a graham cracker with frosting and sprinkles) that Samuel was not interested in.  He was distracted by the parachute, which he played at with Jacob.  They got to toss their animals around on it and do a few other fun things.  Owen, however, was turning into a pill by now, and just wanted to eat rainbow sprinkles which he picked off his magic carpet, and then kept running back to the table to get some from the cute high school volunteer who was smitten by him and kept giving him more. 

We made some hippo hats, passed right by the "Princesses" reading stories (the Springville Royal Court?  Things like that make me grateful I have all boys) and got ready to head home.  I insisted on a picture of the two boys together on the bench.   Remember this adorable photo from last year??  I was dumb enough to think I could recreate it, or at least get something just as precious, a year later.

The boys were sooooo done and coming apart at the seams, particularly O.  So this is the best I walked away with.  Pretty much sums up the morning, I'd say.  I still think they're cute, though.

We did grab an ice cream cone on the way home, the first of the season, so that took care of some substantial cheering up.  And so did the naps that followed shortly after.

Christmas seems like it was a lifetime ago.  I’ve been putting off this post.  The camera died so we took maybe 6 pictures total.  But it needs to be done.  Our Christmas was very mild and oh so low key.  It was just the 4 of us here at home.  And it was just what we needed.  We’d all been pretty sick (and most of us still are/are again) and just weren’t up for a big hooplah this year.  What we did do was intimate, cozy, and still very special.  So here is the rundown . . .

Christmas Eve is kind of the big day for me.  While Owen and I napped, Erik and Sam went to the dollar store to finish some shopping.  Sam picked out presents for both me and Owen.  (Naps and dollar store, sure sounds like a pretty big day!)  I planned to make a semi-traditional Danish dinner.  I started slowly in the morning with the intention that I could have it together by dinner time.  Almost.  I screwed up the cranberry salad, and never made it to the candied potatoes or rolls.  But we were all still happy and full after a pork roast and gravy, mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing, green beans, red cabbage, and a bottle of snow cold Martinellis.  All served in my most fancy dishes.  When it’s just the four of us, all sick, I have a hard time putting on a show.

We got out the Christmas jammies and the boys ran around crazy for a few minutes before calming down with the scripture story of Christ’s birth from the New Testament reader.  The boys each chose a gift to open.  We had to talk Sam out of choosing the giant bags that came from Colorado.  Then I put sick O to bed and the other two made some peanut butter cookies for Santa.  Sam came to the realization for the first time that we didn’t have a chimney, and he asked how Santa would get in.  We suggested we could leave the door open for him, but Samuel was very concerned about the cats getting in if we did that.  So he suggested we leave a note on the door that said, “Come in Santa, but please don’t let any cats in.”  Erik and I stayed up till about 10 getting everything finished up and waiting for Santa.  It was totally a record being done that early, but I was still just throwing things into boxes and slapping on a dumb bow by that point. 

So Christmas morning came early with O waking up crying at 6:20.  I gave him some milk and crossed my fingers he just might go back to sleep, but he didn’t.  So I brought him into bed with us and turned on the tv.  Erik was starting to get antsy by that point.  It was pretty cute.  I could hear the wheels in his brain cranking, deciding if he could go in and wake up Sam. 

Samuel came out on his own pretty soon, though, and by 7 we were all waiting behind the upstairs gate ready to go see if Santa had found our house.  The first thing Sam saw were the stockings, and he headed right over.  It took him a few minutes before he noticed the other stuff.  Classic moment. 

We spent the morning slowly opening presents and playing with them before moving on to the next gift.  I was pleased with how calm and mellow it all was.  The castle and dragons were a huge hit, and so was Owen’s policeman Helmet Hero.  (Samuel has the racecar driver, and the two fight over it like crazy.)  Grandpa W and Mormor totally scored major points with the Pillow Pets, since Erik and I had told Sam countless times that we would never buy him one, and as parents, we had the power to tell Santa not to bring one, too.  We had a mighty fine haul from Grandma and Grandpa B, too!  Santa was smart and labeled most of the gifts to Samuel AND Owen in hopes of alleviating too many Gimmes and Mines.  Erik got to build himself a brand new computer for his present a week or so earlier, I made him a desk calendar from Shutterfly, and Sam got him a huge plastic trumpet.  Because apparently, “Dad NEEDS one of these!  So he can go ‘Doo doo dooo’ and say ‘Saaaaaaaaaamuuuuuuuuuuuel’ really loud!”  Sam got me a stamp, and I also got a bigger and faster camera card.  After presents, we had a yummy breakfast of monkey bread, bacon, and sausage.  And a few apple slices for good measure.

The rest of the day was for eating, playing, resting, and watching movies.  We stayed in our pjs until after a dinner of leftovers.  Then we changed into clean pajamas.  And went to bed.  At least those were the highlights.  It was different to do Christmas completely and entirely by ourselves.  We missed being with family and other special traditions, but we also really enjoyed the quiet time at home.  Merry Christmas!

November 12, 2010

In keeping with tradition, we took Samuel to Pirate Island Pizza for his birthday dinner Friday night.  He had been talking about it for weeks.  He totally remembered the entrance that scared him a bit last year, and was even more scared this year.  He ran right through, and luckily we were there early enough that we didn’t have to wait.  But Sam stood there with his ears covered tight and wouldn’t even talk to the hostess when she tried to give him some pirate gold.  As soon as we were back in the dining room and arcade, Sam was totally fine.  Goober.  Our pirate greeted us at our table, and Sam was very happy to tell him that he was grown up now and turning four.  While we waited for our drinks, we got balloon animals.  And while we waited for our food we played some games and earned some tickets.  Owen loved ski ball and Dance Dance Revolution.  (He told me he wants to play DDR with his buddies Ben and Ethan, and see if they could ever be as awesome as their mommys were at it.)  Samuel loved anything that involved racing.  After dinner, we went back to finish using our pirate gold tokens, and used our tickets to collect the loot.  All Sam wanted were the toy soldiers, so he got 9 of them.  We made it back to the table for a little pirate rendition of Happy Birthday and a free ice cream sundae. 

On our way home, we stopped at Toys R Us so Samuel could spend his birthday Birthday Bucks that Geoffrey the Giraffe sent him.  He wanted a dragon so bad, but good ol’ Walmart bought the rights to the Dragon movie, so Sam had to ”settle” for another monster truck . . . his 11th.  By the time we got home, it was close to 8 and Owen was past done.  I took him up to bed, with a whisper to Erik, “If he doesn’t say anything, let’s not worry about doing presents for Sam tonight like we planned.”  I came back from putting O down to find Erik and Sam smirking at me.  “Sam, what were you going to ask Mom?”  “Mom, can I open my presents that you’re hiding in Daddy’s room now?!”  Fiiiiiine.   He made a decent haul.  It was so cute to see how excited and happy he was about each thing he opened.  Sam had spent the last several months talking about what he wanted for his birthday, and he had poured over catalogs and toy aisles soooo many times telling me he was going to get this and going to get that all on his birthday.  He had cut out pictures that he stuck to the fridge or hid under his pillow and kissed goodnight.  So I was a bit worried he would be disappointed when NONE of those things came his way.  But I was really proud of how gracious and pleased Samuel was about everything.  Such a sweet kid.  Erik and I let Sam stay up way too late as we both snuggled on the sofa watching our little Samuel enjoy his birthday goodness.  It had been a dang good day!

For real, he is the cutest.  This picture is my new favorite.  Love him.

After our traditional Christmas Eve El Torito, Samuel was excited to learn he got to open a present before going to bed.  He tore off the paper, ripped open the box, saw his pajamas, and said, “Hey, that’s not my green truck from Santa!” 

After we reminded him that Santa wasn’t coming until he was asleep, Sam was happy to show off his monkey jamas and slippers.

Owen got in on the fun, too.

Samuel showing off his slippers.

“Merry Christmas, Baby Owen!”