Christmas Morning 2009

Christmas Eve

This year for Christmas Eve we invited our friends Sharyl and Wanda Waldron over to join us. The kids sculpted their own nativity characters out of play dough and then acted out an impromptu nativity w/ the traditional Bible reading. Emily really wanted to be the angel, so I was Mary w/ Daniel as Joseph. Then we sang some Christmas carols and Rebecca & I played a couple of duets on our violins. Playing w/ her was one of those nostalgic parenting moments that brings tears to my eyes. The kids were so excited to open the gifts that the Waldron's brought and they've really enjoyed playing with the puzzles and books they received over the holiday break. I guess Rebecca enjoyed her turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy and pistachio pie a little too much because she threw up at the end of the evening but was fortunately was feeling just fine by Christmas morning. Daniel let us in on his grand schemes to "catch" Santa. He rigged up a string of bells to hang/tape on the front door so he could hear him coming. The boys were so excited about their plans, they went to bed pretty late and awoke at 1:30 a.m. to discover that Santa had already come. But just the sight of seeing what he had left for them got them pretty wired and they were up for at least another hour after that chattering in their room.

Digging Holes Builds Character

The first time Jared & I saw the movie "Holes" was soon after we had quit our job working as home parents at the Utah Boys Ranch - a correctional facility for troubled boys. It is a funny movie about wayward boys who are sent to "Camp Greenlake" to dig holes all day long. It says something like... You take a bad boy, make him dig holes all day and it makes him a good boy. Our boys watched the movie recently and have caught on to this concept. They keep retreating to the backyard to dig holes for fun. So my kitchen floor has been a little bit dirtier, but my boys are having fun and getting along better. But now the hole digging has come to an end. The other day Jacob came in and said, "Mom, I found this yellow pipe in my hole but I can't get it out, Can you help me?" So I went out to survey the situation and found that he had dug down to the gas line- with fortunately no damage done. He quickly filled in his hole, and therefore the hole digging has come to an end.

Who Needs Toys...

when you can play with packaging materials? I received some packages in the mail and Dan & Emily had a great time popping the air bubbles. It kept them busy for a really long time. A few days before that I found Emily playing pretend in my bedroom with...earplugs! One was the mom, the other was the dad and she found some other random objects to be the kids. I think toys are overrated sometimes.
Oops! I forgot to rotate again.

Halloween Pics - a little late

A Post Authored by Rebecca

Poor Rebecca. Yesterday Rebecca hurt(perhaps sprained) her wrist. She says she was trying to reach her cookbook and lost her grip on what she was holding and fell. I came in just in time to see her falling through the air. She hit the floor hard. At first it looked like she had passed out, but luckily she didn't.

Funny Irony

I came downstairs to get something from our unfinished basement and found the (sadly) typical disarray of clutter lying about that seems to occur on Sundays while mom is napping and dad is at meetings- Popcorn kernels & blankets all over the floor by the couch, an empty cereal box some child decided to snack on, some game pieces and the vacuum. The funny thing was, next I saw some papers someone got out of my preschool files entitled "THE JOY OF ORDER AND GOAL STRIVING." I guess I still need to work on what I should have learned way back in preschool. I like order, but apparently my children don't. But fortunately, there is hope. I have gone 3 straight days without "losing my cookies" so someday soon we are going to get our house in order:0)

Why Rebecca Wants a Baby Sister

Someday I'll actually post all of the pictures I took for Halloween, but for now you get to read a morsel from "Rebecca's blog." She decided to start typing her own blog in Microsoft Word including imaginary comments from her friends and family. Here's a little clip explaining why she wants a sister in the house - not a brother.
. "I REALLY want the baby to be a girl! I don’t think I could live with another boy in the house. Sure he’ll be cute when he’s a baby. But by the time he’s 5yrs. I’ll be 14, which means I’ll be interested in boys. He could walk up to my boyfriend and say, “Are you gonna’ marry my sisto?” How embarrassing! And when he’s 7 I’ll be 16 and then he can tease me about all the boys I like. If it’s a girl that’s a whole nother’ story. Anyways, I really want it to be a girl."
She forgot that she can't have a boyfriend at the age of 14:).