Christmas Fun

We've had quite a bit of Christmas fun recently, but I failed to capture a lot of it on film. First was our ward Christmas party. I'm the ward activities committee chair, which basically means that this party was my baby. I think it turned out so wonderful! The decorations were gorgeous, the food was delicious, and the entertainment was top notch! It was so well attended and I'm so thankful to everyone who helped me put the party together. Since I was the 'hostess' I was running around during the party and was unable to get pictures. Sad. I hope that someone will get me some but until then, you will just have to imagine it!

I did, however, remember to take pictures of the kids with Santa!
Clayton was ALL business with Santa this year. He's definitely got him figured out. He keeps threatening Noah by telling him that he's going to call Santa and tell him to put Noah on the 'naughty list'. It's funny.

Noah was so cute. He's at that age where he's just in awe of Santa. He knows that Santa is a great thing, but he's still not quite sure why. He loved seeing Santa and sitting on his lap. And yes, he's a farm animal (sheep, I think??). The primary kids had done the nativity and he was an animal. I think that's part of the reason he looks so cute here!
He was SO animated!

Josie was underwhelmed (and a little tired). At least she wasn't scared of him. Although, none of my kids have been scared of Santa.
She did this right after seeing Santa:
Fast forward about a week. Today was Christmas Sunday so, of course, my kids were all decked out in their new Sunday duds. I tell you, I've never seen such an attractive group of kiddos!! I think they look attractive in their Sunday clothes every week, but they stole the show today (for me anyway)!!
Clayton looked so grown up today. What a little man!! I love this kid, he's the best oldest child and big brother anyone could ever ask for!
It's so rare that I get good pictures of Noah where he's smiling AND looking at the camera so I had to post both of these!
The trick was that he didn't think I was taking his picture. He thought I was taking pictures of Tuck and Linny. Apparently he's completely willing to cooperate when he thinks he's not the one being photographed!! Isn't he stylin'!?!
Josie was, as always, absolutely gorgeous. I LOVE this gold dress. It's kind of too bad that you can't really see the top embroidery part that's under her sweater in these pictures, but trust me, it's beautiful! Although anything would be perfection on this girl!
I made her headband. It wasn't what I'd originally wanted to do (my original design made her look a little like a Japanese Animae character) but this design turned out even better than I'd planned!
I tried, oh how I tried to get a good picture of all three of these kids. This was the best I got. It's not the best, but it's what I got.
We have done other fun things (like decorate cookies, Justin and Clayton went caroling, etc.) and I've taken pictures of some of it, but this is going to do for now.

Merry Christmas!!

Snow!

I grew up in a place where we rarely had snow. In fact, when it did snow - tiny little flakes that melted as soon as they hit the ground - we stopped everything we were doing to go "play" in it. I remember once in high school, getting dismissed early from an English class to go stand in the "snow". If we wanted actual snow, we drove about an hour away and played up on the mountain. I liked this. I prefer this. I don't like snow. Or winter. I've had people ask me things like, 'How could you stand growing up in Vegas, you don't have seasons?'. Well, you know what I've learned? I don't like seasons. I like having two seasons: warm and hot. Unfortunately, Justin is a man who loves his seasons and doesn't like the blistering heat. This means that I will probably never again live in a land where the low is in the 50's (sad). So even though I don't like it, I've adjusted to life in the snow.

You've probably figured out by now that it has been snowing here. The first time it snowed it wasn't too bad. It didn't stick (a.k.a. - it wasn't super cold and I didn't have to shovel the driveway). Noah and Enoch were so excited that they literally couldn't wait to play in it (I caught them outside in the snow with no shoes). So we quickly remedied the situation by putting on snowclothes.
I took all these pictures from inside the house. These boys might have been excited about playing outside, but I sure wasn't!

Noah kept loosing his gloves. He also lost a boot (with the sock still inside). He came in the house with the reddest, coldest foot ever.


After that day, it all went downhill fast. I've since had to start shoveling the driveway. If you're wondering how shoveling the snow makes me feel...
...it's not good. But I gear up, layer on the clothing, and start shoveling what seems like the longest driveway in Vermont (snow makes me dramatic).
Attractive, I know. Not many people can rock the "stay-puff-marshmellow-man-shoveling-snow" look. I may seem kind of whiny about the snow, but I actually don't mind the shoveling too much for three reasons: 1. Justin is always so appreciative. I like being able to do this for him. 2. It's a pretty decent workout. My thighs and arms kill worse than going to the gym by the time I'm done. 3. The kids (usually) don't come out with me. I can be alone with my thoughts!

Yesterday, after shoveling, the boys came outside eager to help me. I am typically not in any hurry for them to be teenagers, but it will be nice to have two strapping young men to rake leaves and shovel snow.
They had no coats on, and Noah is wearing rain boots instead of snow boots, but they wanted so badly to shovel that I caved and gave them each a shovel and let them go to town on the front lawn.


Noah's an animal! Check that out! Maybe this year I will let him start helping me!

After a while I was freezing and had to go inside. The boys were NOT happy about this. So we compromised and they got to go play in the backyard. Noah didn't last too long (he was cold) so he came inside to help me make dinner:
Clayton, however, stayed outside for over an hour (and still got angry when I made him come inside). It was dark and really cold by the time he came in and his poor face was as red as could be!
I am not a fan of the snow and may be the only person alive who's not 'dreaming of a white Christmas'. There's only one reason I can tolerate this type of weather:
Warm, thick, wintery comfort food (like my chicken noodle soup with homemade basil noodles and a festive roll wreath).

Yum. As far as I can tell, this is the best part of winter.

Point is: snow's here. It's officially winter and the weather right now is saying that it's 4 degrees outside but feels like -14. I'm ready to hybernate.

Gymnastics

I've expressed before my disappointment in the fact that they don't start doing leagues of things (like soccer, basketball, t-ball, etc.) out here until kids are 6 turning 7. This means, of course, that Clayton isn't able to be on a team. However, they compensate for this by giving kindergarteners several activities to choose from. They get to try out several different sports (perhaps so that they can choose what they want to do when they become eligable next year). While I am sad that Clayton wasn't able to fully experience the feeling of being part of a team, I do appreciate that he's able to try several different things and determine for himself what he likes best.

For the past 6 weeks, Clayton has been trying gymnastics. Justin and I were very pleased with how well he did. He loved it so much more than soccer. I think one of the things that he liked about it was that he was only competing against himself. He learned so many things over the past few weeks. He was so excited to go every Saturday and he loved coming home and practicing what he'd learned.

On their last day all the kids did a routine. Clayton was so excited to show me everything he'd learned.

They showed off their floor skills:
Making a "bridge". He's actually done backbends where he gets his head completely off the floor! They learned these the first week and he caught on to them pretty quickly. He's a bridge machine!
His forward roll. It was hard to get a good picture of him doing his rolls because of the kids that were lined up for the mat in front of him, but I thought this was a fun action shot!
Then they showed off their balance beam skills:
Next, the rings:


Finally (Clayton's favorite) the vault:
These are all a little blurry, but I kind of like them that way. You can tell they're action shots!
His first vault.
The dismount.
One of his last vaults - look at that form!!! Straight body - pointed toes and everything!
The dismount. I love how it looks like he's just standing in midair.
Gymnastics was a big hit. Perhaps there will be more training in his future. Who knows? Maybe I have a future Olympian on my hands!!

This Little Piggie...

Every night right after her bath, I brush Josie's hair. She doesn't have much right now, but I love doing it. The other night as I was brushing, I wondered if she had enough hair for two little piggies...
I was so excited to realize that she has just enough hair for two undeniably adorable, Cindy-Loo-Hoo piggies! It's officially my new favorite style on Miss Jo! A few days later, we were going over to a friend's house for lunch so I decided to jazz up the pigges...



I'm in love with these little piggies (and the little girl who rocks them)! She makes them look soooo good!!

The Halls are Decked!

The Saturday after Christmas, we decided it was about time to get the Christmas decorations up. I usually like to do this the day after Thanksgiving, but this year we were a day late so I was pretty desperate to get my house all decked out. I love it when my home is all decorated. I think it looks so special and beautiful. I love my living room when it's lit up by the lights of the tree. I also love unwrapping our ornaments. Every year for Christmas Eve, each person gets a new ornament that represents something that happened that year. Now that the boys each have several ornaments, it was really fun to look back and remember why we chose what we chose.

This year it was a little rough with Clayton wanting to help, Noah wanting to play with/touch everything we got out, and Josie scooting everywhere. We got it done though and, miraculously, nothing broke!

Noah putting the star on top of the tree. I was expecting the boys to fight over this honor, but Justin told the boys that one could put the star on top and the other one could light the tree for the first time. Each boy got what he wanted. Crisis averted. Good call Justin!
A few hours after we'd finished I noticed Clayton and Noah in the living room admiring the decorations.
The boys in front of the tree.
These are from the next day. Noah was being unusually cooperative so I took some pictures of him. So of course Clayton insisted that I get some of him and Josie too!
I'm slightly embarrassed of how long Clayton's hair is here. He has since gotten a haircut! Other than that though, I think he's so handsome.
Noah looks like such a tough guy in this picture. He's got a bruise on his head and everything!
This little girl is always cute! I think I could spend all day dressing her up in different outfits and taking her picture. She's so photogenic and smiley!
I thought I'd try to get one of all three of them together. This is the best I got. The boys are smiling and Josie's not crying so I'm counting it as a win!
So now we're ready for Christmas. I love this time of year! The music, the decorations, the food, the parties, the way that people are (typically) so much kinder to one another. This is such a great season - I'm glad it's finally here!