Want to Know Why I’ve Been So Quiet?

Happy New Year!

Should This Worry Me???

Transitions

I have two distinct groups of kids; my big kids and my little kids.  For many years I called the little kids “the babies,” until it was forcefully pointed out to me that (at around five) they were definitely not “babies” anymore.  At that point we tried several new labels and finally ended up calling them “the littles,” and I still often think of them that way.  But recently I’ve had a couple of moments that have shown me that they really aren’t babies anymore.

This beautiful picture taken by Melissa this fall makes that quite clear.



Then on Christmas night Rachel asked if she could play Likewise with us.  I was sure she couldn’t—she would never be able to

1. come up with an answer
2. that would match anyone else’s answer. 

But do you know what?  I was wrong.  She totally held her own in the game, and I was shocked.  Yesterday morning when I came downstairs for breakfast I found all of the kids—the big ones and the little ones—playing Likewise again. 

 

Sunday night Russ wanted to play Pictionary as a family.  I was pretty sure that was a bad idea. 

Everyone loved it, and everyone did just fine.

Tonight we had fun guests over for dinner and games, but they left a bit on the early side.  We were just getting going and really wanted to play “Things,” one of the games Cindy Lynn and Mahon got for Christmas.  Their friends gone, the little kids came in and asked if they could play Things with us.  Once again, my first reaction was was to tell them that they weren’t old enough.  But someone else said sure, they could play.  And once again, I was SO WRONG!

The game of “Things” is easy to play.  Each card has a statement on it that starts with the word “things.”  Each person writes their answer on a strip of paper.  The reader reads all the papers and everyone takes turns trying to guess who wrote which idea.

Out of everyone playing, (me, Russ, Cindy Lynn, Mahon, Jason, Erin, Rachel, Jenna, and Jared), Mahon and Rachel matched the most answers to the person that had written them.  Rachel!

And their answers were generally not “10 year old answers” either.  It was hard to figure out which ones they’d written, and which ones were written by the rest of us.  Here’s a sample for you.
From Rachel:

Things firemen do when they’re not fighting fires:
”Dog makeovers.”

From Jared:

Things you wouldn’t say to a police officer:
“When I grow up I want to be a terrorist!”

From Jenna (who seems to be developing a lovely snarky sense of humor!):

Things you wouldn’t say to a new boss:
”Can I have the day off for like ever and still get paid?”

Things you shouldn’t do right after eating:
”Swimming—doesn’t everyone know that?!?”

Things that will keep you out of heaven:
”Not dying, duh!”

Jenna hid her very expressive face behind a box during parts of the game so that people couldn’t guess her answer because of the expression on her face. 

I guess my babies really are growing up!

Awesome Triplet Moments (a photo essay)

 

Snow-Tastic!

I haven’t been paying much attention to the news recently, so when someone mentioned earlier in the week that we might have snow for Christmas I was surprised.  Surprised and skeptical.  After all, we’ve already had snow twice this year, and it’s still December. 

But I did think a white Christmas would be lovely.

 

It turns out that a white Boxing Day is also lovely. (And that I am enjoying the new camera.)

 

We are church-going folk.  We never miss a Sunday.  But I must confess, having church cancelled because of the snow was so exciting!  We spent our morning appreciating God’s creations.  Especially his creation of hills and snow and the combination thereof.

We love sledding!  Today’s snow was interesting, though.  The sled that is normally the least fun (the boogie board sled) was actually the most fun today.  And the sleds that are normally more fun weren’t good at all.  We had to be careful of where we walked back up the hill because all of the snow came off very easily.  But once we figured out how to make things work, it was great.

Except when the snow all ended up in my lap—chilly!

 

Jason and Josh hauled a bunch of snow up to the bottom and made a little jump.  I was kind of worried that they would break something (or someone) but fortunately everyone was ok.  They seemed to enjoy it.

 

Finally we were all cold and ready for some hot chocolate.  What a fun morning!

Christmas Moments

 

Christmas morning started early.  6:55 to be precise; Josh could not wait any longer to see the xbox.

(We tell our kids they can’t wake us on Christmas morning before 7:00.  Josh’s rationale was that waking us up at 6:55 would give us time to brush teeth and go to the bathroom before 7:00, instead of after!)

(yes, this is a picture of Josh kissing the xbox!)

 

Here are some other great moments of the day. Everyone in their custom Snuggie. The girls were beyond excited to see notes from Santa telling them that they are going to both get a week at horse camp this spring.  (Hooray for Groupon’s half priced horse camp!) Jared was delighted with his remote controlled helicopter since he’s asked for one for several years now.  Everyone else stood in a line to play with it.  The girls are trying to figure out how they can save enough money to buy their own. Jason and Rachel had fun making mini cupcakes in the new mini cupcake maker.  Though Jason was wishing he hadn’t mixed up the whole cake mix!

I was happy and sad about what Santa brought me.  You see, for the 2nd year in a row Santa brought me a camera, because I dropped my camera in the sand at the beach this year.  I’m so happy to have a new camera—I’ve realized I just can’t live with only a 3x zoom.  But oh how I hated spending money to replace something that I ruined by just not thinking!!! Last but not least…Santa brought Josh & I a massage cushion.  I don’t believe that the chair was EVER empty today!  I personally sat on it for long enough that my muscles are going to really hurt tomorrow.

After my nice nap the Rogersons and Ann came over for our annual Mexican feast.  Sorry…no food pics this year, but it was all delicious.  After the food we pulled out the games.  They gave us a new game for Christmas called Likewise.  SUCH FUN!!! And we gave them a new game too—Loaded Questions: Political Party.  We’ve always loved Loaded Questions, but the questions in this new version are so much more fun.  Tonight’s answers tended to be about Lindsay Lohan or viagra.  Sometimes in the same answer.

The perfect way to end our beautiful Christmas Day was….with snow!  Can you believe this is the 3rd or 4th time we’ve had snow this year?!? 

I hope your Christmas day was full of love and laughter too!

The Essential Christmas Eve

I really need to be taking a nap in preparation for the festivities of this afternoon and evening.  But first I want to write about Christmas Eve, while it’s all still fresh and lovely in my mind.

I am not good at having lots and lots of holiday traditions.  A couple of years ago in an attempt to both simplify our holiday season and at the same time make sure that everyone got the traditions that were important to them, we had a survey.  It was interesting to see what things were important, and it allowed me to let other things drop out of our schedule.   I was very happy that no one said their favorite Christmas tradition was reading a special story every night, because I really stink at that one. 

The holiday tradition that is perhaps the most important to me is our family Christmas Eve.  Some of this came from bits and pieces of my own family’s traditions, and some Russ & I have added as our children have grown.  For me, Christmas Eve has become the pinnacle of our celebration of the birth of our Savior.

We start our celebration every year with a book that Cindy Lynn was given in preschool many years and many miles away; it makes me smile every time we bring it out.  It’s called The Christmas Pageant.

 

The Christmas Pageant tells the Christmas story, interspersed with the appropriate Christmas songs.  The illustrations are adorable pictures of children preparing their own Christmas pageant. (Of course we substituted Angels We Have Heard on High for Hark the Herald.  But you already knew that, didn’t you?) (Some years we sing both, but I’m still so hoarse from my recent illness that I had to limit the amount of singing last night.)

After we read of the nativity from the New Testament, we switch gears to the nativity story in the New World.  The Book of Mormon account of the first Christmas has always been close to my heart.  (In fact I blogged about it here.)  Next year we’ll just read this story straight from the scriptures.

After the Nephite Christmas story we moved on to a story from my childhood Christmas Eves, “The Other Wise Man.”  My dad used to read from the original story by O’Henry, leaving out long passages (and pages) of narrative.  Lucky for us someone made a beautiful abridged version.  (I also saw a non-animated movie version at the bookstore the other day…may have to investigate that before next year.) 

The story of The Other Wise Man always leaves me feeling teary by the end.  So it was probably a good thing that Josh decided he wanted to read for us last night.  

Finally we finish up our Christmas Eve with Russ’s family tradition, a reading of “The Night Before Christmas.”  This is the only part of our evening that is about Christmas rather than about Christ, so I always end the evening feeling an enormous sense of gratitude for the amazing gift of the Savior’s birth and life. 

 

I hope your Christmas Eve was wonderful as well!

Let the Games Begin

Tonight Ken and Ann came up to play games.  Having just sorted and organized our games (and given away a bunch) it was easy to pick out a few to play.

We started with Sequence (a perennial favorite) and then moved on to several intense games of Blokus 3D.  Think Tetris meets Blokus…

Next was a game of Rummikub (the first game Russ & I bought after we were married!) where, as Russ put it succinctly, it sucked to be me.  I did actually win, though!

After that I pulled out a game that we’ve never played with friends before, The Bucket King.  It’s kind of a quirky fun game, and I think Ken & Ann both liked it. 

Next came a couple of fast rounds of Monopoly Deal.  I am sorry to say that Ken & I hardly showed up to play…it was pretty bad for us.

Last of all, two rounds of No Thanks.  Still a favorite a year later—such a easy, fun, quick game to wrap things up with.

This week has been much busier than we expected, but as of tonight…the holiday fun has begun!!!