Christmas 2013 and everything around it

We had a wonderful Christmastime. It was nice that Kendrick had a job this year. It was nice that none of the kids got sick. It was nice to be in a calling that I actually enjoy and it was fun to have more free time to help at the school and attend all the kids' school activities. We started off the month with Taylor playing Jr. Jazz. She was very timid at first but after some extra practice at the church with Kendrick and attending a Jazz game she started to show more enthusiasm for the sport and wasn't so apprehensive about playing. She is now tearing it up on the court and she is so fun to watch!

I was able to go on a field trip with the twins to see The Nutcracker. That was fun. Even though I am not a huge fan of the ballet and I really hate bus rides, it was nice to spend some time with just the two of them.

Work was busy for Kendrick this month. So on one of his late nights the kids and I broke into all the Christmas neighbor gifts, dressed silly and had a "pie party". We enjoyed a lovely dinner of mixed fruit, popcorn, coconut cream pie, sparkling cider and cookies.

We stuck with some of our regular traditions this month: we picked out our wrapping paper to send to Santa, we visited Temple Square to see the lights, we had a family Christmas movie night every Sunday, we made Christmas treats with friends, and Kendrick and I had our annual Christmas gift wrapping date night. But we also started a new tradition of letting the kids draw names to buy each other gifts. What a fun day that was! It was quite possibly the cutest/most exhausting shopping trip I have ever been on. After the kids came home and wrapped each others gifts, the guessing games began: "is it big or small?" "does it make noise?" "is it something I asked Santa for?" "Did you find it in the toy section or the clothes section?" I was relieved when Christmas morning rolled around and all the questions finally stopped.

Our wrapping paper for Santa. Tay chose a black and white dog print, Easton chose Toy Story, Myles chose a very old school 70's inspired Santa print and Jack chose Transformers 

Easton and Emzli made some Christmas trees out of ice cream cones. Then we went to the big kid's sing along at the school and Zoey ate Easton's entire tree. She even licked the board clean:( Poor kif worked "so hard" on it and the dog ate it in one gobble.

Christmas lights with the Espinoza's and Kartchners

Cute baby Allison. Josh let her taste some snow and Easton yelled out at him, "Josh! Don't you know there is pee in that stuff!?"

Here are some cute random pictures from the month:

We experienced some BITTER cold days this month. I hated having to send my kids to school in 8 degree weather but I discovered the perfect solution for keeping them warm: wrap their face up- Christmas Story style!

After Thanksgiving Kendrick had a hankering (every day) for my homemade pumpkin pie. I got pretty good at whipping up Old Fashioned pumpkin pies in a jiffy!

Easton dressed as Snoopy

Easton kept my bed warm for me most nights until I went to bed and had to move him

Taylor and her friends at our ward's Youth Christmas party

After the party Easton thought it would be awesome to push his 14 year old buddy, Coltran around in a garbage can. We all got a big kick out of watching Coltran crash.

We had to buy the pig a new coat. She loved it at first and some days she wears it just fine. Other days she wriggles out of it and barks at it. She has mental disorders that we are all learning to live with.

The kids dressed as Angels and sang for the adults at the Ward Christmas party.

Kendrick's office had a gift exchange and the lady that drew Kendrick's name knows him all too well. She gave him this Ute throw. I have sort of claimed it as my own when he isn't home-because it is so freaking soft.

Kendrick took Easton and I to breakfast one morning. It was heavenly. French toast and falling snow make for such a picturesque date.

Two of the cutest guys I know.

This kid lives for breakfast. And I finally figured out why: breakfast meals rarely contain vegetables. Easton hates vegetables.

We got a ridiculous amount of snow the week before Christmas. Kendrick and I spent one lovely evening shoveling like crazy. Man, shoveling is a dang good workout!

Jack pulled out his tooth. He is always worried that the Tooth Fairy won't be able to find his tooth under his pillow or that someone will steal his dollar while he is sleeping so he wrote this note and left a pouch with the tooth in it on his door. Brilliant!

After all the gifts were wrapped and when Christmas was only 3 days away, I got a cold. One of those head colds that makes you feel like doo for a few hours each day. And you never know what time of day it will rear it's ugly head and wipe you out. I spent the 2 days leading up to Christmas and the day after with a sore throat and that exhausted, "I can't hold my head up straight" feeling. I am bummed because I wanted to be on my A game for the holiday. I blame the BITTER cold and all of the sugar that was floating around our house for everything that ailed me. But because I didn't feel well I got to spend a lot of time in front of my lovely tree, with a cup of tasty, my favorite book and this cuddly pig...

On Christmas Eve we were able to talk my parents into coming to a movie with us and Richard and Tiana. We saw Frozen and went out for Mexican food and then came back home and decorated Gingerbread houses together. Then, because of a miscommunication between Kendrick and I, and also just straight up bad planning, we ended up back at Walmart on Christmas Eve night to shop for each others stocking stuffers.

After a lovely time shopping, the kids were excited to come home and unwrap their Christmas jammies from Silly Grandma. Then we left out the cookies for Santa and read the REAL Christmas Story before sending them all off to bed. Christmas Eve is always interesting for Kendrick's and my relationship-we always have that giddy, "want to be romantic" feeling hanging in the air, but then we also have a lot of tension over "don't look, I have to wrap your present!" or "should we take this gift through the front door or the back door?" and "see, I told you we should have taken that one through the garage..." Then, because Kendrick and I are basically 15 year olds trapped in mid thirty year old bodies, we can never get a good night's sleep on Christmas Eve. I toss and turn over my excitement to see the kids faces in the morning and I am not sure why he lays there and stares into space but I am pretty sure it's for the same reason...

On Christmas morning. Easton woke up at 6:45. I made him stay in our bed until about 7:00. Then, because I could no longer breathe out of my nose while laying down, I let him get up. We had to wait until about 7:20 for everyone else to be up and for Kendrick to be done with his "bathroom routine" before we could unwrap the presents.

After all the Christmas presents were unwrapped we enjoyed a ridiculously heavy, yet delightful, breakfast of hash browns, apple strudel french toast, eggnog, cheesy scrambled eggs and bacon. Those of you who know me, know I would only participate in the french toast and hash brown portions of that meal though. I have been  "off" eggs and cheese for nearly a year (I DO splurge when we eat Italian food because eggplant Parmesan is one of my favorite dishes of all time. But other than that-no cheese for this lady. Now why did I just write all that on a Christmas post...?). After breakfast mom settled down for what she was hoping would be a long winter's nap but instead it turned into a short snooze as someone would come into her room every 5 minutes to ask if they could open something or eat something or play with something. But look who DID get to take a nap...

That was of course after he took a picture of his new Air Jordan's and played a level of Easton's new Toy Story video game and then came upstairs to find that Easton was trying to try on his new Air Jordans...

Taylor asked to have pictures taken not only WITH her presents but wearing her presents and of her presents all by themselves...

On Christmas evening we had dinner and opened family gifts at my parent's house with Richard and Tiana. My parents not only hooked up the kids and Kendrick and I with new clothes, but they also got us a new laptop which I am blogging on right now!! It is smooth and sleek and lighter than it seems possible for any computer to be and my fingers skate over the keys like blades on ice-it's pretty stinkin' nice. Richard and Tiana were SAINTS and hooked us up with pass of all passes for our whole family. Seven Peaks next summer, here we come. I am so excited!

After hanging out with my side of the family we came home and indulged in our stocking treats while watching It's A Wonderful Life. I had never seen that entire movie before. It is such a great show! I am so glad I waited and watched it on Christmas. It really helps put things into perspective. After Christmas I spent a lot of time napping on the couch, recovering from both the holiday and my head cold. One day I let Easton play with my phone while I napped and I woke up to find that he had been taking pictures of his new Buzz. But not just pictures of Buzz as a whole... he like zoomed in on Buzz's helmet and tried to catch the jet pack in all it's glory. I thought these pictures were just about the funniest thing I'd ever seen.

I am pretty sure he gets his need to take pictures of his presents from his father... I found Kendrick taking these pictures of his new shoes. To say that my husband's love for me grew on Christmas Day would be a MASS understatement. That man is wrapped around my finger every time he laces up these shoes. They were the best shoe investment I have ever made. And they came just in time because his old basketball shoes were literally breaking. The whole sides were torn up. I don't know how I didn't notice how trashed they were months ago.

Part of our gift from Silly Grandma was tickets to see Buddy The Elf (the musical) at Pioneer Theater. The kids loved it and they did SO good. We had to fib and say that Easton was 5 in order to get him a ticket but he certainly pulled it off and it was such a nice family date to dress up, see a play and then go out to eat together. Thank you so much Mary for the thoughtful gift!

Kendrick is totally talking trash to me because I was leaning back pretty far into the booth behind us in order to get everyone in the shot, but we both agree that even when he's talking trash-he looks good!

Kendrick took the last few days of the month off of work and we enjoyed many evenings staying up WAY too late watching movies on this air mattress and eating junk. Then we would sleep in the next day and do it all again. 

On New Year's Eve we took down all our Christmas decor, ordered Mexican take out, bought a firework and had BIG plans to make a ruckus at midnight and then stay up watching The Walking Dead after the kids went to bed. Instead, Kendrick and I dozed in and out of consciousness while watching Harry Potter with the kids and when we woke up all the kids except Myles were sound asleep. So he got to enjoy the firework with us and then we all went to bed. That is how super exciting we are. 

Easton was passed out under a blanket in the hall and these two would not wake up for anything.

So this guy got to enjoy the firework by himself. I could tell he felt pretty special to be the only one awake, hanging out with mom and dad. It makes me sad to think that there might one day be a day when the LAST thing he'll want to do is hang out with his mom and dad...

2013 for our family was AWESOME! Bring on 2014!