Christmas Joys & Lotsa Toys!!

It always amazes me at Christmas time how busy I get with parties, shopping, service projects, and fun family adventures. December has been filled with all of the above, and more.

Christmas morning dawned with an extremely ornery 5 year old, a overly happy 2 year old, and a 9 month old who had no desire to participate in our festivities.

Nonetheless, we concured present opening without too much drama. Tanner only cared about the gifts with his name on them, as it should be. Gavin only cared about what everyone else was getting and refused to open his own gifts, and Zach just wanted to eat and go back to bed. It was joyous I tell ya, joyous! :)

Here is the proof that Santa arrived and gave my children everything they asked for..except Nana. That was the cause of the ornery 5 year old..Santa did not bring him Nana for Christmas :(

WARNING: PICTURE OVERLOAD!

Right after Santa left:

Gavin ready for the adventure...Tanner ready for a nap:

Gavin was very happy to get his kitchen:

Ornery!!

A tad bit happier when he finally came out of his room:

Shocked that Santa remembered his black Spiderman costume:

Zach was so tired. He really couldn't have cared less about his presents..lol:

Gavin got a new Blue in his stocking:

Tanner and the Ramen Noodles that were in the toe of his stocking..lol..he loves that stuff!!

Zach eating his book:

This kid has been asking for a snuggie since the commercials started. He was thrilled!

As I said before, Gavin just wanted to play with everyone else's loot. This is Tanner's new belt and Gav just walked around the house pulling the belt behind him..lol:

I was very happy to get the purse I picked out (and wrapped) and my Paula Deen roasting pan (I picked that out also):

Gavin finally got interested in opening his gifts:

One happy dude:

Gavin and Daddy:


Dad and his stash of stuff..well at least a few things:

Spiderman has now moved into our house:

I could be a little upset that the yearly Christmas photo isn't perfect, but this fits their personalities so well! Gavin never stops smiling, Zach is just trying to get through life, and Tanner cannot be bothered with anything nice..lol..you gotta love them!



And to make this day even better..my friend Soon Nyoung had her baby Christmas morning! So exciting! He is adorable and looks just like his 2 big sisters :)

Santa & Sleep

I love Christmas time! I love making goodies, going shopping, reading funny Christmas stories to my kids, and I love having new pictures of my boys with Santa every year.

Also, tonight when Michael went to get Zach out of his bouncer, this is what he found....

HE IS SO PRECIOUS!!!

Let the Catch-up Begin!

My goodness, I am so slow! I cannot believe that it has been 3 weeks since my last post. I have been so busy! I am going to try to do some catching up here.

First, Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had some wonderful friends and the missionaries over for dinner and games. It was really great to enjoy the day with some of our "ward family."

Ever since Thanksgiving I have been busy decorating, helping in Kindergarten, getting Christmas stuff taken care of, participating in Stake Choir and directing the ward choir. The Primary will be putting on a play this weekend at the ward Christmas party so I have also been working on getting the children prepared for that. Most of the time having multiple callings is great...at Christmas time, it is a little stressful.

I also realized that I never added pictures from Gavin's birthday party. What kind of a mother am I? Here is Gavin blowing out his candle on his cake:

These two pictures of Zach are just to cute. I had to share them!

We love having the Missionaries in our home. We have them for dinner every other week and our boys love it. This is Elder Billings the day before he got transfered. He had been in our ward for over 6 months. He had gone to BYU before leaving on his mission so we thought it would be fun to wear our BYU shirts and have him wear Michael's hat. (Zach was taking a nap at the time)

And now for the fun stuff! The Christmas tree is up and decorated. We had it up before Thanksgiving this year just because we had company coming over. Tanner really enjoyed decorating and even Gavin got in on it.

I think the fireplace is my favorite. I love my new reindeer I found at Target. Gavin thinks it is great that he lights up. He pets the thing all the time..hehe

Well, there is the update. As the fun Christmas and birthday stuff happens in the next few weeks, there will be many more posts.

Merry Christmas!!

THANKFUL

Two years ago this week we brought Gavin home from the hospital. It was the day before Thanksgiving and he had been in the NICU for 14 days. We wanted to do something for the nurses who were so sweet and watched over our little monkey when we couldn't be there. I had the idea to get them the Josh Groban CD "Noel" because of one song. Being that it was Thanksgiving I had the words to this new song in my head and I had listened to it many times over those few weeks. In their thank you note, I wrote that this song would always remind me of the sacrifices they make to be at the hospital taking care of our sweet little ones when they would rather be home with their own families.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays but I have a tough time because I do not get to celebrate with any extended family. It's hard to cook dinner for my own little family while knowing that everyone in Utah will be getting together and spending a funfilled day visiting, laughing, and eating :)
So, here is my Thanksgiving note to my family:
I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving day filled with wonderful Hawaii family, Wyoming family, and Utah family. I love you all and wish that we could be there with you. Please know that we think of you all constantly and we are THANKFUL that we get the privilage of spending forever with you!!

THANKFUL
Somedays, we forget to look around us,
Somedays, we can't see the joy that surrounds us.
So caught up inside ourselves,
We take when we should give.
So for tonight we pray for, what we know can be,
And on this day we hope for, what we still can't see.
It's up to us, to be the change,
And even though we all can still do more,
There's so much to be thankful for.
Look beyond ourselves, there's so much sorrow,
It's way to late to say, I'll cry tomorrow.
Each of us must find our truth, it's so long overdue.
So for tonight we pray for, what we know can be,
And everyday, we hope for, what we still can't see.
It's up to us, to be the change,
And even though we all can still do more,
There's so much to be thankful for.
Even with our differences,
There is a place were all connected,
Each of us can find each others light.
So for tonight, we pray for what we know can be,
And on this day, we hope for, what we still can't see.
It's up to us, to be the change,
And even though this world can still do so much more
There's so much to be thankful for.

LOL!

My sister says I need a new post.

Here it is :)

Love you Marci! (And Jennilyn and Heather and Megan!!)

8 Months Old

It is hard to believe that little man is already 8 months old. He is such a joy. He had his checkup a few weeks ago and lets just say he is definitely healthy :) Zach weighs 20 lbs and he is 27 inches long. He is in the 55% for his weight and 75% for his height.

He is such a sweet boy!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Monkey!!

Monkey,

We love you so much! You are so sweet and loving and your big smiles make us all so happy! Mommy cannot believe that you are already 2 years old! It feels like yesterday that you were this small..

and had lots of nice nurses in the NICU falling in love with all your blond hair. We were so excited when we got to bring you home from the hospital the day before Thanksgiving.

You have learned so much and we love listening to you talk about Blue's Clues. There isn't much more that you will talk about right now :) We love that you always want to sing Popcorn Popping and you always want to be around your nursery friends. You are such a joy!

We hope that you have a great birthday and enjoy all your new toys! We love you Monkey!!

Love,

Daddy, Mommy, Tanner & Zach

Family Pictures 2009

So last week we went to an apple farm and had our family pictures taken. I was so sick at the time and my eyes are so swollen in all the pictures that I am in..I think I will be asking for a retake of all the photos with myself in them. Here are all the others for your viewing pleasure :)


This is my favorite! You can see Zach better in the real picture. (Michael is holding him)

Love this one of the boys in a wheel barrel:


Our sweet Gavin man!


So sweet!


Gavin doing Popcorn Popping

Smiley Zach

I am going to ask our wonderful photographer to cut Tanner out of this photo because it is the perfect picture of Zach :)

Daddy and the boys

Slobber boy!

Another picture of Gavin being adorable!

This little man is growing up so fast!

I really like this picture also! That sweet laughing smile melts my heart!

There is nothing better than sitting on your brother :)

"A popcorn ball that would smell so sweet" (This is him smelling)

OK, sadly these are the only two pictures of myself that I am somewhat comfortable with. I wish I had not been sick at the time :(