Christmas Week

We've had a super busy but fun Christmas week!Aunt Jen came for a visit from Alaska. She had to fly home on the 23rd, so we had a fun dinner on the 22nd. She brought king crab legs, halibut, salmon, & moose from Alaska. Yum (except the moose, it was a bit strong for my liking). She brought the kids fun snow globes from Alaska.

Mason & Sarah slept over, so the next day we drove up to Bountiful again to pick them up. Then we went to Robintinos for dinner, Todd & I had not been there for years.
Emma & Sarah "painting" sugar cookies as Emma called it.
Christmas Eve morning opening new jammies. The day was going to be too busy to wait until later. Sarah & Mason also got new swimming goggles.
Swimming on Christmas Eve, a tradition my sisters started a few years ago. It's a great way to wear the kids out!
Mitchell slept during most of our swimming, good thing.
Mason did NOT want to get out & let the whole pool know it.
Emma headed back into the pool once she was dressed. Poor kid, she'd been freezing while in the pool, now she had to freeze the entire way home (the back of her sweats was completely wet).
Dinner & nativity program at Todd's parents on Christmas Eve. Mitchell was not too excited about his role.
Mitchell was worn out!
Mason making a rice krispie & graham cracker house.
Sarah's house that Melissa helped her with.

We left Todd's parents' house around 9:00 & had a 40 minute drive home. Sarah was mad at us that we had left so late, afraid that Santa would try to come before we got home. When we got home she & Mason hurried to bed & did not want to even waste time putting cookies out for Santa. I think they were asleep within minutes.
Emma digging into her stocking on Christmas morning. The kids slept in until 7:40. I guess they were too worn out from the day before to get up any earlier.

Mason had been dying to open this present all week. It ended up being a pogo stick, something he's wanted for a while. Now learning to master it's going to be fun.

Sarah & Emma in some tutus I made.

Sarah piled all her gifts onto a new sled. I would not let her pull it across the nice wood floor though, much to her dismay.

Mitchell slept through the big kids' gift opening. They were happy to help him open his gifts. He was not sure what to make of it all.
Some silly string that was in the stockings (meant for New Years Eve). They thought it was great.


Afternoon at my mom & dad's house.
The grandsons love to play army guys anytime we get together. Grandpa & Grandma got them all some gear to really play now (they even got dog tags with their names on them). They ran around all evening shooting each other. We all felt very well protected.
We finished the evening at Todd's mom & dad's. It was a long, busy, fun day!

My life in the car

I am wondering why we bought a house, considering we are rarely home. I spend most of my days in the car shuttling children to & from places (and I've only got 2 that need to be places). Poor Mitchell has spent most of his life stuck in his car seat.

Here's yesterday's activities.

9:00am Sarah is picked up for school

9:20 load Mitchell into his car seat & lug him to the car, wrestle Emma into her seat, & tell Mason to hurry up or he'll be late for preschool

9:32 get Mason to preschool

9:40 get to a store for one last gift, hopefully. Haul Mitchell & Emma in

10:04 toss Mitchell back into the car, wrestle Emma into her seat

10:15 get home

11:35 back in the car to pick up Mason. Mitchell has a bottle held by Mason on the way home from preschool

12:00 home

12:42 back in the car to go to a primary meeting

12:50 decide the church is too smelly to hold our meeting (fresh varnish on the doors) so back into the car to the primary president's house

2:00 into the car again from the meeting

2:02 home

3:25 into the car again to pick Sarah up from school (oh how I miss having a bus!)

3:43 home

4:30 into the car to go to dance lessons for Sarah

4:45-5:30 attempt to keep Mason, Emma, & Mitchell somewhat quite while watching Sarah's dance class/mini recital

5:32 into the car again

5:35 drive thru at KFC/pizza hut

5:50 home for the night, whew!

6:30 Sarah's piano teacher comes to our house (so awesome!!!! no driving for me)

Good thing I have a nice car!

Poor little dude

Mitchell has his second ear infection in three weeks. Actually, the first one never went away & now the other ear is also a mess. The poor little guy just does not feel too hot.

This evening as I fed him some baby oatmeal he was so worn out he fell asleep while eating. Now I need to wake him up so I can put him to bed.

Big 5

Mason is 5 today!!!!! We have had some fun.Last night we braved ChuckECheese. The last time we braved one of these was in Virginia when Sarah was two (ok, we went to Leo's in Rochester, but it was kind of wimpy).

We went at 5pm & almost had the place to ourselves for the first little while. When we left at 7 Todd thought we'd been there for about 4 hours, it sure felt like it!
Mason & Emma enjoyed some of the rides. Mason tried a few of the games.
Sarah was all about the games & getting lots of tickets. She ended up with 345.

Our kids had such a great time at ChuckECheese. When we got home Mason said "ChuckECheese is so amazing!" Now they want to go again. Oh dear.
Mason's presents this morning. The kids all expect to open presents before school & preschool. Luckily Todd was home so he got to see the action.
Mason's big ticket items were a Buzz Lightyear, Bolt, & and Smart Cycle. He wanted one of these last Christmas, but I resisted. We got a Fisher Price catalog a while back & he saw the cycle again & just had to have it! He's been riding it whenever he can today.
Trying out a Spongebob game on the cycle.
Mason had a friend birthday party this afternoon. Eight 3-5 year old boys for one hour was quite an adventure! He had birthday cookies instead of a cake, fine with me! The dug for dinosaurs in shredded paper in the basement, quite a mess but lots of fun.

Two check ups

I took Mitchell in today for his 4 month check up. I also had Emma there for her 2 year check up. Mason was with us & seemed to enjoy seeing the others get shots (his turn is coming though!).

Emma is a feather weight at 23 pounds 2 ounces.

Mitchell is a tank at 16 pounds 4 ounces.

No wonder I always park by any abandoned shopping cart just so I can plop the car seat in & push Mitchell into the store instead of carry him!

Emma's birthday party

We did a family birthday for Emma this past Sunday with my side of the family. We'd celebrated a few weeks ago with Todd's side.

Emma had a Dora birthday cake.
Emma got two new dolly strollers & a few new dolls. She & Liam & Ava had fun running around the house with the strollers. Emma got stuck with the old stroller while the twins used her new ones (kind of reminded us of when Lynda, the twins' mom, & I were little, she somehow always got to use my new stuff first too!). As Liam pushed his stroller he made the vrmm sound, just to let us know he's a boy.
Emma has decided that putting a bunch of stuff in a bag & carrying it around is not nearly as fun as putting a bunch of stuff in a stroller & pushing it around (I think her bag is somewhere in this pile). She's got dolls, cars, a book or two & lots of other things in that stroller. Right now, her stroller is parked behind me & had a toy chain saw on top along with a doll.

The big 2!

Emma turned 2 yesterday!

We let her open a few presents first thing in the morning. She'll have to wait until Sunday to open the rest during a family party.

Emma got a doll that cries & says mama. I bought this with Emma a few days ago. She loved it! I put the doll in the back of the car & all the way home the doll cried. I then put the doll in my closet. Everytime I turned on the light to my closet the doll would cry & about scare me to death. Finally, I put the doll in a gift bag & put it downstairs on top of a shelf. Everytime I went down & turned on a light the doll cried. Now that the doll is out of the box, we have found it's off switch. Good thing! Emma does enjoy taking care of her new dolly though.

Emma & Mitchell, my two babies plus one more.
Emma has been funny about her birthday. She keeps trying to sing Happy Birthday. All day yesterday I tried to get her to hold up two fingers but she would not.

Emma has been practicing to be two for a while now. She's got temper tantrums down really well, the fall-back-onto-the-floor-carefully-so-I-don't-hurt-myself-while-screaming-at-the-top-of-my-lungs. It's great.

She also likes to carry plastic purses around with all sorts of things in them. Usually the bag gets too full & she gets upset because it's too heavy or things are falling out. Whenever we load up to take Mason to preschool & I tell him to get his backpack she is sure to get her bag too.

4 month old little dude

Mitchell is four months old today. He's quite the little dude (though not that terribly little).

I will take him for his well baby check up next week, I'm curious how much he weighs!

He's a good baby. Last week he woke up too early, but I blamed it on him having a cold & the time change. This week he's back to going to bed by 9:30 or 10 & not waking up until after 6. So nice! He's usually pretty happy during the day, but not today. I hope he's not getting sick again.

Monday night Todd & I broke out the rice cereal. Mitchell did great with it! Mitchell snoozing this morning. Look at those cheeks!
He's not sure if he likes the Bumbo yet.

Having another round of rice cereal. He LOVES it!

Halloween

We carved our pumpkins on Monday evening, after Emma was in bed.
Sarah thought the pumpkin guts were pretty fun to scoop out. Mason was grossed out by them. I cooked the pumpkin seeds, but Emma & I seem to be the only ones who like them.
Mitchell was a cute white tiger. This was from a Halloween party a few weeks ago. I don't think I actually got his costume on him on Halloween!
Mitchell with Uncle Frankinbill. My brother in law likes to scare the trick or treaters.
My kids went trick or treating with their cousins. Becca was nice enough to take Emma & Mason around with Isaac. Mason & Emma made it to about 10 houses & decided they were done. Mason just wanted to get back to play with Isaac's Buzz Lightyear (& they had trunk or treated the night before). Sarah stayed out for a long time with Allie then Becca. She counted her treats, 99. My favorite was the unopened hotel size lotion, hmmm.
Our pumpkins along with Lori's family of pumpkins.
Emma enjoying her lollipops (all three of them since she was not out long).
Emma's spoils.