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.